Syllabus for We Believe in the Holy Spirit
Course Description
Practically speaking, the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity who is most involved in our daily lives, but many Christians know far more about the Father and the Son than they do about the Spirit. In this series we'll discover how the doctrine of the Holy Spirit developed historically, and we'll explore the Spirit's dynamic work in the world, in the church, and in believers. This course is based on the lecture series, We Believe in the Holy Spirit, produced by Third Millennium Ministries and hosted by Dr. Ramesh Richard with contributions from a variety of professors.
Goals and Objectives
GOALS
In this course, we would like to accomplish the following:
1. We hope the student will have a better understanding of the Holy Spirit's role within the Trinity.
2. We hope the student will develop a greater love for the work of the Holy Spirit in redemptive history.
3. We hope the student will more intentionally rely on the Holy Spirit for all areas of life and ministry.
OBJECTIVES
When you have done the following, it will show that the goals are met:
1. Obtain satisfactory grades on the automatically graded elements of the course, demonstrating that you can: a) identify key information about the Holy Spirit's relationship with the other members of the Trinity, b) express the Bible's teaching on the Holy Spirit in both the Old and New Testaments, c) communicate the various biblical ideas concerning the proper use of spiritual gifts, and d) identify the biblical teachings on the Holy Spirit's work at conversion and throughout the believer's lifetime.
2. Complete the study guides, essay questions, journal questions, and other assignments of the course, in which you express your own responses and opinions regarding the topics of pneumatology and show how you have applied the teachings of the course to your own life.
Thematic Outline of the Course
1. In the Trinity
2. In the World
3. In the Church
4. In the Believer
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.
Other Activities
1. Complete the supplementary lessons for each lesson. These lessons give you additional background information and provide other learning aids related to the lessons. You may repeat these lessons as many times as you want, and the official grade will be the highest score out of all the attempts.
2. Complete the questionnaires for the lessons to help assimilate the teachings and apply them to your own life. These are not quizzes. The answers are more subjective. The grade is for completing the assignment.
3. There is a final lesson based on additional readings. These are optional readings designed to supplement the main lesson materials. The student should do the reading, complete the study guides, and take the corresponding quizzes and cumulative test based on the reading. These are graded as extra credit. (For those students associated with a particular institution wishing to track the completion of the Reading Study Guides, a drop box has been provided at the end of the course.)
We recommend that you work on these reading assignments and quizzes during the entire course, instead of waiting until you finish all the lessons based on the video lectures. For each lesson, do the percentage of the work on them that corresponds to the number of lessons in the course.
Optional Activities
Some institutions may require you to do one or more of the following optional assignments. If so, read the instructions in lesson 1 and follow the specific guidelines given in the instructions for each lesson.
1. The Written project
2. Essay Questions
3. Journal Questions
4. Optional Additional Reading
Grades
The final grade will be calculated as follows:
1) The quizzes on the lectures are each worth 10 points.
2) Each cumulative test is worth 30 points.
3) Each supplementary lesson is worth 10 points.
4) Each questionnaire is worth 10 points.
5) The final exam on the lectures is worth 100 points.
6) Each quiz on the reading assignments is worth 10 points (extra credit).
7) The cumulative test on the additional reading is worth 30 points (extra credit).
The final grade of the course will be calculated by adding the corresponding percentages of all assignments and tests, making a total of 100% possible.
A total course score above 70% is considered passing.
Greek and Hebrew
Some lessons in our courses make reference to words in Greek or Hebrew. If you have not studied these languages, you might want to at least become familiar with the alphabets.
For the Greek alphabet, see:
https://www.billmounce.com/greekalphabet/greek-alphabet
For the Hebrew alphabet, see:
http://hebrew.billmounce.com/BasicsBiblicalHebrew-01.pdf
List of Contributors to We Believe in the Holy Spirit
Pastor Rasmy Abraham is Pastor of Arabic Nazarene Church in Euless, Texas.
Dr. Danny Akin is President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr. Gregg R. Allison is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr. Uche Anizor is Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at the Talbot School of Theology.
Pastor Pierre Bitar is Pastor of Arabic Community Church in Allen, Texas.
Dr. P.J. Buys is Missiology Research Professor at Northwest University in South Africa.
Rev. Larry Cockrell is Senior Pastor of Household of Faith Church and faculty member of Birmingham Theological Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dr. David M. Correa is Director of the Youth Ministries Institute in Yucatan, Mexico.
Dr. Mike Fabarez is Senior Pastor of Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo, California.
Dr. Joseph D. Fantin is Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Tim Foster is Vice Principal at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia.
Dr. Dana M. Harris is Associate Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Dr. J. Scott Horrell is Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Alan Hultberg is Associate Professor of Bible Exposition and New Testament at Talbot School of Theology.
Dr. Dennis E. Johnson is Academic Dean and Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Seminary California.
Dr. Keith Johnson serves as the Director of Theological Education for the U.S campus ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ and is a guest professor of Systematic Theology for Reformed Theological Seminary.
Dr. Todd Johnson is Associate Professor of Global Christianity and Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Dr. David W. Jones is Professor of Christian Ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr. Riad Kassis is Regional Director for Overseas Council, an international training ministry for Christian leaders.
Dr. Craig Keener is the F.M. and Ada Thompson Chair of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Prof. Mumo Kisau is Vice Chancellor and Professor at Scott Christian University in Kenya.
Dr. Glenn R. Kreider is Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Dan Lacich serves on the pastoral team of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Orlando FL.
Dr. Bruce Little is Senior Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Director of the Francis A. Schaeffer Collection.
Pastor Raymond Massaad is Pastor of the Arabic Christian Fellowship in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Dr. Steve McKinion is Associate Professor of Theology and Patristic Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr. John McKinley is Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University.
Dr. Dinorah Mendez is Professor of Theology and Christian Heritage at the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary.
Rev. Dr. Emad A. Mikhail is President of Great Commission College in Egypt.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Niehaus is Professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Rev. Mike Osborne is Associate Pastor of University Presbyterian Church in Orlando, FL.
Dr. John Oswalt is the Visiting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Dr. Gregory R. Perry is Associate Professor of New Testament and Director of City Ministry Initiative at Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.
Dr. Thomas Petter is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Dr. Yohanes Praptowarso serves at Batu Theological Seminary.
Dr. Charles L. Quarles is professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr. Benjamin Quinn is Associate Dean of Institutional Effectiveness for the College at Southeastern and Assistant Professor of Theology and History of Ideas at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr. Ramesh Richard is Professor of Global Theological Engagement and Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Philip Graham Ryken is President and Professor of Theology at Wheaton College.
Pastor Ashraf Sara is Pastor at Living Word Arabic Church in Dallas, Texas.
Dr. Mark Saucy is Professor of Theology and Chair of the Theology Department at Talbot School of Theology.
Dr. Glen Scorgie is Professor of Theology at Bethel Seminary's San Diego Campus.
Rev. Dr. Alfred Sebahene, Ph.D. is Dean at St. John’s University in Tanzania.
Dr. Imad Shehadeh is Founder, President and Professor of Theology at Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary in Amman, Jordan.
Rev.Vuyani Sindo is a lecturer at George Whitfield College in Capetown, South Africa.
Dr. Mark Strauss is Professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary's San Diego Campus.
Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry is President and Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity School for Ministry.
Rev. Dr. Simon Vibert is the former Vicar of St. Luke's Church, Wimbledon Park, UK, and is presently the Vice Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and Director of the School of Preaching.
Dr. Lin Yuan I is a professor at Bandung Theological Seminary in the Philippines.