Kenneth M.

Colindong November 6, 2019

BSED-ENGLISH REED
MIDTERM EXAMINATION
1. In reality, He has done this many times. Eyewitness accounts of human interaction with
him have been recorded and preserved for us in the bible but for today’s generation, it
would be hard to identify how God reveal himself. Generally, God reveal himself to us in
4 ways; Nature, Bible or scriptures, Answered Prayers and Challenges in life. Nature,
God’s creation has clearly shows God’s presence. In every aspect of our lives, as we live
in this world he never fails to express his love through his creation. His creation is the
source of our living, starting with our needs and wants; it is his creation where we can
have these necessities. Second are his scriptures, in this time, where everything is
electronic and advanced, and his scriptures also adjusted to fit today’s generation. His
words are forever and will never fade as long as there are people believing in him. As we
continue to read and understand his words through his scriptures written by his followers,
we are constantly meeting or talking with God. Answered prayers are probably
acceptable in the sense that most people proclaim God’s existence because of it. A lot of
testimonies will tell us that countless numbers of Christians describe their encounter with
God through answered prayers. Theses prayers are those critical or vital for a certain
person such as the health or recovery of a terminally-ill love one or the success of a
person. Lastly, the challenges and obstacles we experience during our lifetime are proof
that God is existing and is there. These challenges are tests for our faith to him, the more
we trust God and be with him always no matter what happen we will likely to succeed in
solving any problem we encounter. God is everywhere; he is constantly proving his
existence and presence but it is us who plays blind about his existence. Despite all the
new technology and secularization of society God is still speaking to His children every
day. He gave tools to be able to hear His voice. The Lord still wants to develop a
relationship with you, and will reveal Himself to you in incredible ways. All you have to
do is pause and listen.
2. Talking about challenges of faith, there are a lot of instances where our faith is tested. A
moment where our relatives or love one is in between life and death, you are likely to
question God. Whenever we suffer a loss or a death, this is real, and the pain is real. But
to turn this pain into blame is the wrong move. It reveals that we ultimately believe that
God is in our debt; that, in order to get our love, God has to do whatever we ask of him
but that isn’t a relationship. And that isn’t faith in God. That is more like manipulation.
It’s less like faith and more like superstition. If we will only trust God as long as he gives
us whatever we want, then we have revealed that we might actually not want him, we just
want what he can do for me.
This is one of the reasons moments of pain and loss are essential for our faith. These
times reveal in whom we are truly placing our trust. These moments can serve to clarify
our intentions and purify our hearts. You have suffered. You are definitely invited to
 grieve. But God has revealed that he enters into our pain. He isn’t the one to blame for
our suffering; he is the one who has embraced our suffering and redeemed it. One of the
main reasons why he did this was to prove to us that we can trust him, even when we are
hurting most.
By that factual instance, which is happening nowadays, we people more likely to move
away from God but these challenges are also the reason why our faith grows stronger.
That is the how marvelous faith is. What challenges our faith is also what helps it grow
stronger. People who are not a believer of God are likely to question the essence or
process of faith. Actually, this is how faith works; the more our faith is tested, there two
possible results: First, you might give in and lose your path towards your faith to God and
second is you will never give up and because of that your faith becomes stronger and
firmer.

3. In the story of the fall of Genesis, temptation, sin and judgment are characterized by
serpent, disobedience of Adam and Eve, and God. Let us retell the story of the fall of
Genesis.
The story happened after God created the first human and put him in charge in the
Garden of Eden. Adam was created by God through his power and his image but God
noticed that there is something missing. Adam was happy with all the creation but there is
lacking. It was then when God created Eve and put her together with Adam. Everything
was perfect until one day when Eve was walking near the Forbidden tree; a serpent
caught the attention of Eve. As they converse, the serpent tempted Eve to eat the
Forbidden Fruit from the Forbidden Tree which according to the serpent will give them
the power equal to God; and that serpent represents Temptation. Eve, who was extremely
tempted ran over to Adam and happily explained everything the serpent told her. Both of
them decided to eat the Forbidden Fruit and alas! They realize that they were naked. It
was pride and disobedience which made them commit the gravest sin ever; and that is the
sin. When God was looking for the both of them, they were hiding because of shame and
guilt. After God realizing what the two of them did, he cast them away from the Garden
of Eden and penalized both of them to suffer; Eve to suffer in bearing a child and Adam
to work non-stop on his lifetime to support the need of his family which then represents
Judgment.
4. A lot of people are asking that if God made everything then God also created evil. Yes,
God created everything but all of them were good. Evil existed because of the abuse of
human of their freedom. God gave us freedom because He wants men to choose to love
and serve Him, and to do what is good. The other side of that choice is that men may
decide not to serve God, and to do what is evil. Giving man the freedom to choose
between good and evil has been God's policy since He created the first man, Adam.

According to the book of Genesis, God created the serpent which represents temptation;
but temptation is not evil. It becomes evil if a conscious person is swayed and followed
 that certain temptation. Evil is not a thing but a wrong choice, or the damage done by a
wrong choice. Evil is no more a positive thing than blindness is. But it is just as real. It is
not a thing, but it is not an illusion. The origin of evil is not the Creator but the creature's
freely choosing sin and selfishness. Take away all sin and selfishness and you would have
heaven on earth. Even the remaining physical evils would no longer rankle and embitter
us. Saints endure and even embrace suffering and death as lovers embrace heroic
challenges. But they do not embrace sin.

Furthermore, the cause of physical evil is spiritual evil. The cause of suffering is sin. God
is the source of all life and joy. Therefore, when the human soul rebels against God, it
loses its life and joy. Now a human being is body as well as soul. We are single creatures,
not double: we are not even body and soul as much as we are embodied soul, or ensouled
body.

5. According to the book of Genesis, God is the creator who governs everything which
existed. He created plants, animals and human; his creation lasted for 6 days and on the
7th day he rested. God created human with effort and is molded with his own image
making human at the pinnacle of his creations. God tasked Adam and Eve to guard the
Garden of Eden and gave them freedom; but that freedom caused them death. It happened
when both of them disobeyed God’s order because of pride and disobedience. It was the
first evil or sin existed in the whole universe. That is the nature of evil; it was born due to
the wrong decisions committed by man having freedom. Adam and Eve was punished
and banned from Garden of Eden. Suffering on bearing a child and lifetime labor was the
punishment for the both of them but that is not how the fall of Genesis ended. God’s
purpose is to look for redemption from Adam and Eve. The book of Genesis does not
emphasize Sin or evil only, rather it was Redemption.
6. There is a connection between one’s suffering and faith. In this world full of sufferings
and hatred, a faith is an important aspect or factor depending on a situation. It is not
difficult to connect suffering to faith it is because that is how faith works. For example, I,
myself has suffered a lot of pain and loss. My father died when I was 12 years old and
after that, we have to adjust to live without the foundation of the family. We suffered
financial crisis and even hunger. As for now, I am studying on a different environment
and met a lot of people who possess different faith compared to mine. I am suffering,
financially, emotionally, socially and even spiritually but it does not end in suffering.
Because of these suffering I encountered, it helped me build my faith stronger and firmer.
It is the nature of faith. A person, who suffers, has his faith tested and it only has two
possible outcomes; suffering can either loosen one’s faith or make it stronger depending
on how a person handles his suffering and faith. The same with Abraham who greatly
suffers with things that we can’t imagine happening to one person but with Abraham’s
perseverance and faith to the Lord, he succeeded and became a person worthy of
salvation.
7. Concupiscence is a term used to describe our inclination to what is evil. It contains the 7
capital/deadly sins which are Anger/Wrath, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth, Lust and Pride.
Conscience on the other hand is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational
associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. To clearly show
the interplay of these two, let us examine a situation. John, a teenager is tasked to watch
their sari-sari store as his parents go to work. John is a materialistic person and is prone to
bullying for obtaining a certain game or toy late compared to his friends. Eaten by his
anger and greed, he decided to snatch a 10 peso coin from their store. At first, he doubted
his act because he has thought on what are the consequences of it. But then, his hatred
and greed maximize as he recall the bullying he got from his friends. Wanting to be free
from pain and suffering, he committed a great sin to his parents as well as to the Lord.
But then again he was touched by his belief when he remembered the 8 th commandment
of God stating that “Thou shall not steal”. He knew that what he planned to do is not right
but there is something inside him pushing him to do it. That is how concupiscence and
conscience interplay. They function before an act is done; they are the factors or more on
catalysts for an act to be done. An act that can either be good or evil depending on which
of the two is followed by the subjected person: Concupiscence or Conscience is Evil or
Righteousness.

8. Original sin says that everyone is born sinful. This means that they are born with a built-
in urge to do bad things and to disobey God. Original sin is not just this inherited spiritual
disease or defect in human nature; it's also the 'condemnation' that goes with that fault.
The original sin was committed by the very first human to set foot on earth; Adam and
Eve. As they disobeyed God’s rule to not eat the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree,
they have been penalized but not only them; the punishment was handed down from all
of the generation of human kind and even all of God’s creation. What we obtained from
our ancestors are not their personal sin, rather it is the original sin stating that we are born
sinful. There have been a lot of questions raised against this original sin but the church
teachings tell us that it is the sin committed by Adam and Eve. According to Roman
Catholics Doctrine and from many scriptures, in order to treat the original sin is through
baptism as per stated in Mark 16:16-18 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,
but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those
who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they
will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt
them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” The original sin is
treatable and is we are not really liable in terms of punishment that is why eradicating it
is possible.