This course begins with four basic human intuitions about the world:

:: The world is beautiful.
:: The world is broken.
:: The world can be healed.
:: There must be more.

These four intuitions shape the world as we know it and our lives within it. The course uses these four intuitions as lenses through which to tell and come to more deeply understand the Big Story—the biggest story there is: a story Jesus liked to tell as the Story of the Kingdom of God. Even if you already think you “know” the Bible, this course will help you see the unity of Scripture, read every part of the Bible in light of the whole, consider your life in light of God’s Story, and share that story with others.

Learning Objectives

Be able to tell the “Big Story of the Kingdom” in its four chapters: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation.

Be able to describe the way that these four chapters of the Story structure the world as we experience it, having left behind “layers of sediment” that are part of the “furniture” of life as we know it.

Be able to distinguish God’s work as Creator, Redeemer, and Consummator—and describe the interrelationship between these three aspects of God’s work.

Be able to tell the story of Creation, articulate the ongoing significance of God relating to us as Creator, and describe our responsibility as human beings to contribute to the flourishing of the creation.

Be able to describe the dominion of Sin at the personal, social, and cosmic levels.

Be able to tell the story of God’s work of redemption through Israel, Jesus, and the Church and articulate the ongoing significance of God relating to us as the One who redeems the creation from its enslavement to Sin and heals what we, in our sin, have broken.

Be able to tell the story of God’s work of consummation, inaugurated in the ministry of Jesus, and articulate the “eschatological tension” in which we now live in the overlap between this world and the fully-realized Kingdom of God now breaking in.

Be able to identify these four “layers” within Scripture across every major body of biblical literature.

Be able to articulate the intuitions that correspond to each of the four chapters of the Big Story.

Be able to think through practical issues within the framework of the Big Story.

Be able to share the Big Story with your non-Christian friends and neighbours.

Module Specification

8-10 hours of video.

10 hours of reading and studying.

Multiple-choice assessments.