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Theo 201 Exam 1 Study
Guide
Theology Survey I (Liberty University)
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Theo 201 Exam 1 Study Guide:
Essay Questions:
1. Explain Habermas’ “Six Minimal Facts” approach to supporting belief in the historicity
of the resurrection, listing all six facts and explaining how they are used in the
argument.
a. Jesus died by Roman crucifixion
b. The disciples had experiences that they thought were actual appearances of
the risen Jesus
c. The disciples were thoroughly transformed, even being willing to die for
this belief
d. The apostolic proclamation of the resurrection began very early, when the
church was in its infancy
e. James, the brother of Jesus and a former skeptic was converted when,
he believed, he saw the risen Jesus
f. Saul, the church persecutor, became a Christian believer due to an
experience that he believed was an appearance of the risen Jesus
i. These facts are accepted by both Christian and non-Christians
historians. Therefore, any theory about the life of Jesus and his
resurrection should agree with these accepted facts. However, no
theory other than a resurrection from the dead fits with all these facts
ii. Doesn’t work with hallucination (body, paul, james);
fraud (transformation?, paul, james)
2. Explain the rationale that Habermas uses to show that we can conclude that Jesus’
life and message bear God’s stamp of approval
a. By raising Jesus from the dead, God placed His stamp of approval on Jesus’s
entire message, both concerning himself and his other teachings, because
God would not have raised a heretic from the dead
3. Using scripture, please explain how Jesus viewed himself and his ministry on earth.
Do this in the light of Habermas’ discussion of the subject in chapter three of his
book.
a. Jesus thought he was both the Son of God and the Son of Man. As the Son
of God he had a unique relationship with God, and in Mark 12:1-12, 13:32,
and 14:36, Jesus refers to himself as the “son”’ and God as his “father.”
b. In Mark 2:1-12 and Mark 14:61-64 Jesus claims to be the Son of Man,
the messiah referenced in Daniel, who had the ability to forgive sins.
1. Son of God
a. Unique relationship with God
b. Matthew 11:25-27; Luke 10:21-22
i. Points to Jesus’s
omniscience ii.
Son of Man
c. Some background
i. General reference to human beings, reference
to the prophet, an enigmatic figure comes on
the clouds
d. Genuine Sayings of Jesus?
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i. At least three
ii. Found in all gospels
e. A title of Divinity
f. Mark 2:1-12
i. Son of man had the authority to forgive a
paralyzed man’s sins
g. Mark 14:61-64
i. Jesus claims to be the messiah and the son of man
h. Unique relationship with God; knowledge of him; ability to
forgive sins
2. Other Indications of Jesus’s Divine Self-Consciousness
a. Jesus thought he was the only way to personal salvation
b. He claimed to be divine
4. According to what was presented in class, how do Christians know that the Bible is
the word of God? Explain in detail.
a. Jesus used the old testament
i. Commands and words of God
ii. Inspired by the Holy Ghost
iii. Endure until completely fulfilled
iv. Source of correct doctrine
b. New Testament
i. Actual words of Jesus (God)
ii. Written by people trained by Jesus
iii. Jesus said holy spirit would guid them
iv. They believed they were guided by the holy spirit
5. Explain the distinction between “general” and “special” revelation and list the
various forms of each that Erickson discusses.
a. General (available to all
i. Nature, design, impossible to conceive of something greater than God
ii. History
1. Courses of nature
iii. Humans
1. Moral judgements
b. Special
i. Historical events
1. Abraham issac,
ii. Divine speech
1. Vocalizations
2. Non-vocal
3. Prophets
4. Inspiration
a. bible
iii. incarnation
iv. dreams and visions
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v.
6. Explain each of the five theories on the nature of inspiration that were presented in
the class and present a strong case for whichever perspective you think is best.
a. Intuition
i. Great literature, not inspired
b. Illumination
i. Special wisdom, illuminating their hearts and minds, gave spiritual insight
c. Dymanic
i. Inspired them as they were writing, used personalities to bring out truth
d. Verbal
i. Used personalities, but inspired their very word choice so that
the message is exactly the one he wanted
ii. I think Verbal Theory is the strongest, not because doctor Jones said it,
but because I believe that every single word is how God wants it. Jesus
thought that eveyr word of the Old Testament is inspired, so why
wouldn’t every word of the new testament also be inspired? I used to
lean more to a dictation visual, but after learning more about the
different writing styles in my New Testament class, I definitely think
God used the different styles of the authors, while still inspiring their
word choice
e. Dictation
i. God spoke to them word for word what he wanted in the bible
