Program Approach for Elementary Bible

Knowing God’s Word

The Bible, the source of all knowledge and wisdom, is the heart of this course. Each lesson assigns Bible reading and recommends memory verses. By personally interacting with their Bibles in class, students will understand how biblical truths apply to daily life. Instead of emphasizing simple fact memorization, critical-thinking questions encourage students to internalize Scripture. The teacher editions have additional information to help teachers guide students to understanding. This additional information gives clarity about cultural context, church history, and intertextual relationships.

The Creation, Fall, Redemption Model

Our Bible products consistently model the Creation, Fall, Redemption metanarrative of Scripture. The worktexts trace the metanarrative from Genesis to Revelation in the Scriptures and explain the profound implications it has for all of life. They also trace how individual accounts fit into Scripture’s metanarrative. Bible 4, The Pathway of Promise, follows this model through the whole Old Testament, pointing toward Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. And Bible 5, The Fullness of Time, shows how Jesus redeems His people and ultimately the whole of creation. This model can answer all major worldview questions and is the distinction between the Christian worldview and other worldviews.

A chronological approach to the Bible helps students grasp the depth of mankind’s failure to fulfill God’s design and the wonder of God’s redemption. Beautiful expandable timelines, available in the back of Bible 4 and 5, help students visualize the arc of Scripture.

Bible Study Skills

Students learn Bible study skills effectively through modeling, which makes Bible study more manageable for students to incorporate in their own lives. In our student worktexts, the first activity page is teacher guided, and then students work independently on the second page. We use a study, interpret, apply approach to guide students in Bible study. This approach equips them for inductive Bible study. Students will practice observing biblical texts, interpreting their meaning, and applying the text to their context. Bible Tools Lessons introduce students to different approaches, techniques, and tools to help them understand God’s Word at a deeper and more contextual level.

The student worktext encourages reading and interpretive skills through assessment questions about the students’ Bible reading. Students practice to understand the physical context of events in the Bible. Students learn how journaling, digital Bibles, glossaries, dictionaries, and concordances enhance Bible study. The H.A.B.I.T. sections have Bible reading schedules that help students make Scripture reading and application a habit.

Teaching Bible Doctrines

Our elementary Bible program teaches fundamental Bible doctrines to create a strong foundation for more complex doctrines to build on. Grades 1–3 offer students 147 foundational truths derived from biblical principles. Students will learn to connect Scripture passages to each of the Bible truths and apply truths to their own lives. In addition, students will gain a basic understanding of how to defend the Bible by connecting truths to corresponding stories.

In Grades 4 and 5, students will learn doctrines within the context of the entire Bible through chronological study. Socratic questioning, teacher modeling, guided formative assessments, and independent study expand and reinforce students’ understanding of each doctrine.

Authority of God’s Word

Students learn that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God. We desire that students develop confidence in the authority of God’s Word. In our Bible program, students learn that because God authored the Bible, it is the source of wisdom and truth. God’s inspiration of Scripture is a miracle. The structure of our program emphasizes the unity and cohesion of God’s Word in order to encourage faith in its truthfulness. Our presentation of God’s Word as the ultimate authority is not reliant on historical facts or logical arguments. It is based on faith and commitment to God and His Word as the standard.

Emphasis on the Gospel

It is essential for students to understand the gospel before they can develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Students must acknowledge their personal sin and recognize their need of the Savior. We emphasize God’s dealings with His people through both the Old and New Testaments, showing God’s faithfulness and mercy to offer salvation to His sinful people. Our student texts provide daily journaling opportunities for students to evaluate their personal relationship with God. Students will also develop the skills to share the gospel with others. Students practice sharing Bible truths with others while developing 21st century skills such as collaboration and communication. The teacher editions include activities that encourage students to work together and solve problems related to spreading the message of the gospel so students can be better witnesses for Christ

Biblical Worldview

Our elementary program is designed to change the way students interpret the world, and not to simply give them a list of facts about God or the Bible. We focus biblical worldview development around the themes of glory, kingdom, covenants, divine presence, law and wisdom, and the atonement in the biblical meta-narrative. We shape a biblical worldview by laying a foundational understanding of the whole story of the Bible, and then in that context we encourage students to think deeply about how that applies to their life. That’s why we follow a comprehensive study of the arc of Scripture with a compara - tive, age-appropriate study of a biblical worldview and other worldviews. These questions help students understand their own actions from a biblical perspective. Each teacher edition contains questions to help shape worldview. Case studies, world-view dilemmas, webquests, and collaborative activities enforce the student’s understanding of the biblical worldview.