The Natural Truth Of Christianity

Two closely related questions receive distinctively theological answers in this study: What is truth? and How can we tell whether what we have said is true? Bruce Marshall proposes that the Christian community's identification of God as the Trinity serves as the key to a theologically adequate treatment of these questions. Professor Marshall argues on trinitarian grounds that the Christian way of identifying God ought to have unrestricted primacy when it comes to the justification of belief, and he proposes a trinitarian way of reshaping the concept of truth. Direct engagement with the current philosophical debate about truth, meaning and belief (in Quine and others) suggests that a trinitarian account of epistemic justification and truth is also more philosophically compelling than the approaches generally favoured in modern theology, as exemplified by Schleiermacher, Ritschl, Rahner and others. Marshall offers a contemporary way of conceiving of the Christian God as 'the truth'.

The Natural Truth: A Spiritual Journey By: Sigrid Suyo Our lives are a journey; sometimes we get stuck in one place afraid to move on. This book relates the passage through various stages of religious belief from faith and reverence, to doubt and disillusionment, to departure and loss, to open mindedness and re-examination, and finally to a natural spirituality of awareness and peace. In telling her story, the author looked backward so she could look forward. She recognized how her staunch religious conditioning as a child prevented her from seeing the world as it is. Her path revealed much about the often unacknowledged spiritual characteristics of the certainty of life on Earth versus the uncertainty of life beyond the grave. There is no commandment for the adoration of our natural world; but there is much to praise. The book's examination of traditional religious practices and beliefs that guided the author for three decades of her life, is written with honesty and the occasional rhyming word. She does not attempt to persuade the reader but presents her insights with logic and forthrightness. Her viewpoint presents many questions to ponder about our religious beliefs and their value in our lives. Like beauty, personal spiritualism, religiously inspired or otherwise, lives in the heart of the beholder. One need only take the time to look for its many sources. We all have misgivings about life and death. This book provides much to think about and much to value. Those who may be on the cusp of doubt about their religious beliefs, may find it inspirational and informative. Those happy with their spiritualism, may find it enlightening.

The book provides a clear and straightforward presentation of Christian truth for the average Christian believer in understandable, non-ecclesiastical, language. It is intended to help the believer understand the ultimate truth about God and human beings and, with the knowledge of such truth, experience the peace, comfort, and assurance of God's love and purpose. God has made Himself known through the magnificence of the natural world and astounding complexity of life itself. Today we also know that the universe was created in the Big Bang, which requires a Creator who exists outside the universe. Although believers know that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, an indispensable part of God's true nature is his love. This is demonstrated through God's ultimate revelation in Jesus Christ. It is his love of human beings and his desire for a love relationship with us that is his reason for creating us and our purpose for being. But sin entered the world with Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. The true nature of sin is understood as self-centeredness, a misplaced priority of putting our own needs and wants above those of the One who created us. Adam's original sin resulted in a genetic change that has been inherited by all human beings born after Adam, and accounts for the sin nature of self-centeredness that exists within each one of us. It is this original sin which accounts for all the pain and suffering, even from natural disasters and disease. God's act to remedy human sin and restore our relationship with Him is Jesus Christ. The Bible describes our condition and his solution using legal terms such as guilt and punishment, as a debt which we owe to God but cannot repay, and as slavery to our sinful nature. We are unable to do anything ourselves to remedy our condition. Salvation is a gift which God offers us. All we have to do is believe the truth. In the second part of the book, various troublesome topics that confront the Christian believer are discussed in order to bring understanding, comfort, and assurance. God's existence outside of time is presented to correct the misunderstandings of predestination. The truth of God's grace, the free gift He offers through Jesus Christ, is explained, showing that a gift offered must be accepted in order to be complete. The contemporary issue of evolution is shown to be wholly consistent with Christian truth when the established scientific facts and Christian truth are both understood. God's hand, rather than chance, explains the development of new species through genetic changes in DNA, while human beings came into existence through the image of God which He miraculously breathed into Adam and Eve in a second step following the physical and physiological development of the bodies which we inhabit. Insights are provided into the usually avoided topics of Jesus Christ as the only way to God and the seeming mystery of death.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermons gathered together in a multi-volume collection. In this first book in the Studies in the Book of Acts series, he delves into Acts 1 through 3 and compares current Christianity with the early church.