*** SHOW NOTES (not a transcript) ***

Lead:

An important distinction to learn when talking about “one god” with someone.

Intro:

One of the most critical issues in the church today is also particularly relevant to skeptics who might be simply investigating Christianity, and that’s what we’ll address in today’s Thinking segment. But as we always do, we start with the Bible, not only as the inspired word of God, but as some of the most reliable documents of the Ancient Near East even by secular historiographic standards.

Today’s reading pics up most of the way through Jesus’ sermon on the mount — some pretty famous words — and then moves into the narratives of His healing ministry.

Sponsor:

Today’s sponsor and provider of background music is Pip Craighead’s The Dandelion Project, and the new track is Night School.

Bible segment (read along with The Bible Project):

Passage: Matthew 7-8
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 63
Words: ~1332

Thinking/reflection segment:

Yesterday as we started talking about worldviews — those foundational beliefs through which we see reality — we asked the first foundational question, “Zero, one, or more than one god?”

I also mentioned that among those who think there is one god, there is an important distinction to make about how God relates to the cosmos, the created order.

Monism. The study of reality is metaphysics. How reality is viewed is worldview. Fundamental to a person’s worldview is whether they see the “one or many.” This difference separates monists from pluralists and is so imbedded in the person’s thought patterns that he or she seldom is aware that such a difference in viewpoint actually exists. Monism sees all as “one.” God and the universe are one thing. Christianity is committed to the “many” of pluralism, holding that God differs from creation (see THEISM).
Theism — Theism is the worldview that an infinite, personal God created the universe and miraculously intervenes in it from time to time (see MIRACLE). God is both transcendent over the universe and immanent in it. The three great theistic religions are Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Finite godism, deism, and, to some extent, even Western panentheism, grew out of the theistic (see THEISM) worldview. The central difference between theism and finite godism is the question of whether God is infinite or finite. Deism is primarily a theistic view minus supernatural intervention in the world (see MIRACLE). Panentheism modifies theism to posit a finite God with two poles, one being theoretical infinitude. It is sometimes called “neoclassical theism.” (2)

Wisdom segment:

Passage:
Translation:
Verses:
Words:

Love you!

-R

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

(1) Norman L. Geisler, “Monism” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 495.

(2) Geisler, 722.

Other:

Tom Price and David Montoya, "Belief Mapping: Discover Your Unique Way of Seeing the World" (handout presented in a contemporary spirituality class at Oxford Centre for christian Apologetics -- Business Programme, July 4, 2019). Learn more at BeliefMapping.com.

Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, When Skeptics Ask (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1990), 2. This, by the way, is a brilliantly organized work on apologetics, approachable if you don’t have a doctorate in philosophy or theology, and is a book I’d heartily recommend.

Cameron Blair, “Worldviews” blairs.id.au (blog), 2005, http://blairs.id.au/worldviews/. Accessed August 24, 2019. This is a brilliant flowchart if you want to go more deeply.

#864: Matthew 7-8 | Spotting worldviews, part 2