Thirdmill Online Courses

PAUL'S PRISON EPISTLES

Course description

As Christians, we face many challenges to our faith. False teachings and worldviews assault our loyalty to Christ. Suffering tempts us to think that God is not in control or that he does not have our best interests at heart. Our relationships with other believers are often strained to the point that we doubt the value of the church. This course will help you deal with these issues as you explore the teachings of Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians. It is based on the lecture series, Paul's Prison Epistles, produced by Third Millennium Ministries and presented by Dr. Reggie M. Kidd.

Dr. Reggie M. Kidd

Dr. Reggie M. Kidd is a seminary professor and ordained minister. He earned his M.A.R. and M.Div. at Westminster Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. at Duke University. He currently teaches at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. He has published the following books: Wealth and Beneficence in the Pastoral Epistles and How Can I Keep from Singing?

Goals and Objectives

GOALS

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

1. We hope that you will learn the key information regarding Paul, his background, and the epistles of Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians.

2. We hope that you grow in your love for Christ and in your commitment to serve Him and His people, willing to persevere even in the midst of conflict and suffering.

3. We hope that you will apply the teachings of these New Testament epistles to make changes in your own life. We hope you will become more faithful in your Christian walk, especially learning to persevere in the midst of suffering, to deal with false teachings, to resolve conflicts, and to encourage others in Christ.

OBJECTIVES

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

1. Obtain satisfactory grades in the tests, demonstrating that you can identify key information about the background, content, and modern application of Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians.

2. Complete the study guides and other assignments of the course, expressing your sentiments about Christ and about persevering in the midst of suffering and conflict, as well as showing how this course has affected your life, especially how you are learning to persevere in the midst of suffering, to deal with false teachings, to resolve conflicts, and to encourage others in Christ.

Thematic Outline of the Course

1. Paul's Imprisonment
2. Paul and the Colossians
3. Paul and the Ephesians
4. Paul and Philemon
5. Paul and the Philippians

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 Required 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 required additional reading. The student should do the reading, complete the study guides, and take the corresponding quizzes and cumulative test based on the reading. (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.
7) The cumulative test on the additional reading is worth 30 points.

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