IBS weeks 1 and 2

Last Friday was the last day of classes for the first two courses I'm taking at IBS. Intro to Christian Theology and Bible Study Methods are now complete. I took the final for the theology course earlier today.

One thing I really appreciated about the theology course is how different beliefs among Christians were laid out. When Dr. Alan Scholes gave his opinion, he made that very clear. Another helpful distinction was the idea of levels of beliefs: conviction, persuasion, and opinion. Conviction level beliefs are those crucial to salvation. Persuasion level beliefs are those you are personally convinced of but are not crucial to salvation. Opinion levels are those you acknowledge you are unsure about.

Through these different levels, I feel I have a much better understanding of what different Christians believe on different issues. I also appreciate that Dr. Scholes examined some difficult issues, such as homosexuality and whether the Bible is truly accurate in all areas (the "innerancy debate"), such as science, and not just morality (which is a current debate in Christianity).

Throughout the course, Alan Scholes also injected quotes from the Campus Crusade for Christ statement of faith. It was interesting to see the different levels of conviction addressed in the statement of faith (conviction, persuasion, opinion) -- it seems to have various statements at all three levels. On some issues it's very specific (such as inerrancy of Scripture), on others (such as Calvinism vs Arminian) it's intentionally silent -- evidently someone higher-up decided that taking a stand on certain issues wasn't important enough to offset the cost of possibly divisions.

Some of the highlights for me:

• learning about the different views on the "inerrancy" debate. This is one of the more current issues in Christianity and Crusade right now. Campus Crusade has specifically stated that it believes the Bible is fully inerrant in all areas, not just in morality and faith issues.
  


• learning about the various heresies that have surfaced in church history, especially relating to the trinity. One heresy called "Modalism" states that there is one God who puts on three different fronts, which, by the way, is where most of our analogies about the trinity will degrade to if taken too far (ice/water/steam, for example).
  


• learning about the Biblical view of humanity -- not that we are at core evil, but that we were created fully good (in God's image) but are corrupted because of the fall. I did know this but hadn't realized the subtle difference in how most non-Christians think the Christian view is "evil at core" and the true Christian view (good but corrupted).
  


• learning about the idea of an "antinome". Dr. Scholes presented an antinome as something that seems contradictory, yet is true -- we really just don't understand how it works. In Christianity, for example, "There is one God, in three persons, who are fully God". Scholes points out there are antinomes in other disciplines, citing the heisenberg uncertainty principles in physics.
  

I'm also feeling much better. The first weekend I slept a lot and drank a lot of water. I figure I averaged about 11 hours of sleep per day that weekend. Last week I had the sense that IBS assignments got easier as they went along, which I suspect was more likely me getting my energy back.

This weekend I went to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was incredible! We drove up a one-way narrow road that wound up the side of the mountain. There were several spots where you were mere feet from the edge, with no guard rail. We got to see a bunch of marmots and elk who were close to the road. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.