1. I Ching
 Book of Changes
 1 to 3 millennia old
 Divination
 64 sets of 6 (hexagrams)
 3 Coins methods

2. Confucius
 500 B.C.
 Teacher and philosopher
 Emphasized tradition, family loyalty,
respect of elders, and ancestry worship

3. Confucius
 “In serving your father and mother you
ought to dissuade them from doing wrong
in the gentlest way. If you see your advice
being ignored, you should not become
disobedient but remain reverent. You
should not complain even if in so doing
you wear yourself out.” 4:18

4. Taoism
 2,500 years
 About the Way, which is the unifying and
creative principle behind everything
 Unity and opposites: yin and yang
 The Way is not God, but there are many
deities
 Promote harmony, immorality, and virtue

5. Tao Te Ching- Lao Tzu
 “The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.”
 We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.

6. Buddhism
 Siddhartha Gautama: 500 B.C.
 Four Noble Truths: (1) presence of suffering, (2)
suffering rooted in craving and desire, (3) the
end of suffering through cycle of reincarnation to
Nirvana, and (4) method for attaining the end of
suffering through the Eightfold Path. The steps
of the are Right Understanding, Right Thought,
Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood,
Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right
Concentration.

7. Buddhism
 “Peace comes from within. Do not
seek it without.”
 “Do not dwell in the past, do not
dream of the future, concentrate the
mind on the present moment.”
 “All wrong-doing arises because of
mind. If mind is transformed can
wrong-doing remain?”

8. Falun Gong
 Modern
 Founder is Li Hongzhi
 Qigong variant of Buddhism

9. Christianity and the Bible
 Christianity is not about finding the best
decision for earthly prosperity
 The Bible has wisdom in decision making,
but the end goal is not earthly prosperity

10. Christianity and the Bible
 Christianity is not solely about living a
moral code, or finding the spiritual through
meditative thinking, self denial, or
exercises for our qi. It is not about
developing a proper technique.
 Christianity is not about a vague unifying
spiritual force that we seek to find.

11. Christianity and Bible
 The Bible is to be understood as a
narrative, or story of how God worked to
restore a fallen humanity

12. Christianity and the Bible
 The Bible is a narrative; it is a story; it has
a plot.
 Each verse is not complete in itself and
are not to be studied in isolation as a
meditative text. Each, verse, chapter and
book has to be understood in light of the
total storyline.

13. Christianity and the Bible
 The storyline starts from the beginning of
time, but has an emphasis from about
1,500 B.C to 90 A.D.
 The emphasis is on the promise of a
people of God to the procurement of that
people in Christ.

14. Christianity and the Bible
 These varying emphases may appear to
contradict, but they do not. God is
complex, perfect and does contradict
himself.
 God is both loving and just. God is both
merciful and holy.

15. Christianity and the Bible
 In contrast to God, humanity is not
portrayed as complex. We have a
common nature, we are marred by
imperfection and failure.

16. Christianity and the Bible
 Christianity is redemptive narrative, or a
story of restoration.
 It is about how a complex, perfect God will
deal with the failure of mankind through
Jesus Christ.

17. Changes from Christ
 Warfare
 Relationship to God
 Penalty and forgiveness

18. Warfare prior to Christ
When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai
in the fields and in the desert where they had
chased them, and when every one of them had
been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned
to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve
thousand men and women fell that day--all the
people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back the
hand that held out his javelin until he had
destroyed all who lived in Ai. (Joshua 8)

19. Warfare: Why early destruction?
 The preservation and nationhood of the
people of God in evil times
 The early judgment of evil
 The preservation and nationhood of the
people of God to await the birth of the
ultimate deliver of mankind

20. Warfare changed in Christ
With that, one of Jesus' companions reached for
his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of
the high priest, cutting off his ear. "Put your
sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for
all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do
you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will
at once put at my disposal more than twelve
legions of angels? …At that time Jesus said to
the crowd, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you
have come out with swords and clubs to capture
me? (Matthew 26:51-55)

21. Relationship to God before Christ
And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and
thresholds shook and the temple was filled with
smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I
am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a
people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen
the King, the LORD Almighty.“ (Isaiah 6)

22. Relationship to God after Christ
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay
down his life for his friends. You are my
friends if you do what I command. I no longer
call you servants, because a servant does
not know his master's business. Instead, I
have called you friends, for everything that I
learned from my Father I have made known
to you. (John 15)

23. Why this change?
 In Christ, we have forgiveness, and are
united with Christ.

24. Penalty and Forgiveness
Prior to Christ in Exodus 21:14
But if a man schemes and kills another man
deliberately, take him away from my altar and
put him to death.

25. Penalty and Forgiveness
At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their
voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and
began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes
at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were
stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this
sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. And
Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great
persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all
except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and
Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for
him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to
house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
(Acts 7,8)