These passages of Scripture lay the foundation for the entire Biblical

story describing the relationship of God and mankind. Here we learn of the

Fall, the sin of Adam, Eve, and Satan, and the consequences of such sin.

These passages include Scripture often quoted in the New Testament....

Genesis chapters two and three are filled with such important foundational

teachings for the entire Bible, including Jesus' teachings. This lesson

covers chapter two and the first section of chapter three and addresses the

following topics...

Elisha was an Old Testament prophet during a very dark time in Israel's history. Yet his life and experiences as recorded in the book of 2 Kings have much to help us as Christians on our own life journeys. In the examples of Elisha and other characters in these Old Testament passages, we learn about faith, courage, obedience, contentment, greed, proper regard for God, prayer, justice for the oppressed, God's compassion for the weak, God's judgment, forgiveness, and love for one's enemies. This first of a three-part series covers a background introduction and Elisha's call.

Genesis 1 covers the creation of the world. The chapter raises many

significant questions:

* What does the creation account reveal about who God is? 

* How should we understand the creation of the world? What is

reasonable?   

* Why do so many smart people reject God as the Creator of the

universe?

* How did Paul argue God as Creator of the universe to help intelligent

people....

This lesson will focus on one of the most pivotal days in the history of

the world.  From this Old Testament example, we will address four of the

eight reasons discussed in our last lesson as to why Christians should read

the Old Testament....

Hebrews 6 tells us that there are six elementary doctrines (teachings) of the Christian faith, which the Hebrew writer appears to assume Christians should master before moving on to maturity. Two of these are the resurrection and judgment. We recently taught on the resurrection. What about judgment? What does Jesus teach about it? Why is this teaching important? Why do we rarely speak about judgment? What can we learn about God through Christ's teaching on eternal blessings and punishment? The goal of this two-part lesson is to better understand what the Bible teaches about judgment and to equip us to teach this to others.

Hebrews 6 tells us that there are six elementary doctrines (teachings) of

the Christian faith, which the Hebrew writer appears to assume Christians should master before moving on to maturity.

There are many reasons Christians give for avoiding the Old Testament,

which makes up three-quarters of the Bible. This lesson inspires us to dig

into the treasures of the Old Testament, making the case that God has

provided the Old Testament Scriptures for the benefit of Christians....

Paul spends an entire chapter on the resurrection of the dead. In the

previous lesson, we provided an overview of chapter fifteen with its key

themes. In this lesson, we dig deeper into the chapter to explore further

why a correct understanding of the resurrection is so central to the

Christian faith and obedience to Jesus' teachings, how an incorrect

understanding can lead to worldliness in the church, and how we can use the Scriptures and reason to defend the resurrection to non-believers.

After addressing many issues in the church in Corinth, Paul turns to one

last problem, that some Christians in the church did not believe in the

resurrection of the dead. Paul spends an entire chapter explaining the

centrality of the resurrection to the Christian faith, including what

raised from the dead means and why it matters so much. While the

resurrection of the dead is one of the elementary teachings of the

Christian faith (Hebrews 6:1-2), this foundational teaching is

misunderstood by many Christians. Paul's stirring and strong defense of the

bodily resurrection of Christ and his followers provides us today with the

confidence and courage to live as Christ lived, and to be steadfast and

immovable in our work for the Lord. This lesson covers an overview of the

chapter with its key themes, with the next lesson providing a deeper look

at parts of the chapter.