COURSE DESCRIPTIONS -
Spring Semester 09'
• Course One: “What Is Real, and Who Says So?” Understanding Worldviews
• Course Two: “Who Was Jesus?"
• Course Three: “Can I Trust the Bible?"
• Course Four: “What Is Truth?" Are There Any Absolutes?
• Course Five: “Ravi On..." Part One
• Course Six: “Ravi On…” Part Two
Prerequisite Reading Prior to the Fall Semester:Walking From East to West By Ravi Zacharias
Course One:
“What Is Real, and Who Says So?” Understanding Worldviews
Eric Purtic
Discipleship Bldg./Classroom 32001/2nd Floor.
Course Description:
This course will seek to investigate various worldviews. What is a worldview? How do we know what our worldview is? What difference does it make which worldview we hold? Students will examine a Christian worldview and what the Bible has to say about Jesus of Nazareth in comparison to Christianity’s most vocal opponents.
Course Materials:
Books
• Jesus Among Other Gods - By Ravi Zacharias
• God’s Undertaker - By John Lennox
• Naming the Elephant - By James W. Sire
• Why I Still Believe - By Joe Boot
• Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross - By Norman Geisler and Abdul Saleeb
• 20 Compelling Evidences That God Exists (Chapters 9-12) - By Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr.
• The Real Face of Atheism (Appendix 2 only) - By Ravi Zacharias
Booklets
• Is God Real? (RZIM Critical Questions Series) - By William Lane Craig and Charles Taliaferro
CDs
• Why I Am Not an Atheist (CD 131) - By Ravi Zacharias
• Establishment of a Worldview (CD) - By Stuart McAllister
Article
• Beyond Opinion - By Sam Solomon
Reference
• The Compact Guide to World Religions - By Dean Halverson
Suggested Reading:
• Who Made God? And Answers to 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith - By Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler
• God, Are You There? - By William Lane Craig
• Why Isn’t God More Obvious? - By Dr. Paul K. Moser
• Does the Idea of God Make Sense? - By Charles Taliaferro
• The Case for a Creator - By Lee Strobel
• Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave - By Dave Breese
Course Two:
“Who Was Jesus?”
Pastor Charlie Halleran
Discipleship Bldg./Classroom 32002/2nd Floor.
Course Description:
The best way to learn something about a significant historical figure is to ask the person himself and those who knew that person best. In this course, students will investigate what Jesus had to say about Himself; what the disciples, His closest followers, wrote; what the crowds who witnessed Him have to tell us, and what His opponents also proffered. Students can expect to encounter questions that challenge the deity of Jesus, such as: Does evidence exist for Jesus outside the Bible? Was the resurrection an actual event? Was the Virgin Birth real?
Students will study the unique message of Jesus against the message of other major religions of the world and examine the truth of Christ in contrast to the teachings of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Students will also study some of the more fervent historical debates in the Jesus controversy and recognize how different visions of Jesus relate to varying visions of the Christian life. They will come to know Jesus historically in order to understand how their faith is vitally shaped by this understanding and how what one thinks of Jesus determines what it means to be a Christian.
Course Materials:
Books
• Can Man Live Without God? - By Ravi Zacharias
• The Lotus and the Cross - By Ravi Zacharias
• Jesus’ Resurrection: Fact or Figment? - Edited by Paul Copan
• Fabricating Jesus - By Craig A. Evans
Booklets
• Who Was Jesus? (RZIM Critical Questions Series) - By Scot McKnight
CD
• Jesus As They Saw Him (CD 133) - By Ravi Zacharias
Suggested Reading:
• God’s Rivals - By Gerald R. McDermott
• The Case for Christ - By Lee Strobel
• The Case for the Real Jesus - By Lee Strobel
• The Challenge of Jesus - By N.T. Wright
• Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? - Edited by Paul Copan
• The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions - By Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright
• Jesus and the Eyewitnesses - By Richard Bauckham.
• Putting Jesus in His Place - By J. Ed Komoszewski.
• What Have They Done with Jesus? - By Ben Witherington III.
Course Three:
“Can I Trust the Bible?”
Mike Rust
Discipleship Bldg./Classroom 34001/4th Floor.
Course Description:
Reading a book from the past is like taking a journey to another land. For all its timeliness, the Bible also has a distant feel to it. After all, it was written over two millennia ago, and its roots do go back to another time and place. All that distance and time raise chronic questions about the historicity of Scripture. Does the Bible only reflect what the world was like then? Is the Bible pertinent for our day and world today? Is the Bible really trustworthy in its content?
If there is a possibility that God has spoken through the Bible and has participated in the history that the Bible records, then the answers to these and other questions are not a mere academic exercise. Our journey back into these seemingly foreign, ancient times may be a true opportunity to see more clearly who we are and who we were created to be.
This course is predicated on the belief that the Bible is indeed trustworthy and bears surprising relevance to this generation. Students will thus look at the internal and external evidence for its historicity and authenticity, along with Jesus’ own words on the matter. Given that knowing implies understanding, students will also consider the messages they encounter in each of the passages in order to act on what they have discovered therein and better understand the Bible and the world it inhabits today.
Course Materials:
Books
• Is the Bible Intolerant? - By Amy Orr-Ewing
• Is the Old Testament Reliable? - By Walter Kaiser
• Is the New Testament Reliable? - By Paul Barnett
• Misquoting Truth - By Timothy Paul Jones
Booklets
• Can I Trust the Bible? (RZIM Critical Questions Series) - By Darrell L. Bock
CDs
• Biblical Authority and Our Cultural Crisis (CD 203) - By Ravi Zacharias
• Attacks on the Bible (CD 01)
Suggested Reading:
• Can we trust the Gospels? - By Mark D. Roberts.
• Meditating on the Word - By Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Scripture and Truth - By D.A. Carson and John
• The New Testament Documents, Are They Reliable? - By F.F. Bruce
Course Four:
“What Is Truth?” Are There Any Absolutes?
Tim Day
Discipleship Bldg./Classroom 34002/4th Floor.
Course Description:
What is true must correspond to reality; otherwise it is false. Therefore, if truth means anything at all, it must exclude something—namely, falsehood. In this course students will examine the various reasons why truth is objective and relativism is ultimately unlivable. Relativism is so pervasive in our culture that to question it is to invite charges of intolerance. And though our culture esteems tolerance, students will explore the limits of tolerance and consider the question of whether moral judgments are inevitable. Lastly, students will consider how objective moral values must necessarily come from God—a God who reveals Himself to be good and worthy of our worship—and how we cannot live without making moral choices. Topics such as: The Basis for Truth: Defending the Notion of Absolute Truth and The Loss of Truth: The Crumbling Moral Foundation will be considered. In this course, students will study how to communicate truth to a world that isn’t sure what truth is.
Course Materials:
Books
• True for You, But Not for Me - By Paul Copan
• Telling the Truth - By D.A. Carson
Booklets
• What Is Truth? (RZIM Critical Questions Series)- By Paul Copan and Dr. Mark Linville
• Why Bother with Truth? - By James Beilby and David K. Clark
• Is Everything Relative? - By Paul Copan
• Is Everything Permitted? - By Dr. Mark Linville
CDs
• In the Pursuit of Truth (CD 307) - By Ravi Zacharias
• Absolute Truth in Relative Terms (CD 120) - By Ravi Zacharias
Course Five:
“Ravi On…” Part One
Various Instructors
Discipleship Bldg./Classroom 32001/2nd Floor.
Course Description:
This introductory prerequisite course is intended to: (1) substantively familiarize students with the apologetics teaching ministry of Ravi Zacharias; (2) introduce students to the fundamental issues and topics that constitute a study of Christian apologetics and shape apologetic thinking; (3) prepare students to successfully grapple with these fundamental issues and topics and the counter-arguments that arise to challenge them and to frame an effective argument in defense of the truth; (4) address the relationship between apologetics and evangelism; (5) equip students to defend the truth utilizing the principles of apologetics in the work of evangelism through weekly outreaches.
Course Materials:
Multimedia instruction, including DVDs and CDs of core Ravi Zacharias teachings, such as Apologetics Then and Now.
Course Six:
“Ravi On...” Part Two
Independent Study
Only 2 required meetings: January 17 & April 4 in the
Discipleship Bldg./Classroom 32002/2nd Floor.
Course Description:
This course is a self-directed, independent study designed to take the student through 24 seminal and highly influential teachings by Ravi Zacharias, available on downloaded podcast. These teachings are distinctive in their evangelistic and apologetic foundation and are intended to touch both the heart and the intellect of the thinkers and opinion makers of society with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are intended to further the training of the student so that the mandate of 1 Peter 3:15 might be fulfilled—to set apart Christ in our hearts as Lord and always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us, to do this with gentleness and respect, through weekly outreaches, all for the glory of God.
Course Materials:
24 personally selected, downloaded teachings by Ravi Zacharias.
