God's Value System is significant to me

I grew up thinking up I understood Christianity pretty well (even though theology was somewhat complex). From childhood I had many years of excellent and diverse Christian teaching. However, I came to realize that many key concepts such as holiness and righteousness actually were not clear to me, not easy to remember, nor practical.

In fact, there were parts of Christian theology that remained almost mystical to me. This conflicted with my understanding of God as a rational being. Because of this also, I could not tell if I was successfully growing as a Christian. I was glad to be a Christian, but I found it difficult to articulate my Christianity to someone else.

Then my pastor developed the focus of God's value system as a tool to explain the theory, purpose and practice of Christianity. God's value system is sacrificial love for the benefit of others. note God's values were most clearly expressed by Jesus at the cross.

Seeing Christianity with this perspective removed the difficulties I had, and:

  • It synchronizes perfectly with classical Christianity.
  • It gives guidance for closer fellowship between the branches of Christianity.
  • It makes the case for Christianity be much stronger.
  • It makes Christianity much more logical, understandable and practical.
  • It enables progress in the Christian life to be measurable instead of vague.

This approach makes sense because its practical nature validates against what we all experience in everyday life. It guides us to really good ways of living. And it turns semi-mystical theological stuff into real common-sense and useful stuff. note

Mystical things can be seductive because to learn the mysteries is priviledged knowledge, putting you into an exclusive group. It gives you a sense of power and superiority. These things do not lead to better living - they lead to pride and to treating other people as inferior.

Certainly life does have mysteries, but God is not a mystic and does not want us to be mystics either. God is loving, rational and practical and wants us to be like that too.

This perspective is available in Darren's messages. I introduce it in my writings, and full coverage is available in Darren's excellent book God's Value System.

Please read Darren's books, read what I have written here, or listen to the audio. It represents the most significant teaching on Christianity that I have had in my adult life.