Symmorphy II: Essence - Essential Underlying Definitions

This zone is a companion to the course, Symmorphy II: Essence.

The purpose of this course, Symmorphy II: Essence, is to establish in our hearts, in the bottom line of our thinking, the underlying definitions of reality. All humans think by specific ruling definitions, underlying assumptions presumed to be “true.” Thus all human knowledge and all Christian knowledge arises from these unexamined definitions or bedrock assumptions. Each one of us has our own perception of what things are and of the rules that govern how all things work.

What is God? – Everyone of us has our own rigid definition of “God”; few even know what their definition really is.

Underlying Assumptions
Each of us thinks by a unique pattern of thought, basing our understanding of every specific thing on fundamental laws that we deem to be telling us the truth. The underlying assumptions that we hold determine how we define everything, yet few people consider how they define things or what are the ideas they hold that rule over all their thinking. Most underlying assumptions, including ruling definitions of truth, of how we know truth, of what God is, come out of the arguments of the serpent woven all through Christian thinking.

As believers in Jesus seeking to know the One living in our hearts as He is, we know our thinking must change to fit His.

The Renewing of Our Minds
We are transformed by the renewing of our minds, that is, by altering the underlying assumptions by which we perceive all things, seeing, now, as Jesus sees.

Knowing God is age-abiding life. We want to know God and Jesus Sent; we want to know all things as the Father knows them. Can we claim right now that we know and see all things as the Father knows and sees them? If we cannot, then it is evident that the rules by which we define everything must change from what they are. But more specifically, the rules by which we define the verses of the Bible also must be examined and must be changed.

This Course
This course investigates what God's essential underlying definitions are by what God actually says in the New Covenant, by the gospel according to Paul, and by our precious union with the Lord Jesus Christ - and out from the only thing that life and Salvation can be - Jesus alive in our hearts.

The lessons are contained in the course sessions listed in the right column. Begin with Session 1: Perspectives and Layouts. Although you are always free, of course, to skip around, please remember that as an educational course, these lessons are written in such a way that each one builds on those that have gone before. But as you read and listen along, understand that the only words that can be Truth inside of you are those words that the Lord Jesus Himself, the One who fills you with all of His glory, uses to reveal Himself to you.