Kolten Turner Discussion Questions

1. Think back through your week. What evidence of total depravity have you experienced? What evidence that the doctrine that humanity is created in the image of God?
I've noticed that during times of worship or prayer my mind can tend to wander even in the midst of God. If I'm not carefully keeping my eyes centered on Christ, my mind will drift off to another place completely. I'm often reminded of the story of Jesus walking on the water, and Peter calls out to Him. Peter steps out of the boat and while his eyes are focused on Jesus, he walks on the water as well. However, as soon as he turns his eyes off of Jesus and begins to pay more attention to the crashing wind and waves, he begins sinking only to have Jesus pull him back up out of the storm. Even in the midst of two or more gathering in His name where He is present, it's so easy for me to get distracted and begin to focus my attention elsewhere.

If we're being honest, the fact that I'm going to be sharing my tiny house with a Danish man for 10 is evidence that we are made in the image of God. Without the grace of God, I would not be willing to share a less than 200 square foot home with another large man for 10 days. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea, but I know that I need is taken care of by my willingness to open my home. Therefore, I trust that God will bless the situation.

2. Describe the relationship between Adam's sin and our own sinning.
I actually became pretty confused at the arguments laid out by Bird in this section. I believe that Augustine's claim is that people sin like Adam because of a biological connection, and because they are "in Adam," they are born into the world condemned even before they have sinned themselves. Bird says that, "Origen believed that humans were either present in Adam's loins and expelled from Eden when Adam was expelled, or else, every human unexplainably experiences their own expulsion from Eden and subsequent condemnation." Bird says that Blocher comments, "that we undergo the fact of death in solidarity with Adam like children who share in the sin of their father. Yet we do not undergo the penalty of Adam as if it were immediately ours." Out of these three statements, I think I agree mostly with Blocher in that we were not present with Adam at the fall, but by representation we shall share in the same condemnation as Adam which is total depravity.