Logic notes from yesterday

Critical Thinking/ Constructive Reasoning:

An Argument: a set of reasonings to support a reason. You can use constructive reasoning to attack certain views with reason, or it can be done to make a decision.

Logic can be flawed, but everything has logic. Logic can be self-defeating. Logic is whether you want it or not. It is used to figure things out, or it can be a means of inquiry.

We can use arguments to explain and defend the conclusion that we come to upon reason. You start with your conclusion and back up from there.

Differences between assertions and arguments:

Assertion - it is a theory or hypothesis that is just thrown out there. They have no support or reason backing it up. This often leads to a circular argument if you're arguing with someone who has an assertion.

Argument - there are reason and you put them in order. You must consider the objections. You shouldn't be including any more than you give reason for. Another thing is you must see where your opponents are going and cut them off.

Many assertions are based upon emotion, feeling, or experience.

Arguing is looking for objective reasons and beyond experiences. The facts are what they are and emotions cannot change it.

Composing and Assessing Short Arguments:

If you master small arguments it won't be a huge leap to advance to bigger ones. Critical Thinking really isn't well taught anymore.

Smaller Arguments:

1) They are more common and well-known

2) Elaborations of the short arguments are the longer ones.

3) They are the best illustration and form of everyday mistakes.

You must identify all the premises (reasons) and conclusions.

Ask yourself what your conclusions is.

Class notes from yesterday

"The loveliness of Christ may be best beheld in His solitariness, the mystery of which all the Patristic Councils and Creeds sought to properly elucidate and illuminate." ~Samuel Rutherford.

Samuel Rutherford wrote the book, Lex Rex, and The Loveliness of Christ. He believed that the the Law is King, and not the king is law. Oliver Cromwell committed regicide because he believed in Lex Rex. Lex = Law, Rex = King. The idea of Lex Rex is that God's Law is above the king and that the king must abide by that Law. Rex Lex is that the king makes the laws to be whatever he wants. The concept of Lex Rex was widely unaccepted because the people didn't want to have a king who could be ruled by another authority.

What no other religion has is imputed righteousness, the salvation, the character of Christ, and the unsurpassed grace. There was a lot of debate over who Christ really was...who is he? Christianity has come through history and if history is altered by us, then Christianity cannot stand because Christianity depends upon the true history of the world.

As long as you weren't a threat to the state, you could do/say/believe anything you wanted to.

Councils were a foundation by which our understanding of liberty, socialization processes, economical functions, and everything else that a culture runs on, is based on. The thinking of individuals will eventually shape the culture. If you have a strange thinking people, you will have a strange thinking culture. Your worldview/denomination matters. This is why you cannot bond with or marry someone who believes something different then you do.

Every man is fallen. A group of fallen people creates a fallen culture. All kings/pastor/emperor/presidents are fallen. You must make a checks and balance type of government so you are all accountable to one another. No one is supremely over all others. Verification and accountability. Society is a web of relationships. Division of labor and power is essential. All men must be judged under the Law. Acts 13 shows us that a synod was formed. Acts 15 points out a council. You should never be stuck under the authority of one or two individuals. Biblical leadership is consensual - plurality of leadership. Even strong prevailing people still have strong prevailing sins.

The two greatest commandments:
1) Love the Lord your God
2) Love thy neighbor

These could be considered a creed.

Creed:
A short summery statement
Brings about discipline
Maintains peace of the Church
Keeps purity within people

Creeds are there to ward off wandering and provide a guideline.

1) Arian crisis - 325 at Nicea a council was called together by Constantinople. The Arians believe that Christ was God's Son, but not God himself. He was flesh, material...substantial...and because material things are less important than the spiritual things. How could Christ as a God do things that a human, a mortal, could only do? You cannot separate the spiritual and the material, the council argued; just like you can't separate love and hate. Worldly tends to get labeled too many things that don't apply. Christ had some of the essence and attributes of God but was nothing more than a higher being, they said. The council said, Christ was fully God (and fully man). He was not material and worldly like they accused him of being. The spiritual cannot die. If Christ was really material and human as they said, wouldn't he have just died for good on the cross? Also, he couldn't have possibly saved our sins if he was only a mortal. The council argued against them using Homoousios - Very God of Very God. He is all powerful and sovereign. The Arians wanted to put a huge space between the spiritual which is good, and the material which is bad.

2) Sabellianism - they believed that God makes appearances and could take on different Trinity roles. They broke apart the Trinity. They said that the three in one could never simultaneously exist. Another word for it is Modalism. Another part of their heresy was that Christ was a puppet for God. God used the body but was not actually in the body. The same goes for the Holy Spirit. The essence of God is completely spiritual. the "soul" of Christ was God but not body. The council, formed in 381 by Constantinople, said that Christ was 100% God and 100% man. Holy man and holy God = Pantokratora. The Trinity exist at the same time.

3) Nestorianism - the council was formed in Ephesus in 431. Nestorius, the founder, said that Mary didn't actually carry in her womb God in the flesh, but rather Christ was really human and "grew" into his God-hood as he submitted more and more to the Father. Mary was a Christotokos - a Christ bearer. However, she was not a Theotokos - a God bearer.

4) Monophysitism - they believed in preserved incarnation. Christ had two separate natures in one person. They were constantly at war with one another. Christ had to suppress being human in order to be God. They forced incarnation and impartation.

5) Melchitism was addressed at the council at Constantinople in 553. They believed that Christ could turn his two natures "on" and "off". It was operable and he was a devised schizophrenian who could suppress a nature.

Next week we'll pick up with the 6th council.

TULIP

The five points of Calvinism/Biblical Reformers/Biblical Christians:

T - Total Depravity: Man has sinned and is completely and without virtue.
U - Unconditional Election: God chooses some people to be his elect and the rest are damned.
L - Limited Atonement: Christ's sacrifice upon the cross is limited for only his elect and not for the world.
I - Irresistible Grace: God's unsurpassed grace is imputed to those he has chosen and called.
P - Perseverance of the Saints: those who are truly saved will persevere to the very end and cannot lose their salvation.

I will work out a few topics in my next post of a sort of a "creed" that I wrote up the other night addressing 7 different subjects:
1) The Sovereignty of God
2) Does God love everyone?
3) Election
4) Predestination
5) Do we choose God?
6) Salvation: how are we saved?
7) Salvation through works?

Thanks for reading.

Quotes!

When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him.

~C.S. Lewis

I have lived a long time, sir, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men.

~Benjamin Franklin

Let us settle it in our minds that, whether we like it or not, the sovereignty of God is a doctrine clearly revealed in the Bible, and a fact clearly to be seen in the world. Upon no other principle can we ever explain why some members of a family are converted, and others live and die in sin–why some quarters of the earth are enlightened by Christianity, and others remain buried in heathenism. One account only can be given of all this. All is ordered by the sovereign hand of God. Let us pray for humility in respect of this deep teaching. Let us remember that our life is but a vapor, and that our best knowledge compared to that of God is unmixed folly. Let us be thankful for such light as we enjoy ourselves, and use it diligently while we have it.

~ J.C. Ryle

In all our duties, whether giving or praying, the great thing to be kept in mind is, that we have a heart-searching and all-knowing God. Everything like formality, being artificial, or mere bodily service, is abominable and worthless in God’s sight. He takes no account of the quantity of money we give, or the quantity of words we use. The one thing at which His all-seeing eye looks at is the nature of our motives, and the state of our hearts. Our Father sees in secret.

~ J.C. Ryle

There is nothing hidden from the Lord’s eyes. There are no secrets with Him. Alone or in company, by night or by day, in private or in public, He is acquainted with all our ways. He who saw Nathanael under the fig-tree is unchanged. Go where we will, and retire from the world as we may, we are never out of sight of Christ.

~ J.C. Ryle

"What do we mean by [the sovereignty of God]? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Dan. 4:35). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psa. 115:3). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is "The Governor among the nations" (Psa. 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the "Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (1 Tim. 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible." (A. W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God, chap. 1)

"Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing is omitted that is both necessary and useful to know, so nothing is taught but what is expedient to know. Therefore we must guard against depriving believers of anything disclosed about predestination in Scripture, lest we seem either wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God or to accuse and scoff at the Holy Spirit for having published what is in any way profitable to suppress... But for those who are so cautious or fearful that they desire to bury predestination in order not to disturb weak souls - with what color will they cloak their arrogance when they accuse God indirectly of stupid thoughtlessness as if he had not forseen the peril that they feel they have wisely met? Whoever, then, heaps odium upon the doctrine of predestination openly reproaches God, as if he had unadvisedly let slip something hurtful to the Church. - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.xxi.3, 4

By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death...

—John Calvin Institutes, book 3, ch.21, sec.5

Let me guess...I"m a hater?

Lately, as many of you know, I have been writing some rather controversial things for a lot of you. I will be doing this often…just as a warning. I will show for the praises of Him who hath sent me. I love my Lord and only want to serve Him with reverence and awe. How can I sit idly by and let the world get caught so up in itself that it cannot see the Creator of it all? How can this world be lead astray in such wrong thinking as it has gotten to? The evil that is accepted in this world is completely disgraceful. Not only that, but I’d go so far as to say that it is condemnable. One topic that has been brought to mind lately is the whole idea of wearing purple for those gay/lesbian/homosexuals (GLH) who are constantly being bullied and abused. I have not, and will not wear purple for that reason. I am not saying that bullying is the right way to solve this; I am merely saying that these people are wrong, and I will not stand up for them. I didn’t realize how many of my close friends believed that it is alright to be GLH until one of them recently made a post on Facebook and was praised for it. Her comment was:

Hi world. My name is Annabelle (name changed) and I support gays, lesbians, and homosexuals. The End.

This is completely unbiblical. Where in Scripture does it commend any of this? Nowhere. In fact, it condemns it. God says it is an abomination.

Now we really get down to the real thing. Does God love everyone? The answer is short and simple yet not commonly accepted. The answer is no. God does not love everyone. If you can tell me where it says directly that God loves every single person in this whole world without any exceptions…we can talk. But it doesn’t. Just read your Bible…it’s that simple. Read it and interpret it to develop a strong worldview. If you read your Bible correctly you can see that God does not only hate, but punish evildoers. I mean, look at Noah’s flood? Did it just happen and God was like, “Whoops, I didn’t see that coming. Well, I forgive all of you who were so evil that this happened and just for letting that slip, I’ll give you a free ticket to heaven.” Or the tower of Babel? What about all the bad things that have ever happened in the whole course of history? Are those accidents? Does God really just get so bored up there that He must cause havoc upon the world down here? Of course not, because that is absurd. God knows exactly what He is doing. God is a merciful and loving God to *His people*. His elect…but none others. The others are most clearly not his. We are not to judge or tell anyone, “You are going to hell” because there is absolutely no way we could know. God is the Judge. But can we honestly say that being GLH is Christian? Most certainly not! If a person was, say, a liar, it would be different. Lying is defined as a sin by God’s 10 Commandments. It is more of our sin nature. Now, this is *not* to say that we are not responsible for it. We are responsible for every sin we commit. However, GLH is a choice…a wrong choice, but one we linger in. If we lie, but are repentant for it and ask forgiveness from God for it, if we are of the elect then we shall be forgiven.

Calvinists (if you haven’t gotten that yet, I am one) are often accused of being arrogant. It not so much of arrogance, as it is of pride of being called by God. We are not higher nor mightier than anyone else. We are sinners. You are a sinner just as much as I am. I do not deserve God’s forgiveness! I ask for it, and I receive it, but I don’t deserve it by any long stretch! God’s grace is overwhelming and overpowering. So you could easily say that God is merciful to those who confess their sin and make an honest attempt to be a better person, acting out the life that can be distinguished as a life lead by a Christian. This means glorifying God and giving Him all honor and power due to someone with that much majesty and splendor. How can we give Him any less? To do so would be just plain out wrong!

So to round this off and make it a decent, straight-to-the-point blog post…I have to come out and say that I am vehemently apposed to all gay, lesbian, and homosexual people. They are unbiblical, unchristian, and ungodly. God *does* not love them, nor approve of them and will not forgive them until they repent and make a true effort to leave their errors. That is my blog post. Thank you for reading.

Religion and the Rise of Western Culture - Chapter 3 notes

The Monks of the West and the Formation of the Western Tradition:

The monasteries were the most common institution during the decline of classical civilization to the twelfth century (close to 700 years). Monks exercised a great influence over the culture. "It was only by the Church and, particularly, by the monks that the tradition of classical culture and the writings of classical authors, "the Latin classics", were preserved. This was not the original intent of this group however; it was close to the opposite. "It was born in the African desert as a protest against the whole tradition of the classical culture of the Greek and the Roman world. It stood for the absolute renunciation of everything the ancient world had prized -- not only pleasure and wealth and honour, but family life and citizenship and society." Monks took the place of martyrs to be a sort of "quiet missionaries". They were thought of as the "watchmen or guardians who 'kept the walls' of the Christian City and repelled the attacks of its spiritual enemies". St. Augustine was a monk, as well as a bishop, and helped create the Western monastic tradition. He was very key in this process. Augustine helped in the West and Basil helped in the East. Monasticism was a free choice, and was based wholly upon a spiritual life. In the East, the state ruled partially over the monasteries, but in the West, the state was too weak to attempt that. It was to be an institution that was very enclosed. Nothing must interfere with them or their lives, except for God alone. St. Gregory was a monk and was very essential to the defending of the Christian faith as well as promoting the monks' life, because he saw how important the monastic institution had become and how vital it would eventually be in the continuation of the Christian faith. St. Gregory believed that the world was soon ending and in order to live in eternity, you must become a monk. Monasticism built up the Christian culture. There were also monasteries in Ireland set up. St. Patrick helped with these. Monks were extremely learned: they knew the Christian doctrine, Latin, how to read and write, and sciences necessary for the maintenance of the Church, and the liturgy, such as calligraphy, painting, music,and above all, chronology and the knowledge of the calendar which had a similar importance for the liturgical culture of the early Middle Ages. In Ireland, it was the abbot, not the bishop who was the real source of authority, and the latter was often a subordinate member of the monastic community who possessed the power of ordination, but no territorial or hierarchical authority. Also, a new system of confession was pronounced. The old system was consisted of any public sin being condemned and then certain privileges restricted for a time before the bishop granted the penitent forgiveness. Now, the system concluded of any law being broken would be met with the appropriate measures being decided upon by the abbot or the confessor. The Irish monks helped spread the fame of Christian and restore the monastic life within the Western Europe. Through the conversion of a few Germanic tribes - Hessians, Saxons and Frisians - was a small gain in the picture of Christianity missionary work.

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Pictures of three gorgeous leaves I was given!

Out in the morning dew!

Orange, Red, and Yellow!

Mmmhhh they are so gorgeous!

<3

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Religion and the Rise of Western Culture - Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

The void in the political realm in the Roman empire was filled by the Christian Church. Religion and culture are supposed to grow from the same roots. People of the North were barbarians until Christianity united them. The Church came to the barbarians with a higher and more sophisticated society. Christians are known for their missionary work. The conversion of the Roman Empire lead to the rising of a new culture. The higher culture of the ancient world ignores the existence of their new faith even after Christianity had become the designated religion of the Empire. In other regions, pagan ideas began to sprout. The areas in the West that received the most persecutions and barbaric attacks had the most spiritual growth. The Church did not suffer too badly. The barbarians were in control of the military and political functions, but everything else - moral authority, learning, and culture - belonged to the Church at that time. When the Empire fell, the Church's resources were not injured; if anything, they had been strengthened. After the barbarians began to convert to Christianity, they brought ideas of the higher culture into the Church and therefore causing the Church to lose some of its Roman traditions and it became very dehumanized.

In the age of Gregory of Tours, the world had strayed far away from Christianity. The rulers were vicious and corrupt. They were unjust and had no notion of what the law should be. In such a world, religion only remains because the people are held in admiration of the supernatural and the spiritual. The vengeance and wrath of God was the one thing to hold the lawless in fear. Within the Dark Ages, the saints' were supernatural powers who watched over the people. The worship of the saints was a huge influence on this time period.

In the early centuries of the Middle Ages, we wee two sides of the world. On one side, we see a dark and dismal time filled with violence and destruction. But on the other side, we can see power and mystery - any evil or wrongdoing will be remedied - and plenty of hope. Without the accumulating of some traits of the barbaric people, it would have been impossible to have accepted any of the saint-worship. The barbarians didn't believe in any of the Christianity, unless they had it clearly demonstrated in their life.

"The Western Church did not come to the barbarians with a civilizing mission or any conscious hopes of social progress, but with a tremendous message of divine judgment and divine salvation."

"What is there to please us in this world? Everywhere we see sorrow and lamentation. The cities and towns are destroyed, the fields are laid waste and the land returns to solitude. No peasant is left to till the fields, there are few inhabitants left in the cities, and yet even these scanty remnants of humanity are still subject to ceaseless sufferings....Some are led away captive, others are mutilated and still more slain before our eyes. What is there then to please us in this world? If we still love such a world as this, it is plain that we love not pleasure but misery," St. Gregory.

The religion that they had at that time had a unique characteristic: it was collective as opposed to individualist, objective as opposed to subjective, and realist as opposed to idealist. The Church continued to be a refuge for those seeking aid and relief.

Both Augustine and Ambrose brought whole new meanings into the Church concerning the musical sphere. No matter how bad the world became, the liturgy of the Church remained stable and remained Christo centric. There were many things within the Church that was viewed as mysteries, such as the idea of salvation. "Thus in the West, after the fall of the Empire, the Church possessed in the liturgy a rich tradition of Christian culture as an order of worship, a structure of thought and a principle of life." Christianity was preserved through the liturgy. As darkness swept over Western Europe, the one thing that kept the traditions and ideas of a Christian life was the monasteries.

A health notification

Hey, so as many of you know, I have been struggling with some health issues lately. I thought I'd give you guys an update.

Well, I went to a comprehensive chiropractic on the 5th for the first time. He said that I had been going downhill, but he was going to start me going uphill. He gave me 3 different supplements to take. So basically with those I have to take 3 pills 3xs a day. Also, I have to drink a nasty whey protein drink once a day. He also tested me for sensitivity for certain foods. He found out that at the moment I am extremely sensitive to soy, corn-syrup, dark chocolate, all wheat, and all dairy. This has made it extremely hard to eat or drink anything.

He prescribed all the stuff that I have mostly due to the fact that 1) I have extreme low blood pressure, low enough to be pretty concerned about it, and 2) that I have a lack of adrenal glands (meaning that I have no adrenilum or energy). I have to drink a ton of water and record everything that happens.

This has been a huge pain and an inconvenience. Having to watch *everything* I eat or drink. Taking regular meds and stuff has been more or less the same. I am still receiving huge migraines pretty regularly and am still extremely exhausted. I am not having as much trouble sleeping, however.

All this to say! I am not asking for any pity or sympathy, because I have received plenty of it. It is so depressing to the spirit, because it makes me feel very much like an invalid. What I am asking for, however is lots of prayer! I don't know how long I will be doing all this, but I am really praying hard for it to end on Tuesday when I go back to see him. Please keep me in your prayers.

Yesterday, I went again. He didn't say I had improved at all and I have to still be taking all my supplements and my drink. I have to be drinking a lot more water (I was already drinking 8 cups a day) and take it easy. When I go back next Tuesday, he will retest my blood pressure and also retest my sensitivity to all those foods again. The main thing I would ask prayer for, is that I can go back to eating some foods that I'm restricted on. The food is getting really nasty to eat. Thanks all!

Religion and the Rise of Western Culture - Chapter 1 notes

We are all related or involved with the history of Christian culture. It is more intimate than many others. All the historical religions gradually change over the changing ages and irradical historical backgrounds. There is no religion that you can trace back to its ultimate roots, except Christianity. It is even difficult to study the Western religion and the Western culture, because there is so much information now, that we tend to separate and divide into different categories instead of uniting and bonding everything. Political theory, constitutional hisotyr, economic history, ecclesiastical history, history of dogma, and liturgiology. What is going on here is the separation of all the spheres. We have people specialize in certain areas and by doing this, we break it all up. If we give it any leeway over us, the State will take over and destroy us. Man has strayed from the spiritual and gone towards the physical. "Religion is the key of history." When looking at the religion/governing relationship, we see direct correlations between its religious faith and its social achievement. Europe has had great influence on the world. This is due, not to the idea of our perfection, but because of thinking through how to incorporate into humanity and to change the world. Everything, even pagan beliefs, originated off of Christian ideas. Before people caught onto the idea that the religion shaped the culture, the West had been quietly influencing everywhere. The Western culture is distinct because of its missionary characteristic. European history is a series of renaissances - or of revivals. The monastic reforming had a hand in this. What connected a culture together was a common interest and a shared fellowship of ideas. Any cultural achievement done can be "blamed" on its religion.

"In that age, religion was the only power that remained unaffected by the collapse of civilization, by the loss of faith in social institutions and cultural traditions and by the loss of hope in life. Whenever genuine religion exists it must always possess this quality, since it is of the essence of religion to bring man into religion with transcendent and eternal realities."

Vocabulary for this week

Incarnation: assumption of human form or nature.

substitutionary: a person or thing acting or serving in place of another

atonement: satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury; amends

impute: to attribute (righteousness, guilt, etc.) to aperson or persons vicariously; ascribe as derived from another

ecumenical: pertaining to the whole Christian church

functionality: of or pertaining to a function or functions

stratification: the act or an instance of stratifying

socialization: a continuing process whereby an individual acquires apersonal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, andsocial skills appropriate to his or her social position

synodical: of or pertaining to a synod

precedent: any act, decision, or case that serves as a guide or justification for subsequent situations

consensual: formed or existing merely by consent

lodestone: something that attracts strongly

mode: a manner of acting or doing; method; way

modalism: Christian heresy that was a more developed and less naive form of Modalistic Monarchianism. The Monarchians, in their concernfor the divine monarchy (the absolute unity and indivisibility of God), denied that such distinctions were ultimate or permanent. Sabellius (the author of modalism) evidently taught that the Godhead is a monad, expressing itself in three operations: as Father, in creation; as Son, inredemption; and as Holy Spirit, in sanctification.

inception: beginning; start; commencement

subsume: to consider or include (an idea, term, proposition, etc.) aspart of a more comprehensive one

envelop: (v.) to wrap up in or as in a covering; to surround entirely

fathom: (v.) to penetrate to the truth of; comprehend; understand

icon: a picture, image, or other representation; a sign or representation that stands for its object by virtueof a resemblance or analogy to it.

iconostasis: a partition or screen on which icons are placed, separating thesanctuary from the main part of the church