Theology 101
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Where do we Begin?

     I grew up with a little bit of a reformed background. Not much mind you, but a little. As I have grown older I have seen many people around me who used to be reformed become less so to the point where they have now disavowed their reformed upbringing and now embrace what I can only see as heretical teachings. Some have gone over to Mormonism, some to Catholoicism, some to Armineanism, some to the open theism, which is popular now. All of which if believed can only lead to damnation, because they all disavow the saving grace of Jesus Christ and to do so is blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which can only lead to Damnation.

      How did this state of affairs arrive in many of the people that I know? I believe that it came about because of two factors. The first is that these people had an almost nonexistant understanding of the Bible to begin with and second that heretical teachers were allowed to creep into their lives. I also saw this happening in my life at one point. A few recent years ago I saw my dedication to the word of God dwindle to the point where I was beginning to be led astray and I may have gone the way of many of my friends had God not sent someone to rescue me and reintroduce me to reformed teachings.

      The purpose of this section of the website called Theology 101 is to help myself to be accountable and to be diligent to study the Bible and examine it to better understand why I believe what I believe and to help me to recall some of the basic principles that I once knew better, but have since become a bit rusty on.

      So, like the title says, where do we begin? I say this just in case someone else is reading, but I am doing this mostly for my own benefit and to help myself grow for the purpose of giving God the glory alone in all that I do.

      I think that we should start out with a few definitions. I find it interesting that there are many words that we use all the time, but often we really do not know what they mean or we use them slightly wrong, so that is why I want to work on some definitions that we use all the time, but often don't really know.

     
  • Doctrine:     That which is taught and believed to be true by a church. The official teachings of a church. This word is from the Latin 'doctrina' meaning 'to teach.'


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  • Denomination:     a group of religious congregations having its own organization and a distinctive faith.

                                    a class of one kind of unit in a system of numbers or measures or weights or money; "he flashed a fistful of bills of large denominations"


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  • Reformed:     Broadly speaking, Reformed theology includes any system of belief which traces its roots back to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century. Of course, the Reformers themselves traced their doctrine to scripture, as indicated by their credo of “sola scriptura,” so Reformed theology is not a “new” belief system but one that seeks to continue apostolic doctrine.

    Generally, Reformed theology holds to the authority of Scripture, the sovereignty of God, salvation by grace through Christ, and the necessity of evangelism. It is sometimes called Covenant theology because of its emphases on the covenant God made with Adam and the new covenant which came through Jesus Christ (Luke 22:20). ref. here


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  • Arminian:      One who believes in the viewpoints of Jacobus Arminius who was condemned as a heretic in 1618 - 19 at the Synod of Dort.


    •       Ok, we have a few things set up. I think the next thing to do is work on a paper explaining what John Calvin says and what Jacobus Arminius says and compare the two. I also need to add an article on what happened between these two people at the Synod of Dort in 1618 - 1619.