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Christian Worldview Between Questions And Essay

Individual Christians must accept the teachings of others or make up their own minds. For Christians, God is the judge of right and wrong and scripture represents the accepted body of legal precedent (Cosgrove, pp. 38-40). The Golden Rule, the ultimate statement of Christian ethics, is grounded on "the law of Moses" (Luke 10:25) and "taught in the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7:12), and its universal applicability likewise hinges on accepting the word of Jesus that the "neighborhood" of love theoretically extends to all humanity (Luke 10:36-37).

In fact, given the absence of compelling evidence, even the historical existence of Jesus or any of the other foundational Christian figures must be taken "by faith" or interpreted in metaphorical terms (Strobel, 2002, pp. 96-97). However individual Christians struggle with (or resolve) this dilemma in their own lives, the very fact that the dilemma is meaningful to them at all reveals the depth of their participation in the Christian worldview. While faith "cannot be equated with religious experience" -- that is, it is not a simple matter of successfully receiving empirical validation of the truth -- it "cannot be separated from ordinary ways of learning" either (Cosgrove,...

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In its pure form, the Christian life may begin with an act of faith, but develops into a process of testing and even challenging received assumptions and even scripture itself. As scripture points out, the promises of Christianity are rarely if ever fully fulfilled within the empirical environment of life, so attaining religious experience (validation) is somewhat beside the point. Christians look forward for certainty to come, while acknowledging the present ambiguities of life on earth:

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back (Hebrews 11:13-15).

References

Cosgrove, M. (2006). Foundations of Christian thought: Faith, learning, and the Christian worldview. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel.

Strobel, L. (2002). The case for faith: A journalist investigates the toughest objections to Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI:…

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References

Cosgrove, M. (2006). Foundations of Christian thought: Faith, learning, and the Christian worldview. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel.

Strobel, L. (2002). The case for faith: A journalist investigates the toughest objections to Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
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