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Alright, we're going
to dive a little bit

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deeper now into
understanding theological

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wisdom and direction.

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And how we're going
to do this is, first of

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all, we're going to
look at Scripture, but

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understand how to,
what do we do with

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Scripture and how
do we interpret it?

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And I'm going to get and
make a distinction for you.

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There is a distinction
between prescriptive

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proclamation in
Scripture and descriptive

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stories in Scripture.

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And sometimes
when we get these

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confused, it can
be problematic.

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But there are
places in Scripture

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where things are prescribed.

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The Ten Commandments
are a perfect example of this.

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God says, do not steal.

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He says, do not covet.

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So the commandments
are prescriptive that tell

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us the things that we
are not to be doing.

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But there's other
things in Scripture

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that are more
descriptive in nature.

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It's not saying you
have to do it this way.

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It's just describing a
story or an illustration

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or possibly even maybe
some things maybe humorous

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that we read when
we're reading Scripture.

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Let me give you
an example of this.

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So in the Old
Testament, this is

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Judges, there's
the story of Gideon.

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And I just want to
read to you starting at

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verse this is Chapter
six, starting at verse

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thirty six as the
conversation

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that Gideon is
having with God.

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So Gideon said to God,
if you will save Israel

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by my hand, as you
have promised, look, I

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will place a wool fleece
on the threshing floor.

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If there is dew only
on the fleece and all

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around the ground
is dry, I will know that

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you will save Israel by
my hand, as you said.

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And what it and and
that is what happened.

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Gideon rose early the
next day, squeezed the

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fleece and rung out
the dew, a bowl full of

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water.

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Then Gideon said to God,
do not be angry with me.

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Let me make just
one more request.

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Allow me once more
test with the fleece.

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This time, make
the fleece dry

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and the ground
covered with dew.

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That night, God did so.

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Only the fleece was dry.

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All the ground was
covered with dew.

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Now I've had an occasion
where a pastor was

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trying to determine
if he should accept a

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call or not that
he had received.

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And he told me, he
says, well, I'm going

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to do what scripture
tells me to do.

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And I said, what's that?

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He said, I'm going
to lay my fleece out

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and see whether or
not it gets wet or not.

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And that's how I'm
going to determine

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whether or not I
should accept the call.

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Well, there's nowhere
in scripture says that's

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what you should do
to determine whether or

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not you accept a call or not.

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So the story here about
Gideon and laying out

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the fleece is a descriptive
story, a narrative.

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It's not prescriptive
in nature, but that's

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an example of some
people may take something

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from scripture and
make it prescriptive when

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really it's more of a
descriptive approach

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of what's going on.

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Another thing you want
to take into consideration,

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which is very important
for us Lutherans,

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is the means of grace.

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So this is from Lutherans
small catechism,

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baptism, the Lord's
supper, holy absolution,

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along with God's word
as it is written, preached

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and shared are
sometimes called the means

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of grace, because through
them, through earthly

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elements, the triune
God delivers his gifts

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of forgiveness, of
sins, life and salvation.

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There are times when
the issue or the opportunity

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you have, you want to
take an approach where

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you're thinking about
the means of grace,

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the sacraments, you're
thinking about baptism

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or you're thinking
about the Lord's supper.

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And this may be a good
theological approach

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to give direction to
that issue or opportunity

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that you're working with.

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There are a bunch of different
theological distinctions.

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I've already talked
about the importance of

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these, but here are
some other ones you might

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want to think about.

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Law and gospel, theology
of the cross, theology

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of glory, Christus
Victor, Christus Vicar,

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two kinds of righteousness,
creator, creation.

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These are all theological
distinctions that we make.

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And there's many
more than this.

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This is just giving
you an introductory list.

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But when you're thinking
about how your theology

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is going to give you
good direction, it may

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be important to look
at these theological

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distinctions and say, could
one of these distinctions

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help us to give us
direction how we think

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about that issue or
opportunity that we have

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identified?

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Another way we can think about
this is theological concepts.

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There are a variety
of different theological

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concepts within our
doctrine that can be helpful,

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such as vocation.

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Vocation, Luther
talks a lot about

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this and the
importance of vocation.

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And it's possible maybe
that issue or opportunity,

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what will help you
to think theologically

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would be think about
it in terms of vocation.

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Creation, office of
keys, Trinity, idols

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of the heart, church
discipline, Adiaphora.

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All these are theological
concepts that may

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be helpful in giving
you direction and how

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it is that you're going
to think about that

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issue or that opportunity
in a theological

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way.

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All right.

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Another thing I
want you to think

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about is the
historical context.

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Past developments in
the church, past things

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that have happened in
the church can sometimes

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shape and form how
it is that you're going

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to address that
issue or opportunity.

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And I want you to
think about it broadly.

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Church history, denominational
heritage, parachurch programs.

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There is a broad
history in the Christian

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church where maybe
someone else has already

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addressed this issue
or someone has already

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found ways to strategize
about a particular

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opportunity for
witnessing or evangelizing.

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So you may want to look
to see what the church

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has already done
in this particular area.

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Then you want to narrow
it down to the specific

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ministry in which you
are at and which you're

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caring for.

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What has been the
history at this church

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in relation to that
issue or opportunity?

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Has this come up before?

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How did they attend
to it in the past?

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So understanding the history
broadly and understanding

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the history in a narrow
sense can be very

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helpful to you and can give
some theological direction.

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Now I want to talk
about now some of

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the possible
theological challenges.

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Now there's going to
be a lot more than the

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list I have for you,
but I just put together

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some that I am aware
of that or I've come

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across that might
be helpful to you also.

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So for example, these
are some of them.

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Synchronism is a
theological challenge where

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we mix the beliefs of
more than one religion,

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mixing Christian and
non-Christian together.

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And sometimes people
will do that when they're

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trying to think in
terms of theology is that

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they'll take something
from somewhere else,

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mix it with our theology
and come up with

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something brand new.

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That's not
helpful, not useful.

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Gnosticism is another
one where truth

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comes from
within, matters evil.

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Salvation is not the
forgiveness of sins,

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but the unlocking
of secret knowledge.

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Gnosticism is around.

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You'll find it as you're
working with people

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and especially with
theology, it'll come up

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in those conversations
and discussions.

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But as long as you're
aware of it, you can

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identify it and then
you can help guide your

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people away from that.

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Moralistic therapeutic deism.

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This was an interesting one.

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The idea is a God who
does not interact with

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creation, so he's a
deism part, but wants

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people to behave
moralistically and to

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be happy, there's
the therapeutic part.

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So there's some
people have this kind of a

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theory or this kind
of a theological take

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on how God works.

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This is going to
challenge us theologically

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if you take this
approach because it's not

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helpful.

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Theodicy is another
one where we attempt

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to justify God to
a suffering world.

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And here's some more.

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Separatism where we
tried to separate theology

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from first article disciplines
such as psychology

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and the like.

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They have their own
kind of realm and world

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that they work in,
but it should not be to

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the point where it's
like, I don't have anything

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to do with psychology
or anything to do with

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science or anything
to do with any of the

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disciplines we've
talked about before.

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No, those disciplines
are helpful to us,

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especially in regards
to first article insights.

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But we don't want
to just separate them.

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We want to see
how they can speak

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to each other
and work together.

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But yet still our theology is

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what's going to
drive everything.

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Christianizing science
where we attempt to

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justify theology with
scientific findings

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rather with God's
word and truth.

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Moral logic where
scripture is interpreted

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through the existing
cultures understanding

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of creation.

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So in order to understand
a particular theological

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point or maybe a
passage, what they do is

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they look to the
culture and see

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what the culture
is saying about it.

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And that becomes then
the doctrine of the church.

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It's not helpful.

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Queer theory.

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I've been doing a
lot of work lately with

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LGBTQ plus and some
research in that area.

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And so queer theory
is something that I

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currently am hearing
about and reading about.

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The problem with
it is created biology,

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they say, is simply
a social construct.

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So theology and
faith are rejected.

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And the idea is that
you have nothing

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to do with
theology and faith.

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It's just all of
everything's a construct.

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So you can believe
kind of anything you want.

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Cultural critical race
theory is similar to

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that, that it believes
that race is a social

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construct that's
been created by

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white privilege
and supremacy.

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And that it's everywhere.

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Now there is racism and it
does happen and it does exist.

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But sometimes people
take it a little bit too far.

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And especially in regards
to the social construct

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aspect of it, both of
these play into that.

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These are just some
of the theological

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challenges that I'm aware
of or I've come across.

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There are other
theological challenges

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that you need to be aware of.

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If you're a church
leader working in your

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church, your pastor
can help you understand

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some of those
theological challenges.

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If you are a student,
especially in your systematic

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classes, you're going
to learn about some

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of these theological
challenges to be aware

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of so that they don't
become part of what

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you decide is going to
drive you theologically

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in understanding how
to attend to that issue

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or that opportunity.

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So at the end of the
day, I think it's best

255
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to have a theological
habitus that is focused

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upon Jesus Christ.

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And if you do that,
that's going to definitely

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help you to understand
how you discern theological

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wisdom and what best
is going to help drive

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kind of how you
decide the next steps for

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attending to
that issue or that

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opportunity that you've
been working with.