Program Approach for Secondary Bible Truths
The goal of a Bible class in any Christian school is to lay the foundation for a biblical worldview. In order to lay an effective foundation for a biblical worldview, students must have and understand all the parts of a biblical worldview and have the skills they need to apply that worldview.
The Parts of a Biblical Worldview
The Big Story of Scripture: Understanding the Bible as a Single Narrative
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible tells a single, unified story that can be summed up in 3 words: Creation, Fall, and Redemption. In order to be able to interpret that story, students must know its particulars—the who, the what, the when, the where, and the how. In order to teach the Bible as a single narrative, our Secondary Bible program takes students all the way through both the Old and New Testaments.
“The Bible tells a single, unified story that can be summed up in three words: Creation, Fall, and Redemption.”
Beliefs and Values: Thinking Theologically
The Bible tells its story in many different ways, and students of the Bible need to be able to systematize different teachings in Scripture, find and use key passages, and understand the implications of various truths.
Bible is a serious subject, so we take an academic approach to teaching it. Questions build from rote memory to developing critical thinking, and our Secondary Bible program focuses on preparing students to apply the Bible to their world. We strongly emphasize personal applications that usually operates at the highest cognitive levels.
Personal Behavior: Applying the Theology
A worldview is simply the application of a set of values (beliefs and assumptions that grow out of the big story of Scripture) to personal behavior.
The other academic disciplines should be applying the biblical worldview specifically. But students cannot apply what they don’t have foundationally—Bible knowledge.
Secondary Bible establishes that foundation of biblical knowledge that allows students to make a complete application of their biblical worldview to all areas of their lives, both academically and personally.
The Skills for Applying a Biblical Worldview
“Beliefs should lead to values; values must be derived from beliefs.”
We have a two-pronged approach to applying the beliefs and values of a biblical worldview.
Head (Beliefs)
In order for a Bible class to become truly effective, classes must equip students with skills for studying the Bible for themselves. Students need to understand how to navigate the Bible; be able to use study helps, cross-referencing tools, and concordances and dictionaries; to use hermeneutics, the science of interpretation.
Our Secondary Bible program continually encourages memorization and personal study. Additionally, it teaches students historical details that encourage correct biblical interpretation, including geography, biographical information, and biblical phraseology that bring the Bible to life.
Heart (Values)
Bible class cannot become truly effective unless it goes from head knowledge to heart knowledge. Observation and interpretation should lead to application. Beliefs should lead to values; values must be derived from beliefs.
Each Bible level focuses on guiding the students to personal application to their own lives in a way that glorifies God. As students get to know God through His revelation, they should apply Scripture in ways that are in keeping with divine revelation. The process of application should begin with the values gleaned from Scripture and then translate into internal, personal appropriation, and finally lead to practical change in students’ lives.
Course Overview
| Book | Course Description |
|---|---|
| Bible Level A (Grade 7) | Study of the life of Christ with special emphasis on His miracles, parables, and sermons. Contains a verse-by-verse exposition of the Sermon on the Mount. |
| Bible Level B (Grade 8) | Discusses the storyline of Scripture from Genesis to the coming of Jesus Christ. |
| Bible Level C (Grade 9) | Examines the foundations of the early church and the faithfulness of first-century Christians through the study of Acts and the early Pauline epistles (Romans, Galatians, Corinthians, and Thessalonians). |
| Bible Level D (Grade 10) | Highlights key messages of Old Testament books as well as Old Testament prophecies about Jesus Christ. |
| Bible Level E (Grade 11) | Discusses the themes found in the later Pauline Epistles, the General Epistles, and Revelation. |
| Bible Level F (Grade 12) | Prepares students for godly, independent living by challenging them to apply Scripture to everyday life; topics include ethics, dating, decision making, college choice, separation, evangelism, prejudice, suffering, and bitterness. |