Seeing the Bigger Picture
What is going on in the world? It's getting a little crazy these days, isn't it?! Where do I fit? How should I react? Society is suggesting so many different "necessary" actions and "necessary" responses. How do I sort out my personal response to all the calamities I see in my city, in my nation, in the nations, in the news, given all the natural and man-made disasters?
Well, suppose you wanted to study the circulatory system in the human body. You could study the heart or blood cells or the role of the arteries, or any other part of the circulatory system. But to know how the circulatory system functions, you would need to study it in its entirety. More that that, if you wanted to know how it made a difference in your life, in your body, you would need to study all the other systems in the body and get an understanding of how the entire body functions.
In terms of our life in God, often we study the Bible one book at a time. Other times we study a topic across several books. However, if we want to know what God is doing in the world throughout all of human history, we need to step back to grasp the bigger picture.
This introduction course is foundational to all our other courses. It includes 6 mini-courses that total 16 weeks of study. After a brief look at the principles we use in Bible Study, we examine God's overall plan for Israel and how He feels about Israel today. That is, what is the story God is unfolding in His Word and in our world. We close with a quick look at key terms, events, and people in God's plan to eradicate injustice from the face of the earth, then examine four typical approaches to understanding the End-Time story of the return of Christ (Amillennialism, Post Millennialism, Dispensational Premillennialism, and Historical Premillenialism). Mini-courses are:
1. Principles of Biblical Interpretation
2. Israel and the Great Commission
3. It must be Finished
4. One King
5. Intro to the End Times
6. Intro to Eschatology
Short pre-recorded course videos are taught by Samuel Whitefield and Dr. Kathi DeCanio, then we meet online weekly to discuss the video contents. Videos are only 10 to 15 minutes long, and there is no required homework. Honestly, it's a "plug-and-play" little course. We'd love to join you on your journey in God.