PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS
MERE CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTER 12: Faith--Part 2
Before starting, number your paragraphs 1-9
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What does this tell us about Lewis?
Since he is not absolutely certain, how does he want us to respond to his advice here?
After having read the entire chapter though and after having experienced what he's talking about in this chapter, I think he is right on target.
I think something else important is working here too. When somebody is highly successful, then I want to analyze their life to find out what makes them tick. That may be the key to my success.
One of my major professors at SWBTS, Yandall Woodfin, received his degrees from Baylor, Princeton, and Edinburgh; plus he studied with Lewis at Cambridge. Woodfin did not merely state that Lewis was the greatest Christian thinker of the 20th century; he said Lewis was the greatest Christian of the 20th century. That is an amazing accolade. Well, if Lewis was really that good, then I want to find out what made Lewis tick. This chapter more than any other in MC gives us insight into the internal workings of Lewis' spiritual life.
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According to Lewis, God does not care about our actions per se. Instead what DOES God care about?
Although Lewis says that God cares that we be related to God in a certain way, why doesn't Lewis say we should also be related to other people in a certain way?
If a person thinks that God is an examiner or is a bargainer, is that person in a right relationship with Him?
Again, what must man discover before he can be in a right relationship with God?
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How do we find out that we are truly bankrupt?
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Unless we really try to keep God's law and fail, what will always be at the back of our minds?
All that trying will never bring us home to God. What will all that trying do though?
What is the one thing Lewis implores us not to ask ourselves? Why?
For example, when does a man realize that he is growing up?
What is important, the nature of the change in itself or how we feel while we are changing?
"It is the change from being confident about our own efforts to the state in which we _____________ ___ _________ ________________ _____ ____________ ____ _________ ___ ___ ______."
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"In Christian language, He will share His '_____________' with us, will make us, like Himself, '_________ ______ _________.'"
When do we actually overcome temptation?
Does handing everything over to Christ mean that you've stopped trying?
"To trust Him" means trying to do what?
"There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take what?
Do we try to do these things in order to be saved?
Why do we do them then?
If we don't do these things in order to get heaven as a kind of reward, why do we do them then?
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What is the only thing which will lead you to throw up the sponge?
What is the only thing that will save you from despair at that point?
Out of that faith in Christ, what will inevitably come?
There are 2 extremes. The first extreme says that your actions are all that matter. Suppose you gave all your money to charity in order to get into heaven. Lewis says that this would not be a good action at all but rather "_______________ speculations."
The other extreme says that faith is all that matters. Why is that nonsense? Or rather what does it not involve?
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We try to compartmentalize what God is doing and what we are doing. How or why does this way of thinking break down?
Different churches approach this subject differently; HOWEVER, the church which says that good actions are of utmost importance will also tell you that you need what?
The church which insists most strongly on faith will tell you to do what?
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What do we have a glimpse of and what do people there think of such talk?
Everyone there is filled with what? Does this come from within them? Yes or no?
Instead of looking at themselves, the people in this country are looking at what?
"But this is near the stage where the road passes over the rim of our world. No one's eyes can see very far beyond that: lots of people's eyes can see further than mine."
Book Three
Chapter 12
Does Lewis expect everybody to connect with the topic of this chapter? If so, why? If not, why not?
Is Lewis absolutely certain that what he is writing about in this chapter is absolutely right?
In this chapter Lewis is speaking about faith in the second sense, in a higher sense. A man can come to this higher sense of faith only after he has discovered what? (Lewis is speaking spiritually, not financially.)
When Lewis says that we "discover" our bankruptcy with God, what does he mean?
How do we discover our failure to keep God's law?
According to Lewis there are 3 ways in which a person "leaves it to God." What are those 3 ways?
According to Lewis, which produces a Christian home, good actions or faith in Christ? How does he use the illustration of scissors to make his point?
When does the Bible really seem to clinch the matter?
Although Christianity at first seems like it is all about morality, duties, rules, guilt, virtue, etc., "yet it leads you on, out of all that, into ______________ ________________."