Overview of Bible history:
(See Power Point on Overview of Bible History)
Genesis--Deuteronomy: books of the Law (AKA Pentateuch)
Joshua--II Chronicles: books of history
    -Joshua: Israel enters into the Promised Land
    -Judges: Israel ruled by Judges
        -last judge: Samuel
    -Then Israel told God they wanted a king
    -God let them; they chose Saul
    -David: next king
    -Solomon: next
    -Solomon's son: Reheboam
        -During his reign, the 10 northern tribes revolted and chose Jereboam as their king
        -10 northern tribes: Israel
        -2 southern tribes: Judah
            -Israel went bad first and was punished (went under the 5th cycle of discipline to Assyria)
            -Judah eventually went bad and was conquered by Babylon
            -Israel went into captivity into Babylon for 70 years, called the Babylonian Captivity
                -lasted from 586-516BC
The Prophets
    -Prophesied destruction
    -Gave hope of a Messiah
The Persians conquered Babylon and released the Jews, ending the Babylonian Captivity
Nehemiah: rebuilt the wall
Esther: married a Persian king
Later prophets came and prophesied of the coming of Jesus
Last book of OT: Malachi (written about 400BC)
Intertestamental Period: time between the Old and New Testaments
    The Greeks, under Alexander the Great, conquered Persia
    After his death, his empire was divided into 4 sections
    These 4 empires lasted until they were each destroyed by the Roman Empire
Then comes the time of Jesus and Acts, and the writing of the New Testament epistles
AD 70: Jerusalem destroyed by Romans
    -Israel again under the 5th cycle of discipline
New Testament:
    1st 4 books-gospels
    Matthew - Luke: synoptic gospels
    Acts- history
    Romans-Jude: epistles
    Revelation: prophecy

Understanding the Times
(See Power Point on the Introduction to Understanding the Times)

Compares 4 worldviews: Secular Humanism; Marxism, Leninism; New Age; Biblical Christianity
Correspondence theory of truth:
    -If something is true, it corresponds to reality
    -There is a relationship between the statement or belief and reality
    -Truth is a relationship

Chapter 3: Secular humanist theology

 atheism-belief in no god
Because they believe there is no God, they put their trust in mankind
Therefore, they believe mankind is inherently good

Projection theory of God: Mankind has taken all his good characteristics and projected them onto the universe and called it God

Chapter 4: Marxist/Leninist theology

atheism
They prefer "scientific atheism"
They believe science has disproven the existence of God
They base all their beliefs on Darwinian Evolution
"Religion is the opium of the people; it is a sort of spiritual booze."
-people cannot handle the thought of life without meaning
-therefore they believe in God to help the uneasiness
Marx believed that religion is a tool used by the rich and powerful to oppress the weak and poor.

naturalism (materialism): the physical world is all that exists; there is no supernatural
dialectic: theory deveolped by G.W.F. Hegel, an atheist philosopher
    -describes how through conflict, everything gets better with time

Chapter 5: New Age theology

pantheism (everything is god)
    pan: everything
    theos: God
Nature, every person, every living thing, is God
    -Everyone has "godhood" within them
    -goal: to get in touch with the "God within"

Chapter 6: Biblical Christian Theology

General revelation: what can be known about God through nature
Special revelation: what can only be known about God through revelation (Bible)
New Agers reject special revelation
    We are all God
    We don't need Scripture to know about God

Chapter 7: Secular Humanist Philosophy

naturalism: belief that only the natural exists; no supernatural
Fields of philosophy:
ontology: the study of essence or being
epistemology: the study of knowledge
    -empiricism: knowledge is gained through senses/experience
    -rationalism: knowledge is gained by reason
ethics: study of right and wrong
metaphysics: study of the structure of the universe (visible and invisible; spiritual and natural; how the spiritual and natural interact)

Chapter 8: Marxist/Leninist philosophy

dialectical materialism
Hegel's dialectic:
    thesis and antithesis come into conflict
    they then become a synthesis
    synthesis then becomes a thesis, with its own antithesis
    the process is ongoing
    main point: everything gets better with time
Materialism: the material world is all that exists
Marxists believe the world is progressing toward a world-wide communist state (utopia)

Marxist epistemology: we gain knowledge through experience of material objects
atomism: materialism taken to its logical extreme
    -everything is just atoms floating in the void