First OPC Lectures

Where a government's authority comes from, where it runs out, and what you owe it either way.

What the Old Testament's kings and laws have to say about how a nation should be governed.

Why reading a psalm the way you read a newspaper will mislead you, and the three kinds of writing in the Bible.

How the prophets, priests and kings of the Old Testament were small previews of Jesus.

Prophets, priests, and kings are the key characters in the Old Testament, linking its whole message to Christ.

Throughout the Old Testament, God made covenant promises. He made a promise to Adam and Eve, to Noah and his sons, to Abraham, to the nation of Israel under Moses, and to David. Through the prophets, he promised to make a "new covenant" when the Messiah came. These "big promises" show how the Bible is one unfolding message about Jesus Christ. They also help us understand why some of God's laws have changed, while others are permanent.

Our Adult Sunday School Class is conducting a Bible Survey. The overall goal is to get a clear view of the big picture of the Bible. This week, we are studying the major dates in the Bible: Creation, Abraham, Moses, David, the Exile, and Jesus.

From the late 350s, as the Son's full divinity became clearer, new questions arose about the Holy Spirit. Was he, like the Son, fully divine, "of the same substance" as the Father and the Son?

Athanasius addressed these questions in a letter to Serapion in 359. He defended the full divinity of the Spirit using the same principles that he had used to defend the full divinity of the Son. In this way, the whole subject of the Spirit clarified and deepened the church's understanding of the key issues in the Arian controversy.

Athanasius's three key principles were:

1) We must collect the sense of Scripture

2) There are no degrees of divinity

3) Only God can give grace

The emperors, bishops and councils of the century that settled what Christians believe about Christ.

Amid the complexities of the Arian controversy, there were several key theological differences. The Arians thought of God as the top rung in a ladder, with the Son on the second rung, closer to creation on the lower rungs. This led them to think of salvation as human efforts to get up the ladder, following Jesus's example. Athanasius maintained from Scripture that God is infinitely higher than creation. There is no ladder that we could climb to reach him! The three persons of the Trinity are equal, and salvation is God's grace coming down to us in the Father's sending of the Son and the Spirit.

These points are still relevant today, as we will see from a brief look at the Jehovah's Witnesses and Bart Ehrman.