Rocky's Ramblings

Tag: Christian education

  • Rocky’s Ramblings Christian Discipleship Course

    GREETINGS! Welcome to my ministry website, where I hope your desire is to learn more about what it means to be a Christian. Whether you are a new Christian, have been a Christian for some time, or someone thinking about God’s invitation to accept Jesus Christ, the daily lessons of this course will give you a firm understanding of Christianity.

    YOU ARE WELCOME TO DOWNLOAD AND STUDY THE COURSE FREE OF CHARGE or use it to teach your own discipleship class (more on that below). My most recent update was to add an appendix of all of the Bible references complete with the passages from NASB, and I fixed a few hyperlink errors. So, if you’ve been here before, and it has been a while since you downloaded a copy, you may want to download a new copy. If you have any questions or want to discuss any of this, please contact me at RockysRamblings@gmail.com.

    Let’s get started! When you click on either, you will be given a choice of viewing or downloading. If you choose to download it, hit the download button and choose ‘download directly’ and save it somewhere in your documents folder where you will have access to it. If you choose to just view it (rather than download it), you can come back here to read it whenever you want to.

    Christian Discipleship Course INTERNET PDF

    Christian Discipleship Course PRINTABLE COPY

    The first is labeled INTERNET PDF. It is formatted to run on a smartphone, tablet or computer, and will allow you to click on links that will take you directly to Bible passages, articles, and such.

    The second is labeled PRINTABLE COPY. If you do not have a smartphone or tablet that you can access daily, the printable copy has been formatted to print on standard letter-size paper (8.5″ x 11″). Let me warn you ahead of time that if you print the whole course all at once, it will print out on 203 pages, so printing double-sided will save you a lot of paper. If you don’t need the written Bible references, you can avoid printing Appendix B by printing only pages 1-147, saving a substantial amount of paper. This copy does have all of the hyperlinks, which of course will do you no good once you print it on paper. So, you will need to have a Bible at your side.

    Retail outlets for  New Testament with Study Outline

    OUR PRIMARY TEXT: You will see in the introduction to the course that it is based on The Christian Life New Testament with Master Outlines & Study Notes (ISBN 9780840721785) available from a number of retail outlets. Use the button above to find one for yourself. NOTE that having a copy of this New Testament with the outlines is not absolutely necessary; the course is written to teach the specific topics without having to rely on the outline. But, I encourage you to get a copy for yourself and use it as a guide to launch beyond what you can learn in the daily lessons of this course.

    Google Translate Your Documents

    LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR: I have written this in English. But, through the wonders of the internet, you can put it through this translator to translate it into your language. Just download whichever copy fits your needs and then come back to this translator.

    IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TEACHING YOUR OWN SESSION:

    Let me encourage you do so! Please contact me at RockysRamblings@gmail.com. I have a discussion guide should you desire to use this course to teach your own discipleship class as part of our Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)

    Or launch out on your own with it. Let me suggest that you keep it simple. Direct your group to this website so that they can download the course. Then, encourage them to go through the lessons, one each day. As the group finishes each of the outlines, get the group together (perhaps over coffee and dessert) and discuss what they are learning – either with my discussion outline or your own.

    As your students go through the first two sections of the course, start encouraging them to get out and share what they are learning through their own personal evangelism. That’s the key that unlocks the door to the multiplication that Jesus taught His disciples!

    If you have any questions, suggestions, or want to discuss moving forward, please contact me. I would also love to hear your success stories and the creative ways that you are using this course.

  • How Many Worldviews Are There and How is Christianity Unique Among Them?

    Continuing with videos through Right Now Media, I want to continue with another series by Bobby Conway on worldviews. This series starts with an interview with Dr. Norman Geisler, author, professor, theologian, and world-renowned Christian apologist. In answer to the basic question of how many worldviews there are, Dr. Geisler limited his response to religions, and basically just listed what he says are the 7 basic worldviews.

    1. Theism – holds that there is a God beyond the bounds of this world, who created the world and can intervene and do miracles within the world. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the three religions in this broader worldview.
    2. Deism – holds that there is a god similar to Theism, except that they believe that god does not intervene and cannot do miracles. Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Voltaire were deists.
    3. Finite Godism – holds that there is a god, but he is limited; his hands are tied by the world he created. Plato, Rabbi Harold Kushner (author of ‘When Bad Things Happen to Good People’) held to this worldview.
    4. Panentheism (different from Pantheism) – holds that god and the world are intertwined. Alfred North Whitehead, who developed the of Process philosophy ; John Cobb, a contemporary of Alfred Whitehead; and Charles Hartshorne, who developed Whitehead’s philosophy in what is known as Process Theology.
    5. Pantheism – holds that god IS all and all is god. Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, and Christian Science are the best examples of philosophies in this worldview.
    6. Polytheism – holds that there are many gods. Ancient Greeks, Romans, modern Wicca, and Neo-Paganism are all religions within this worldview.
    7. Atheism – the belief that there is no god. Much of the world today live as atheists. Whether they have examined the existence of any god or not, their belief systems revolve around explanations of the world without any god(s) at the helm.

    Now, let’s look through this video series to examine what makes Christianity unique. First, do all religions lead us to God? Simply put, the answer is ‘no’. Religions teach things that are opposite to each other; and opposites cannot both be true. One particular point that Dr. Geisler made is that we can tell a counterfeit from the real thing, not by examining the similarities, but by the critical differences – those points over which religions teach clear and critical differences. For instance, some religions teach different ways to God. But, only Jesus Christ teaches that there is only one way to God, only one truth, and only one life; and that way is through Him (John 14:6).

    Being interviewed about what distinguishes Christianity from other religions, Craig Hazen, Professor of Comparative Religion and Apologetics at Biola University, makes the point that leaders of other religions actually hate probing claims made by their religion, because they know what their religion can’t hold up to such scrutiny. Christianity, on the other hand, invites people to come and explore its claims and find out that they are true. He points out the claim that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Jesus did not rise from the grave, Christianity is just not true and your faith is worthless. And, yet, we know through forensic investigations that His resurrection is one of the most accurately recorded events in all of history.

    One last look at the uniqueness of Christianity for this posting, Bobby Conway interviews Frank Turek, Apologist, Author and Speaker, who said Jesus came to live a sinless life, with two natures – that of God and that of man – and went on to be our mediator. One point that he makes is that in order to be a mediator, one must have one foot on both sides of the divide between us and God, which makes Jesus uniquely qualified to fill that role. Jesus mediates between us and God by taking our sins upon Himself. While all other religions require that we work our way to God, in Christianity, God comes to man through Jesus Christ and offers a free gift of salvation.

    We’ll continue in my next posting.