Christs Discipleship by Paul - Essay Example

According to Paul, humanity does not become righteous through adhering to the statutes, but by accepting Christ where one has to die into sin. This is because God’s elect are not subject to the law and it only addresses those who are unbelievers.

Paul mentions Abraham as an example of righteous people where the creator addressed him because of his incomparable faith in Him, but not keeping the law (Romans 3:28). Therefore, Paul utilizes this perspective regarding law and grace to counteract numerous arguments, which Pharisees claimed the new converts were not observing. These entailed rules that governed foods and other traditions meant to gauge people’s moral standards. For illustration, Paul, contrary to the Jews, contends that “True Circumcision” entails that of heart, which the believer keeps what the Christ demands of him or her (Romans 2:25-29).

This is because one’s praise comes from the lord and not from mere humanity who judge using flesh (Romans 2:29). Therefore, Paul urged people to adopt new life beginning by dying into sin, where they will leave insignificant precepts, which he loved and used to live by before as a Pharisee. Ezekiel’s chapters 36 and 37 encompass people’s renewal and restoration despite the sins which they committed before, thus leading to their destruction after God had abandoned them. This is similar to Paul’s argument where according to him, new converts live “under grace” once they die into sin.

Prophesying to the bones in order for them to have flesh is similar to Paul’s argument regarding Christ’s hope and salvation to sinners whereby they should not entertain earthly judgment. Discuss how Platonic Dualism, Aristotelian Teleology, and the Stoic theory of the acquisition of knowledge as virtue contribute to the argument of Hebrews. Platonic dualism owing to its perspective regarding the body and soul in the acquisition of knowledge differs from Hebrews’ argument. The latter’s language did not have any equivalent words meant for “nature” and “natural,” which is divergent from the present languages that are in agreement with the Platonic dualism (Bos 273).

Therefore, this yielded to disagreement amid the Platonic dualism and Hebrews’ description regarding knowledge acquisition since each side held strongly to its argument where Hebrews did not agree with the emphasis of knowledge on the nature of things, but via Christian thought or mind (Bos 273). Aristotelian teleology pertaining to the attainment of knowledge focused on intrinsic substances of nature and the reason behind their existence. His explanation considered nature as both an internal and end principle of change whereby external influences did not have any effect on it for illustration of God.

This is contrary to the Hebrews’ argument regarding attainment of knowledge or information, which entails external causes, for example, God’s interventions or intelligence. Stoicism implies that an individual obtains knowledge through the reasoning that will enable him or her to live ethically. This is because people are small universes compared to the large living organism which is the sky (Bos 273). Mainly, an individual’s knowledge entails self-control emanating from inside whereby he or she is able to suppress bad and destructive emotions, hence differing from the Hebrews’ argument where knowledge is attained through supernatural intervention.

These differences resulted in the argument whereby each side clings to its ideals besides proving it as a valid mode of knowledge acquisition (Bos 273). Describe the two major methods of interpreting the symbols in Revelation and explain how they give rise to two different conclusions about the author's purpose for writing the document. (write about predictive methods and historical methods) Futurist Interpretation This approach contends that the entire book’s content is about future prophecies, which bases its explanation on the literal meaning of the scriptures (Stevens 29).

The version is common with other denominations except for the Catholics whereby each word means what it specifies unless its definition implies otherwise in the context applied. According to this approach, the entire book from chapters four to nineteen chronicles end events that will comprise the great tribulation just before Christ’s second coming. The futuristic perspective distinguishes the earlier Israelites’ age from Christ’s church end time, where the latter will encompass the end of the world.

This interpretation prompts numerous people to view the book as an account detailing events that will conclude the existence of the world, hence yielding to heated debates or wrangles especially among various denominations to the extent of some not being able to co-exist together (Stevens 27). Historic Interpretation This interpretation assumes various aspects chronicled in the revelation already taken place before Christ’s incarnation. Hence, this associates the beast with Catholicism and the pope besides other aspects or symbols representing various global wars.

Other symbols or aspects encompass the Islam and Napoleonic wars (Stevens 26). The interpretation replaces the word “church” with national Israel. Besides, historical interpretation holds that events found in the Revelation are symbolic starting from the time of its writing until Jesus’ incarnation when he established the eternal kingdom. Therefore, the people who hold to this interpretation deem that the only books that talk about the future are the four Gospels, thus disagreeing with others who think it is a prophecy.