Catechism: Introduction and Question 1

This first episode introduces the the Catechism To Be a Christian

1. What is the human condition? 

Though created good and made for fellowship with our Creator, humanity has been cut off from God by self-centered rebellion against him, leading to lawless living, guilt, shame, death, and the fear of judgment. This is the state of sin. (Genesis 3:1–13; Psalm 14:1–3; Matthew 15:10–20; Romans 1:18–23; 3:9–23)

This Podcast is a ministry of Good Samaritan Church in Sugar Hill, GA. 

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Transcript

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Might be important to maybe to talk about what catechism is um and why it's important that we're talking about theology by way of catechism well I I think if you go to a lot of churches websites you're gonna find a statement of faith and and really catachism is amongst other things statement of faith yeah it's uh it's done in particular format which we'll get into in a moment um but it's how the church explaining what it believes and why it believes yes but would be essential here um is it's always been the posture of the church that the two major instruments by which we determine the Catechism the teachings of the church No. 1 that they are rooted grounded and um deduced by the Holy Scriptures we we don't get to have theological beliefs that the scriptures would disagree with um there's some flex room to say that there are theological beliefs that we can have that are not clearly laid out in the scriptures um but you know we would certainly agree that the scriptures have to in some way affirm these teachings and we'll get into this as we poke through who this can this can be just the whole podcast right here um so this seems to me to be a controversial subject the way that we've begun this um you and I are in a state of sin that we heard that claim at the beginning we're created good how do we reflect on this considering the world around us the consequence of it's called the fall the story in Genesis 3 it is just visible all round yeah I think in large part is in the matter of self-centeredness yeah humans are intensely driven to take care of themselves right and not always ask questions about the consequence right yeah in the picture I see you know I've been reflecting on the Torah for the past six months really when I reread the book of Genesis specifically and the distinctions between chapters 2 and 3 is just this profound picture of simplicity and beauty in this seeming just thoughtless trust that existed in the in the in the precurse phase versus after the curse it seems as though not only is humanity in a place of suspicion and accusation and um brokenness but likewise the world has responded by with brokenness itself yeah there's there's a if you like Chapter 3 of Genesis this is incredible shift yeah between Chapter 2 and chapter oh yeah Chapter 3 explains that shift but when you get to Chapter 4 and we got first murder yeah it's like what happened right you know it's really a stunning change yeah in the nature of humanity and his relationship with God reflectively I sort of go a step further with this and ask myself I'm not sure if there was a literal serpent or a literal Eden and you know I think that those stories are best read as a sort of primeval history something like that um or a fable or I like the word myth cause myth doesn't have to be false and we tend to take true we talk about mythological creatures for example but myth stories that explain that are usually rooted in truth every detail may not be yeah absolutely literally true yeah there is there is a it's it's not total fiction so given whatever stature is taking place in Genesis chapter 3 the core things that I think we pull out of it is number one there is a god No.2 there is an enemy a serpent later parts of the scriptures interpret the serpent to be the devil the Satan I think given the framework of our scriptural interpretation that's perfectly acceptable but then we're sort of standing in the middle and we've chosen to some degree to reject God and listen to the serpent the serpent and has LED to this catastrophe