Broadlands Bible Church
August 10, 2022
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Thesis: Everyone has a "perspective" about everything; Christians have a "perspective", but it is "warped" and in need of "development".
Introduction: : In our last study, we argued that developing "a Biblical perspective" requires that we have "a Biblical perspective" about the Bible
first : then we can develop a "Biblical" perspective. From this there is no escape: either a person accepts the Bible as "The Word of The God", or that person is left to try to make life make sense by whatever means he/she has at hand. But the "proof of the pudding is in the eating"; i.e., those who attempt to make life make sense
always fail -- there is
always something missing -- and those who let the Bible guide them into "a biblical perspective" participate in true "peace of mind" and "joy of heart" (the true experiential measures of the success of their "perspective", and the
only experiences that are of any
real "worth").
- I. What does it matter?
- A. What is important ... to me?
- 1. The biblical answer is "agape".
- a. The word addresses what is "important".
- b. "Agape" was a "cultural term" in the language of the first century, not a "special Bible term" for "God's kind of love".
- 2. What do I think about it?
- a. The biblical answer is "faith".
- b. "Agape" is what sets the objective(s) of "agendas" in life, and "faith" is the "effectual mechanism" for the pursuits of those agendas.
- 3. What is my perception of my current experience?
- a. Values, beliefs, and perception create "perspective".
- 1) What is important (defined by "agape") centers on one question: "Does my experience suit me?"
- 2) What is believed also centers on one question: "Is it true?", or asked in other words, "will what I believe actually result in the accomplishment of my 'objective'?"
- 3) What is experienced centers on how what is happening affects me in light of my loves and my beliefs and the perceptions I currently have.
- B. Life is all about "perspective".
- 1. We adjust our perspective by our faith response to things that happen in light of what we value.
- 2. Proverbs 4:23 is a "biblical statement of a biblical perspective" in which we are instructed to consider the "heart" (the place where "agape" resides) with "diligence" because the "springs of life" flow out of that "heart".
- C. Fundamental to Faith and Love is "Revelation".
- 1.General revelation is God's inescapable self-revelation by the things He does.
- a. It is general revelation that makes "omnipotence" inescapable.
- b. And it is general revelation that makes "omniscience" inescapable.
- 2. Special revelation is God's self-revelation by means of words.
- D. The problem with general revelation is the fact that there are more actors in the universe than God and sometimes we get the actors confused.
- E. Why do we have a Bible?
- 1. It is a more specific revelation.
- 2. But, why does God care if we have specific understanding?
- 3. The bottom line is: "God loves us".
- a. But, there was a period of about 2500 years of human history when men didn't have a "Bible".
- b. Men were not left without divine revelation during that time.
- c. God had given man a lot of special information and men had been passing it down from father to son for that period.
- 1) Moses tells us that God spoke to the ancients.
- 2) Enoch was a prophet of the second coming who lived before the flood.
- 3) God had prophets on the scene, but men were perverse.
- a) Thus, they began to alter the information over time.
- b) In 2500 years a lot of distortion had occurred.
- c) The Zodiac reveals that men knew an awfully lot of the information we have in our Bible.
- i. Josephus bears witness of the Zodiac as a device for remembering what God had said, begun by Seth.
- ii. The Zodiac actually has many of the same signs that show up in the biblical text regarding the "glory of God".
- i) The Lion, Eagle, Man, and Bull of the four "sides" of the Zodiac are the same images as found in Ezekiel 1 and 10 and Revelation 4.
- ii) Ophiuchus is an image of the biblical picture of Jesus who struggled with the serpent over the "crown".
- d. The answer to why God has given us special revelation is God's love for us so that we could have a relationship with Him.
- 1) He could remain quiet and men would have perished from off of the earth.
- F. "Perspective" must start with God's love for us.
- a. It is a concept that we give easy lip service to, but we have difficulty really believing that He loves us.
- b/ Part of the reason is the multi-person reality of love so that to "love" one person may mean to "hate" another.
