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Applied Biblical Apologetics (Hybrid)
$300
Students will defend each and every major Biblical doctrine of the Christian faith against real live skeptics on their own forums in this 36-week course. Students will work in pairs and will plan and reflect on each engagement.
Course Verse:
“…For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…” — II Corinthians 10:4-5
Where Did the Idea Come From?
Have you ever been attacked by a gate?
Maybe a more embarrassing question is, “Have you ever been defeated by one?”
If Paul told us that our weapons are for “tearing down strongholds,” and Jesus said that “the gates of Hell will not stand against [the Church],” then why are we living on the defensive?
I learned this the hard way in two ways.
The first is that my high school was ranked 4th academically in the nation, with a debate team that had been national champions for as long as anyone could remember — most of whom were hostile to Christianity. Consequently, I learned early that I needed to carry my Bible to Math class, or I was going to get waylaid by classmates and teachers. I was “standing down” Ph.D.’s in apologetics battles from the time I was 15 years old.
The second way was harder, and thus, more relevant.
I worked with youth in Columbus, GA, and had trained (or so I thought) several members of the group to use the Bible effectively. They graduated, went to college, had their faith shredded there, came back, and bled out in my arms. I swore in that day: NEVER AGAIN!!
These two experiences forged this course. The need to ensure that the students are prepared to fight their own battles by having to struggle to strength, and the need to ensure that they do not despair before they succeed.
You see, there is nothing wrong with the Sword. It is only in the swordsman where the failing lies.
To graduate high school, our students must attain certain academic skills. What are their skills, before our churches pronounce them “graduated”?
Paul, at the Areopagus, opened with “I have wandered about your city, and I have seen that you are a religious people.…” Can we train to the Areopagus Standard, so our students can wander about “their city” and understand the type of religious people that they are going to encounter?
What Adult Accomplishments Does This Course Coach?
- Every major doctrine of the Christian faith defended against real skeptics on the skeptic’s forum, while still in a supportive environment
- An identified disciple to whom the student will pass on what they have learned
- A prescribed “path to reconciliation/repentance” for a personal and an organizational problem faced by a real person and a real organization
What Transferable Skills Does This Course Train?
- The ability to cite “chapter and verse” for whatever they claim to believe
- The ability to answer objections from all sorts of skeptics to the Christian faith
- The ability to stand up under academic attack on their faith from college professors and other professional skeptics
- The ability to deal with personal problems in a Biblical way
- The ability to solve organizational problems Biblically
- The ability to win any argument
- The ability to evaluate the arguments that people bring about all sorts of topics
- The ability to understand others’ viewpoint, without having to fall into the pitfalls of that viewpoint
What Careers Does This Course Give Me a Leg Up On?
- Pastor – Average Salary: $48,270 (https://www.payscale.com)
- Youth Pastor – Average Salary: $40,000 (https://www.glassdoor.com)
- Counselor – Average Salary: $40,772 (https://www.glassdoor.com)
- Christian Author – Average Salary: $61,240 (https://www.careeronestop.org)
- Teacher – Average Salary: $58,030 (https://www.careeronestop.org)
- Lawyer – Average Salary: $118,160 (https://www.careeronestop.org)
- Investigative Journalist – Average Salary: $37,820 (https://www.careeronestop.org)
Why “0 Minutes”?
In talking with a number of homeschool families (and remembering my own childhood), I realized something important: families are busy! If I schedule a course to meet on Tuesdays at 9:30, then any family that has something else at that time cannot take part, and I didn’t want that. On the flip side, we have all done various self-paced, self-improvement hobbies that did not end up doing any good because there was no accountability (New Years’ Resolutions, anyone?) I decided to get the best of both worlds: Weekly accountability with daily flexibility.
The students will have assignments that they must accomplish each week. They will also interact with me and with their classmates in chat type interactions. This keeps them on schedule to actually complete the amazing accomplishments that this course coaches them through. But they have the freedom, within the week, to choose when they are going to work on the assignments. I have tried to provide enough instruction to enable the students to do the tasks that they have been assigned, but I also understand that sometimes, there needs to be some more direct instruction to clear up misunderstandings.
To accommodate this need, it will be possible to schedule “office hours” on an “as needed” basis where I would have a live conversation with one or more students. There will be some expectations of the student when they are asking for “office hours.” I will give them questions to answer in order to make sure that I understand what their question is and can best prepare to make that time as efficient and effective as possible. Office hours will be scheduled based on mutual scheduling needs and availability, and if there seems to be a topic that everyone is having problems with, I will either schedule a class session to clear it up, or I will provide additional instructional materials.
I am committed to your student’s success. But rather than limit your family’s ability to take part in the course, I prefer to give your family the flexibility to have your child work on their schedule, as long as they are getting their work done by the Friday deadline each week.
How Would I Write This Course Up On a High School Transcript?
- As a Bible credit, given the extensive study of the different doctrines of the Christian faith that the student will have had to undergo in an effort to defend them
- As a Philosophy credit, given the extensive study of argumentation and logic (with its associated fallacies) that the student will have had to put into practice in making their various cases
- As an English credit, given the amount of writing that the student will have had to complete, from their planning, making their arguments, and then reflecting on them in writing in order to inform the next round of arguments.
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Previous Questions
Jolene C: I am very interested in my son taking this class however he does not do well with self-paced classes. How does he learn to defend and argue without being taught the answers? There is no video lessons for him to watch? Is it basically a self-taught class with the Bible as the only source? Can you give me a sample of what the work would be like? Thank you, Jolene Christian
Jolene,
Thank you so much for your question. I would love to have your son in the course in the Fall. The approach on this course is pretty different from most other apologetics courses out there, which is why I changed the name this year to better reflect how it works.
The students will get trained by actually doing apologetics in this course, rather than just getting instruction \"about\" apologetics. I wouldn\'t call it either \"self taught,\" or \"self-paced,\" but the student is going to be doing a fair amount of guided reflection on their own apologetics process, as well as getting some regular feedback from me to streamline that learning process. Let me try to provide a more detailed answer to your question by way of an example.
This course is what I would describe as a \"rhythmic\" course, in the sense that the students will be going through very similar processes, but with different topics throughout the course. For each major doctrine of Christianity, the students will go through the following process.
1. They will receive some instruction materials that provide framework and relevant Scripture references for that doctrine. An example that I will use here is the Doctrine of Christ (Christology.) An example of what they would receive as instructional material is contained at the following link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1h6gDoJC0xxLCD0A_rWPEzN4hAxyUiHbSJvt8XL_g6Jc/edit?usp=sharing
2. They will plan their attack on a stronghold arrayed against this doctrine of the Christian faith (based on the practice of apologetics as outlined in II Cor. 10). This will be a cooperative exercise with a student partner. Since the Master saw fit to send His disciples out two by two (Luke 10), I think that it\'s a good model. In the case of Christology, for this example, they might choose a Muslim forum as the stronghold to attack. They will plan their approach, by completing a guided planning form that I will provide them feedback on, along with some guidelines for that planning, as well as some generalized apologetic process teaching (e.g. the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwstcx54bHxeY0lYVnVKZC1idFE/view?usp=sharing).
3. They (with their partner) will execute their attack. This means that throughout this week, they will actively engage on the chosen Muslim forum, and receive and respond to whatever reactions they receive. This will not always be positive reactions, but that is part of training, as opposed to teaching.
4. They will reflect on how the attack went. During this week, they will complete a Reflection Form that helps them think through what went right and what went wrong about that attack, so that they can improve their process for the next attack against a stronghold that elevates itself against the next doctrine of the Christian faith.
The students will get feedback from me at each stage of this process for each doctrine that they are conducting supporting attacks of. Which means that I will be providing them feedback on the planning phase, the execution phase, and the reflection phase in order to improve their technique, as well as to provide them with encouragement, because not all of the emotional experiences in these attacks are going to be pleasant. They will certainly also be getting support from home on this as well.
To answer some of the more specific questions, there is not a separate video to watch, but there will be material that I am providing to the students regularly. The Bible is certainly the primary textbook, but there will be other research that the students will need to do to prepare for their various attacks based on the model used in Acts 17 at the Areopagus. (\"Men of Athens, I have wandered about your city, and I have seen that you are a very religious people...\")
I do hope that this answers the questions that you were asking, and please do not hesitate to ask me any others that come to mind about the course. We would love to have your son in the course in the Fall.
Dave Mugg
Thank you so much for your question. I would love to have your son in the course in the Fall. The approach on this course is pretty different from most other apologetics courses out there, which is why I changed the name this year to better reflect how it works.
The students will get trained by actually doing apologetics in this course, rather than just getting instruction \"about\" apologetics. I wouldn\'t call it either \"self taught,\" or \"self-paced,\" but the student is going to be doing a fair amount of guided reflection on their own apologetics process, as well as getting some regular feedback from me to streamline that learning process. Let me try to provide a more detailed answer to your question by way of an example.
This course is what I would describe as a \"rhythmic\" course, in the sense that the students will be going through very similar processes, but with different topics throughout the course. For each major doctrine of Christianity, the students will go through the following process.
1. They will receive some instruction materials that provide framework and relevant Scripture references for that doctrine. An example that I will use here is the Doctrine of Christ (Christology.) An example of what they would receive as instructional material is contained at the following link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1h6gDoJC0xxLCD0A_rWPEzN4hAxyUiHbSJvt8XL_g6Jc/edit?usp=sharing
2. They will plan their attack on a stronghold arrayed against this doctrine of the Christian faith (based on the practice of apologetics as outlined in II Cor. 10). This will be a cooperative exercise with a student partner. Since the Master saw fit to send His disciples out two by two (Luke 10), I think that it\'s a good model. In the case of Christology, for this example, they might choose a Muslim forum as the stronghold to attack. They will plan their approach, by completing a guided planning form that I will provide them feedback on, along with some guidelines for that planning, as well as some generalized apologetic process teaching (e.g. the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwstcx54bHxeY0lYVnVKZC1idFE/view?usp=sharing).
3. They (with their partner) will execute their attack. This means that throughout this week, they will actively engage on the chosen Muslim forum, and receive and respond to whatever reactions they receive. This will not always be positive reactions, but that is part of training, as opposed to teaching.
4. They will reflect on how the attack went. During this week, they will complete a Reflection Form that helps them think through what went right and what went wrong about that attack, so that they can improve their process for the next attack against a stronghold that elevates itself against the next doctrine of the Christian faith.
The students will get feedback from me at each stage of this process for each doctrine that they are conducting supporting attacks of. Which means that I will be providing them feedback on the planning phase, the execution phase, and the reflection phase in order to improve their technique, as well as to provide them with encouragement, because not all of the emotional experiences in these attacks are going to be pleasant. They will certainly also be getting support from home on this as well.
To answer some of the more specific questions, there is not a separate video to watch, but there will be material that I am providing to the students regularly. The Bible is certainly the primary textbook, but there will be other research that the students will need to do to prepare for their various attacks based on the model used in Acts 17 at the Areopagus. (\"Men of Athens, I have wandered about your city, and I have seen that you are a very religious people...\")
I do hope that this answers the questions that you were asking, and please do not hesitate to ask me any others that come to mind about the course. We would love to have your son in the course in the Fall.
Dave Mugg
Sandra S: On the description of the course didn't say the duration of the live class on Mondays at 12:00 also need more information about the grading process and how will the student turn in the weekly assignments please!Thanks!
Sandra,
Thank you for your interest in the Biblical Apologetics course. Since the course is not \"self-paced\" in that the student will have to turn in assignments and engage in questions on a weekly basis, Lumalearn required that I put in some value for the \"live\" portion. There is not actually a live portion of the class, but rather regular interaction through class chat. If students have questions that cannot be answered through chat, or if many students have the same question, there is the possibility to establish \"office hours\" where there could be a live conversation to try to resolve these difficulties. I do this so that I can accommodate the business of families who have many things going on during their week, and I do not want scheduling to be the reason that they cannot take my course.
The grading process would be based on their completion of the assignments and would be assigned a percentage per week. There would be some variance between weeks, as certain ones will require somewhat more work than others. The students would either be filling out a form to turn in their assignments, or they would be uploading their document, or answering the class chat questions. The specific turn in instructions will be included in the assignment instructions.
Again, thank you for your interest, and I hope that this answers your questions. Please do not hesitate to ask further questions on any topic that needs further clarification. Take care.
Sincerely,
Mr. Mugg
Thank you for your interest in the Biblical Apologetics course. Since the course is not \"self-paced\" in that the student will have to turn in assignments and engage in questions on a weekly basis, Lumalearn required that I put in some value for the \"live\" portion. There is not actually a live portion of the class, but rather regular interaction through class chat. If students have questions that cannot be answered through chat, or if many students have the same question, there is the possibility to establish \"office hours\" where there could be a live conversation to try to resolve these difficulties. I do this so that I can accommodate the business of families who have many things going on during their week, and I do not want scheduling to be the reason that they cannot take my course.
The grading process would be based on their completion of the assignments and would be assigned a percentage per week. There would be some variance between weeks, as certain ones will require somewhat more work than others. The students would either be filling out a form to turn in their assignments, or they would be uploading their document, or answering the class chat questions. The specific turn in instructions will be included in the assignment instructions.
Again, thank you for your interest, and I hope that this answers your questions. Please do not hesitate to ask further questions on any topic that needs further clarification. Take care.
Sincerely,
Mr. Mugg
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