Greg Bahnsen – Who’s in Charge Here?
- 2 June 2017
Bible Reading
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
[Luke 6:46-49]
Questions
1. What does Bahnsen identify as the heritage of the Theonomic perspective?
2. What great issue does Bahnsen draw our attention to by his anecdote regarding IBM?
3. How are we to arbitrate between the multiplicity of outlooks ‘out there’ in the Market Place of Ideas?
4. What/where is the ultimate MORAL authority in the world?
5. What solemn warning is included in the parallel account of this episode (Lk 6) is given in Matthew 7?
6. Who IS in charge according to Scripture?
7. What, beyond one’s personal life, does Bahnsen urge us to build with reference to Scripture?
8. What does Jesus call someone who refuses to build upon His words?
9. How frequently do we make ‘ethical decisions’? How much of life is ‘ethical’?
10. Is eating ethical? Is watching TV?
11. Some make ‘pleasure’ their goal; others make ‘health’; some look after ‘number one’…… What objective standard enables us to measure competing ethical codes?
12. What are some of the prerogatives of ‘Lordship’ in the Old Testament (OT)? See Lev 19 & Deut 7:9-11; the Shema Deut 6:4-9; Ex 34:10?
13. What are the practical implications of God’s jealousy for His people?
14. What qualification does God supply to His Law in Deut 5:32-33?
15. Are additions or subtractions acceptable to God?
16. What is spelt out in Lev 18:1-5? With what does God contrast HIS laws?
17. What does Deut 6:5-9 require of us? (hand, door post, forehead, ….etc)
18. What is the conclusion here?
19. What according to Rom 14:9, Phil 2:1, 1Cor 12:3, Acts 16:31, Rom 10:9 is the goal of Christianity?
20. What is the import of the First Commandment?
21. How does the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) summarise mankind’s duty?
22. What qualification does God possess to warrant His authority over mankind?
23. What fraction of humanity will be judged by God’s Law?
24. Which schools of thought are antagonistic to Theonomy?
A ___________________ school of thought (self-determined law)
A ___________________ school of thought (against God’s Law)
25. What is the problem with (i) Plato’s idealism (ii) Sartre’s existentialism?
26. How does the Bible resolve the tension between relevance & absolute authority?
27. Who said, “We must live as men who can get along very well without God”?
28. Is YOUR life built upon the foundation of God’s word?
29. What is ‘licentious’ antinomianism?
30. What is ‘spiritual’ antinomianism?
31. What is ‘dispensationalism’ antinomianism?
32. What is ‘latent’ antinomianism?
33. What is the Theonomic ethics? Is it biblical?
