Theo 1 - Final Exam

What is theology?

The study of God and what he has done.

What is the foundation of our theology? Why?

The Bible because it is God’s Word.

What is the law of noncontradiction?

The idea that something cannot be and not be at the same time and in the same way.

What is the Trinity?

1. There is one God.

2. This God eternally exists as three persons.

3. Each of these persons is fully God.

Why is the Trinity not contradictory?

God is one and three in different ways. (nature vs persons)

What is the difference between a mystery and a contradiction?

The mystery is that we cannot explain how God is one nature and multiple persons. It is not a contradiction because these are two different things.

How important is the Trinity as a doctrine?

It is fundamentally important for a Christian to know who God is. It identifies him specifically.

What is progressive revelation?

The idea that the Trinity is revealed over time. Hinted at in the OT and more clearly revealed in the NT.

Which part of the Trinity does Deuteronomy 6:4 support?

Proposition 1: There is one God.

Which part of the Trinity does John 1:1 support?

Proposition 2 and 3: The Father is fully God. The Son is fully God. They are distinct.

How does Mark 1 communicate that Jesus is God?

Showing us through Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. The Father speaks from heaven and the Holy Spirit descends.

Which parts of the trinity does 1 Corinthians 8 support?

Supports monotheism by saying that both the Father and the Son are God. Denies polytheism.

What is the difference between person and nature?

Person answers the who question.

Nature answers the what question.

In what sense is God one?

God has one nature.

In what sense is God three?

God is three persons.

What makes the Son the Son as opposed to the Father and Spirit?

The Son is eternally begotten by the Father.

What makes the Spirit the Spirit as opposed to the Father and Son?

The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

What makes the Father the Father as opposed to the Spirit and the Son?

The Father begets the Son.

What does it mean that the Son is begotten?

Similar to a human son being begotten.

What did the Cappadocians contribute to the development of the Trinity?

The person-nature distinction

What did Athanasius contribute?

Developed the idea that the Father and the Son have the same nature. “Homoousios”

What is the Nicene creed?

The description of what the church believes about the Trinity.

What is Social Trinitarianism?

The idea that all three persons have three natures.

What is the problem with Social Trinitarianism?

It is tritheism that denies monotheism.

What is Arianism?

The idea that the Son is a created being.

What is the problem with Arianism?

Denies that the persons of the Trinity always existed and that each person is fully God.

What is modalism?

The idea that there is one person that manifests himself in different modes.

What is the problem with modalism?

Denies the three distinct persons of the Trinity.

What is the creator/creature distinction?

The idea that God is categorically and fundamentally different than His creation.

What does it mean that God is transcendent?

God is far above His creation.

What does it mean that God is immanent?

God interacts with His creation.

How does materialism view the creator/creature distinction?

Denies that there is a creator at all.

How does the pantheism view the creator/creature distinction?

Flattens the creator/creature distinction making the creator and created interchangeable.

How does deism view the creator/creature distinction?

Treats God as distinct but denies his immanence. Views creation as a machine that is wound up and then let go.

How does Christian theism view the creator/creature distinction?

God is distinct and transcendant but also involved in his creation.

What are some of the implications for the creator/creature distinction?

Some of God’s qualities are analogical, meaning that we share similar attributes but he has them differently.

What is an incommunicable attribute?

An attribute God has exclusively.

What is a communicable attribute?

An attribute that we share with God analogically.

What is aseity?

God’s independence/lack of need for His creation.

What is omniscience?

God knows all truths.

What is the problem with Open Theism?

Denies God’s omniscience.

Says that God does not know the future as a way of explaining the existence of evil.

What is omnipresence?

God is present everywhere.

How do we explain the absence of God in hell?

There is a difference between God’s covenantal presence and his presence in a position of wrath and condemnation.

What is omnipotence?

God can do all things that are logically possible and within His nature.

What does it mean that God is immutable?

God does not change in his nature.

What is sovereignty?

God’s rule over all creation which extends to all events.

What does it mean to be free in a libertarian sense?

Humans are free to choose a over b.

Not compatible with God’s sovereignty.

What does it mean to be free in a compatibilist sense?

Humans are free to choose in accordance with their own nature.

Compatible with God’s sovereignty.

What is God’s wisdom?

God knows the greatest end and the pathway to get there.

What is God’s holiness?

God is morally pure.

How is hell just?

God is infinite in stature.

There is no guarantee that sin ceases in hell.

In what sense is God good?

God is essentially good, meaning that goodness is God.

He is the standard.

What does it mean that God creates?

God creates out of nothing/nihil by His Word.

What is God’s providence?

God sustains his creation by His Word.

What are some good reasons for reading the creation accounts literally?

The text is not marked as poetry.

There are good contextual reasons for seeing the days as 24 hour days.

The genealogies link Genesis 1-11 to 12-50, which scholars would take as being literal.

What is the image of God?

A royal mandate: The idea that we have been placed on earth to fill and subdue it.

Combines both pieces of the image of God:

Ontologically - We are different from animals because we have souls, can think, have emotions, etc.

Relationally - To rule as God’s vice regents we must be able to relate to each other.

What is complementarianism?

Men and women are equal in value and worth.

Masculinity and femininity are different and distinct.

In the home and the church they take on different roles.

What was the nature of Adam’s relationship to sin before the fall?

Adam was free not to sin. He had a different freedom than ours.

What is the nature of a human being’s relationship with sin after the fall?

All born in Adam have a sinful nature.

Before salvation:

• As fallen human beings before Jesus, we are not free not to sin.

After salvation:

• We are free to do good again.

Glorification:

• We are not free to sin.

What is original sin?

The idea that we sinned in Adam which means:

1. We are born with human natures that have the tendency to sin.

2. We inherit Adam’s guilt.

What is egalitarianism?

The belief that there is no distinct masculinity and femininity.

The only difference between a man and woman is biology.

The Bible does not agree with this.