τ έ λ ο ς, or Telos in English, is the name of this class, Greek for end goal, purpose, design, and meaning. It is the adult Sunday school class that precedes the morning service (9:15–10:15) and again at 6:30–8:00pm Sunday evenings with a simple meal in the first 30 minutes. In this class we like to focus on the more intellectual stuff of the Bible and the Christian faith. The primary teacher, facilitator and curriculum planner is Scott Cherry, but active members of the class are sometimes invited to teach and facilitate discussions as well. Telos is conducted in discussion-rich seminar style to study scripture together–currently the four gospels and the Book of Acts, plus related parts of the New and Old Testaments. Our studies always revolve around the intersection of Faith and Reason. All age groups are welcome including teens and some children, but we especially love college-age participants. Welcome, we hope you will join us!
Sunday, September 5 – Part 10 of Jesus’s own teaching on the Trinity, or plural-unity in the Gospels, Acts and Epistles
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How did Jesus teach about the trinity in the gospels?
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How should this doctrine shape our evangelism?
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Is the trinity nonsense or just wishful thinking?
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Can there be plurality/diversity within unity?
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Is this doctrine still important for today?
When and Where: Sundays 9:15-10:15am, and 6:30-8:30pm, library
Current Series:
The Narratives: Jesus and the Gospels + Acts
The purpose of this series is to delve into the gospels and Acts holistically as the narrative portion of the New Testament. It will have integrated elements of devotional Bible study, theology and apologetics, because I am committed to the idea that they can and should go together. We will not study each book in-sequence or verse-by-verse. Rather, we will selectively choose segments and passages that represent the questions we are asking in the given lesson. So sometimes we will ‘zoom in’ and sometimes we will ‘zoom out’. This series will not have a definite number of weeks or end-date but will continue until interest wanes and there is consensus on some other series. Also, we will allow it to be interrupted by special speakers on other subjects. As always, most lessons will be interactive.
Objectives
1) To celebrate and savor the supreme wisdom of GOD who gave us both forms of revelation.
- Jesus himself
- The written narratives
2) To celebrate and savor the beauty of the Narratives–the 4 Gospels and the Book of Acts.
- The authority of Scripture itself as the Word of God
- The authority of the gospels and Acts as Continuity
- The authority of the gospels and Acts as Fulfillment
- To understand in what ways they are utterly unique
3) To be aware of intellectual problems in the gospels/Acts and wrestle honestly with them
4) To consider solutions and see them as strengths rather than weaknesses
5) To understand/appreciate the cultural-historical context that produced the gospels/Acts
6) To understand/appreciate the historical development of the Canon of the New Testament
7) To examine the traditional authorship of the gospels vs. skeptical theories of anonymity
8) To wrestle with the so-called ‘hard sayings of Jesus’ and of the writers of the gospels/Acts
9) To understand the so-called “synoptic problem” and forms of textual/redaction criticism
10) To marvel at the gospels’/Acts’ geo-political accuracies and ‘undesigned coincidences’
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