The Life and Teachings of Jesus & his Apostles [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION WHAT SHOULD BE THE GOAL OR PURPOSE IN TAKING THESE COURSES OF STUDY? These courses are designed to give you the opportunity to come to know the Savior in an intimate, personal, and powerful way. Your goal upon completing these two courses should be to be able to proclaim, as did Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16:16.) Jesus' disciples knew the way in which such a fervent testimony could be attained. It was John the Beloved who testified from the depth of his soul, "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true. ..." (1 John 5:20.) You too can come to know him that is true. How May I Most Effectively Accomplish This Goal? It was the Savior who said, "I am the bread of life* he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (John 6:35.) Each lesson is designed to bring you closer to the Savior, that you might partake of the bread of life and be filled spiritually. Each lesson has a designated reading assignment from the New Testament. This will constitute the core of your study and should be read carefully with each lesson. If you do this, you will have read the entire New Testament by the time you finish these courses. {Note: For students in regular institute or Church college classes, the New Testament study is divided into two semester or three quarter classes. But for those students in individual study areas, the study of the New Testament constitutes one year's study.) Combined with sincere prayer, scripture study can become the source of personal revelation and an avenue to increased spiritual power in your daily life. Why a Student Manual? Some portions of the Gospels and the writings and letters of the early apostles are not easily understood by the student of today. What Peter said of some of Paul's writings- that there are "some things hard to be understood" (2 Peter 3:16)-may also be applied to other writings in the New Testament. Corrupted texts, archaic language, and our lack of understanding of the doctrinal, historical, or geographical setting are a few reasons for some difficulty in reading and comprehending the New Testament. For these reasons, this student manual was organized. It should assist you by providing the following: 1. Background material to help you understand the Greek, Roman, and Jewish world in which Jesus taught and from which the early church emerged. 2. Background information about key New Testament personalities as well as contemporary Roman and Jewish rulers. 3. Background information for each book of the New Testament. 4. Interpretive commentary on the more important passages as well as on some difficult passages. 5. A map section which helps to identify key places and which charts the journeys of Jesus and the apostle Paul. 6. A time line which shows either approximate or specific dates of the events being studied. How the Manual Is Organized The fifty-six lessons in the manual are divided in such a manner as to correlate with the probable chronological or-