The One True God and the Invented Ones

Implicit in Christian monotheism was a critique of pagan polytheism. According to the Christians, the Greek and Roman gods were human inventions. Look at the gods of Homer. Each of them seems to embody a human quality: Aphrodite is the goddess of sexual desire, Ares is the god of conflict, and so on. The gods have the same petty vanities and jealousies as their human counterparts. Their virtues are human virtues writ large. As classical scholar Mary Lefkowitz puts it, "The life of the gods is a highly idealized form of what human life would be if mortals were deathless, ageless, and strong." Ironically, this criticism of invented deities, which seemed valid when it was launched against ancient polytheism, is today leveled against Christianity. As Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins would have it, the Christians too have invented their God. But the Christian God is not like human beings at all. He is outside space and time. He does not have a body. He is a purely spiritual being. He can be comprehended only dimly by humans, who resort to anthropomorphic images and analogies.

Dinesh D’Souza

What's So Great About Christianity (page 50)

Political Leaders and Divine Accountability

"Whatever the form of government, no branch of government and no person in power may usurp ultimate authority or be given our ultimate loyalty... Every leader in any country ought to recognize his accountability to the highest Ruler of all. Given human experience, any form of political power can be corrupted. But absolute power is corrupted absolutely. No human being... is wise enough or good enough to be given unaccountable power. Even where human accountability is built into political structures, the fullest alleviation of political injustice will not come without ultimate accountability to the all-knowing God.

... the major responsibility of Christian ministers is to call political leaders to accountable stewardship before God on whom they depend for their life and  breath... we must deliver the divine summons to repent to leaders who are inexcusable for not living up to the moral and spiritual truth they ought to see clearly."

~ Gordon R. Lewis

Integrative Theology, Volume 1

God's Moral Standards Applied to Political Leaders

"... there are several passages in the Old Testament prophets that address the sins of foreign nations around Israel... These prophets could speak to nations outside of Israel because the God who is revealed in the Bible is the God of all peoples and all nations of the earth. He is their Creator, and they will one day stand before him in judgment. Therefore the moral standards of God as revealed in the Bible are the moral standards to which God will hold all people accountable. This includes more than the way people conduct themselves in their marriages and families, in their neighborhoods and schools, and in their jobs and businesses. It also concerns the way people conduct themselves in government offices. Believers have a responsibility to bear witness to the moral standards of the Bible by which God will hold all people accountable, including those people in public office."

~ WAYNE GRUDEM
Politics According to the Bible

Ethics in Creation and Evolution Compared

The biblical teaching is that the human race has fallen from an original innocence, and that our tendencies to violence, greed, lust, deceit, and selfishness are in some sense unnatural for us. This teaching is at direct odds with the notion that the human race evolved from similar primate species, and that our unethical tendencies are actually part of our evolutionary history (perhaps necessary aspects of the “survival of the fittest”).

Kenneth Boa & Robert Bowman Jr.
An Unchanging Faith in a Changing World

Three Cornerstone Affirmations of the Biblical Worldview

 1. MONOTHEISM affirms that there is one God who created the world, who made human beings to be creatures who could relate personally both to other creatures in the physical world of which they are a part and to the God who made them, and who holds human beings accountable for their willful breaking of these relationships.

2. INCARNATIONALISM affirms that this God, who revealed himself to us in Scripture, revealed himself supremely by becoming human uniquely in Jesus of Nazareth, who as the Son revealed the Father who sent him and the Spirit whom he sent after he died and rose again to restore our relationship with God.

3. EVANGELICALISM (used here in a broader sense than usual) affirms that through faith in Jesus as our great God and Savior we enjoy that restored relationship with God and begin to learn again how to honor God in our relations with one another and with his creation.

Kenneth Boa & Robert Bowman Jr.

An Unchanging Faith in a Changing World

The Distinctive Feature of the Holy Spirit's Work

"... the third person is distinctively the One who powerfully brings to fulfillment in our lives the redemptive transformation envisioned by the Father and provided for by the Son.

... Holiness is not only an attribute but also a distinctive feature of the Spirit’s ministry. The third person convicts of sin, regenerates, and sanctifies. Insofar as converted sinners progressively become holy, their virtue can be traced to the Spirit’s teaching, illumination, leading, abiding, and cultivating of Christlike holiness."

~ GORDON R. LEWIS

    Integrative Theology

Choosing Leaders

"It is a serious responsibility to appoint or elect wise and just officials. In your sphere of influence—home, church, school, job—are you ensuring that justice and godliness prevail? Failing to choose leaders who uphold justice can lead to much trouble..."

Life Application Study Bible
Notes on Deuteronomy 16:18-20