Syllabus for We Believe in God
Course Description
This course briefly surveys what theologians call theology proper or the doctrine of God. It deals with questions such as: Who is God? What are his attributes? What is his eternal plan? What are his works in history? At the most fundamental level, the Scriptures were given to teach us about who God is and what he has done for us. In fact, knowing God is essential for us to understand ourselves and our world. This course is based on the lecture series, We Believe in God, produced by Third Millennium Ministries and hosted by Rev. Dr. Thurman Williams 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 make use of all the instruction elements of the course to understand the primary concerns and terminology of systematic theologians in regard to theology proper, become familiar with the teachings about God in several historical creeds, understand many of God's most important attributes, and understand the theological issues regarding God's decrees and His plans.
2. We hope you will develop a greater love and reverence for God as you learn more about Him.
3. We hope you make changes in your life as a response to the teachings of this course. It should help you develop a closer and more faithful walk with God.
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 do the following: a) identify the primary concerns of systematic theologians in regard to theology proper, b) identify the key teachings of the Augsburg Confession, the Belgic Confession, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism regarding the doctrine of God, c) identify many of the most important incommunicable and communicable attributes of God, d) identify the concepts of God's immanence and His transcendence, and e) identify how theologians have explained the relationship between God's decrees, His foreknowledge, and His providence.
2. Answer the application questions in the study guides, showing how you have assimilated the teachings of the course and applied them to your own life, especially in a closer and more faithful walk with God.
Thematic Outline of the Course
1. What We Know About God
2. How God is Different
3. How God is Like Us
4. God's Plan and Works
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 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 God
Dr. Andrew Abernethy is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College.
Dr. Vincent Bacote is Associate Professor of Theology and Director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics at Wheaton College.
Dr. Frank Barker is Pastor Emeritus at Briarwood Presbyterian Church and is a founder of Birmingham Theological Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr. is Dean of Seminary at Africa Christian University in Zambia.
Dr. Bruce Baugus is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary.
Dr. Sukhwant Bhatia is Founder and President of North India Institute of Theological Studies in Chandigarh, India.
Dr. Kenneth V. Botton is Affiliate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Coordinator of Chaplaincy Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Dr. Rick Boyd is Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Dr. Gary M. Burge is Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College.
Rev. Bill Burns is a lecturer of Systematic Theology at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, Texas.
Dr. Constantine R. Campbell is Associate Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Dr. D.A. Carson is Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Co-founder of The Gospel Coalition.
Dr. Matt Carter is Pastor of Preaching and Vision at The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas.
Dr. David Chapman is Associate Professor of New Testament and Archaeology at Covenant Theological Seminary.
Dr. Gareth Cockerill is Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Rev. Larry Cockrell is Senior Pastor of Household of Faith Church and faculty member of Birmingham Theological Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dr. Lynn Cohick is Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College.
Dr. Don Collett is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Trinity School for Ministry.
Dr. Dorian Coover-Cox is Associate Professor of Old Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Brandon D. Crowe is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary.
Rev. Peter Cui serves at China Disciple Theological Seminary.
Dr. William Edgar is Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary.
Dr. Joseph D. Fantin is Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Bruce L. Fields is Chair of the Biblical and Systematic Theology Department and Associate Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Dr. Matt Friedeman is Professor of Evangelism and Discipleship at Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Dr. Ben Gladd is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary.
Rev. Michael J. Glodo is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Reformed Theological Seminary's Orlando Campus.
Dr. Jay Haley is Adjunct Professor at Birmingham Theological Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dr. Dana M. Harris is Associate Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Dr. Dan Hendley is Senior Pastor of North Park Church in Wexford, PA.
Dr. J. Scott Horrell is Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Joel C. Hunter is Senior Pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed in Longwood, FL.
Rev. Clete Hux is Director and Counter-Cult Apologist at Apologetics Resource Center, a Christian ministry which encompasses the full range of Christian Apologetics.
Rev. Thad James, Jr. is Vice President of Academic Affairs at Birmingham Theological Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dr. Glenn R. Kreider is Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Samuel Lamerson is President of Knox Theological Seminary and Professor of New Testament
Dr. Richard Lints is Professor of Theology and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Dr. Rob Lister is Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at the Talbot School of Theology.
Dr. Todd Mangum is Professor of Theology and Academic Dean at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, PA.
Dr. Scott Manor is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Dean of Faculty at Knox Theological Seminary.
Dr. Josh Moody is Senior Pastor at College Church in Wheaton, IL.
Dr. Jeffery Moore served at Trinity Downtown Orlando as Senior Pastor from 2003 to 2014.
Dr. Miguel Nuñez is Pastor of Baptist International Church in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Dr. Grant R. Osborne is Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Dr. Amy L. Peeler is Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College.
Dr. Nicholas Perrin is the Franklin S. Dyrness Professor of Biblical Studies and Dean of the Graduate School at Wheaton College.
Dr. Richard Phillips is Senior Minister of Second Presbyterian Church and Chairman of the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology.
Rev. Vermon Pierre is Lead Pastor for Preaching and Mission at Roosevelt Community Church in Phoenix, AZ.
Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr. is President of Third Millennium Ministries and Adjunct Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary's Orlando Campus.
Rev. Dr. Paul R. Raabe is Professor of Exegetical Theology at Concordia Seminary.
Dr. J. Scott Redd is Campus President of Reformed Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. and Assistant Professor of Old Testament.
Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is Senior Pastor at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, AL.
Dr. Ramesh Richard is Professor of Global Theological Engagement and Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Prof. Brandon P. Robbins is Staff Apologist at the Apologetics Resource Center for Birmingham Theological Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama.
Rev. Ric Rodeheaver is Senior Pastor at Christ Community Church of Laguna Hills in California.
Dr. Steven C. Roy is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Dr. Philip Graham Ryken is President and Professor of Theology at Wheaton College.
Dr. Tim Sansbury is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theology and Vice President of Administration at Knox Theological Seminary.
Dr. Glen Scorgie is Professor of Theology at Bethel Seminary's San Diego Campus.
Rev. George Shamblin serves at Birmingham Theological Seminary and The Center for Executive Leadership.
Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry is President and Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity School for Ministry.
Dr. K. Erik Thoennes is Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University.
Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong is the founder of the Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministries International and the Reformed Institute for Christianity and the 21st Century.
Dr. Daniel Treier is the Blanchard Professor of Theology at Wheaton College.
Dr. Carl R. Trueman is Professor of Historical Theology and Church History and the Paul Woolley Chair of History at Westminster Theological Seminary.
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. Carey Vinzant is Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Dr. Guy Waters is Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary.
Dr. Michael D. Williams is Professor of Systematic Theology at Covenant Theological Seminary.
Dr. Sanders L. Willson is Senior Minister at Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN and serves on the boards of The Gospel Coalition, Union University and Reformed Theological Seminary.
Rev. Dr. Lewis Winkler is Lecturer in Theological and Historical Studies at East Asia School of Theology.
Rev. Valery Zadorozhny is a pastoral assistant at Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian Church in Odessa, Ukraine.