Course Syllabus
MAKING BIBLICAL DECISIONS
Course description
Christian morality has always been challenged and rejected by unbelievers, but today even many believers have lost their moral footing. Moreover, believers who want to live ethically are frequently confused by the complexities of ethical decisions. Even so, with proper study of the Bible's system of ethics, Christians can learn how to evaluate problems in ways that lead to biblical solutions. This course is based on the lecture series, Making Biblical Decisions, produced by Third Millennium Ministries and presented by Dr. John M. Frame.
Dr. John M. Frame
Dr. Frame received degrees from Princeton University (A.B.), Westminster Theological Seminary (B.D.), Yale University (A.M. and M.Phil.), and Belhaven College (honorary D.D.). He has served on the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary and was a founding faculty member of their California campus, and as of 2007 he holds the J. D. Trimble Chair of Systematic Theology and Philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. His key books are The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, The Doctrine of God, The Doctrine of the Christian Life, and The Doctrine of the Word of God. He has published numerous articles. He is also a classically trained musician and a critic of film, music, and other media.
Goals and Objectives
GOALS
In this course, we would like to accomplish the following:
1. We hope you will understand the biblical and theological principles that should orient your ethical decisions.
2. We hope you grow in your desire to make more biblical decisions and to live your life in a way that honors Christ more fully.
3. We hope that you will apply the biblical and theological principles properly in your process of making ethical decisions.
OBJECTIVES
When you have done the following, it will show that the goals are met:
1. Obtain satisfactory grades on tests of the course, demonstrating that you can identify the biblical and theological principles of making appropriate ethical decisions. You will be able to distinguish the three ethical perspectives presented in the lesson: normative, situational, and existential, you will be able to identify many biblical passages related to ethical decisions, and you will be able to discern the difference between incorrect ethical principles correct principles.
2. Complete the study guides and other assignments of the course, expressing your attitude and sentiments regarding making decisions that honor Christ, and showing that you are making ethical decisions based on biblical principles.
Thematic Outline of the Course
1. Ethics in Scripture
2. The Normative Perspective: God and His Word
3. The Normative Perspective: The Attributes of Scripture
4. The Normative Perspective: Parts and Aspects of Scripture
5. The Situational Perspective: Revelation and Situation
6. The Situational Perspective: Pursuing Our Goal
7. The Situational Perspective: Understanding the Facts
8. The Existential Perspective: Being Good
9. The Existential Perspective: Intending Good
10. The Existential Perspective: Choosing Good
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 are broken up by sections within each lessons, so you can go back to the lesson text and find areas covering review questions more easily. The study guide will will prepare you for the online quiz for each lesson 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. 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.
4. 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.
5. When you have finished all the lessons on the multimedia lectures, review and study your study guides, and then 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 additional reading for further study. The student are encouraged to do the reading, complete the study guides, and take the corresponding quizzes and cumulative test based on the reading. This is for 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) Each lesson 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 extra credit.
7) The cumulative test on the additional reading is worth 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