Embracing 'Twoism': The Gospel's Call to Distinction

And then, in the second place, a clear understanding and public affirmation of the superiority what I call 'Twoism', thus a fearless declaration in this difficult time of who God is, understood through creation and the Gospel and in the person of Jesus the eternal Son. [00:01:21]

It's interesting as I've experienced the present time, that this 'Gospel of Twoism' is the only system that Oneist thought cannot sort of dominate and control. When I attended the Parliament of the World's Religions, there were a 125 different religions there, and the only non-invitee was historic Biblical Christianity. [00:01:50]

And that means that in our time, Twoism must be spoken and lived out courageously, coherently, and certainly with love. Because the confrontation is not simply between thinkers, but as the Apostle Paul says, between passionate worshippers. This is a different kind of emotional content. [00:02:53]

In 1700 years of existence, the Christian West has more or less honored the principle of Twoness, as how we live in God's creative world. From that, we get notions of human dignity -- of human rights, where human beings are made in God's image. This is an ennobling notion that paganism has never discovered, never really affirmed. [00:06:00]

Our present world has lost this notion of a predetermined created existence. Celebrating the idea of distinction. And so our world rejoices in the liberation of heterosexual normativity as if it is an impingement upon us and destroying who we are; whereas as a matter of fact, it's telling us exactly how we are glorious in the world God has created. [00:07:39]

Oneism, as you now know I hope, affirms that the world is self-creating and explains itself. Everything is made of the same stuff. I like to use the term "homo-cosmological" -- "everything is the same." It's based on the same essence in things. How about Twoism? Well, the world is the work of an external Creator, who caringly made it; but that Creator is distinct from the world He made. [00:08:32]

And in Romans 1, he goes through that classic development of creation, fall, and redemption; which is essential to the Gospel and essential actually to the structure of Romans. And if we do not understand the relationship of 'creation' and 'the fall', we'll never understand 'redemption'. [00:10:10]

He understood that our works and our efforts cannot save us. He understood that the only way of rediscovering who we are as human beings is rediscovering God and his gift of righteousness. He said at that moment -- "understanding grace, he entered the gate of Paradise." That transformed the European world. [00:11:18]

Because you see, as the text says, the Gospel is dynamic. It's the power of God unto salvation. For Paul, the gospel is the first thing. He says that in 1 Corinthians 15. And here in the first verse of Romans 1, he says, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God." [00:11:46]

And so Paul is telling the pagan world that we actually live in a moral universe. That's good news. That ethics is part of existence and we cannot avoid it. We live in an ethical universe. That's good news that people need to hear. Instead of the fact, that we make up all our own rules to fit us as we go along. [00:17:00]

And then in 26-28; and then beyond in 29-32 -- how people behave in particular in sexuality. So you have here the development of three fundamental areas where human beings can either worship creation or they can worship the Creator in theology, spirituality, and behavior. [00:20:16]

So you have true spirituality implied in the worship of the Creator, and you have false in the worship of nature. And then finally, sexuality. Sexuality created by God is the norm. "Therefore God, who had created man, male and female made in His image, declared that a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall be one flesh." [00:21:29]