THE APOSTLES' CREED
PREPARATION FOR LESSON 2
GOD THE FATHER

In preparation for this lesson, read Genesis 1 and write down things you learn about God in this passage.

You should also begin memorizing the Apostles' Creed. For this lesson, you should memorize the first two lines that are highlighted in bold.

APOSTLES' CREED

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of
God the Father Almighty.
From there he will come to judge
the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

This Lesson will be divided into three major sections:

God
Father Almighty
Maker

The work for this lesson will follow the same pattern as Lesson 1.

Goals and Objectives of Lesson 2

GOALS

In this lesson, we would like to accomplish the following:

1. We hope you will grow in your love and adoration of the true God as revealed in the Scriptures, and that you believe the teachings of the Apostles' Creed about God.

2. We hope you will learn to distinguish the Christian view of God from the perspective of other religions, that you will understand the orthodox expression of the doctrine of the Trinity, and that you will understand the concept of God's sovereignty over creation.

3. We hope you make some changes in your life as a response to the teachings of this lesson.

OBJECTIVES

When you have done the following, it will show that the goals are met:

1. Use all the resources and complete all the written assignments of the lesson, expressing your own thoughts and attitudes toward God as you grow in your understanding of His attributes. 

2. Obtain a satisfactory grade on the test, demonstrating that you can identify the key differences between the Christian view of God and the perspective of other religions, that you can identify the orthodox expression of the doctrine of the Trinity, distinguishing it from common misunderstandings, that you understand the meaning of the concepts of the "singularity" and the "simplicity" of God, that you can identify the meaning of some commonly used biblical names for God, that you can distinguish between the meanings of "ontological Trinity" and "economic Trinity," that you understand the most common views regarding the days of creation, and that you can identify the biblical teaching about God's absolute sovereign authority over His creation.

3. Answer the application questions in the study guides, in which you apply what you learned in the lesson to your own life. 

"Instructions for Lesson 2"

Carefully read the "Instructions for Lesson 2." You may want to print them out so that you can refer to them as you proceed through the assignments.

If you need a little reminder of how to do the assignments, go back to the instructions of lesson one and read the "General Instructions for Assignments" again.