Courses

The world through wisdom does not know God, but it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to bring those that have faith to salvation. The word of revelation is profound and sometimes difficult to translate or understand. This course is to enable teachers and preachers to expound the whole counsel of God. This course will cover some texts that have multiple translations (Job 13:13–16), passages that are enigmatic (1 Peter 3:18–22), and books that are problematic theologically (an alleged “genocide” in Joshua) or culturally misunderstood (Ruth). All texts will be studied as part of a Biblical theology and not as a basis for a devotional thought. Good preaching begins with the theology taught in the scriptures. Christians must know what the biblical authors believed before going on to address contemporary times.

• Knowing how to address textual, syntactical, or lexical issues of difficult texts with the help of commentaries
• Knowing how to choose commentaries that contribute to understanding the issues of difficult texts and use them in a way that provides clarity of understanding
• Knowing how a difficult text contributes to the theology of a composition, with an understanding of how the ambiguities may be significant

• Being a person that desires to know the whole counsel of God revealed for our understanding
• Being a person that incorporates all Biblical theology in faith and practice
• Being a person that has the humility to accept the limitations of knowledge

• Developing skills to articulate the meaning of difficult texts in a non-technical manner
• Developing skills to deal with translation difference in preaching without distracting from the main theological contribution of a passage, but even using them to contribute to it
• Learning to choose difficult texts that are a problem for understanding the Bible and use them in sermons and lessons to clarify misunderstandings and wrong interpretations