What I'm Learning

Things I've been learning at Bible College, by class:

Romans:

We've covered about half of the book of Romans so far. Romans is written as a formal argument, almost like a legal document. It starts off by establishing that people are guilty of sin and don't deserve heaven, then introduces the grace of God that brings justification. Justification being a one time act of forgiving sins, so that sinners may be pardoned and permitted entrance to heaven. Then it continues on to the topic of sanctification, which is God continually at work in the Christian's life to purge sin and produce holiness.

Discipleship:

Discipleship is my favorite class. It's going over a bunch of basic Christian doctrine, in order to prepare us for discipling new believers. The topics covered include daily quiet times, prayer, fellowship, being Spirit-filled, witnessing, and Biblical reconciliation. Lots of good stuff, much of which I have heard at points before, but it has really helped me to have it presented in such a focused format.

One controversial subject that was brought up in this class was a teaching on forgiveness. According to the teacher, Pastor Bob, forgiveness in the Bible is only given to those who are repentant. For example, Jesus said that if someone sins against you and repents seventy times seven times, then you should forgive them seventy times seven. On the other hand, we are called to forgive others as we would wish God to forgive us, so it seems we should forgive unconditionally. I just brought it up because I thought it was an interesting point of discussion, and I'm not entirely sure what the answer is.

Hermeneutics (Inductive Bible Study):

This class is about how to study the Bible. There's a focus on preparing students to lead a small Bible Study. We pick a passage of scripture each week, do an outline, and go through the verses recording observations, interpretations, and applications. Then the class period is discussing what we got out of the text.

John:

Nothing special about the course requirements here, we're pretty much going straight through the book of John with insights from the teacher. I like the teacher, he's quite a character. He cracks jokes like "My wife is great, when she's humble." The book of John is also a great book, some recurring themes are the deity of Jesus, how the Jewish leaders tried to suppress and kill Him, and how His teachings were repeatedly misunderstood by the unbelieving Jews.

Genesis:

This is also teaching straight through the book of Genesis, although the homework is varied a bit from the standard (some papers and memorization). Many Christians believe that Genesis 1-11 are not literally true, but figurative in nature. These are the chapters that cover creation, the flood, and the tower of Babel (origin of languages). Interestingly, the percentage of Christians taking a literal interpretation of Genesis 1-11 is higher if the Christians in question are scientists! The teacher for our class takes a literal interpretation.

Other:

We have a class called "Chuck Tracks" which is pastor Chuck Smith teaching straight through the entire Bible. This class takes all 4 semesters, so for my semester I am just going through the first half of the Old Testament. He likes to emphasize the importance of relying on God to work rather than trying to rely on ourselves.

I've also been doing a little studying on my own time when I get the chance. I've been reading through From God to Us, which is all about how we got the Bible and why Christians claim it is inspired.

Another interesting point that was touched on in both the Sunday sermons and the Discipleship class was that of a Sabbath day. The pastor here believes that the Sabbath should still be observed, not according to strict rules about what times and actions are acceptable, but rather setting aside one day a week to relax and spend time with God. We put this into practice in the Discipleship class, setting aside a few hours one Saturday to go on a 3 hour prayer retreat. Since the point was relaxing and enjoying time with God we weren't required to force ourselves to pray for all that time, we were encouraged to come prepared with a devotional book or a sermon we wanted to listen to. It was a good thing, and something I think I'd like to work in to my weekly routine.