Mere Christianity

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This moral law is not just social convention.

If it were social convention, then we wouldn't be able to say that one convention is better than another.

This moral law is not just our instinct.

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This moral law is not just what is useful for me or society as a whole.

If it were just what pays, then we would never do things that didn't benefit ourselves and have no reason to do so.

Two facts upon which all clear thinking is founded. (1) There is a moral law in the universe and (2) no one can keep it.

The law is summed up as, "people ought not be selfish." Or, "do as you would be done by." This law can be called The Law of Human Nature

So where did this Law of Human Nature come from?

Religious View

There is a Something directing the universe, urging me to do good, to be courageous, fair, and unselfish.

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This can't work because two equal and opposite deities can't logically exist. How would we know to call one "good" and one "evil" unless we had a standard to measure them by? In which case, there must be a real standard of "good" above them both, who would be the real God.

And, evil is only spoiled good anyway. Evil is only a parasite on good--it can't have its own, independent existence.

Pantheism: all the world is just an extension of God's being.

This won't work because it eliminates true good and evil. Nothing can be truly evil if it's all just a part of God.

Abrahamic Faiths: Jews, Mohammedans, Christians.

The problem with this is that there is so much evil in the world. How could this world be an expression of this "good" God's will?

Perhaps this God gave humans freedom which necessarily will bring about choice which are not good. But this freedom enabled both evil as well as real love, not merely forced love.

Because this God wants to give us happiness and peace, he tries to bring us to himself, the source of our happiness.

Jews

One Jewish man, Jesus of Nazareth, claims to be God, claims to be able to forgive sins. We must deal with him: who is he really?

Good Moral Teacher. This can't work because he doesn't say "good" things. He acts like a demagogue and makes outrageous claims that good moral teachers would never utter.

Lord: He really is God in the flesh, come to lead his people back to himself. The Word made flesh.

His sacrifice can put us right with God if we will put down our rebel arms and surrender to him as the true King.

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We can't truly repent--surrender, submit, and even die. We can only go through this process of repentence if God does it in us and God can only do it if he is a man like us.

So, Jesus' humanity is God meeting us where we are, helping us do what we could never do, paying our debt.

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Holy Communion

Belief

Baptism

Lunatic: He genuinely thinks he's God, but he's just plain wrong.

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Conscience

2. _______________

Matter has always existed and that law is just the result of evolution in the human animal. Science can't say "why" only "what."

This won't work because when I look inside myself, I find I am under a law that someone is urging me to follow. Something like a mind is directing or guiding me to do right and wrong.