Element U Week One Recap
- by Aaron
-
in By Aaron
We know some of you missed Element U week one and we wanted to give you a re-cap of it in case you were coming this Wednesday for part II. Understand, this re-cap is not all inclusive and you probably won't understand all that we talked about without LISTENING to last week's Element U.
Week one we discussed the differences in worldviews that are clashing in our culture today. These two world views have been described by Dr Peter Jones as One-ism and Two-ism (We recommend you read One or Two by Peter Jones and Doctrine by Mark Driscol and Gerry Breshears as most of this can be found in those books). The lie is what we call one-ism. One-ism is the pagan doctrine (of Idolatry)…it is the teaching and belief that there is no distinction between Creator and creation, and/or a denial that there is a Creator. The popular word for this notion is monism. One-ism is what our culture, TV shows, new media, government, and spiritual leaders are all espousing: the eradication of boundaries and differences to bring opposites together as one.
As a worldview, one-ism is antithetical to Christian two-ism because it seeks to place everything in the one circle.
3 points of a Monist (or One-ism) worldview.
1) All is One and One is All (A Circle - O)
Every system that does not accept God as creator is a monistic system at its core.
2) Humanity is One
3) All religions are one
The push of one-ism, and our culture today, is that all religions must come together to make sure that the circle is complete. The power of the circle is the pull to unity, to coming together. One-ism defines the essence of Christianity as the fundamental problem with the world (that God makes distinctions).
We will be a people who can step into this dialog when we understand that there is a God and He is separate from His creation, yet stepped into it to save us. We must stop FIGHTING for victory and realize Jesus has already WON the victory, our job is to now win people over with grace and truth.
The fundamental distinction is that there is a creator and we are the creation. We are a people who have sinned and rebelled against our good and holy God. Yet God stepped into HIS creation in the person of Jesus to rescue a people who could not rescue themselves. Jesus died for our sin, for our brokenness, to bring us back into saving relationship with our creator. The reason Christianity is the threat that it is, why you will see more and more attacks against it, is that fundamental to who we are is the belief that there is a creator and we are creation. He is separate and distinct from us.
Week one we discussed the differences in worldviews that are clashing in our culture today. These two world views have been described by Dr Peter Jones as One-ism and Two-ism (We recommend you read One or Two by Peter Jones and Doctrine by Mark Driscol and Gerry Breshears as most of this can be found in those books). The lie is what we call one-ism. One-ism is the pagan doctrine (of Idolatry)…it is the teaching and belief that there is no distinction between Creator and creation, and/or a denial that there is a Creator. The popular word for this notion is monism. One-ism is what our culture, TV shows, new media, government, and spiritual leaders are all espousing: the eradication of boundaries and differences to bring opposites together as one.
As a worldview, one-ism is antithetical to Christian two-ism because it seeks to place everything in the one circle.
- There is no distinction between God the creator and creation.
- There is no distinction between God and mankind.
- There is no distinction between good and evil.
- There is no distinction between mankind and animals.
- There is no distinction between mankind and creation.
- There is no distinction between men and women.
- There is no distinction between religions.
3 points of a Monist (or One-ism) worldview.
1) All is One and One is All (A Circle - O)
Every system that does not accept God as creator is a monistic system at its core.
2) Humanity is One
3) All religions are one
The push of one-ism, and our culture today, is that all religions must come together to make sure that the circle is complete. The power of the circle is the pull to unity, to coming together. One-ism defines the essence of Christianity as the fundamental problem with the world (that God makes distinctions).
We will be a people who can step into this dialog when we understand that there is a God and He is separate from His creation, yet stepped into it to save us. We must stop FIGHTING for victory and realize Jesus has already WON the victory, our job is to now win people over with grace and truth.
The fundamental distinction is that there is a creator and we are the creation. We are a people who have sinned and rebelled against our good and holy God. Yet God stepped into HIS creation in the person of Jesus to rescue a people who could not rescue themselves. Jesus died for our sin, for our brokenness, to bring us back into saving relationship with our creator. The reason Christianity is the threat that it is, why you will see more and more attacks against it, is that fundamental to who we are is the belief that there is a creator and we are creation. He is separate and distinct from us.
