Basic Theology: God The Redeemer Part 1 - DTS025

Scripture is a revelation, to us from God, of God's truth and God's character.  He told us how to live and how to make moral decisions.  This doctrine of scripture underlies all other doctrines.  If we believe scripture, we have a foundation on which to build a theology that is true to God Himself. The first thing we read in the Bible is that God is creator.  God is the creator and the universe is upheld by His power.  God is the source of reality.  Everything that is real is due to God's creative power, whether it is a throne, a dominion, or energy itself.  If that is not true, then the Bible is false from the beginning. The Bible is God's truthful, infallible, and inerrant word.  Inerrant means that it does not teach incorrectly.  If we understand it correctly, then we will have truth--God's word to us.  It will not be false or misleading.  The Holy Spirit is responsible for what the Bible teaches.  It is a divine revelation. The first thing it teaches is that God is creator.  Science observes what is here, but does not observe origins, and it cannot do so without rational extrapolations from what we observe now.  The only way to know how something is created is for God to tell us He did it.  Otherwise, we could not know and would assume that things are now as they have always been.  True science grew out of a Christian context: the world can be understood because it was created by a rational, orderly, and purposeful God, and it is worth studying.  Purpose and meaning are essential ideas in the biblical presentation of God. Next, the Bible teaches that mankind is God's creation, made with moral abilities.  Mankind is the crown of creation, made in His image and given dominion over all living things.  We are also taught that God always acts with a purpose.  Colossians 1:25-20 and Revelation 4:9-11 both tell us that all things were created by and for God. If these things are true, then it is true that God has always been concerned with salvation and redemption.  Ephesians 1:3-14 says that He chose us before the foundation of the world and planned for our redemption through Jesus from the very beginning.  In Ephesians 3:7-12, Paul tells us that it was God's eternal purpose for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be made known through the church.  From the moment of our creation, God was planning for our salvation. The whole purpose, meaning, and theme of the Bible is salvation.  God's word to us, the Bible, says that He created with a purpose in mind, and that purpose included the forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ.  God wants to save us, and He is able to do it through Jesus. The decent of all mankind from a single pair, Adam and Eve, is part of that plan.  God tells us the origin of mankind in Genesis 1:27-28 and Genesis 2:18-23.  Adam was created out of the ground and given life by God, then Eve was created out of Adam.  These were not monkeys that decided to set up housekeeping, or random anthropoids that God decided to name.  God made this pair in a special act of creation.  Both Adam and Eve came from the same act of creation. This is important because the origin of mankind is the foundation of the doctrine of sin and the doctrine of salvation.  Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 reveal that all mankind was affected by the sin of Adam.  This is the case because all of mankind came from Adam and Eve.  This is just as important for the doctrine of salvation.  Just as the sin of one man can affect all of us, the sacrifice of the one perfect man can affect all of us.  Sin and death came from one man, so life also comes from one man. All of mankind is one race.  We have different tribes and nations, but we are all one people.  We are all made in His image and all worth saving. This is part 1 of the third lesson in a twelve part series on Basic Theology.  Each part is broken into two half-hour sections.  These recordings are part of a series called Theologoumenon.  They were recorded by Dr. Bush so that people in the churches, not just in seminary classrooms, could have easy access to lessons in basic theology.1. The Word of God (part 1 - part 2)2. God the Creator (part 1 - part 2)3. God the Redeemer (part 1 - part 2)4. Redemption (part 1 - part 2)5. The Holy Spirit and His Gifts (part 1 - part 2)6. The Trinity (part 1 - part 2)7. The Doctrine of Sin Part 1 (part 1 - part 2)8. The Doctrine of Sin Part 2 (part 1 - part 2)9. Salvation (part 1 - part 2)10. Doctrine of the Church (part 1 - part 2)11. Last Things (part 1 - part 2)12. How to Recognize Heresy (part 1 - part 2)