PART 5 :: LESSON SUMMARIES
Lesson 105
The confrontation with the King. God reveals the hearts of men through their response to the person of Christ. The revelation of Jesus Christ is God’s highest revelation to the human race. Jesus argued that He was self-authenticating, that because He said it, it was true. Rebellion against God blinds you, deafens you and hardens your heart. How the pagan world was prepared for the arrival of the Son of God. God has a plan that includes every molecule and every action of every molecule in human history. Questions and answers.
Lesson 106
How the pagan world was prepared for the arrival of the Son of God (continued). How the Jewish world was prepared for the arrival of the Son of God. The intense Jewishness of Jesus Christ. Questions and answers.
Lesson 107
“The fullness of time” means that the gentiles and the Jews had enough exposure that there was no excuse for misidentifying Jesus Christ. Recognizing Jesus Christ as the Messiah is both an individual and a national (Israel) decision. The nature and method of Christ’s presentation during His incarnation. Five reasons Jesus Christ was crucified. Jewish reasons for rejecting Jesus Christ. Reasons modern Jews reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Whenever you have a weak Christology, you have a strong state. Gentile reasons for rejecting Jesus Christ. Questions and answers.
Lesson 108
If you don’t understand the doctrines of God, man and nature, you cannot understand Jesus Christ. The virgin birth is implicit in the Old Testament. The problem of a corrupt lineage is completely avoided through the virgin birth of Jesus Christ (Joseph’s line was under the Coniah curse). The virgin birth was prophetically necessary. Jesus Christ could not be who He claimed to be unless He was born of a virgin. Questions and answers.
Lesson 109
Because Jesus Christ is God’s highest revelation to man, man is measured by his response to Christ. Linking the virgin birth of Jesus Christ to the doctrine of the hypostatic union. The legal and moral necessity for the virgin birth of Christ. The spiritual necessity for the virgin birth of Christ. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ resolves the issues of imputed sin and inherent sin. The ancient Jewish reaction to the virgin birth claim.
Lesson 110
The pathological nature of unbelief. Rejecting God’s revelation begins a self-destructive process. Man is held accountable for the knowledge of God in the creation. A history of modern, gentile, unbelief and the rejection of the virgin birth. God doesn’t move in history without Satan making a countermove. The “modernist” versus the “fundamentalists.” Questions and answers.
Lesson 111
We should not study the Bible from the New Testament backwards, but instead, from the Old Testament forward. Three categories of evidence for the person of Christ. (1) Two categories of prophecy converge in human history. (2) Jesus Christ substituted for God in Old Testament passages, quoted in the New Testament. (3) Jesus Christ does the same things God is said to do. Questions and answers.
Lesson 112
New Testament passages that speak of the full deity of Jesus Christ. God is not dependent on His creation for anything. False models for God, throughout Church history, compared to the Biblical Trinitarian model. Questions and answers.
Lesson113
False views of Jesus Christ’s humanity, throughout Church history, compared to the Biblical doctrine of the hypostatic union. If Christ is not God, worshipping Him is blasphemy. Questions and answers.
Lesson 114
Review of the evidences for Christ’s deity. Implications of the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is the final and most complete revelation of God. Our personal history has eternal consequences. Questions and answers.
Lesson 115
The Trinity. The issue of the one and the many. Without the Trinity there is no language or logic. Man operates everyday as if the one and the many are in harmony. Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity is no stranger than the one and the many in our everyday lives. God is as much one as He is three. Questions and answers.
Lesson 116
The Trinity. All men know that God exists. Unbelief is self-deception. The unbeliever has to utilize the absolutes of God (create universals) in order to attack God. The one and the many in creation is derivative of the one and the many of the Creator. Old Testament Scripture where plurality in God exists and the Trinity is or may be present. Moses and the prophets saw plurality inside God. Questions and answers.
Lesson 117
The deity of Jesus Christ. New Testament supporting data for the full deity and the full personhood of God the Holy Spirit. Man’s sense of absolutes is derived from God’s character. God is all of His attributes. All of God is righteousness; all of God is justice, etc.. Questions and answers.
Lesson 118
We can know God, but cannot comprehend Him. The Creator-creature distinction as it relates to knowledge. The tools of reasoning we use are derivatives of God’s attributes. God’s threeness relates to modes of being, not merely roles. Questions and answers.
Lesson 119
Solitary monotheism is totally incompatible with the God of the Scripture. Implications of the hypostatic union. God cannot be revealed any more clearly than He is in the person of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, all murder is a sinful response toward God Himself. The doctrine of the Trinity. The implications of the Trinity. Divine institutions. Questions and answers.
Lesson 120
How unbelief handles Jesus Christ (God’s greatest revelation to man). The ancient response to the King. Jesus said that the traditions of His time were obscuring the power of the original Word of God. Jesus Christ claimed to fulfill the whole sweep of Old Testament ideas in Himself and in His work. Jesus’ personal life made people uncomfortable. Jesus Christ was self-authenticating and did not appeal to a standard outside of Him. Questions and answers.
Lesson 121
How unbelief handles Jesus Christ (continued). The modern response to the King. How the fallen intellect always distorts and suppresses revelation to avoid accountability to God. Implicit in our hearts, we know our Creator’s voice and don’t require a reason to believe. Unbelief rejects the existence of miracles because miracles violate the certainty of human knowledge, man being the supposed source of that certainty, not God. The agenda of unbelief is to make the world safe for sinners. The Word of God both hardens and softens hearts! The pagan worldview denies there can be any revelation from God. Questions and answers.
Lesson 122
Every Christian should know the doctrine of kenosis. Jesus Christ is the model for living the Christian way of life, proving it works. Kenosis disproves that the Christian life was different for Jesus than it is for us. The progressive sanctification of Jesus Christ. The issue of sanctification precedes the issue of sin and suffering. Examples of kenosis as it relates to Christ’s sanctification. Jesus Christ did not cheat, during times of testing, by using His omniscience or omnipotence. Questions and answers.
Lesson 123
The implications of kenosis. The cardinal virtue of Christianity is humility before God. Christ, in His kenosis, modeled what this humility ought to look like. Christ is eternally subjected to the Father in role, but not essence. This relationship in no way demeans Him. Questions and answers.
Lesson 124
Review of the three major implications of kenosis. Jesus Christ is a pure judge and an empathetic priest. It is Jesus Christ Who commends people to hell for all eternity. Jesus is the standard for behavior. If our standards for behavior negatively judge His behavior, then our standards must be wrong! The doctrine of impeccability. Questions and answers.
Lesson 125
Having a correct image of Who Christ was and how He acted. Jesus Christ was humble toward God, but, in His life, His will was anything but weak. Being “Christ like” does not conform to modern standards of a “healthy personality.” The implications of Christ’s impeccability. In eternity there will be an infinite number of lessons to learn about God. The doctrine of infallibility. Jesus’ historical and scientific claims. Questions and answers.
Lesson 126
The infallibility of Christ. Can a perfect person make technical errors? The testing criteria for evaluating a prophet. The inerrancy of Scripture. Critics of the Scripture’s inerrancy relocate inerrancy to concepts, things, men or institutions. Questions and answers.
Lesson 127
Thinking scripturally or not. The battle for the mind of the believer. Heaven and hell is the Biblical solution to evil. When God created the universe, there was no evil in it. All evil originated because of creature rebellion against the Creator. Unbelief is fragile and has inherent problems (Romans Chapter 1). Sin effects how we think. Questions and answers.
Lesson 128
A quick review of the previous years teaching. The Bible’s two level view of reality versus the pagan one level view of reality. Jesus Christ poses this question to every human being: “Who do you say that I am?” The necessity for the virgin birth. The virgin birth offends unbelieving man. What unbelieving man has done with the life of Christ.
Lesson 129
Two titles Jesus Christ used to identify Himself: “The Son of God” and ”The Son of Man.” “Son of Man” fulfills the Genesis mandate to rule, indicates moral perfection and reflects a kingdom of perfect righteousness ruled by Jesus Christ. Questions and answers.
Lesson 130
Pagan thought insists on the sufficiency of natural causes, but natural causes are insufficient. Our thought pattern is 95% of the battle in the Christian life. The Old Testament view of justice linked to the cross of Christ. Blood atonement satisfies God’s justice. In Old Testament justice, the sin is against God, not man. There is a restitutionary component to Biblical justice that refers to repairing the damage to God’s order. Questions and answers.
Lesson 131
Criticism leveled toward Christianity by the media. Reason and faith are not opposites. You can’t reason without faith. The unbelieving mind is inherently idolatrous. Justice is not ultimately determined by man. Man’s sense of justice is a derivative of God’s attribute of holiness. Man’s laws attempt to approximate God’s justice. The source of restitution for sin.
Lesson 132
Biblical faith is an historic faith. You can’t have doctrinal truths without historical integrity. The dilemma and limitations of the empirical approach. In every area of life, start with the Word of God. Questions and answers.
Lesson 133
Features of the death of the Messiah. God creates truth and man discovers it. The Messiah is linked with suffering and substitutionary atonement. The history of Jewish interpretation of Isaiah Chapter 53. The non-glorious death of the Messiah. Questions and answers.
Lesson 134
How the New Testament presents the cross of Christ. Christ was in charge of His unique death and was both priest and sacrifice. The cross has cosmic effects, changing the basis for condemnation. The cross of Christ had angelic implications. God’s timing and the cross of Christ. Questions and answers.
Lesson 135
The cross of Christ and unbelief. Unbelief in the virgin birth and the incarnation rejects the Creator/creature distinction. Unbelief in scripture, as a historical record, reject a God Who speaks and reveals Himself. The cross of Christ changes the basis for condemnation from personal sin to unbelief. The gospel both softens and hardens hearts. Jewish unbelief. Unbelief wants salvation without judgment. Gentile unbelief. Repentance alone does not save; there must be restitution. Without the need for atonement, the cross of Christ becomes unnecessary. Unbelief must redefine the cross of Christ. The act of approving what is wicked is worse than doing it! Questions and answers.
Lesson 136
The nature of atonement. Three approaches to the cross of Christ from Church history. The issue of salvation is theological and God-centered not psychological and man-centered. It is, therefore, unchanging and stable. The sanctification, human influence and governmental views of the cross, seen in two historical events of judgment-salvation. Questions and answers.
Lesson 137
The extent of the atonement. Limitations of the human influence and governmental views of the cross. The limited and unlimited atonement views. The atonement is the sole legal basis for all grace. Questions and answers.
Lesson 138
Review of the interconnected Biblical framework, from creation through the death of Jesus Christ. Identifying and challenging the pagan worldview. Using major Biblical themes as a yardstick for evaluation. The Bible is a story of the disruption of sinful civilization. The Bible is coherent! Questions and answers.
Lesson 139
How to use the Biblical framework over against the pagan world system. Unbelief does not endure because it doesn’t fit the universe the way God made it. Paul in Athens. Pagan tactical and strategic use of language. Questions and answers.
Lesson 140
Using a magazine article to illustrate pagan tactical use of language. Words and language are very deeply and profoundly spiritual. Satan cannot deceive by presenting bulk error; he always includes enough undeniable truth. Questions and answers.
Lesson 141
What is the relationship of the cross of Christ to unbelievers and angels? The cross changes the final condemnation of unbelievers from sin to unbelief. The cross dooms fallen angels. The atonement is the sole legal basis for all grace. God calls all men to Himself with an atonement big enough for all people. God administers salvation asymmetrically. The fundamental difference between Roman Catholicism and the Protestantism of the reformation. Whatever good exists is due to God. Evil exists because of rejection of God. [Lesson ends prematurely]
Lesson 142
Issues from the death of Christ. The extent of the atonement and the protestant reformation. Luther and Calvin believed that Christ is the source of our assurance and that faith is assurance of our election. Later reformers altered the views of Calvin and Luther as a political/theological response to the attacks of Roman Catholicism. Four questions: election, justification, the nature of faith and sanctification. Questions and answers.
Lesson 143
Evaluating a debate as a practical exercise to think through the Scripture. All the authors of the New Testament were monotheistic Jews (possible exception is Luke) and they had no problem with the Trinity and Christ’s deity. The rise of Islam in modern times. Major events in Scripture model the atonement. The nature and extent of the atonement. The cross frees God to forgive sin without compromising His holiness. Questions and answers.
Lesson 144
More examples from a debate. Rejecting the requirement for a blood atonement compromises the nature of God. The gospel will always offend unbelief. The historicity of the resurrection of Christ is essential to the historicity of the gospel! Jesus Christ’s post-resurrection appearances.
Lesson 145
The facts of the resurrection of Christ. The distinction between a spirit body (angels), resuscitation and resurrection. The context of the resurrection. Our relationship with God requires that we have a body. Salvation is incomplete unless it includes the body. The resurrection is both implicit and explicit. The meaning of the resurrection. New testament references to the resurrection. Questions and answers.
Lesson 146
Historical, unbelieving, responses to the resurrection event. What is particularly offensive to unbelief about the resurrection? The resurrection confronts each of us with our future, permanent state; threatening “the enemies of Christianity with the consequences of unrepentant death!” Questions and answers.
Lesson 147
Review of the Biblical context of the resurrection. Using the resurrection to represent a vague hope is improper and reveals a false theology. The fall and final judgment have cosmic results and bracket evil. Glorification is the ultimate, final aim and purpose of history. God is progressively glorified throughout history.
Lesson 148
God is glorified sequentially in time. God is also glorified in eternity. Man will ultimately be glorified in the person of Jesus Christ because, as the Son of Man, He fulfills the destiny of man. Nature will be glorified in the new heavens and new earth. Questions and answers.
Lesson 149
The sobering side of the resurrection. The glorification of nature. Applications of the resurrection. The resurrection is the basis for the Christian hope and a powerful incentive to Christian living. The resurrection and the gospel. “The chief and the highest end of man.” Questions and answers.
Lesson 150
How the Apostle Paul approached and reasoned with a profoundly pagan group of people. Giving a reasoned defense for your faith. There is no such thing as “natural law.” Nothing works independently of God! Unbelief is inherently hypocritical. Quick review of the Framework series to this point.
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