THE HEART OF PAUL'S THEOLOGY
PREPARATION FOR LESSON 1

In preparation for this lesson, the student should read chapters 9-21 of the Book of Acts. This will help you understand the life of Paul and the background of his epistles.

This lesson has three sections regarding the life and ministry of Paul.

Cultural Background
Apostolic Ministry
Central Outlooks

Goals and Objectives of Lesson 1

GOALS

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

1. We hope you will grow in your gratitude for God's plan of redemption, and that you will increase your interest in studying Paul's life and teachings.

2. We hope you will learn key information about the life and ministry of Paul, as well as the background and theology of his epistles.

3. We hope you will apply the lessons from the Life and ministry of Paul to your own life.

OBJECTIVES

When you do 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 regarding the kingdom of God and the epistles of Paul.

2. Obtain a satisfactory grade on the test, demonstrating that you can identify key information related to the life and ministry of Paul, the background and theology of his epistles, and the cultural influences that affected Paul as he wrote his epistles.

3. Answer the application questions in the study guides, showing how you have applied the teachings of the lesson to your life.

"Instructions for Lesson 1"

Carefully read the "Instructions for Lesson 1." You may want to print them out so that you can refer to them as you proceed through the assignments.

Tutorials

If this is your first time to study one of our lessons, you should read "General Instructions for Assignments." 

Note about Greek and Hebrew

Once in a while, the lectures of Third Millennium courses include words in Greek or Hebrew. Don't worry about this, because a knowledge of these languages is not necessary for the course. Furthermore, when a Greek or Hebrew word is used in a study guide, glossary, or quiz, it will be transliterated (using English letters). However, it may be helpful to at least look at the alphabet of these biblical languages and learn something about the way they are transliterated. If you are interested, you may look at the following resources:

For Greek, see the following PDF document:
Greek Alphabet

For Hebrew, you may look at the following web site called "Judaism 101"
http://www.jewfaq.org/alephbet.htm

Glossary

Each lesson has a glossary of terms and names used in the lesson. You can find it in the "Resources" section of the lesson.