Questions and Answers on Christianity

Christianity can be most clearly understood from the perspective of relationships and value systems...

Attribution

What is a value system?

A value system is the complete collection of things you care about in life. We have many desires, opinions and preferences. Some we hold strongly, others not so much. Each of these things holds some level of value to us. Taken as a whole, we can call them our value system.


What is Christianity?

Christianity is a spiritual solution to the problem of relationship between man and God, and between humans.

What makes relationship?

All relationships are built on common value systems. * The more of your values you have in common with another person, the more relationship you can have with them. The more conflict in values you have with another person, the more conflict in relationship you will have with them.

Common values together with shared experience makes relationship.

Who is God?

God is a self-existent non-physical being. God is one God, and yet there are multiple persons in him (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).

God's value system is sacrificial love for the benefit of others. Each of the persons of God perfectly hold this value system, therefore, God exists in continuous perfect loving relationship.

It is impossible for us to understand what God is in detail because God in his existence, stands outside of our temporal, physical world. We wouldn't even have the vocabulary to describe him. However, he has revealed who he is to us through his value system.

Although this universe is astounding to us, God caused it all just by speaking words. This teaches us that God is greater than what we can imagination, and any words of his are deeply profound and powerful.

What is the Bible?

The Bible is a collection of things God has said to his people. It also includes other related types of literature. Because God cares deeply about relationship, God uses the Bible to tell us about himself.

How can I understand the Bible?

God's words in the Bible are powerful and changes lives. However, because the Bible is big, and is a collection of writings through hundreds of years, it is very useful to have guidance to understand it.

Understanding God's value system of sacrificial love for the benefit of others is associated with this last point. This is the central value system that motivates God. It is also the value system that best creates good relationships.

Reading and looking for meaning in the Bible from these perspectives makes it much easier to understand.

What relationship incident happened in the beginning?

God created the world and humans in it for the purpose of creating relationship. God created the first humans (Adam & Eve) in his image. He included in them his value system. God and the humans had great relationship and enjoyed each others' company.

Another being was allowed to tempt the humans to choose a different value system than God's. His lie was that they could be more like God by choosing their own value system. God had given the humans the ability to choose their own value system, and unfortunately they rebelliously made that choice.

When the humans chose their own value system, their relationship with God was broken. However, God knew before he created the world that humans would fail, and he had already planned a way to restore relationship with them. God's plan would demonstrate to them the full extent of his own value system.

What is the relationship problem?

All relationships are built on common value systems. All relationships without common values will fail. Furthermore, all conflicts in relationships are conflicts over value systems.

Our native value system is selfish. When we were babies, we had no regard for anyone else. However, as we grew up, we were trained through socialization that complete selfishness was not acceptable. Though we learned unselfishness, we did not loose our selfish desires.

God's value system is sacrificial love for the benefit of others. God has complete integrity of value system, therefore he both holds and lives his value system perfectly. God has no selfish desires in him.

Our native value system is selfish love for the benefit of me. This produces extensive conflict: We have internal conflict because our learned and native values do not agree. We have conflict with other people because we disagree on who is to benefit from our choices. And we have conflict with God for both these same reasons.

God desires that we have his unselfish values. However, since we rebel against them, we constantly create offense against him. The consequence of this is our state of completely broken relationship with him.

Because of God's completely unselfish values, the relationship-hurdle with God is particularly extreme. Our values always retain an element of selfishness and God's values are never selfish. We do not share any core values with him. Therefore, we have nothing on which to build a relationship with God.

What is the relationship solution?

The solution has two parts for us: we acknowledge Jesus Christ as our king, and we adopt his value system. In the first part our problem of the pre-existing relationship damage is solved; in the second part we become enabled to build a new relationship.

The first part relies on the principle that those in authority are responsible for those under their direct authority. When Jesus becomes our king, he rightfully is able to bear the cost for the relationship consequence of our broken relationship with God. In fact, he already took that consequence when he died on the cross. (For a time at the cross, God completely severed his relationship with Jesus.) Now as our king, Jesus represents us to God, so God sees us through him, and therefore sees Jesus' value system when he looks at us.

The second part grows God's value system genuinely within us. The first part (Jesus as our king) put us in a right position to start a relationship with God. The second part (adopting his value system) is where that relationship actually grows into existence. And a consequence of this change of values is that new actions flow out of our new values.

This solution was carefully planned and executed by God. Both parts we do are in response to work that God has already done. There is a consequence to broken relationships, and God has prepared the means to pay that consequence for us. God brings us to the point where we understand the wisdom in his solution. And then he gives us the strength to actively live it in our lives.

What is the process of restoring relationship?

The process of restoring relationship is the process of forgiveness. This process has four ordered steps.

The process of forgiveness brings about changes in values system within a relationship. That is why it works. The first two steps of the process are very important for that reason. Many times a description of forgiveness only considers the one step labeled as "Forgiveness". Such a process will ultimately fail because no values change is being brought to the relationship.

(Forgiveness in more detail.)

The forgiveness process is also an excellent description of the process of becoming a Christian. By confession, we agree with God that our value system is wrong. Through repentance we change our mind about our old value system, and instead adopt God's value system. God then forgives us, himself paying the relational cost of our previous actions and no longer treating us according to our old value system; instead he treats us as having a common value system with him. Then by reconciliation we develop and expand the restored relationship together.

How can we know God?

In a very real sense, once you get past physical characteristics, our identity is the sum of our values (the values that we actually live by). They are our morality, and what we hold to be important on vocation, politics, family, leisure, food, humor, goals, dreams, etc. From them come our behaviors. You know someone well when you understand their values so well that you can think and behave like them.

The same is true for knowing God. When we understand what He values, we can understand Him and His actions. God's value system is sacrificial love for the benefit of others. God is inherently relational because God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all have exactly the same value system. Therefore, we also can begin to know God when we understand His value system. This is why Jesus said that to know Him (his values) was also to know the Father. (John 14:6-9)

However, academic knowledge of something is not true knowledge. True knowledge comes with experience. You must adopt and live God's value system. Then you will come to know God.

 

Why is Jesus Christ the exclusive way to God?

The only way to God is one that would restore relationship with him. All relationships are based on a common value system. God's value system of sacrificial love for the benefit of others is the complete opposite of our native value system of selfishness and exploitation. Since God completely separates himself from any value system that is unlike his, humans have no bridge of common values to God.

In fact, humans have two problems:

God's plan to restore relationship solves both these issues. Jesus is able to forgive our offense against God because he already carried the consequence of that offense. That payment becomes effective for us when we put ourselves under his direct authority as our king. When he then represents us to God, God sees us through him, and sees Jesus' perfect values.

At that point, a relationship between us and God has been established. Because of that relationship, God can send the Holy Spirit to transform us, giving us strength to live God's value system. As God works in us to grow those values in practice, they become our own values.

When we are forgiven by God, have a common value system with God and shared experience with him, we have relationship with God. We know the relationship is real because God's values, and not our selfish own ones, are being lived by us.

All other religious or metaphysical systems fail to address and solve these problems. Access to God is a values and relationship problem, and Jesus is the only one that solves it. Therefore, Jesus is the exclusive way to God.

What is the goal of Christianity?

The goal of Christianity is restoration of relationship with God and with people through transformation of value systems. The goal of Christianity in the lives of people is to be come like Christ. We become like him by adopting God's value system of sacrificial love for the benefit of others, and living it out to others.

What is the core value system of Christianity?

Christianity's core values are the value system of God. God's value system is sacrificial love for the benefit of others. In contrast, the native value system of humans is selfish love for the benefit of me.

What is Christianity's premise?

Christianity says that we do not have access to God because of a fundamental breakdown in relationship with him. Through the good news of the Kingdom of God (the Gospel), that problem has been solved. This is accomplished when we believe in Jesus as our king, and we adopt his value system as our own.

What is the Gospel?

The gospel has two parts for us: a part we believe and a part we do

The belief part has some more underlying detail:

Together, these points contain the gospel. (See also this message and this page.)

What rules are there in Christianity?

There is one rule in the Kingdom of God: Love each other. Jesus gave this single command to his disciples (John 15) in a culminating dialog just before he demonstrated this kind of love.

What unifies Christianity?

Belief in the Gospel core unifies Christianity. Christians agree on the Gospel.

What distinctive characteristic is Christianity to show to those outside of it?

Jesus said that love of Christians for each other would show everyone that they were like Christ (John 13:35). This occurs when we live Jesus' (God's) Value System.

Are there other beliefs in Christianity?

Christianity has a long history of complicated theories of theology. (Theology: the study of the nature of God and of religious belief.) However, the most important part of Christianity is the Gospel - the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Gospel is clear and simple; and agreement on the Gospel is the core of Christianity.

There are many other beliefs in Christianity. For example, there are many possible interpretations in the study of events that are to happen at the end of time. Other topics of study have similar amounts of variety.

Why does this occur? It is a simply a problem that comes from trying to make a comprehensive assembly of knowledge that extends from areas that are well-understood out to areas about which we have limited information. More than one way of structuring that knowledge can be valid and useful. In addition, in areas about which our knowledge is incomplete, we do our best to fill in the gaps so as to bring clarity and consistency. Our understanding is an interpretation based on that limited data, and these interpretations become a part of our traditions.

We have complete freedom of belief in our traditions and interpretations with one limitation: they cannot conflict with the Gospel. It is particularly important that we live the Gospel by becoming more like God in his signature value of sacrificial love for the benefit of others. When Christians do not lose that focus, these freedoms in beliefs never become a problem.

 


The ideas on this page are based on the work of Darren Twa, author of several books including God's Value System. He is pastor at Life Fellowship. His audio messages teach the biblical and practical basis of God's Value System.