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This page revised and Copyrighted: Theon Doxazo |
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03.3.0 |
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The Second Peter Theory of Christian Spiritual Development seeks to describe just that, Christian Spiritual Development. In order to do so a starting place is needed. That foundation is an understanding of the nature of unsaved Man. This is no easy matter. After all, Humanity is so diverse that it's almost impossible to say anything about it without an anthropologist saying that they know a tribe somewhere that isn't like that. When it comes to the broad human condition, universals are hard to come by. As the old joke would have it: 'there's nothing certain but death and taxes'. Well, we know people that have no taxes, but . . . . . It would seem that death IS a human universal! Very little else can be seen as a universal, but that one sure can. So, that's where we begin.
The Second Peter Theory will argue that all people eventually die, and that the vast bulk of people do not like this state of affairs one bit. Sure, there are some that do not share this attitude toward death, but the vast bulk of people would likely consider them as 'abnormal'.
Given our fears of Death and Dying we systematically strive to reduce the likelihood that we will die soon. In our attempts to delay dying, we wind up doing things that are sometimes considered strange. We sometimes find ourselves 'compelled' to do things because, at base, we don't want to die. Our fears of Death are so strong that we will do almost anything to prevent us from dying. We even strive to put the whole subject of Death and Dying our of our minds and not even think about it. We tend to act as if we won't die. Functionally, we deny that we will die.
The 2 Peter Theory sees the fear of Death as the prime motivator for much of our lives, as well as a major motivation for becoming a Christian. Other motivations are considered 'possible', and are briefly discussed.
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