Truth or Tradition: A Layman’S Exposition of Christian Theology

By Bob Raymond

This book explores and presents a fresh perspective on many often misunderstood doctrines of the Christian faith. This book answers many questions: Does God change his mind? Are all my prayers really answered? Is God sovereign, or do I have free will? Did God choose me, or did I choose Him? Is this the best world God could create?

Having served as Bob Raymonds pastor for the last few years, I have had an opportunity to spend time with him discussing the Word of God. I have found him to be a man that doesnt just accept what hes always been taught, but with a passion, he dives deep to discover truth for himself.

Because of that, he blasts apart much of our traditional thinking, causing us to spend time contemplating our own preconceived notions. I invite you to read this work with an open Bible, an open notebook, and an open mind. You will be blessed!

Dr. Randal E. Helms Senior Pastor Forestbrook Baptist Church

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512771190

Bob Raymond

Bob Raymond retired as a Chief Information Officer in the field of Information Technology. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at the age of 58. As a new Christian, Bob is on fire for the Lord and has had many questions about God, His character, and His creation. He has a passion for the study of Gods word, and a burning desire to understand more about God and His plan for mankind. God has laid many theological questions on Bobs heart that have led him on an amazing path of spiritual discovery. Bob lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with his wife, Mary. His free time is spent studying theology, traveling, and spending time with their five children and fourteen grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2017 Bob Raymond.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America Copyright © 1992, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with Permission

KJV: Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

NKJV: All Scripture, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-7120-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7121-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7119-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017900076

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/12/2017

Contents

Chapter 1 The Study of God

Chapter 2 Creation – The Accidental Man?

Chapter 3 The Best World?

Chapter 4 Noah and the Flood

Chapter 5 Why Did God Create Man?

Chapter 6 Salvation – My Choice or God’s Choice?

Chapter 7 Sin

Chapter 8 Three Days in the Grave

Chapter 9 Prayer – Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Chapter 10 Does it Matter What I Believe?

DEDICATION

I dedicate this little book to my Sweet Mary. I thank God every day for bringing this wonderful woman into my life. Thank you, Mary, for the countless hours you listened to me go on and on about some nebulous Christian doctrine or some far-fetched theological possibility. You have no idea how valuable those times were, when I was trying to understand what God was putting on my heart. Without your patience, encouragement, and support—I would have given up long ago.

Thank you for the many hours you spent correcting my spelling and grammatical mistakes. I know I make a lot of them, and without your tireless efforts this book would never have been finished. You are amazing in your quest for perfection.

Thank you for your perspective, your wisdom, and most of all for your endless love.

IN RECOGNITION

Thanks to Ivy Helms for her assistance with editing, for her encouragement, for her support during this project, and for giving this little book its name.

For my Children:

Machael

Jason

Jennifer

Sally

Tony

INTRODUCTION

W hen I first became a Christian, I was fortunate to become part of a home Bible study group. The group was a mixture of seasoned Christians with solid biblical understanding and Sunday Christians whose biblical understanding came primarily from attending church on Sunday morning. My wife and I were new Christians and understood little about Christian doctrine or theology. We learned a great deal during those fours years about God and His relationship to man.

My desire to learn more about the Christian faith can be attributed to the fire and excitement most Christians feel after being saved. It started with the Bible itself, especially the New Testament. Where did it come from, who wrote it, and how did it come to be Scripture? Several years were spent answering those questions.

While attending a Christian conference, I was given a newsletter that contained some very confusing doctrine related to salvation. It sparked a renewed determination to learn more about the God I worshiped, and His plan for mankind.

During the past several years, God has guided and revealed many things to me. My views are often contradictory to well known and respected theologians whose knowledge of God and His ways far surpass my understanding of Him. I have no formal seminary education. I am not a pastor or a Sunday school teacher. I am a born again Christian with a deep love for the study of God’s Word. I am a layman, and this is my exposition of Christian theology.

CHAPTER 1

THE STUDY OF GOD

T he simplest definition of theology is that it is a study of God. Merriam-Webster defines theology as the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; especially: the study of God and of God’s relation to the world.

The study of God and His relationship to us is limited to the boundaries of our world. God created the heavens and the earth and time and space. Everything we know about God is within these boundaries. We don’t consider the things of God outside our own realm, other than some general concept that God lives in eternity.

When we describe God we do it within the constraints of time and space. We believe God is all powerful, all knowing, and ever present. If the God we worship has the power to speak the entire universe into existence from nothing, how can we in anyway limit what is possible for Him to do in or outside of His creation? We create elaborate theological arguments that try to explain what we think God has done. The truth is we will never truly understand the mysteries of God, but many of us have a desire and a will to seek Him out. The Bible tells us we should continually strive to grow in our knowledge of Him (Col 1:10).

The Bible is the Word of God. It was written by men but inspired by God. Every word is completely true and without error. There is now and there always has been differences in how certain passages of the Bible are interpreted. One verse, for example, has created a huge chasm between the Catholic and Protestant Churches. And I also say that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church (Mt 16:18). The Catholic Church believes that Jesus appointed Peter to lead the church and considers him to have been the first pope. Not many outside the Catholic Church agree with this interpretation. If this were ever to be disproven, it would destroy the Catholic Church. For that reason, it is vigorously defended. This kind of disagreement does not change the fact that the Bible is inerrant. Almost everything we learn about God comes from the Bible, but God also reveals Himself in other ways.

God’s Revelation

God has revealed Himself through nature to all mankind (Rom 1:20). The world itself is a testimony to intelligent design. When we look around and see the way nature exists, it becomes very clear nature didn’t come together by accident. I think everyone would agree that something as simple as a clock requires a designer and a creator for it to function properly and keep accurate time. How much more complex is the world we live in? Clearly the design and creation of the world required a designer and a creator. God reveals Himself to us through His creation.

Some of the simplest things we take for granted every day. The water we drink, the air we breathe, and the food we eat were beautifully designed and created.

Every living thing on earth needs water to survive. Will we ever run out of water? The answer, of course, is no and here’s why. The sun heats water in the oceans and seas. The water evaporates as water vapor into the air. Rising air currents take the vapor into the atmosphere where cooler temperatures cause it to condense into clouds. Air currents move the vapor around the globe. Cloud particles collide, grow, and fall out of the sky as precipitation. Some of it falls as snow, hail, or sleet and can accumulate as ice caps and glaciers that can store frozen water for thousands of years. Most water falls back into the oceans or onto land as rain. Some water is stored in lakes, and some goes deep in the ground and replenishes aquifers. Eventually the water flows back into the ocean and the cycle starts over. This cycle of water never ends, and through it the needs of the entire world are met. This is not something that happened by chance or just evolved. This was intelligent design, and it required an intelligent