Galatians Doctrines

1. Galatians Doctrines The Gospel Justification Grace Law Legalism Liberty Spirituality Sowing & Reaping

2. What Spirituality Is NOT Moralism Legalism Sentimentalism Emotionalism Stoicism Piety/Religiosity Intellectualism Rationalism Asceticism Gnosticism Mysticism Antinomianism

3. He That Is Spirituality Lewis Sperry Chafer pg 141 “If our kind of spirituality makes Christ unattractive to others, it needs some drastic changes. May God save His children from assuming a holy tone of the voice, a holy somberness of spirit, a holy expression of the face, or a holy garb (if by the garb they wish to appear holy). True spirituality is an inward adorning. It is most simple and natural and should be a delight and attraction to all….Some Christians are disposed to ‘traffic in unlived truth’; repeating pious phrases the truth of which they have never really experienced. This must always grieve the Spirit.”

4. Objective Context of Spirituality Creation Christ The Spiritual Realm

5. Objective Context of Spirituality Creation Christ The Spiritual Realm

6. True Spirituality Francis A. Schaeffer pp 75-77 “The truth is not just an abstract truth, there is a truth of what I am. Now we could think of two basic areas in considering the question of man. The first is being or the question of his existence. This is the dilemma of all men, regardless of what their philosophy is. It is the basic thing which no man can escape, that he does exist. … No matter who he is, no matter what his philosophy is, he exists and there he is… “The second area relates to what man is in the circle of his existence. In other words, I am, but what am I in comparison with what God is? I exist, God exists: what is the difference between the circle of my existence and the circle of his existence?… “Now the rebellion of man is trying to exist outside the circle in which God made him to exist. He is trying to be what he is not. But as he tries to be what he is not, all the elements of what he is as man rise up against him. When man stands before judgment, and God judges him, everything that man is has already risen up and judged him in the present life… “Man cannot escape the fact of the motions of a true right and wrong in himself… And yet beginning with himself he cannot bring forth absolute standards and cannot even keep the poor relative ones he has set up. Thus in the area of morality, as in rationality, trying to be what he is not, as he was made to be in relationship to God, he is crushed and damned by what he is.”

7. The Practical Spiritual Relevance of Creation Hezekiah, 2 Kings 19:15: “Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.’” Levites (during Feast of Tabernacles), Nehemiah 9:5b-6: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever! Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.” Jeremiah, Jeremiah 32:16b-17 “I prayed to the Lord, saying: ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.”

8. Objective Context of Spirituality Creation Christ The Spiritual Realm

9. Was Jesus Christ a Historical Figure? Books by G. A. Graham Did Jesus Exist? (Prometheus Books, 1975; second edition 1986) The Historical Evidence for Jesus (Prometheus Books, 1982) The Jesus Legend (Open Court, 1996) The Jesus Myth (Open Court, 1999) Cutting Jesus Down to Size: What Higher Criticism Has Achieved and Where It Leaves Christianity (Open Court, 2009)

10. Was Jesus Christ a Historical Figure? “We have a good deal of information about the polemical and often bitter arguments Christians, Jews, and pagans had with one another in the early centuries. But the early Christians' opponents all accepted that Jesus existed, taught, had disciples, worked miracles, and was put to death on a Roman cross. As in our own day, debate and disagreement centered largely not on the story but on the significance of Jesus. “Today nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed and that the gospels contain plenty of valuable evidence which has to be weighed and assessed critically. There is general agreement that with the possible exception of Paul, we know far more about Jesus of Nazareth than about any first- or second-century Jewish or pagan religious teacher.” Graham Stanton, "The Gospels and Jesus" (Oxford:2002), [GAJ2, 143-145]

11. Was Jesus Christ a Historical Figure? Professor E.P. Sanders, Duke University : “There are no substantial doubts about the general course of Jesus' life: when and where he lived, and the sort of things that he did during his public activity.” Dr. John Dickson, Macquarie University: “To describe Jesus’ non-existence as ‘not widely supported’ is an understatement. It would be akin to me saying, ‘It is possible to mount a serious, though not widely supported, scientific case that the 1969 lunar landing never happened.’ There are fringe conspiracy theorists who believe such things - but no expert does. Likewise with the Jesus question: his non-existence is not regarded even as a possibility in historical scholarship. Dismissing him from the ancient record would amount to a wholesale abandonment of the historical method.” Professor Graeme Clarke: “Frankly, I know of no ancient historian or biblical historian who would have a twinge of doubt about the existence of a Jesus Christ - the documentary evidence is simply overwhelming.”

12. Was Jesus Christ a Historical Figure? “We have a good deal of information about the polemical and often bitter arguments Christians, Jews, and pagans had with one another in the early centuries. But the early Christians' opponents all accepted that Jesus existed, taught, had disciples, worked miracles, and was put to death on a Roman cross. As in our own day, debate and disagreement centered largely not on the story but on the significance of Jesus. “Today nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed and that the gospels contain plenty of valuable evidence which has to be weighed and assessed critically. There is general agreement that with the possible exception of Paul, we know far more about Jesus of Nazareth than about any first- or second-century Jewish or pagan religious teacher.” Graham Stanton, "The Gospels and Jesus" (Oxford:2002), [GAJ2, 143-145]

13. Objective Context of Spirituality Creation Christ The Spiritual Realm