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When it comes to worldviews, belief systems and religious practice, we live in an age of seemingly unparalleled and unlimited options. North Americans today enjoy meditation, practice reiki, and dabble in a variety of different religious practices as they seek to find something that brings meaning, purpose and fulfillment to their lives. Our worldview affects our understanding of God, what we worship and our sexuality.

This is an incredibly challenging study, especially in an age when it’s controversial to be anything but affirming of all beliefs and religions. Tolerance is seen as the highest of values in culture, and increasingly in the Church as well. So doctrinal distinction is downplayed; gender distinction is eliminated; social causes become the new mission of the Church… and eventually Christianity looks no different than anyone or anything else.

We will be carefully examining culture through the lens of Paul’s writing in Romans 1:24-25:

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

What we learn is that these words have, perhaps, rarely been more relevant than today.

Monism is summed up as the belief that all is one; that everything is a piece of the divine. Theism, however, “believes that while all of creation shares a certain essence (everything apart from God is created), the Creator of nature, namely God, is a completely different being, whose will determines the nature and function of all created things.”  In monism, this necessary distinction is lost, and as a result, humanity worships and serves the creature rather than our Creator. Life, spirituality, sexuality becomes inwardly focused—looking into ourselves to find meaning and purpose, rather than to the God who created us for His purposes.

This material will arm us well. Coming away from this study , you will have a much stronger understanding of the implications of monism and its prevalence, and greater opportunities to share with clarity the greatness of the good news of the gospel. This material will allow you to understand the categories of different belief systems in such a way that one can easily explain to someone who practices some form of Neopaganism (e.g. justification by recycling) the differences between our beliefs. This is extremely helpful in providing us with new opportunities to share the gospel in a culture that increasingly under the sway of monism.

We will  give attendee’s  a powerful appeal to understand and embrace the  creation and to give Paul, “the old rabbi,” an opportunity to speak to us once again.

And speak he does—loudly and powerfully.

The question is, will we listen?