Are you afraid to voice your faith in this current culture?
Concerned your belief can’t withstand a rigorous intellectual attack or your hope is based on a myth? Please join AOI’s Scott Mauser as we take the apostle Peter’s advice to a struggling church:
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.”
When: For Adults & College Students – Tuesdays 6-8 pm starting Sept 7th
Where: At AOI – 1011 N 10th St, Grand Junction, CO 81501
You can also join us on Zoom – contact Scott for the Zoom details.
Cost: Free except for books
To Register or if you have further questions: Contact Scott Mauser at 970-523-9943 or [email protected]
Week 1: Love Your God with All Your Mind – Introduction
Week 2: Boxtops, Reality, 5 Questions and 5 Points for all Worldviews!
Week 3: Truth? – Does it exist and how do we know?
Week 4: Break.
Week 5: Astronomy – The Heavens Declare the Glory of God!
1. First, as a bonus reference, we had briefly talked about a discussion that Brian had with the College Student Ministry. Here are the notes/resources for that discussion. This is just for your information and fun!
How is God at Work Today – Outline
2. Then, we continued our discussion watching these videos* and discussing them briefly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKGnXgH_CzE&list=PL3gdeV4Rk9EfL-NyraEGXXwSjDNeMaRoX
Specifically, here are the three to watch:
The Kalam Cosmological Argument – Part 1: Scientific*
The Kalam Cosmological Argument – Part 2: Philosophical*
The Fine-Tuning of the Universe*
(*Note: These animated videos are very well done and very useful to cover the topics at hand, but we do not agree with everything produced by William Lane Craig or his ministry, Reasonable Faith. Specifically, we do not agree on an old age earth and the Big Bang as is suggested in the first video, but even using those long age ideas, the conclusion for the secular materialist points to a Beginner!)
3. Then we went through this presentation: Astronomy – The Heavens Declare the Glory of God!
Week 6: The Cosmological Argument – Evidence for a Creator
Week 7: Break.
Week 8: The Universe & Life are Designed by a Creator! (The Teleological Arguments)
Privileged Species by Discovery Institute
Week 9: Complexity of Life and Improbability of Evolution!
Week 10: The Moral Argument – Guilt & Evil Prove God!
Week 11: Break.
Week 12: Break.
Week 13: Signs, Miracles, Providence, and Bad Arguments!
Week 14: Early Testimony of Jesus, then Infanticide & Sibling Rivalry
Week 15:Eyewitness Testimony & Historical Accuracy of Jesus & Test Drives!
Learn more:
www.DiscoverCreation.org/Survey
www.DiscoverCreation.org/Evidence
www.DiscoverCreation.org/Videos
Description:
This class is designed to make Christians aware of the discussions and challenges that their Faith is confronted with in the marketplace of ideas. The title and desire for the class is that according to 2 Peter 1:5-11, that we add many things to our faith, two of which are knowledge and steadfastness. We will read, discuss, and wrestle with the answers our Faith gives to these questions raised by the culture and academia. We will discuss a spectrum that will take us from pure skepticism to a confident hope and understanding about how the Biblical Worldview matches reality as it is. We will have a strong emphasis on the questions raised by evolutionary naturalism and atheism. We will also discuss methods in sharing our faith with others and how to address many concerns that arise when we do. It will be an intense ride, but one that is so desperately needed for today’s confused and relative culture.
Expectations and Goals:
To grow in knowledge of what a Biblical Worldview entails and how it answers the deepest yearnings of the human heart. To increase in steadfastness as we learn to make daily and weekly study of our faith an established habit. To provide answers to questions that turn people away from Christianity or cause believers to abandon their faith. To offer a venue to ask the most difficult questions and learn good study and research habits. Ultimately… to be able to offer an answer for the hope that is within us with gentleness and respect (as Peter commands us in 1 Peter 1:15).
Resources:
Love Your God with All Your Mind – Book; E-book; or Audiobook – by J.P. Moreland. https://www.christianbook.com/role-reason-life-soul-revised-updated/j-p-moreland/9781617479007/pd/479007
I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist – Workbook – by Frank Turek and Chuck Winter. https://www.christianbook.com/dont-have-enough-faith-atheist-curriculum/frank-turek/9781935495840/pd/495717
I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist (IDHEF) – Book; E-book; or Audiobook – by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek. https://www.christianbook.com/dont-have-enough-faith-an-atheist/norman-geisler/9781433580758/pd/580758
Tactics: A Game Plan For Discussing Your Christian Convictions (TGP) – Book; E-book; or Audiobook – by Gregory Koukl. https://www.christianbook.com/tactics-discussing-christian-convictions-anniversary-edition/gregory-koukl/9780310101468/pd/0101468
Why Evolution is True (WET) – Book; E-book; or Audiobook – by Jerry A. Coyne. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QEQRJW/
-NOTE: We do not agree with the premise of this book, but we do want to read it alongside other Creation resources (like Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels) to be able to accurately know the teachings of Evolution and to adequately be able to analyze which perspective makes sense of the evidence best.
Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels (EAH) – Book or E-book – Edited by Robert Carter, Ph.D. https://www.christianbook.com/evolutions-achilles-heels/9781921643828/pd/643828
