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02/21/2005: "Catholics and Evangelicals: Similarities: Human Beings"

We are on to part three of our series Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences. In this section we will discuss the similarities in the view of human beings. This is from chapter 3 in the book if you are following along. If you are not, I would like to encourage you to do so. There is a lot more content in the book that I am not covering in this online class.

The doctrine of human beings is another area where we have a great deal in common between Catholics and Protestants, but this is also an area where I believe there is a big difference between the doctrine or church teaching is and what the people actually believe about human beings and our nature. We will discuss more of that later.

Definition of Humanity
Let us first of all define our terms a little bit. The term “man” has gotten a bum rap over the past few decades during the battle for political correctness and our effort to be “inclusive”. First off, in classical literature the term “man” means “humanity” which of course means men and women.

This battle is a pet peeve of mine. There is no need to neuter all the old songs of the church to remove male references and make them more politically correct. There is no reason to neuter the Bible so that it removes the male reference and includes a more “inclusive” term (Check out Mark D Robert's Series on the NEW TNIV Bible). We all know these references are inclusive. Ok, I will get off my soapbox now.

One last thought on this definition of man, man has a mind and he is different from the nature that surrounds him.

Where did Man come from?
God created the first man Adam, and he was created good. This is important to consider and remember. At creation, we were inclined towards God. That was our nature. We had the ability to choose to sin but our inclination or natural tendency was towards obedience.

We also believe that all people stem from the original Adam and Eve. This actually comes from the New Testament, Acts 17:26 were Paul was arguing to the Greeks. Because Adam fell, all of human nature was corrupted.

What is our Nature?
We are body and soul, physical and spirit. After our body dies, our spirit survives waiting to be reunited with our glorified body after the resurrection when Jesus comes again.
We believe that the body is an important part of man with “positive value” and that the body is connected with just one soul. The body does not exist for it’s own purpose but is exists for the spiritual soul. “The soul is … the essential form of the body”. The concept of eternal life for each person requires each person to have a soul. Finally we believe that soul and body are connected at the moment of conception.

Where do we find this in Scripture?
Old Testament:
· In Genesis we find man was made in God’s image. God breathed life into us. Chapter two of Genesis tells us that the ”Garden of Eden” was a literal place and it was set up for us to fellowship with God and each other.
· Woman was created out of man. A majority of Church Fathers believe this in a literal historical sense.
· Only man and woman are made in the image of God.
· The creation event was a fantastic event.
· God set up Rules of conduct for his special creation. If you follow God’s rules there will be blessings.
· Adam and Eve sinned and “man” was changed.

New Testament:
· In the New Testament Jesus referred to the creations event implying it was an actual event. (Like he believed the Genesis account)
· We see teaching of a conscious existence after death
· Catholics and evangelicals agree that human beings are fallen. The exact degree of “fallenness” is debated in both Catholic circles and Protestant/Evangelical circles. In my humble opinion, I would say it is a mystery that we will see more clearly when we get to heaven. Nice copout!

Doctrine of Humanity
Original Sin:
Both Catholics and Evangelicals believe in the doctrine of original sin. Evangelicals just don’t know what it is called. You hear this doctrine all the time if you are raised in the Catholic Church.
· Because of Adam’s first sin, we have all been corrupted.
· This fall corrupted both our body and our soul.
· This fall resulted in death and the “the tyranny of the devil”
If you are older than 40, you know firsthand how the fall has affected your body, you just plain hurt more and are slower. Maybe you have even thought about dying once or twice. We know we are going to physically die.
Our spiritual being has been changed so that our inclination is towards selfishness and sin. If you examine your heart, you know you are inclined to sin. This is true even for Christians. Like Paul says in the book of Romans, chapter 7.

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Replies: 4 Comments

Alot of dogma on your web pages. Evolution is a fact, Adam and Eve are a myth.

Evolution and Dogma said @ 02/23/2005 10:54 AM CST

Macro evolution is a fact?
Give me one non-fraudulent example of it?

Good luck with that.

q and a blogger said @ 02/23/2005 12:34 PM CST

Do you think evolution itself is fraudulent?
=============================
By Joseph B. Verrengia
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:21 p.m. ET March 24, 2004

Touching off a scientific furor, researchers say they have discovered the mutation that caused the earliest humans to branch off from their apelike ancestors — a gene that led to smaller, weaker jaws and, ultimately, bigger brains.

Smaller jaws would have fundamentally changed the structure of the skull, they contend, by eliminating thick muscles that worked like bungee cords to anchor a huge jaw to the crown of the head. The change would have allowed the cranium to grow larger and led to the development of a bigger brain capable of tool-making and language.
==============================
Micro leading to macro evolution.

Evolution - micro to macro said @ 02/23/2005 06:36 PM CST

Darwin himself stated that if within a generation of his death no actual transitional forms of being have been found in the archiological record, (ie someone dug one up) then the who concept of Darwinian evolution would be seen to be invalid. The point is, if man mutated from a monkey there would be thousands and tens of thousands of transitional creatures that were in between. None have been found. The evidence for the "fact" of macro evolution is very very very week.

In fact among scholars the concept of Darwinian Evolution is dead, They just don't tell anyone about it. The modern theory for how we got he is actually called "Punctuated Equalibrium". This stayed the same for a really long time and then all of a sudden they changed without a trace. Hum, sounds a bit fishy. Like maybe they realized how weak their theory was that they had to come up with another guess.

Why do they keep proping up a dead theory? Because they do not want to submit to what God said. They want to think everything happened without God. They have a theology to line up their view of the world.

Macro Evolution is a theory and it is a bad one at that.

q and a blogger said @ 02/24/2005 08:51 AM CST

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