Courses
Ideal for Sunday school and Bible study groups, we offer a number of courses that are designed to help Christians strengthen their faith. The below courses are available by request.
Introduction to Apologetics
It is important for Evangelicals not only to know what they believe, but why they believe it, so that they may “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15b). The practice of giving such reasons is called Apologetics. The purpose of this class is to explain what Apologetics entails, to present the importance of Apologetics, and to outline some basic principles for doing Apologetics effectively.
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Evolution Exposed
It is a tragic fact that 70% of Christian young people renounce their faith within the first six months of their university careers, and most of them do so because they have come to believe that the evidence for the theory of evolution has made Christianity no longer believable. This is perhaps also the most significant issue preventing people from considering the case for Christianity in the first place.
This course examines the challenge of the theory of evolution. Beginning with a careful examination of what the Bible says about origins, the course goes on to look in detail at the various claims made by evolutionists in light of the hard facts of science itself, to see where the actual evidence takes us. Is belief in God sustainable in the light of scientific developments? The answer is a sounding “Yes!” Is it true that indisputable scientific evidence proves Darwinism and discredits the Bible? The answer is a resounding “No!” These are the facts that Christian young people MUST hear before they head off to university!
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Historical Criticism of the Bible Exposed
Evangelical Christians believe that the Bible is the very word of God Himself, but this belief is under severe attack from many quarters. The Da Vinci Code brought new attention to the claims that Christianity is not based on historical facts but on a church conspiracy. These claims are not new, however. Liberal scholars have long been assuring us that the Gospel books are anonymous documents written long after the facts they claim to describe and so cannot be trusted. Skeptics tell us the Bible is full of errors and contradictions. Muslim apologists tell us that the historical Jesus was a prophet of Islam who was elevated to the status of deity by a renegade Jew named Paul, who “invented” Christianity.
This course will look at the background and history of the Bible. What is the truth about who wrote the Bible and when? Is the Gospel of Thomas a more reliable guide to the historical Jesus than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? Is it true that these four were picked three hundred years later, for political reasons, and the truth about Jesus suppressed? What about the Q Gospel? What about the Gospel of Judas? In examining these and other issues, the historical reliability of the Bible will be clearly demonstrated.
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Biblical Exegesis
If the Bible is the word of God, then it is essential that we understand it as clearly as possible. When it comes to what the Bible says, is it true that “That’s just your interpretation,” or is there objective meaning to the text that Evangelicals can and should know? This course will describe the principles for sound Biblical exegesis, which is the method of ascertaining the correct meaning of the text. The principles will be illustrated using relevant examples.
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WordPerfect or Sloppy Copy? A Look at the History of the New Testament Text
In 2005, Bart Ehrman introduced a scholarly practice called textual criticism to the general public in his book Misquoting Jesus, which became a New York Times bestseller. QPB Review (August 2006) describes the book as follows: “Taking us from the deliberate lengthening of the Lord’s Prayer to the tampered wording of the doctrine of the Trinity, Misquoting Jesus makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories – indeed, the divine origins of the Bible itself –are the results of both intentional and accidental alterations.”
Provocative, indeed. According to Ehrman, textual criticism shows that the New Testament, as originally written, was characterized by errors and contradictions. What was most shocking, however, is that Evangelicals, while claiming that Ehrman overstated the case, agreed that he was fundamentally correct! The New Testament, as it came from the pen of the original authors, contained both errors and contradictions.
Is Ehrman correct? If not, why do notes in almost all English Bibles say that the “earliest manuscripts do not have Mark 16:9-20” (i.e., the resurrection account) and have demonstrable errors that skeptics use to attack the infallibility of Scripture? Does the original Greek text contain those same errors? Are our English Bibles really translated from the most accurate Greek text? It is high time to take another look at textual criticism, to see whether the New Testament is indeed “WordPerfect” or just a “sloppy copy.”