LESSON NINETEEN A PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF GOD BY A.W. TOZER Overview Genesis 1:1 opens with four words "In the beginning, God." The biblical text gives no detailed descriptions of God in the Hebrew Bible, nor does it make an argument for God's existence. The assumption is that God is self-existent. In its entirety, the Hebrew Bible portrays God (Elohim) as the main character. Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2 portray God as the omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipresent (everywhere at the same time) Creator, speaking into existence the heavens, the earth, and all the earth’s creatures out of nothing. In this lesson, students will examine the concept of the self-existence of God from a passage from A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy, Chapter 5. Objectives: Students will:
show how writers in diverse cultures and ages drew from the Hebrew Bible to present their own ideas and literary works. discuss distinct attributes of biblical characters decide a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text. decide the meaning of key words and phrases in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone. edit writing to correct errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
find the main idea in written passages of literature accurately and with depth of thought. use context clues to find the meanings of words. show how writers in diverse cultures and ages drew from the Hebrew Bible to present their own ideas and literary works. discuss distinct attributes of biblical characters. edit writing to correct errors.
Academic Initiatives for Biblical Literacy in Secondary Education
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