Kevin Stilley

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January 30, 2017 by kevinstilley

Early Western Civilization classroom resources

EARLY WESTERN CIVILIZATION – HIS1103

Prolegomena

  • About Your Professor
  • Reading List For Life & Thought Seminars – SWBTS program texts
  • Digital Nation (video)
  • Reading Your Textbooks

Class #1 – Introduction

  • Syllabus HIS 1103B Fall 2013 – [pdf]
  • Introduction to the Course – Syllabus — Spring 2013 [class slides is pdf format]

Research Paper Preparation

  • Developing a Research Paper Topic
  • Tips For Better Writing

Class #2 – What is History?

  • Why Study History (pdf of class slides)
  • History – select quotes
  • The Value of Learning History, by John Piper
  • Reasons Why Christians Should Study History – student responses
  • A Worker Reads History
  • Old Testament Times, chapter 1 – Recovering Near Eastern Antiquity [pdf]
  • Exponential Times

Class #3 – Pre-History

  • Prehistory [pdf of class slides]
  • The Everlasting Man (Chapter 2), by G.K. Chesterton – [pdf]
  • World History According To Students – [PowerPoint]
  • The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy [pdf]

Class #4 – Mesopotamia – Sumer & Akkad

  •  Mesopotamia – Sumer & Akkad (class slides)

Class #5 – Egypt

  • Ancient Egypt – (pdf of class slides)
  • History of Empires – video
  • Genesis 1 and Ancient Egyptian Creation Myths, by Gordon H. Johnston [pdf]

Class #6 – The Patriarchal Period

  • Egypt & The Hebrew Patriarchs – (pdf of class slides)

Class #7 – The Hittites

  • Hittites –  (pdf of class slides)

Class #8 – Western Semitic Power Grabs / David, Solomon, & Rehoboam (The United and Divided Kingdom)

  • United and Divided Israel – [Powerpoint slides]
  • Hebrew History Spring 11 – [Powerpoint slides]

Class #9 – Assyria, Babylon, the Medes & The Persians

  • Assyrians Babylonians Medes and Persians – [Powerpoint slides]
  • Daniel Spring 2011 – [Powerpoint slides]

Class #10 – Examination #1

  • Midterm Examination
  • Preparing for the first exam [pdf of class slides]

Class #11 – “Meanwhile in Greece…”

  • Greece: The Minoan Period Through the Trojan War

Class #12 – Greek Mythology & Religion

  • Greek Mythology, History, and Religion

Class #13 – The Persian Wars

  • — Marathon, Thermopylae, Sparta

Class #14 – Birth of Democracy

  • The Cradle of Democracy

Class #15 – The Peloponnesian Wars & Alexander the Great

  • The Peloponnesian Wars & Alexander the Great [lecture slides]

Class #16 – Pre-Socratic Philosophy

  • The Cradle of Western Philosophy [lecture slides]

Class #17 – Socrates, Sophists, Plato

  • Socratic Method – “Define your terms, please.”
  • The Sophists, Socrates, & Plato [lecture slides]

Class #18 – Aristotle

  • Aristotle [lecture slides]

Class #19 – Hellenistic & Early Roman Philosophy

  • Hellenistic and Early Roman Philosophy [lecture slides]

Class #20 – Examination #2

Class #21 – Romulus to Hannibal

  • Roman Beginnings [lecture slides]

Class #22 – Roman Prosperity

Class #23 – Roman Empire

  • Roman Emperors [lecture slides]

Class #24 – Six Flags Over Israel

  • The Intertestamental Period: Six Flags Over Israel [lecture slides]

Class #25 – Roman Provinces & Israel During The Intertestamental Period

  • How Did the Romans Govern Palestine? [lecture slides]

Class #26 – The Jewish War With Rome & The Destruction of the Temple

Class #27 – Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Ancient Art, Science, Literature, etc.)

Class #28 – Western Civilization & The Kingdom of God

Class #29 – Final Examination

  • Early Western Civilization Final Exam – 2007

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page, History, Old Testament, Philosophy Tagged With: Asia Minor, Babylonian, Early Western Civilization, Egypt, Greek, History, Judaism, Mesopotamia, New Testament Backgrounds, Old Testament, Roman

January 24, 2017 by kevinstilley

How Did The Romans Govern Palestine? [lecture slides]

















Filed Under: Blog, Church History, Education, History, Politics Tagged With: Intertestamental Period, Judaism, Provinces, Roman Empire

July 8, 2013 by kevinstilley

Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, by Michael Brown

Darrell Bock has recommended the four volume set written by Michael Brown on Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus as “a wonderful resource for study of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism.” I personally own the first three volumes of this set and I gladly add my recommendation to his.

Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover

Many of the questions that Jewish people have about Jesus are very different than those one will confront in the academy or the broader marketplace of ideas. In these four volumes Brown deals with (1) General and Historical Objections, (2) Theological Objections, (3) Messianic Prophecy Objections, and (4) New Testament Objections.

You are looking at close to $100 to buy all four volumes in new condition, so you probably don’t want to run right out and buy them unless you have an immediate apologetic, evangelistic, or academic need. However, it is good to know they exist and that they are a good equipping tool so that you can keep an eye out for discounted copies of them. [I was able to pick up my three volumes at a discounted price ($3.98 each) several years ago. And, they are available on Kindle for about $13.00 each.]

If you want to start with just one volume, my favorite is volume 2 on Theological Objections. In it Michael Brown works through 28 unique questions using the Hebrew Bible, rabbinic texts, and the New Testament. He covers topics such as the sacrificial system, atonement, the Trinity, the Law, and the Messiah. This is not the kind of book that one can enjoy if read passively. However, inquiring students of the Bible will be rewarded for the investment of mental energy necessary to work through the nuances of the questions and answers and will find engagement of the material to be both stimulating and challenging.

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, Books, Worldview Tagged With: Jewish, Judaism, Messiah

January 9, 2011 by kevinstilley

Final Exam Review: World Religions Seminar

Be prepared to answer questions on the following topics:

  • Talmud
  • Torah
  • Tanakh
  • Sunni
  • Shi’a
  • Sufism
  • Basmala
  • Surah
  • Shirk
  • Hadith
  • Sharia
  • Fatwa
  • Dharma
  • Karma
  • Samsara
  • moksha
  • Nirvana
  • The Vedas
  • Koan
  • Three Jewels
  • Four Noble Truths
  • The Five Skandhas
  • Five Pillars of Islam
  • Eightfold Path
  • Confucianism

Short answer question (you can bring a notecard to help you with this one): Using a passage from the Bhagavad Gita explain why social justice is not a big issue for Hindus in non-Western countries.

Filed Under: Blog, Evangelism, History, Philosophy Tagged With: Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, World Religions

March 24, 2008 by kevinstilley

Poland’s Anne Frank

She has been called Poland’s Anne Frank. Rutka Laskier, a 14-year-old Jewish girl, wrote about the horrors of war in a heart-wrenching diary. She perished at Auschwitz, but her journal, hidden away for decades, has recently come to light.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Anne Frank, Auschwitz, Germany, Journal, Judaism, Nazi, Poland, Rutka Laskier, War

November 20, 2007 by kevinstilley

Ben Stein Regarding Christmas


The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this happen?” (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

In light of recent events…terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said OK.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.”

Funny how simple it is for people to trash Christianity, then, wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards
Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, christmas, discrimination, holidays, Judaism, people

November 3, 2007 by kevinstilley

Anti-Semitic Views Held By 15% Of U.S. Adults

According to a recent poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League about 15% of Americans hold Anti-Semitic beliefs.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, Judaism, Polls, prejudice

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