Part 4 :: LESSON SUMMARIES
Lesson 70
The golden era of Solomon was the peak of Israel’s culture. Israel’s history is controlled by the covenants. Solomon’s prayer, dedicating the temple. Inside God’s kingdom: how God disciplines His own. The manifestations of blessing and of cursing for Israel.
Lesson 71
Orientation to the doctrine of Christian sanctification (example: Solomon). Biblical prayers have a structure. There is no such thing as “natural law.” The Abrahamic Covenant guarantees the future of Israel, not the Mosaic Covenant. God teaches through His disciplinary processes. The golden era of Solomon. The Queen of Sheba. Questions and answers.
Lesson 72
How Biblical wisdom generates culture. Good and evil cannot be separated without righteous violence. The true and the false view of wisdom. The features of wisdom. A wise culture will have wise legislation. A foolish culture will have foolish legislation. As long as man stays within the constraints of wisdom, God gives him creative freedom. A society without a wisdom structure will lack creativity. Where Biblical wisdom plays a role in the believer’s life. Rebellion against the Word of God has profound effects on society. Questions and answers.
Lesson 73
The biblical model for a political leader. Solomon: religious apostasy, international treaties and religiously mixed marriages. Solomon confused the wisdom of God with the wisdom of men. Sanctification shapes believers to live with God for eternity. The parts of sanctification. The need for sanctification would exist even if Adam had not sinned. Models of sanctification: Jesus Christ, Adam, David, and the nation Israel. Questions and answers.
Lesson 74
The aim of sanctification is loyalty to God. Responses to the world system: capitulation, accommodation, separation or engagement filtered through the Word of God. Strong sanctification leads to biblical culture that reflects that sanctification. Characteristics of biblical culture. Questions and answers.
Lesson 75
How kings should operate (The Davidic/Messianic leadership model). The structure of a psalm. David spares Saul’s life and places his trust entirely in the Lord. Psalm chapter 57. Questions and answers.
Lesson 76
The geography of the nation Israel. Solomon’s spiritual decline leads to national decline. The nation of Israel fractures. In marriage, the common ground will either be Biblical truth or not. The first rejection of the Davidic Covenant. Biblical history is the revelation of God’s faithfulness.
Lesson 77
The foundation of the second kingdom. God’s plans work in and through man, but do not need man. The exaltation of civil law over the Word of God is sin and, structurally, warps society. When sin erases truth, it can’t stand the vacuum and fills it with something else. Questions and answers.
Lesson 78
A picture of how God rules His own. God takes authority structures, inside His kingdom, very seriously. The Southern and Northern Kingdoms compared. Human solutions, in defiance of the Word of God, collapse of their own weight. How to tell a true prophet from a false prophet. God’s plans don’t change. Jeroboam establishes a man-made religion with a biblical vocabulary. Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel. The gospel of Baal proven feckless. Questions and answers.
Lesson 79
Elijah and the test on Mount Carmel. Being a false prophet was a capital offense. God runs the nation of Israel as a good father runs his family. Property ownership in God’s kingdom. True revival reflects Who God is, not what people are doing. The ends of Ahab and Jezebel. Questions and answers.
Lesson 80
Very little of the New Testament is new. Only in Judeo-Christianity does God make contracts with human beings. The believer is to trust first, then obey. The Saul model and the David model of leadership compared. Trusting God’s character and that He has a purpose in suffering. Reasons for suffering. The focus of sanctification. Questions and answers.
Lesson 81
The divided kingdom. Fallen man, entrusted with total power, will always become a tyrant. Samuel’s farewell address to the nation. What should be the source of our motivation to obey God? Sin reinterprets our circumstances according to the flesh. The biblical meaning of election. How God chastens His people. How believers train their flesh in unrighteousness. God will not permit His elect people to damage themselves irreparably. Questions and answers.
Lesson 82
The prophetic section of the Bible. What the prophets were about. Why the believer must have a clear vision of Who God really is. The sovereignty of God over historical processes. The biblical prophets were reactionaries, not revolutionaries. Seeing the footprints of God’s march through time provides a vision of Who God is. The doctrine of election applied to the time of the prophets.
Lesson 83
The dual tracked ministry of the prophets. God controls pagan nations as much as He controls Israel and Judah (e.g. Assyria). Sennacherib attacks the Southern Kingdom. Hezekiah’s prayer and God’s answer. Connecting what God is doing in history with the promises in the Word of God. Questions and answers.
Lesson 84
Two themes of the prophets. The prophets interpreted history in relation to the covenants. The national anthem of Israel. The Mosaic Law was not the product of men, but God’s revelation of what pleases and displeases Him. The consequences of breaking God’s covenant. The prophets were God’s spokesmen and historians. The Coniah curse. Questions and answers.
Lesson 85
How God sets up history. Every heresy in Church history was, fundamentally, preceded by a false answer to the question: What is God like? Miracles are never and have never been a test of orthodoxy. The land covenant with Israel. God supplies the righteousness necessary to bless the nation of Israel. The failure of Israel demonstrates that the flesh cannot, consistently, obey the Word of God. The promises to Abraham are, ultimately, promises to regenerate Israel.
Lesson 86
Review of God’s covenants. The New Covenant promises Israel’s restoration to the land. Reasons for suffering. How a holy, righteous, God reconciles Himself to a sinful people. The cross solved an Old Testament mystery.
Lesson 87
[Lesson not available]
Lesson 88
The phases of sanctification and identifying them in scripture. Positional sanctification defines and controls experiential sanctification. The dimensions of sanctification. The point of prophecy is to help us to endure the present by knowing how it all will end. The aim of sanctification is for man to develop historical loyalty and obedience to God. Sanctification preceded the fall of Adam. The tools God uses in sanctification. New Testament analogs to the severity of God’s discipline in the Old Testament. Questions and answers.
Lesson 89
How God uses the enemies of sanctification. Both elect and fallen angels have a role in the believer’s spiritual growth. The period of the exile. Daniel’s example of how to live in a pagan world. Dreams in scripture. Questions and answers.
Lesson 90
The glory of God departs from the house of Israel (Ezekiel chapters 10 & 11) at the Mount of Olives. From the Mount of Olives Christ ascended and to there He will return. Even in her exile, Israel was a blessing to the nations. Extended questions and answers.
Lesson 91
A wise believer in a pagan society. Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the fiery furnace. An example of how quickly society can turn demonic. Paganism dissipates, distorts and perverts truth. There cannot be harmony between paganism and the Word of God. A classic statement of godly civil disobedience and the spirit in which it is given. Two repercussions of the exile. The differences between prophetic and apocalyptic literature. Questions and answers.
Lesson 92
[Lesson not available]
Lesson 93
The doctrine of separation. The format and purpose of apocalyptic literature. The emphasis in separation is not on what you are doing or where you are living, but how you think. The connection between separation and apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature cuts pagan power down to size and says God has a final plan in history. [Lesson ends prematurely]
Lesson 94
Living in the exile. The Mosaic Law is one of the great normative pieces of legislation in the history of man. God never taxed His people’s capital, only their income and only at a flat rate. When God’s laws are put into practice, they work. The definition of biblical revelation. How critics attack the book of Daniel and evidences that disprove their attacks. The apocalyptic vision gives us confidence to live, recognizing that the world is passing away.
Lesson 95
Examining our presuppositions. The biblical map of reality compared to the pagan map. All of paganism follows the same basic trends and model. Sin should not be thought of in terms of social consequences. All sin is against God alone! What is your ultimate reality? What is man? Anchoring yourself in the major events of scripture. What do you evaluate as the final value of our life? How do you view salvation? Questions and answers.
Lesson 96
Why study systematic theology? You can’t separate the history of God’s revelation from biblical doctrine. Demonstrating that most of the New Testament is not new. The writers of the New Testament assumed their readers knew the Old Testament. God disrupts sin patterns in our lives because He cares for us. The Bible is coherent because God thinks coherently. God is big enough to be sovereign and still allow personal responsibility. If you have a view of your life or past that is not a consequence of your choices, you will never change your life for the better. Man’s fall.
Lesson 97
Mastering a pattern of Biblical thinking (review). The Bible is a package deal. You must not allow its doctrines to lay on the table unconnected! Eve’s decision-making process, in the garden, is an analog of what goes on in our hearts every time we sin. The launching path for faith is always God’s revelation. An example of a believer living under an imperial, pagan regime who survived and was blessed through prayer. Questions and answers.
Lesson 98
A message from the book of Daniel. History is dynamic. It has a pattern and a purpose. God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. The problem of textual variations. The closing of the Old Testament text. Extended questions and answers.
Lesson 99
Four basic conclusions about the partial restoration of Israel to the land. The church must be submissive to the authority of Scripture. Important factors in canonicity. A picture of how a text of Scripture came into existence. The prophet’s protection and updating of the Scriptures. The preservation of the text of Scripture after the prophets. Jesus Christ and the Apostles accepted the Old Testament as the Word of God. Questions and answers.
Lesson 100
Eschatology. Everyone has an eschatology, but, apart from the Bible, no one has a correct eschatology. The glory of God is a higher goal than salvation. “The kingdom of God” is not a synonym for heaven. What is the relationship of the Church to “the kingdom of God?” Comparing the three views of the millennium (part 1). The power and historical consequences of various eschatologies. Questions and answers.
Lesson 101
Eschatology. Comparing the three views of the millennium (part 2). Premillenialists throughout Church history. Features of premillenialism. Features of amillenialism. Questions and answers.
Lesson 102
Eschatology. On a pagan basis, there is no future resolution in history. Any pagan who is optimistic about history is borrowing from Scripture or is a naive sentimentalist. Comparing the three views of the millennium (part 3). Features of amillenialism (continued). Features of postmillennialism. Questions and answers.
Lesson 103
[Lesson not available]
Lesson 104
What view of the kingdom best fits what the creation teaches about man and nature? The doctrine of the covenants applied to prophesy. The issue of rejection of Christ and the inter-advent age. Prophesy fulfillment and the Jewish calendar. Brief questions and answers.
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