Christian Worldview 3 [1179] 1

Dr. Yongbom Lee (yongbom.lee@uph.edu)

Christian Worldview Reflection Paper

Name: Eka Satya D. Tumiwa

Use Time New Romans font 12 and single space. This is due by July 20th (Thurs) 2017.

Christian Worldview 3 is the last course in the series of the four Christian religion classes
required for Christian students in UPH. Each student has to reflect on the following themes
crucial for the Christian worldview and relate them to (1) one’s personal life and (2) one’s
major in UPH.There is absolutely no need for any citation of external sources; as you know,
plagiarism results in failing this course. Please be original and honestly share your thoughts.
This paper will be graded for its thoughtfulness rather than doctrinal correctness.

Theme 1. Imago Dei

Gen 1:26–27 writes, “Then, God said, ‘Let us make man in our image,after our likeness.
Andlet them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and
over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth.’ So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them” (ESV).In Christian worldview, we cannot overemphasize the fact
that God created human beings in his own image and made themthe stewards of his originally
good creation.In contrast to today’s dominant modern consumeristiccapitalist worldview, the
Bible teaches us that we are NOT the masters or owners of God’s creation but only stewards.
During our Christian Worldview courses, we have discussed several implications of
Imago Dei in the light of (1) God, (2) us, (3) other human beings, and (4) his creation.First,
God created Adam and Eve in his own image. This means that God loves every human being,
just as human parents love their own children, because he created them in his own image.
Second, God created us in his own image. This means that we are special beings to God. In
contrast to how we often feel about ourselves, we are special to God, not because of our
socio-economic status or any particular ability, but simply because God created us in his own
image. This also means that we do not own ourselves but we belong to God. That is why it is
wrong to commit suicide, because this reveals one’s presupposition that his or her life
belongs to him or her. Our time, talents, and everything we “own” really belong to God. For
some unknown reason and by God’s sovereign grace, God entrusted these resources to us for
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the moment, so that we can glorify God and enjoy him forever.Third, God created every
human being in his own image. This means that everyone else is special to God, just as we
ourselves are precious to God. Even the worst person in our opinion, despite all the sins and
brokenness in his or her life, is still created in the image of God. Somewhere in him or her
remains the original goodness of the Imago Dei, however little that may be. This is why God
prohibits murder in the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:13).We live in a world in which
people are viewed as objects and commodities,valued only due to their usefulness or
productivity. Christians should be different.Christians should be able to see all human beings
in the lens of the Imago Dei, and glorify God by respecting everyone as an image-bearer,
however marred that image may have been.Fourth, God created everything in this world and
called human beings as the stewards of his good creation. Although human beings have a
special place in God’s creation, we are still a part of God’s creation. Human beings are
supposed to faithful serve and care for God’s creation. We do not have any exclusive right to
exploit God’s creation and use up all natural resources for our own good. The current
environmental crisis reflects the depth of human sin, playing the role of the Creator, when
human beings are only the stewards of his creation.

How doesthe idea of the Imago Dei apply to your personal life and your major in UPH?
Write down below your thoughts in about 500 words.

It is such very basic thing for Christians to understand and realize that we are created
as the image of God. This idea of Imago Dei teaches us that as God’s creations we are special
among the other creations, we are so valuable for God, as He created us in His image, and
hold the special mandate and role from God in this world to take care of other creations, to
multiply and fill the earth. Here we can see how humans are precious for God. I understand
this biblical concept of Imago Dei by understanding that humans are the crown of creation,
which made in the likeness of Him. As the crown of creation God gives us special gifts and
capability to live our life in His image, such as; spirit of God, immortality, dominion, original
power, rationality & intellectual power. This made us different from other creations. I believe
that God gives these things for us because He believes we are able to implement it in the real
way of living our life, even though sometimes it would not be that easy. First is dominion, as
what I mentioned before, we were given the rule over other creations, as we are the stewards
to take care of our surroundings. This principle of dominion actually teach me how I should
pay attention to the environment where I live, and it might start by simple thing by using the
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water and energy or other resources in proper way, and avoid the wasted usage. I actually
already know about this dominion principle that God gives us, but I was not really care about
the environment where I live. I tend to use all the resources based on my own interest, as I
think it is beneficial for me than I won’t care about the other thing. Moving to the rationality
and intellectual power, this means that God gives us the capability to develop our way of
thinking, to reflects whether we are doing the right thing or not, is it according to god’s
command or not. But sometimes, though I have this capability I often failed in exercising the
value of this point, I tend to rely on my own to pursue my needs, goals, and other things
which sometimes is contradicts with God’s.
However, as I become mature and close to God, I learn that I should live my live as
living creatures. How I should maximize the potential within myself to glorify His name, to
reach the right goals for my future, by doing each opportunity I have to the best I can, since
the spirit of God meaning that we are the spiritual being on earth, and our body and spirit
can’t be separated in terms of living our life. So in every single thing I do I must do it
according to God, as the implementation of my faith in Him in order to glorify His name. As
an International relations student, I deal with many issue related to self-interest, corruption
issue, power, etc. There are many sacred things that tempted people to step out from God’s
direction in order to pursue power, or other selfish thing. International relations is a field of
study that have to deal with corruption case in politics, group-interest which against the
welfare of the people, and so forth. As the image of God, and also the crown of God’s
creation, I use my opportunity in accessing education as IR student to gain my intellectual
power so I will drives myself to the right path in preparing my future. Not focusing on my
own interest that cause destructive impact for my environment, but how I learn to be an
honest politician in the future that set the right focus on my job, which is to pursue the
welfare of the people and to glorify God’s name alone. Try to maintain my work ethic by put
God as the center so it won’t misdirect my life and apply the principle of dominion to care
about the environment, and other creations rather than to focus on myself, or my own interest
because of the pursuit of power (since power will lead us to unsatisfied feeling and it will
leads us to corrupt things which are not belong to us), and stuffs. Overall, this idea of Imago
Dei shapes me an understanding that I should reflects God’s image in every single thing I am
doing, following His command and doing His mandate. The progress might not be easy, but
if we always rely on God then we will able to living live truly as the Image of God.
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Dr. Yongbom Lee (yongbom.lee@uph.edu)

Theme 2. The Biblical Drama

The Bible presents a distinctive drama with four acts. These are (1) Creation, (2) Fall, (3)
Redemption, and (4) Consummation. Gen 1:1 writes, “In thebeginning, God created the
heavens and the earth” (ESV).The Bible is very clear that God created everything out of
nothing (ex nihilo). Evolution cannot explain meaningfully and coherently why everything in
the universe exists and where we all came from. Big Bang may or may not have happened,
but what is important for the Bible is the fact that God created all things out of
nothing.However, Gen 3 describes how God’s good creation has been corrupted by sin and
death, due to Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God. God commands Adam in Gen 2:16–17,
“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evilyou shall not eat, for in the day that you eatof it you shall surely die” (ESV).Having been
seduced by the serpent, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and
evil, in their desire to be like God. They were supposed to worship God and serve him only.
What is ironic here is the fact that Adam and Eve were already most God-like beings in all
God’s creation, as God’s servants, exercising God’s authority in their care for God’s
creation.They unfortunately forgot about who they are and were tempted to be God
themselves.In their transgression, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden and the
following chapters in Genesis describe the downward spiral of the fall of the humanity.Right
after Adam and Even sinned against God, the Bible hints at the coming of the Messiah to
undo the damage of their sin and redeem them from sin and death, to restore the relationship
between God and the fallen humanity (Gen 3:15). In Gen 12:1–3, God calls Abram to be a
blessing to the nations. God has a special plan of redemption of all humanity through this not
so special family line, who were to become the nation of Israel.God’s redemption was
fulfilled ultimately in the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s chosen messiah and his one
and only Son, when he died on the cross for the sins of those who have faith in his person and
work.
Biblically, we now live in the time between (3) Redemption and (4)
Consummation.Jesus came and died and rose again. Jesus ascended to the heaven, sitting
right hand of God the Father almighty (Luke 24:44–53; Acts 7:55–56; Rom 8:34; Eph 1:20;
Col 3:1; Heb 1:3; 1 Pet 3:20).We live in a time where the kingdom of God is “already but not
yet” fully present. We experience the reign of God through Jesus Christ’s redemptive work
and the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and the Church.While experiencing the
salvation and blessings of God through Jesus Christ, we stillface the devastating effects of sin
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Dr. Yongbom Lee (yongbom.lee@uph.edu)

and death in this world until Jesus Christ comes back to judge the world and make everything
right.All of us will stand at the judgment seat of Christ and will be accountable to our Creator
for what we have done with the God-given resources and opportunities throughout our lives
(2 Cor 5:10; Rev 20:12).This is why we as Christians must be always conscious of how to
live righteously before God (coram deo). Jesus says in Matt 10:28, “Anddo not fear those
who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear himwho can destroy both soul and
body in hell.” This is a sober warning for today’s Christians who feel constant pressure to
compromise their faith and values and blend in with the world around them.Just as Peter and
the apostles boldly refuse to comply to the demands of the Jewish religious leaders not to
preach the gospel, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29; ESV).

How doesthe Biblical drama apply to your personal life and your major in UPH?
Write down below your thoughts in around 500 words.

Creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. This timeline of biblical drama surely
become a description towards our relations with God. When God created all things good in
the beginning, and then sin corrupt everything including our relations with God and lead
humans to total depravity, but still because of God’s never ending love for us, He redeem all
our sins and bring us salvation. This shows how the progress we’ve been through and came
up today is only by His grace, without God we won’t existed today, and without His salvation
we won’t live our life today as we must face the death penalty as the consequences of our sin.
We’re now is in the phase between redemption and consummation, “already but not yet” we
already being saved by God, but the kingdom of Christ is not fully present or completed yet,
and it will be completed when Jesus come for the 2nd time. In living our live today we should
wait the Kingdom of God by living our life with faith in Him, where or faith brings us hope
in Christ. As a Christians we already know that we’ve been saved by Jesus crucifixion on the
cross. However, in this period of waiting for the 2 nd coming of Jesus, evil temptation still
exists in this earth. This shows how we should live truly as a Christians that implements
God’s command, not only wait and hope but we should “Ora et labora” to reflects God’s
command in our deeds. We must know, God wants us to become a living sacrifice in our life,
become blessings for other people, and expand the Kingdom of God by worship and glorify
His name and to bring the souls that haven’t believe to God yet. We realized that our sins
were redeemed then we should walk by faith not by sight. The journey will not be easy, but it
will not be that hard if we rely on God. As God never promised that we will not face any
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Dr. Yongbom Lee (yongbom.lee@uph.edu)

burden in life, but He promised that He will not leave us alone, and he will always provides
the way out right in His time for us. Therefore, in this point of biblical drama, I learn that I
should have faith in God as I wait Him to complete the coming of Kingdom of God. I
remember about the perseverance of saints I learned, that only those who never give up will
persevere before God. Only those who able to walk by faith in facing every temptation and
challenges and keep our feet in God’s track, and still persevere in every situation. Reflecting
back to myself, there are many obstacles in implement my faith as God’s child in my daily
life. As a university student I was surrounded by the new environment of friendship with
contradicted habit with me, like to going to club, get drunk, etc. Here, where I found a
dilemma, either to not going with them, or to relieve myself out of the ‘university stresses’ by
going with them. No lie that I ever went and get drunk with my friend in the early semester in
university last year. But then I came to the point of realizing that I’m not supposed to be that
way, I should persevere in the light of God in everything I am doing, because I was saved by
God and as my gratitude I should implement God’s command in my life, and being persistent
as the right one while waiting for the 2 nd coming of God by living with faith and hope in
Christ. In relation to my major in UPH, I learn that may politician trapped into corruption
case for the sake of their own, for something that temporary. Those people unable to
persevere in God’s direction up to the finish line and gave up easily to the earthly temptation
of men and leads to sin. While actually God wants us to be an honest and hard work
politician, who always focuses to bring the welfare to the people, accommodate the poor
needs in terms of improving the life’s expectancy and quality in living as a nation. Using the
power and position we got with humility, as God teaches us to be a servant leader. As a
Christian we must realize how this biblical drama is important for us and realizing that God’s
done His greatest salvation for us and we need to persevere in His way, to be the light in the
darkness of the world, to bring peace and become blessings for others in our life as the way
how we live our life in waiting for the fully present kingdom of God through His 2 nd coming,
which already but not yet.

Theme 3. From Indicative (Gospel) to Imperative (Christian Life)

In Christian Worldview courses, we time and time again emphasized the uniqueness of
Christianity from all the other religions in the world.In all the other religions, simply put,
people must complete a certain set of tasks to achieve salvation. They emphasize what-to-dos
and what-not-to-dos. Fundamentally, they teach that one can save oneself by good
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works.Christianity is radically different from them. It proclaims that no one can save himself
or herself by good works.Michael Jordan or LeBron James can jump much higher than
normal people, but even they cannot reach the moon by jumping. The force of gravity is too
strong for them to jump to the moon. Paul writes that “all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God” (Rom 3:23) and no one will be saved by works but by God’s grace through
faith in Jesus Christ (Eph 2:8).The force of sin is too strong for anyone to reach the holy God
by his or her good works.
Then, how can we understand the relationship between the Christian gospel and the
Christian life?Think about the story of an orphan and a king. There was an orphan begging
for bread at the market place of the city. The king saw the orphan and had pity on him. Since
he had no son, he brought the orphan to the palace and adopted him as his son.By the king’s
generosity, the orphan suddenly became a prince and belonged to the royal family.The
orphan was given clean and wonderful clothes and he was invited to join the king’s table for
every meal. However, not understanding this dramatic change of his status, the orphan
continued to beg for bread at the market place and kept wearing his old filthy clothes.As we
see in this story, the orphan’s position was changed from a beggar to a prince overnight.
However, his lifestyle has not been changed yet. It would take some time for him to fully
embrace and understand who he is in relation to who the king is.Every Christian is like this
orphan. In a moment, we have become God’s children by his grace and through our faith in
Jesus Christ, believing that we are helpless sinners who deserve eternal punishment, but Jesus
Christ, the Messiah and the Son of God, died on the cross for our sins. However, it will take
our whole lifetime to fully understand and embrace our new identity in Jesus Christ as the
children of God.We do not read the Bible or pray to Godto get saved. No, we read the Bible
and pray to God, because we are saved by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus Christ.We
do not go to church on Sundays to get saved. No, we go to church on Sundays, because God
saved us by his grace through faith in Jesus Christ.Therefore, our new identity in Christ
(indicative) compels us to love Christ and live for Christ, surrendering everything else to
follow our Lord and Savior (imperative).

How does this understanding of the gospel and the Christian life apply to yourself?
Write down below your thoughts in around 300 words.

Understanding the conception of indicative to imperative is such a very clear point to

differentiate Christian religion and other religion. How we already being saved by Christ,
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Dr. Yongbom Lee (yongbom.lee@uph.edu)

when there’s nothing we done in trying to reach the salvation, wince we’re all sinners. And
how we live our life today is not in order to achieve the salvation but how we follow our God
in is direction since we have the new identity in Christ and we should reflects our faith to
God in our daily deeds. I remember when I was a child; I thought when m parents reminded
me to go to Sunday school or church in Sunday it is because I am trying to achieve the
salvation from God, since I know that I am a sinful human. But then I learn that our good
deeds can’t save us, because God has done it first, and redeem all our sin. This shows how
humans should be thankful to God, and showing our gratitude of His salvation by living our
life according to Him, to spread the Kingdom of God. The elaboration above is such the
reflections of Christians in general. Look up to the Orphan story; it is pretty similar with my
life. I was sinned but God set me free and brought me the new identity in Christ, it is true that
I can’t instantly change my habit before. There are many dilemmas towards how should I
behave, how should I present myself, how should I live my life. Which tempted by the evil
that able to lead me to the fall of human. But what I can do is to not give up and always try to
implement my faith in Christ through my deeds and character. I admit that it is not an easy
task to do, as there are many obstacles ahead. But how as a Christian I should know the right
path of my life as God, not focusing on my own performance because it won’t guaranteed my
salvation in God. As God saved me by His love, and how I should put Christ as the center of
my life, and the foundation in doing things in life.