Ethics Home Page ~ www.preciousheart.net ~ e-mail mgmaness@earthlink.net
Table of Contents
A Battlefield Primer: A Few Definitions & Nine Questions
Introduction 1: History of the USS Pueblo & Aftershocks
Introduction 2: The Task of Biblical Ethics
Introduction 3: Love’s Good, Honorable, and Loving Name
PART ONE. Ethically Neutral Elements: Rules of Engagement
1. What Are the Unchanging Parts of the Ethical Dilemma?
2. What Are the Major Terms?: Language Training #1 and #2
3. What Are the Hardest Parts of the Ethical Dilemma?
PART TWO. Three Foundation Stones: Inventory the Arsenal
4. What Is the Hermeneutical Foundation-1st Stone?: Simplicity
5. What Is the Ethical Foundation-2nd Stone?: "Ought" From God
6. What Is the Theological Foundation-3rd Stone?: Teleological
PART THREE. Bucher, the Dilemma, & Personal Responsibility
7. What Is the Context of Bucher's Horrendous Dilemma?
8. How Do We Justify a Biblical Course of Action?
PART FOUR. Assessment, Discoveries, Veracity: the Debriefing
9. What's the Scope of Our Ethical "Responsibility"?: Assessment #1
10. What's the Scope of Our Ethical "Accountability"?: Assessment #2
11. Why the "Right" Answer Is Elusive?: God's or Our Fault?
12. What Then Applies to Every Biblical Ethic?: Battlefield Discoveries
13. How Then Shall We Live and Discern the Course of Ethics?
14. What Is the Veracity of Dynamic Absolutism?
Appendix 1. Will of God and a Man's Lifework: Condensation
Appendix 2. Four Authors and Special References
Appendix 3. "WWJD" Excursus & the Six-Fold Elitist Fallacy
Appendix 4. Gustave Doré - Master Illustrator
1. Love on the Bloody Battlefield & Christ’s Competence the Criterion
2. Love is Tops … Nothing Else Really Matters
2. Heart of the Living God—Love
3. I Thank Bucher and—in a Backward Way—Geisler & Rakestraw
4. Gustave Doré—Master Illustrator
5. Tips on Reading
A. Short Story of Bucher's Horrendous Dilemma
B. Longer Story of Bucher's Horrendous Dilemma
A. The Ethical Task: the Will of God, Absolutes, and True Love
B. Are You Ready to Rumble?
1. A Personal Matter
2. Would You Lie to Save a Life?
3. A Battlefield Analogy: We Must Commit Ourselves!
C. We Must Think!: Battlefield Readiness
1. Readiness and Absolutes: We Must Think!
2. Readiness and Political Primer: We Must Think and Feel!
A. Defending Love’s Good Name and the Love’s Gold Rush
B. Love’s Power Seen in Political Dichotomies & Fool’s Gold
C. Interrogating Absolutes: Loading the Gun for Love’s Defense
D. Few Basic Definitions: Ammunition Dump for Love’s Defense
1. Jesus Christ the Criterion for Our Love, Faith, and Practice
2. Two Hard Terms: Teleology & Deontology
3. Other Special Terms & Their Refinements
4. Radical Fundamentalism: A Lost Ship
E. Charging the Troops: Nine Questions on Absolutes, Complexity, & Love
1. How Do We Find God's Will?
a. 1st Activity: the Spiritual is Loving and Seeking God
b. 2nd Activity: the Reasonable is Studying the Bible
c. Love God & Study the Bible to Determine Our Responsibility
CHART 32. God’s Will: Love God & Search the Scriptures (end chart)
2. What Are the Three Foundation Stones to a Biblical Ethic?
a. 1st Stone is Hermeneutical-Simplicity: "Hermeneutics" Is the Science of Interpreting the Bible
b. 2nd Stone is Ethical-"Ought" From/To God: Ethics Is Grounded in God's Consistent Nature
c. 3rd Stone is Theological-Teleological Thrust of N.T Focusing on "Ends" Over "Means"
3. How Is All of the O.T. Included in a N.T. Ethic?
4. What Are the Outer Limits of Ethical Justification?
5. What Are the Highest N.T. Ethical Directions in Love?
6. What Apparent Conflict of Absolutes Did Bucher Face?
CHART 1. Bucher's Apparent Conflict of Absolutes
7. What Is at the Foundation of Bucher's Dilemma?
a. The Farmer and the Fundamentalist's Tendencies to Force Feed Perfection
b. Presenting Problems #1 & #2: Problem #1: "Complexity" or "Conflicting Absolutes"? Problem #2: "Responsibility" or "No Responsibility"?
c. Presenting Problem #3: "Deontology or Teleology" vs. "Deontology with Teleology"?
8. Is an Absolutely "Right" Choice Always Available?
9. What Is the Sum of the Whole discussion?- Nature of Personal Responsibility to Biblical Absolutes
A. Focusing Ourselves: Locking in on the Target
1. The Target: Personal Responsibility
2. The Guns of Navarone: Analogy for Personal Responsibility
3. Why Redundancy: Difficulty in Delineating Responsibility
4. The Guns of Navarone: The Movie and the Target
5. A Fantastically Rich and Serendipitous Irony
B. Common Elements in the Battle
1. Common Beginning: Seeking First God's Kingdom
CHART 2. Seeking First God's Kingdom
2. Common End: God's Greatness
3. Common Responsibility: Perseverance
4. Common Mystery: The Spiritual Realm
5. The Four Elements in Perspective
C. Assessing the Ethical Dangers: Intelligence Reports
1. Goal Is Easy, Getting There Difficult: Initial Intelligence Gathering
<< Interjection >>
2. Assessing the Threats to Ethical Cohesiveness: Tactical Estimates
a. Responsibility Vector: SKETCH of the Gun's Range
b. Responsibility Feared (Failure Denied): SKETCH of the Guns' Intimidation
CHART 3. The Great Shuffle of "Responsibility"
c. "Responsibility," Not Buttery "Borderline": SKETCH of the Guns' Deception
d. Euthanizing Stress: SKETCH of the Guns' Damage
e. Human Compassion as Love & Justification: SKETCH of the Guns' Weakness
f. Loving to the End: SKETCH of the Solution
3. The Holy Spirit: Guidance from the General's Quarters
4. Provisions for Battle
A. Getting Around in Hostile Territory
B. Defining the Four Ethical Systems: Language Training #1
CHART 4. Ethical Systems Contrasted
CHART 5. Kant, Augustine, Maness Ethical Dictums
C. Teleology or "No" Teleology?
CHART 6. Teleology a DECISIVE ISSUE for Biblical Ethics
D. The Need for Criteria: Outlining the Perimeter of Engagement
1. Three Systems: DA Balances Better Demands of Absolutes
2. Why Did We Chose the 3 Systems to Contrast with DA?: Criteria
3. Criminal Code & Judgmental Christians: Similar Criteria
E. Defining "Deontology" and "Teleology": Language Training #2
1. Excursus on Love
2. Short Course To Deontology/Teleology
a. Origin & Use of Deontology
b. Origin & Use of Teleology
c. Harboring the Wayward Teleology
d. Basic Definitions of Deontology & Teleology
3. Long Course To Mastery of Deontology & Teleology: Overlapping & the Three Elements
CHART 3. The Great Shuffle of "Responsibility" (Revisited)
CHART 6. Teleology a DECISIVE ISSUE for Biblical Ethics (Revisited)
CHART 7. Three Foundational Categories of Judgment
CHART 8. Summary Definitions of Deontology & Teleology
4. The Importance of "Teleology" to the N.T. Ethic
A. True Love vs. Truth on the Battlefield
B. Nature of Absolutes: Boundless & Timeless
1. Absolutes Defined
2. Is the Golden Rule an Absolute?
3. Differences in the Four Systems
4. Nature of "DA" Absolutes: They Are Absolute
5. Absolutes Positively Stated Prescriptions: Ultimate Will of God
6. Adam & Eve Died, but the Absolute of Obedience Continued
7. Believer's Fulfillment of God's Absolutes-even Attitude Counts
C. Locating Tactical Obstacles & Breaking New Ground
1. Masada and Obstacles
2. Ethical Obstacles Not Unlike Masada
CHART 9. Thirteen Major Limiting Factors in Ethical Theorizing
3. The Most Controversial Thesis: Accountability
4. Greatest Limit: Demands of Perfection & Christ Our Criteria
D. Dynamic Absolutism: One Battlefield Strategy
1. DA-Dynamic Absolutism
2. The Ethical Prioritization of "Love" over "Truth"
3. Was the Cross a Moral Conflict?-No, but a Teleological Choice
4. Does the Christian Martyr Face Conflicting Absolutes?
E. Justification: Soldier's Essential Field Pack
PART TWO Introduction
A. Simplicity In Basic Biblical Direction: 1st Hermeneutical Principle
B. Other Hermeneutical Principles: How Complex Ethics Becomes
1. Five Other Hermeneutical Principles Presupposed
2. Immer on Hermeneutical Principles
3. Terry on Hermeneutical Principles
4. Other Experts in Hermeneutics and Bible Interpretation
5. Excursus: God's Guidance & the Less Scrupulous Who Do Not Believe They Need to Think at All
6. Essence of Hermeneutics for Ethics: Simplicity Rides Supreme
7. 1st Simplistic Hermeneutical Presupposition: Priority of the Basic Meaning of the New Testament
8. 2nd Simplistic Hermeneutical Presupposition: Revelation Is Consistent in a Progressive Understanding into the Unity of Truth
C. A Primer on Accountability
D. Biblical Statements: 1st Prioritization of Ethical Principles
1. Two Sets: Direct & Implied Biblically Ethical Principles
2. Two Categories: Universal & Individually Specific
a. Individually Specific Principles
b. Universal Principles
E. DA Basic Structure-Love Predominant, even Tops
A. Ethical Foundation-2nd stone: "Ought" Is From & Returned to God
1. Consistent Nature of God
2. Origin & Unity of Truth
3. With Ought From & Returned to God, Rightness has Permanence
B. Biblical Virtues & Ideals: 2nd Prioritization of Ethical Principles
1. Need for Ideals and Virtues
2. Bennett's Ten Virtues
3. The Ten Virtues & "Trust" in Four Categories
CHART 10. Four Categories of Virtues Express True Love
4. TRUST-the Great Virtue & Noble Ideal
5. Great Arbitrators of Trust: Wisdom & Utopian Vision
a. Wisdom and Trust
b. Utopian Vision & Trust: Ideals of Justice & Unselfishness
6. "Love" the Highest Action; "Trust" the Highest State of Affairs
7. Part of the Essence of Love & Heaven: Exhibiting Virtues, Striving Toward Ideals
a. Sources for Direction Unambiguous
b. God a Vital Factor in Good Relations
c. Summation on 1st & 2nd Foundation Stones
d. Heaven-in part
A. Ubiquity of Teleological Concerns, Even Eschatological Concerns
1. Ubiquity of Teleological Concerns
2. The Teleological vs. the Eschatological Concerns
3. Point of "Ethical" Concurrence Between Teleology & Eschatology
B. Teleological Emphasis of the N.T.: To Love or Not to Love
1. Love: Deontological and Teleological
2. Love From O.T. to N.T.: From Deontological to Teleological
3. Abortion ... Is Saving Life an Absolute?-No
4. Love Is the Absolute & Foundation for the Value of Saving Life
C. Relation of the Law to the New Testament
1. Substantiating a Relevance for All of the O.T. in the N.T. Ethic
2. Substantiating the "Degree" of Obligation of Portions of the O.T. in the N.T. Ethic
CHART 11. DA & Law's Applicability, Value, & Relevance
CHART 12. Summary Explanation of CHART 11
3. Substantiating the "Results" of Each O.T. Injunction
4. Summing Up the Relation of the O.T. in N.T. Ethic
D. Four Systems & Relation to the Teleological Thrust of the N.T.
CHART 13. System Legality
E. Summary of Three Foundation Stones
PART THREE. Bucher,
the Dilemma, & Personal Responsibility - Top
A. War Not for the Faint of Heart: Let Us Climb!
B. The Full Context of Bucher's Dilemma
1. Feeling "Right" and "Justifying Right" at Odds
2. Small Window of Time Where the Crisis Peaks
3. History of the USS Pueblo Recalled and Aftershocks
4. "Stress" Pressing the Theoretical Limits
5. Considering the Small Window of Time
6. A Hypothetical Murder: Same Ethical Import, Greater Clarity
C. How Does Our Responsibility Compare with Bucher's?
1. Our Responsibility "With" Bucher & "Distinct" from Bucher -Though Not a Surrogate Accountability
2. With Respect to GA and NCA
3. Comparing the Ethical and the Medical Sciences
a. No Difference in Impetus to Find a Solution, But a Greater Responsibility in Ethics with Respect to Scope
b. Ultimate Scheme of Things: Medical Science Secondary
c. Teleological in Ethics More Complicated than the Medicine
CHART 14. UNIQUE Arenas of Individuals
D. Imposing & Crucial Element of Time
A. The Dilemma of Lying to Save a Life
1. Actual Dilemma: Line for Reasonable & Accountable Extrapolation
CHART 15. Line & Sphere of Accountability in Decision-Making
2. On the Nature of Lying: Abraham, Jesus, Rahab & the Midwives
a. Lying & the Unifying Principle of Love
b. Abraham
CHART 16. Abraham's Sacrifice Only True Conflict Between Absolutes
c. Jesus
d. Rahab and Midwives
3. How Does Bucher's "Lie" Compare with Rahab & Midwives?
B. Nature of Truth
1. Nature of Truth: God Is the Truth, a Description with Little Eternal Value
2. Nature of Truth: Ethical Meaning & Importance This Side of Heaven
3. Criteria for Determining Truth
4. Jesus the Criteria for Living and for Truth
C. ATTACK!: Assaulting the Behemoth of Personal Responsibility
1. Having Cleared the Path, We Are Ready to Assault
2. Implementing Our Plan-We Begin Our Assault
CHART 13. System Legality (Revisited)
3. On NCA-Non-Conflicting Absolutism
a. Rakestraw's NCA Negates Responsibility to All Absolutes
b. NCA Recognizes "Love," Just Does Not Know How
c. Bucher's Dilemma and the Fundamentalist Truth Totem
d. DA vs. NCA: We Want People to Feel Responsible & Think Ahead
e. Without Consequences, NCA Denies Absolutes & Essence of Love
CHART 6. Teleology a Decisive Issue for Biblical Ethics (Revisited)
f. DA vs. NCA: NCA Is a Dead Man's Ethic
4. On GA-Graded Absolutism
a. Geisler's Ethical Cosmology More a Fundamentalist Elitist Declaration
b. GA Complicates Simplicity of Absoluteness of Absolutes
c. Geisler's Discernment of God's Nature in Adam and Eve
d. Geisler's Competence too Near God's Competence
e. Geisler's GA Institutionalizes the Degradation of Absolutes
f. DA vs. GA: God Does Not Give Conflicting Absolutes
5. On P-Principleism
D. Basic Conclusions & Pervasiveness of Teleological Concerns
1. Initial Conclusions on Geisler & Rakestraw: Teleological Thrust of Love
2. "DA" Pro/Con with the Other Three Systems: With DA, "Right" Action Never Absent
3. Fundamental Reason Finding the "Right" Choice Is Complex: Absolutes' Eternal Nature & Divine Origin
4. Biblical Value of Concealment of Truth Vs. Non-Concealment of Love
A. Dilemma of God's Providence & Our Responsibility
1. The Bedraggled Soldiers Return
2. "Responsibility" Versus "Accountability"
CHART 17. Responsibility vs. Accountability
3. Responsibility Lines
CHART 18. Two Lines of Responsibility: Our Line, God's Line- The Difference Between Providence & Free Will
4. Third "Right" Option-Jesus' Option
CHART 19. Elements Obscuring the "Right" Choice
B. Calculating a Solution: Jesus' Option
1. Jesus' Option-the Absolutely "Right" Choice
a. "Justification" of a Choice when the "Right" Choice Is Elusive
b. Bucher's Responsibility: Bill's Life
c. Jesus' Responsibility: the Same
d. Jesus Invoking the Role of Soldier
2. Available Third Option
3. Jesus and Differing Levels of Competence
CHART 20. Drawing Lines of Individual Responsibility
4. Solution: Deciding Which Absolute Has More Claims in Ethical Prioritization
CHART 21. Decision-Making in Dilemmas When Absolutes Are in Apparent Conflict
C. Guilty of Ignorance and God's Responsibility
1. What Part Does "Ignorance" Have In Responsibility?
a. Is There Guilt of Ignorance for Failure to Appropriate Potential in Christ?
b. How Do "Sins of Omission" & Bucher's "Ethical Choice" Compare?
c. Bucher's Titanic Struggle with His Ability & Knowledge Brings Honor
d. Fine Line Between Accountability to Our Potential & God's Enabling
e. Two Struggling Issues on Our Ability: Competence & Rebellion
CHART 22. Two Struggles of Ability: Competence & Rebellion
f. How Responsible Is God to Lead?
2. Where Is the Choice "To Love" Teleologically & Deontologically?
CHART 23. Teleological / Deontological Analysis of Choices
3. How Complicated the Analysis Is: CHART 23's Five Implications
a. 1st Implication: On the Nature of the Totals Found
b. 2nd Implication: Undergirds Ethics as Both Teleological & Deontological
c. 3rd Implication: Choosing Itself as More Teleological or Deontological
d. 4th Implication: Ease of Decision if "Right" Choice Elusive
e. 5th Implication: On What the CHART Does Not Say
D. Responsibility = Priesthood of the Believer
1. Our Three-Fold Responsibility to Teleological Concerns
CHART 24. Individual Three-Fold Responsibility to Teleological Concerns
2. The Three-Fold Responsibility as the Priesthood of the Believer
3. Our Basic Responsibility in Bucher's Horrendous Dilemma
A. Uncharted Waters of Accountability
1. Uncharted Waters: Accountability for Another Generally
2. Accountability for Another Person's Actions
3. Accountability and Biblical Wisdom Literature
4. Scope of Accountability
5. Bucher's Accountability and Need to Lie
B. Unaccounted Pressure of Complexity
1. Complexity Integral to Christian Life & Ethical Determination
CHART 25. Temporal Intractable Ethical Determinations
2. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle & Ethical Complexity
3. Complexity of Hermeneutics and Language Lesser than Ethics
4. A Unified Theory of Physics & Ethics?
5. Jesus' Ability to Find Absolutely "Right" Choices Our Criteria for Ethics
C. Though Complex, Accountable to the End
1. Sin of Lying Less than Murder
2. The End Beyond This Life Paramount
CHART 13. System Legality (Revisited)
3. Accountability in Even Smaller Situations
a. Scenario Changed Again: Witness Is Hampered
b. With "Accountability," Extravagance Is Worse than Lying
c. "Feelings" Should Not Be Subject to the Democratic Process, But They Do Count
d. Scenario Changed Again, even Ad Nauseam: Not Without Guidance
e. When Rehashing Becomes Sin
A. Most Significance Weakness of DA: That Elusive "Right" Choice
1. A Most Significant Weakness of DA
2. The Weakness of DA Is Also Its Strength
B. "Free Will"?-Martin Luther & Our Resurrection Freedom
C. Depravity & Our Ethical Ability to Find the "Right" Choice
1. Our Depravity Influences Our Ethical Ability
CHART 26. Reasons for Shortcoming in Perfect Obedience
2. We Are Depraved in the Midst of God's Leadership
a. A Fine Line Between God's Enabling and Our Sin
b. Approaching of God's Absolute Will
c. How Far Do We Have To Go?-Jesus' Competence Our Criteria
d. Illustrating Our Depravity
e. Our Depravity as Influenced by Evil
CHART 27. John Newport's Eight Biblical Reasons for Evil
3. The Influence of Our Depravity upon Complexity
4. Influence of Our Perceptions of Depravity upon Ethics
5. Our Depravity Prevents Us from Always Finding the "Right" Choice
6. Perspective of the Depraved Sinner: Hope in Heaven
D. Other Reasons an Absolutely "Right" Choice Is Elusive
1. Based on Sins of Omission
2. We May Be More "Depraved" Than We Think
3. "Knowledge" May Play a More Important Part in God's Leadership of Us Than We Think
4. Our "Will" May Play a More Important Part in "Sanctification" Than We Think
5. Our "Will" May Play a More Important Part in "Obscuring" the "Right" Action Than We Think
a. God's shining light is stopped by God at the refusal of our will, for God will not coerce
b. Our "Will" in rebellion stops or prevents the shining of God's light in our life, for we can and will sin against God
6. We May Not Be that Smart
A. Conclusion: Sad-but Not Chagrined or Shamed
B. Fundamental Ethical Principles at the Foundational Level
1. Significant Principles Discerned from Unique Battle
2. Seven Essential & Fundamental Principles in Every Biblical Ethic
CHART 28. Seven Fundamental Principles to Every Biblical Ethic
3. "Feeling Right"-Bucher's Choice Affirms Christian Experience
4. "Speaking the Truth in Love" & Fundamentalist Mocking of Love
5. Degree of Complexity in Ethics Greater than Physics
a. Unified Theory of Ethics Similar to Unified Theory of Physics
b. Unified Theory of Ethics: We Know What It Will Look Like!
c. Ethics & Theological Teamwork: ECT & SBC Examples
d. Ethics a More Fundamental and Broader Scope than Physics
e. Absolutes Have Finite and Infinite Qualities
f. Placing the Complexity of Ethics Prior to the Complexity of Physics
g. Biblical Ethics Demands a Degree Individual Responbility
Maxim #1: Responsible & Accountable to God
C. Scope of Operations in Ethics Larger than in Physics
D. Discerning a Few Complex Elements in Every Biblical Decision
1. Complexity Ever Present & Pervading Element in Every Biblical Decision
2. The Two Sides of Spiritual Complexity
a. One, the Spiritual Demands of Perfect Obedience
b. Two, the Spiritual Influence of Evil Forces
(1) "Living for God" The Strategy Against the Evil Spiritual Forces
(2) The Fallacious Use of "Jesus' Name" as a Cure-All Panacea
3. Seven Ethical Fine Lines in DA
(1) Between God's Sovereign Abilities & Our Free-Will Participation
(2) Between God's Light and Our Rebellion
(3) Between the Deontological and the Teleological Concerns of Every Absolute in Every Decision
(4) Between When a Person "Is" or "Is Not" Accountable for the Actions of Others
(5) Between Where a High or Low Degree of Accountability Determines Between a More Teleological or More Deontological Choice
(6) Between "Fruitful" and "Redundant" Hermeneutical Study
(7) Between "Valuable Ethical Deliberation" and "Wasting Time"
[ 8 ] An Eighth Fine Line Is Perceived: Between Ethics and Science
4. Depravity & Evil Forces Interlaced Throughout All Issues of Complexity
5. Twenty-Six Areas of Complexity in Every Decision: Godzilla Lives!
CHART 29. Twenty-Six Intrinsic & Intractable Variables Complicating Biblical Ethics in Every Decision
A. Recapitulation: No Clear "Absolutely Right" Choice-Love & Truth Converge on the Concourse of Life
B. Scarlet Thread Through "Time," Our Imago Dei, Christ the Criteria
C. The First Stage of Fundamentals in Christian Decision-Making
CHART 30. Stage One of Christian Decision-Making
D. God's Sufficient Guidance in the First Stage, Even When the "Right" Choice Is Elusive
1. The Bible Gives the Answer to All Significant Problems, Not to All Problems Categorically
2. Our Imperfection Points Clearly to Times in Which We Will Fail to Find the "Right" Choice
3. The Nature of the Self-Righteous Bigot
4. How the Failure to Find the "Right" Action Does Not Contradict the Sufficiency of the Bible
5. The Difference Between the "Practical" and "Actual" Impossibility of Finding Every Absolutely "Right" Choice
6. God's Sufficient Guidance in Stage One
E. The Two Stages of Fundamentals in Christian Decision-making
CHART 31. Two Stages of Biblically-Based Ethical Determination
A. The Triple Irony: Not as Simple, Fewer "Right" Choices and De-Emphasis on System Making
B. DA Peace of Mind: "Data" Secondary to "Relationship"-Climb the Mountain
C. Truncating the Arrogance and Superiority of the Radical Fundamentalist
D. Reaching Forth, Let Us Run with Patience
E. Ultimate Rightness = Will of God: Grace, Guidance and a Great Salvation
Henry B. Wright's Preface
Condensed
Appendix 1 - Table of
Contents
A. Introduction
I. God Has a Plan for Every
Human Life
II. Jesus and the Will of God
III. The Apostles and the
Will of God
IV. The Principle of
Surrender of the Self Is a Reasonable One and Fundamental in Other Departments
of Life, as well as Crucial to Doing God's Will
B. The Decision To Do God's
Will
V. The Relation of the Act of
Surrender of Self to Other Religious Rites and Spiritual Experiences
VI. The Alternatives to Doing
God's Will as a Life Purpose
VII. The Spiritual Crisis
Involved in Facing the Issue of Surrender of Self: Its Symptoms and Its Course
VIII. To Find Out and To Do
God's Will for One's Life Is an Achievement Possible for Any Person
IX. God's Will May Be Done in
Any Honorable Trade or Profession, Either at Home or Abroad
X. The Necessity for Absolute
Surrender of Self
Interlude: The Necessity of
Surrendering S elf
C. The Finding Out of God's
Will
XI. The Finding Out of God's
Will: Willingness To Do God's Will Is the Necessary Condition for Knowledge of
It
XII. The Universal Will of
God for All Persons
XIII. The Particular Will of
God for Each Individual Person, for Career, Mate, etc.
XIV. How to Know the
Particular Will of God: the Four-Fold Touchstone of Jesus and the Apostles
XV. The Four-Fold Touchstone:
(a) The First Test-Purity
XVI. The Four-Fold Touchstone:
(b) The Second Test-Honesty
XVII. The Four-Fold
Touchstone: (c) The Third Test-Unselfishness
XVIII. The Four-Fold
Touchstone: (d) The Fourth Test-Love
D. The Issues of Facing the
Problem of Doing God's Will
XIX. Issues of Rejection and
Disobedience
XX. Issues of Obedience: A. Knowledge
XXI. Issues of Obedience
(continued): B. Protection from Harm
and Provision for All Needs
XXII. Issues of
Obedience: C. Assurance as to One's
Duty and Power to Achieve Results
XXIII. Issues of
Obedience: D. Constant Companionship
XXIV. Issues of Obedience:
E. Eternal Life
On Bucher & the Pueblo
Ethics Home Page ~ www.preciousheart.net ~ e-mail mgmaness@earthlink.net - Top
CHART 1. Bucher's Apparent Conflict of
Absolutes
CHART 2. Seeking First God's Kingdom
CHART 3. The Great Shuffle of
"Responsibility"
CHART 4. Ethical Systems Contrasted
CHART 5. Kant, Augustine, Maness Ethical
Dictums
CHART 6. Teleology a DECISIVE ISSUE for
Biblical Ethics
CHART 3. The Great Shuffle of
"Responsibility" (Revisited)
CHART 6. Teleology a DECISIVE ISSUE for
Biblical Ethics (Revisited)
CHART 7. Three Foundational Categories of
Judgment
CHART 8. Summary Definitions of Deontology
& Teleology
CHART 9. Thirteen Major Limiting Factors
in Ethical Theorizing
CHART 10. Four Categories of Virtues
Express True Love
CHART 11. DA & Law's Applicability,
Value, & Relevance
CHART 12. Summary Explanation of CHART 11
CHART 13. System Legality
CHART 14. UNIQUE Arenas of Individuals
CHART 15. Line & Sphere of
Accountability in Decision-Making
CHART 16. Abraham's Sacrifice Only True
Conflict Between Absolutes
CHART 13. System Legality (Revisited)
CHART 6. Teleology a Decisive Issue for
Biblical Ethics (Revisited)
CHART 17. Responsibility vs.
Accountability
CHART 18. Two Lines of Responsibility: Our
Line, God's Line- The Difference Between Providence & Free Will
CHART 19. Elements Obscuring the
"Right" Choice
CHART 20. Drawing Lines of Individual
Responsibility
CHART 21. Decision-Making in Dilemmas When
Absolutes Are in Apparent Conflict
CHART 22. Two Struggles of Ability:
Competence & Rebellion
CHART 23. Teleological / Deontological
Analysis of Choices
CHART 24. Individual Three-Fold
Responsibility to Teleological Concerns
CHART 25. Temporal Intractable Ethical
Determinations
CHART 13. System Legality (Revisited)
CHART 26. Reasons for Shortcoming in
Perfect Obedience
CHART 27. John Newport's Eight Biblical
Reasons for Evil
CHART 28. Seven Fundamental Principles to
Every Biblical Ethic
Maxim #1: Responsible & Accountable to
God
CHART 29. Twenty-Six Intrinsic &
Intractable Variables Complicating Biblical Ethics in Every Decision
CHART 30. Stage One for God's Will, Right
Choices & Decision Making
CHART 31. Two Stages for God's Will, Right
Choices & Decision Making
CHART 32. God's Will: Love God &
Search the Scriptures
Ethics Home Page ~ www.preciousheart.net
e-mail mgmaness@earthlink.net - Top