Biblical Interpretation (Third Millennium)

Instructions

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Course Description:

Evangelical Christians affirm the Scriptures as God’s inerrant word, but we still disagree sometimes over the meaning of particular verses or passages, and these differences can influence our Christian doctrine and practice. One reason for these disagreements is that there are many different approaches to interpreting the Bible. But how do we know which approach to interpretation is the most responsible? This course will help answer that question. It is based on the lecture series, He Gave Us Scripture: Foundations of Interpretation, produced by Third Millennium Ministries and hosted by Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr. with contributions from a variety of professors.

Goals and Objectives

GOALS

In this course, we would like to accomplish the following:

1. We hope you will understand the fundamental principles of biblical interpretation, including the terminology and history of hermeneutics, the biblical approach to meaning, the unique nature of the Scriptures, and the proper way to discover the original meaning of a passage and apply it to our modern context.

2. We hope you grow in your desire to study the Scriptures carefully and to discover the best approach to interpret them.

3. We hope that you will apply the guidelines of this course to develop appropriate habits of biblical interpretation.

OBJECTIVES

When you have done the following, it will show that the goals are met:

1. Obtain satisfactory grades on the tests, demonstrating that you can identify the fundamental principles of biblical interpretation, including the terminology and key information about the history of hermeneutics, the key aspects of a biblical approach to meaning, the unique characteristics of the Scriptures, and the main principles of discovering the original meaning of a passage and applying it to our modern context.

2. Answer the application questions in the study guides, in which you practice applying the teachings of the lessons to a specific Bible passage.

Explanation of Assignments

The Multimedia Lessons

1. Study the lessons, watching the video, listening to the audio, or reading the text.
2. Complete the study guides for each lesson. These study guides will prepare you for the online quizzes and help you apply the teachings of the lesson to your own life. (For those students associated with a particular institution wishing to track the completion of the completion of the Study Guides, a drop box has been provided at the end of the course.)
3. Take the online quizzes on each section of the lessons. The quizzes may be taken as many times as you want, but you must wait five days between each attempt, and the official grade will be from the first attempt.
4. Optional: We recommend that you look through the glossaries and use the learning games to become familiar with special names and technical terms used in the lessons. 
5. Take the cumulative test for each complete lesson. You may take the test again as many times as you want for review, but you must wait five days between each attempt, and the official grade is from the first attempt.
6. When you have finished all the lessons on the multimedia lectures, take the final exam on the lectures.

Course Requirements:

1. You must complete each lesson in the course.  After you complete the requirements for a lesson/session, go to the Activity Feed and post a comment about something that interested or impacted you as you worked through the lesson. Your comment needs to be well thought out and at least 75 words.  These posts will be counted as part of the writing requirement for the course so please write well thought out comments on what you are learning in the lesson. Please start your comment by referring to the course name and session or lesson number of the course. You also need to post comments on two other students recent comments on courses they are currently taking.

2. After completing all of the lessons in the course, you will need to write a 750 word paper on three things that have impacted you during the course and submit it using the Completed Coursework Upload form. At the Bachelor’s Degree Level, your paper must be well-written.

Click here if you need information on How to Write a PaperYour forum posts can be helpful in writing your paper.

3. Once you complete a course with a satisfactory grade at Third MIll Institute (IIIM), you can print out a certificate for yourself and then you need to email us a copy so we can record it as a completed course in your school record.

Third Mill Institute Course Link:

He Gave Us Scripture