What's your favorite Paradigm?

I thought I would ask this question just our of curiousity in hopes my fate will be better than the cat :)

For those that may not know what a Paradigm is, its simply this How you think or see God and yourself for example a popular Paradigm would be a Father and Son. There are other paradigms but that is probably the most basic though this one Paradigm could be infinitely talked about without stressing or overusing it. :)

There are no wrong Paradigms as long as it lines up with the Word of God. For example a Paradigm that set man above God would be an unbiblical Paradigm.

Welp I hope this discussion is fruitful and encouraging

God Bless,
Matthew

A paradigm shift...?

yeah, I think you know what you're doing. Picking on these poor helpless Believers with all this "paradigm rhetoric." nonsense! Nonsense I tell you!

all kidding aside, I hope this is not an attempt to introduce subversion into paradigm shifts. That's dangerous.

I mean, a paradigm is only two nickels put together. How can that end up as anything else other than 10¢

Perhaps I don't fully understand the word paradigm, and I have not intentions of shifting anyones paradigm.

I just thought it would be a profitable conversation since you don't necessarily think of God in the same way I think of God. I have found over time and discussion I have learned a lot about what other people thoutht about God. :)

So yeah my intentions are definitely pure in thought or at least in my conscious :)

Paradigms are like the shaded glasses you wear when you read the Bible, everything shows up in that particular color. Some include:

-Father and son (as mentioned)
-Sinner or saint (as another current thread testifies)
-Bride and Bridegroom (up and coming, yet by no means new)
-God as Judge
-Christian as a servant/slave
-Christian as a soldier in a war (vs sin, flesh, and/or devil)
-Christian as a pilgrim
-Christian as a runner in a race
-Dispensationalism (with a focus on a literal Israel)
-Pre, Post, or A-millennial
-Active vs. Passive sanctification

Some read/live always under one of these themes. Everything is always filtered through them and realted in that "paradigm." Like, "If I am a soldier, how does this verse make sense in a war setting" or "how does this relate to the Jews?"

There's probably some other major ones. Someone who sees God as always an angry Judge, probably prays in a consistently penitential manner and warily reads Scripture's many admonitions. Whereas one who sees God as the source of joy and pleasure, may live a more spiritually hedonistic life. Neither one is correct or wrong, a balance that incorporates a full range of biblical paradigms is probably the healthiest.

THANK YOU Giggles that is exactly what I am talking about or my intention with this post :) To help people find a balance of Paradigm and also to help others look through different paradigms. Awesome post btw I agree whole heartedly with it. We must find a balance of paradigms in order to be as healthy as we can be.

I see. I think these then are attempts to become as smart as God, in trying to figure Him out. We can't fully comprehend Him. If we understood Him and knew all there is to know and had Him figured out, we'd be bigger than God is!

So I think that by being consumed with looking for these things, we miss the point. We might miss the Mark of Grace.

Beware of o/t practices in a New Cov't Church. The Holy Spirit directs and leads and guides.

Just want to offer a gentle nudge.

I believe these can be hazardous if you have an ill paradigm. I don't seek to become smarter than God or even "figure Him out" but I do seek to know Him.

I am a Father and so at times my children bless me with revelation I could only see through them being their Father. We are God's children and He delights in us as such. I believe the important point is to not forget the various other attributes of our Holy Father. That any good and loving Father can and will discipline His Children. (If you can't tell I enjoy greatly viewing God as my personal Father as scripture calls Him)

I do appreciate the nudge and I do acknowledge the danger of it all but I also and have been greatly blessed with such thinking and I would hardly think its New Cov't thinking, but it maybe seen to you as New Cov't vocabulary.

Any and every Paradigm must be backed up with Scripture kept in Context to what Scripture says about God. Trust me Im not trying to stir up some kind of strange revelation so that I can boast, but seek to look at the Revelation of the Bible and be refreshed by what we have already been given by God.

I know this is an incredibly delayed response, but I have been thinking and praying about this thread since it was posted. I think Mathew and Giggles are right on in perceiving these things. After thinking about it for a long time, it does not seem that Jesus was constrained by any one paradigm. How i/We need the mind of Christ. I think there is a lot of good that can come from considering both Giggles and Mathew's observations here.

Thanks for responsing I don't mind delayed responses. :)

In reading your bible have you become more aware of which Paradigm you look through? and if so Which one/ones?

We kind of came to the idea of a balanced view of God as one that is healthy if you see that same which paradigm would you say is your least used one?

Those maybe personal but if you don't mind sharing I would love reading your response to any of my questions, because as I said before reading and listening to others talk about how they view God has greatly made me more aware of something bigger than myself.

Thanks!
Matthew

Well, I can say, with much trepidation that I do not understand very well the idea of God as Father. I very much try to take all the blame for every ounce of my own owned sin, but I had a "dysfunctional" upbringing. This is nothing new or particularly special, many in our day have, since the family bricks in the foundation of our culture are shivering under their immoral load, legions of children are being raised without fathers. This is not a cry for sympathy from me, but just a statement of fact; I have no idea what having a father is like. (It is a bit uncharacteristic for me to speak this way, I am just being honest since you asked.) Therefore I tend to see God as God, and the Father aspect is...difficult for me to comprehend. Being raised the way I was, I have a tendency to lack compassion on suffering, and can tend toward seeing God as judge when things go wrong. I have always been resigned to accepting what comes in life as being...the will of God. It has been difficult for me to see that there is a "Fatherish" sense to God's will for my life that tends to slip through my fingers quite often. By that, I mean, I have a very hard time accepting the fact that his will toward me is like the will a father has for a son. Though I believe it technically, doctrinally, theologically, and any other ally you can think of. When the rubber meets the road in my life, I really struggle with God being a Father that cares about me. I know he has proven it through his son, and he has proven it to me personally time and time again, and I believe he is perfect in every way. Please do not take this as me questioning God in any way, I am confessing to you and the whole world, that there is a subconscious brokenness in my humanity that I still perceive is in serious need of mending. My wife would agree with me completely in this.

One of the way's this tends to manifest in my life is I generally have a lack of trust for men. Men in leadership, men in general. I can tend to question the motives of men, which is not healthy, as this is God's realm. So my paradigm finds a magnetism to men like John the Baptist, and Jesus in the Temple with the money changers, or Elijah on Mount Carmel. I can be attracted to these "paradigm's" in a natural way, which is not necessarily spiritual.

I have come to understand that I can be affectionate towards certain biblical concepts in a carnal way. As I have considered these things, along with Jesus admonition to the Pharisee's that it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks, I am vastly more aware of a "foothold" the devil has had in my life. That foothold is to emphasize certain truths to the exclusion of others. This is kind of difficult for me to explain, but there have been a few times where a slightly false teaching caused me to be offended in my youth as a believer. As a result for a long time I would preach against that particular falsehood on a regular basis because I wanted vindication about it, and I probably felt that if I got enough people to agree with how wrong that "false teaching" was, then maybe I could somehow countermand the wrongness of it all. I suspect though that this is not really the mind of Christ. He only did the things he saw his Father doing. I want to learn to do only the things I see Christ doing. Please just take this all as a confession...

THANK YOU for your Honesty, it is greatly appreciated and refreshing to read. I took your words as they were and in their context and knowing you, I know it wasn't a matter of questioning God. :)

Oddly enough the Father paradigm is one I see often in life, growing up I had great love and respect for my father but when I was in the 1st grade my father went to prison and despite his crime I still had a great love and respect for him, even though his crime was great.

God as Father just makes sense for me, because I was well displined and was given love from my father and I still do to this day. (not to boast). It amazes me how life can be shifted and turn and deeply effect our thoughts about God. I have met many Atheists who were once Catholics who were wronged as a child and completely reject the idea that God even cares about them.

In Japan, its really hard for them to come to Christ because in their culture you fight till your dying breathe and its a dishonorable thing to surrender or even Love your enemies but here is Christ who didn't even put up a fight and died a very dishonorable death (according to their traditions).

This is why we must be born again, Jesus told Nicodemus this as a birth of the mind. A baby knows nothing, and is quite a clean sheet, so one who has been warped by circumstance and the world must be the same starting fresh and trusting Christ for their new teaching and lifestyle. Its really a beautiful thing.

When I talk to anyone about religion in general my question generally isn't What do you believe but Why do you believe or think that way? Usually their past is the key to unlock their Heart to Christ.

Actually... it's 4 nickles.

Or is that two parahalfdigms???

Paradigm, philosophy, are really pretty close to the same thing. We often talk of having a paradigm shift when we alter our basic way of thinking about a matter. For example, my eschatalogical paradigm used to include a special pre-tribulation rapture, but over the past several years I have had a paradigm shift. I now believe in one second coming. I like the analogy of the colored glasses.

There is a danger, I think, in holding a paradigm too closely. When "I see it the way I see it and no-one is going to change my mind", I will always twist scripture to try to support the way I see it. We are to study the Word of God and rightly divide it. I guess the technical term is exegesis, but I like to say more simply, "read it, pray about it, and simply take it for what it says."

But like it or not, we all develop paradigms about God and scripture. I think it is healthy to talk to others who don't quite see it the same way and find out why they see it the way they do. I have often realized my paradigm was incomplete through this and have had to rethink the way I see things. It causes us to grow. It is healthy to be challenged by other believers to dig more deeply into the Word.

I don't know that I have a favorite paradigm. I do know that there are some very basic things that have had a transformational effect in my life. One has been a revelation of the grace of God. I grew up in a somewhat legalistic environment and although I have always understood and experienced salvation as a free gift, I have often fought the tendency to have a works or performance based relationship with God. Praise God this tendency is less and less as time passes and I learn more and more to lean into His grace and allow that grace to transform and empower me to good works and to victorious living in Christ.

"Actually... it's 4 nickles."

It took me a while to get this joke actually LOL :)

Also I am glad this thread was brought back to life after its small slumber in the pile of threads. Perhaps another question to ask is Which paradigm is hardest for you to understand or look through?

For me it is the Soldier in God's Army, though I am a male and consider myself "manly" I just don't have that mentality for whatever reason, perhaps I am more passive making it difficult.

Its a great paradigm but I find it hard, could anyone that finds this paradigm easy to see or understand could explain why, you understand/see it? I would greatly benefit from it I believe. :)

Thanks,
Matthew

i would say for me my paradigm ,is one that merges in to another ,,,,,,,,,i see god as a master and father ,and me as his son which is a servent

but in a way i feel that is what a true son is toward his father ,that be a servent ,,to honer and obey and love my father ,,tho i may not do a good job of that ,,

yea a soldier is a hard one to comprhend

Thanks that really did help :) I have a few friends who joined the military and now their vision has been set to that Military paradigm, unfortunately it doesn't appear to be a healthy one for them because they have failed to realize as you have, The Battle Belongs to the Lord. One battle, one victory at a time, I definitely like that.

When I grew up I had a pretty good relationship with my father and so that helped me form the Father/Son paradigm.

What about you that have answered what do you believe has helped you or hindered you from seeing through different paradigms? If it has hindered you do you see a way through the hinderance?