Date & Time: Tuesday nights, April 16– May 28, 2019. 6-9pm.
Location: Hosted by Columbia Christian School,
9101 E Burnside St, Portland, OR 97216
Instructor: Dr. Darren Williamson
Course Fee: $30 ($35 if obtaining CEUs)
Note: this course is approved by the Association of Christian Schools International for 3 Continuing Education Units (CEU)
Course Description:
Church Historians & Theologians currently are in a season of marking the 500-year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. One of the great principles of the Sixteenth-Century Reformation is that scripture alone (sola scriptura) is the primary authority for the Christian faith, and this remains a foundational value of Evangelical Christianity today. This class explores the History of the Bible and its status as authoritative Word of God. The first part of the course focuses on the History of the Bible and its textual reliability, the Canon, and early English translations, while the second part examines the Bible’s own testimony about its nature and authority and unpacks the important doctrine of inspiration. The class aims to be intellectually stimulating as well as spiritually edifying.
Course Objective
The objective of the course is to provide believers with a well-rounded understanding of the history of the Bible as well as its status as authoritative Word of God. Participants will gain a great appreciation for the Bible, especially in the face of modern detractors and critics. Students will also come to realize that the Bible’s own testimony about itself leads to the evangelical conviction about the scripture’s inspiration and status as inerrant.
Textbook requirements
There are no required textbooks for this class. Below are two recommended resources that are relevant supplements to the class lecture.
- Craig Blomberg, Can We Still Believe the Bible?: An Evangelical Engagement With Contemporary Questions (2014).
- Neil Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, 3rd ed (2010).
Course Outline
| Date | Tentative Class Topics |
| April 16 | The nature of the Bible as a “book of books” and both human and divine |
| April 23 | The Canon, the reliability of the Bible, and Bible manuscripts |
| April 30 | The preservation of the text & the practice of New Testament Textual Criticism |
| May 7 | The Reformation and the Bible & early English translations of the Bible |
| May 14 | No class |
| May 21 | Inspiration: The Authority and Clarity of Scripture |
| May 28 | Inspiration: The Essentiality and Sufficiency of Scripture |