We began our dialectic studies of the history of the world, from Creation to the present, on a four-year cycle with the Bible.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
That was the perfect place to start.
My kids read through the Bible our first year of studying the Ancients, from Creation to the Fall of Rome, by listening to audio tapes while they worked on their art activities of the era we were studying.
They were already familiar with most of the stories in the Bible because of our past flannelgraphs, from church, from Awana Club, and lots of books they’ve read on their own. Thus, this was an easy assignment.
We discussed their reading in the mornings during devotions, where we opened our Bibles, and prayed to the Lord to begin our day. I answered any questions they might have, and I helped them make connections to our studies, and applications to our lives.
The Bible is a classical work and a primary source document. My encouragement to them has been of the value of reading the Bible for ourselves in order to learn God’s plan for our lives.
The history that Would Unfold before us in our Classical Studies
The ancients didn’t have the Bible as a complete book to read at our convenience as we can do today.
Even though the Bible existed in the Middle Ages, only a few were literate, so the masses were dependent on the clergy to correctly relay God’s plan to them. But they didn’t Martin Luther is famous for the Reformation, because not all God’s Word had been taught by the church.
Because the Gutenberg Press was invented, and brave men like Luther, Tyndale, and Wycliffe translated the Word of God for commoners to read for themselves, revolutionizing the world.
People were freed spiritually as they learned spiritual truths. These truths impelled the freeing of humankind from serfdom and slavery.
We now have this amazing Book available at our fingertips…a book that centuries ago many yearned to be able to read…which few now actually read from cover to cover.
I used to be one of those people, forever merely trusting eternal truths to come from the church. Thankfully I was constantly challenged by pastors and other teachers to read the Bible for myself. I was enlightened. Then I trusted the church to teach my kids spiritual truths, but they got sick, so for a season we had to stay home, where I taught them the Bible through flannelgraphs. They became Christians and learned a lot. When we were well enough to attend church again, the lesson was to keep reading the Bible for ourselves.
May we all be Bereans: Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. -Acts 17:11
Instead of merely trusting Paul’s teaching, the Bereans fact-checked it against God’s Word.
We are called to do the same, and that is a hallmark of classical study.
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