Decision-making, Politics, and the Will of God
Our lives are full of decisions… and questions. How do we know what God wants from us? How do we make life decisions? How should we vote?
In this discussion we try and answer some of those questions. We look at issues such as 1) the ways God has answered questions and guided people throughout history, 2) whether God has a particular will for everything in your life, and 3) how we can make responsible political choices as Christians.
Decision-making, Politics, and the Will of God: Week 1
Given that this election year is looking spicy, we’re going to be looking at politics and Christianity. Now we’re not going to be focusing on a theology of politics, or the relation of church or state, or some such abstract
DPWG Week 2: Finding God’s Voice in the Old Testament
Today we move on from looking at what makes us crazy about politics and religion (discussion found here), to looking at seeking God’s will in the Old Testament. Hang on! The results might be a bit suprising – the world
DPWG Week 3: The New Testament and the Will of God
We wrapped up looking at seeking God’s will in the Old Testament last week. This week we move on to the New Testement and see what changed. We also preview two ways of thinking about God’s will – the railroad
DPWG Week 4a: Two Views of God’s Will
Last time we started talking about two ways to view the will of God: the railroad model, and the boundary model. The key difference between the two can be boiled down to this question: does God have an specific, comprehensive will
DPWG Week 4b: Disagreement & the Will of God
Last post looked at two different views of God’s will and concluded neither is quite right—the truth lies somewehere between them. But what does this mean for Christians when they disagree? Does all disagreement stem from not listening to the
DPWG Week 5: Personal vs Political Boundaries
So, we’ve come a long way. We started by looking at how Politics and Religion can be crazy-making and come all the way to seeing how the will of God is neither mere railroad nor boundary. This helps us understand
DPWG Week 6: What’s in a vote?
Last week we found that it was fairly easy to agree on boundaries in our personal Christian walk, but almost impossible for political voting. But why is this? The answer, I think, is because voting does not have boundaries like
DPWG Week 7: The Unavoidable Abortion Issue
This week we move on from the discussion of general boundaries to look at a specific voting issue, maybe the most divisive issue—abortion. The goal is to give a quick look at it from both sides, and then start wading
DPWG Week 8: Decision Matrices and Voting
We have come a long way—we’ve looked at some of the kinds of things we would like government to do. We’ve discussed how voting for a person is only a statement of what a person thinks is best for the community,
DPWG Week 9: Two Kingdoms vs Theonomy
Last week we looked at decision matrices and how they could help us decide who to vote for. But we did not discuss how we decide what are appropriate rules for a country as opposed to a church. This week we