God the Son, Mentor's Guide, MG10

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G O D T H E S O N

for your own personal library, as well as your students is the text that has brought together so much of the early Christian belief together. The book is:

David W. Bercot, Editor. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998.

These questions are designed to ensure that the students understand the critical aims and facts presented in the first video segment. Because of the thickness of the implications of many of the questions, you will not be able to linger unadvisedly on any particular question in the listing. One of your primary duties as a mentor will be your ability to use the time of your class session well, and in answering these post-video questions you will need to demonstrate that skill constantly. Gauge your time per question well, and monitor the clock always, especially if your students are intrigued with the concepts, and want to discuss their implications at length. Your management of the clock really is determined by the way in which your classroom sessions are designated. So, always allow for the proper time to focus in on the main points, and still have enough time for a break before the next video segment is started. This segment begins the work of understanding the creedal language regarding the preexistence of Jesus Christ. An excellent case can be made regarding the preexistence of the Son of God as Messiah in Scripture. Jesus in fact is conceived in the NT as the preexistent Son who had been “sent” by God into the world in order to bring salvation to humankind (Gal. 4.4–5; Rom. 8.3–4; cf. John 3.17; 1 John 4.9, 14). In some of the apocryphal texts surrounding the time of Jesus’ coming we also see the idea of the preexistence of the Messiah, as in 4 Ezra 13.26 , is said to have been kept by God “for many ages” (cf. 12.32). The “son of man” figure in 1 Enoch , who is identified as the Messiah (48.10; 52.4), is said to have been brought into being before the world (48.2–3, 6; 62.7). Texts like Micah 5.2 and Psalm 89.28 speak of Messiah’s coming as from old, even from ancient days, and the king to come is the firstborn in a preexistent sense.

5 Page 24 Student Questions and Response

6 Page 25 Summary of Segment 2