So what can you learn about avian parasites, sedimentary rocks, fossilized clams, ostrich eggs, logical fallacies, plover migrations, giraffe blood systems, plesiosaurs, ancient Chinese pictographs, a Russian Viking king, the Moabite Stone, Hebrew word studies, Waldensians, and the providential preservation of the New Testament's Greek text?

And what do these varied topics have to do with the study of biblical apologetics? When one examines how Jesus Himself taught truth, then it's easy to see that the world of biblical apologetics compares God's most authoritative witness--His written Word--with another vital witness--the world He created.

Now wrapping up its first year, the ICR School of Biblical Apologetics (SOBA) is poised with exciting summer courses and a solid offering of relevant subjects to be covered in year two.

As a complement to ICR's Graduate School (ICRGS), ICR launched the School of Biblical Apologetics in 2009¹ with a resident evening program on the new Dallas campus of the Institute for Creation Research. Offering a Master of Christian Education degree program with a joint major in Biblical Education and Apologetics, SOBA allows students to pursue minors with concentrations in Christian School Teaching, Creation Research, Genesis Studies, and Sacred Humanities.

Six core courses were completed in year one with study in Many Infallible Proofs, Jesus the Master Teacher, General and Special Revelation, The Uniqueness and Supremacy of Christ, Bibliology, and Critiquing Secular and Religious Humanism. ICR staff and adjunct faculty included Dr. John Morris, Dr. Stan Toussaint, Dr. Randy Guliuzza, Dr. Jim Johnson, and Mr. Frank Sherwin.

Summer electives have included Creationist Apologetics and Animal Life (Dr. Jobe Martin), The Genesis Flood (Dr. John Morris), and Biblical Archaeology (Dr. Eugene Merrill).

New to SOBA this year is the addition of ACSI-accredited CEU courses, including Understanding and Teaching Biblical History during August/September, and Logic, Evidence, and Apologetics in November/December. More information about SOBA degrees and courses, as well as how teachers and administrators can sign up for ACSI CEUs, can be found at www.icr.edu.

Thank you for your prayerful support of ICR's newest educational program.

Reference

1. ICR's graduate school has offered its Master of Science degree from California since 1981. Due to a legal position taken by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in April 2008, ICRGS now offers its mostly-online program to applicants from every state except Texas. As this issue of Acts & Facts goes to press, this academic freedom-focused controversy is pending as a civil rights lawsuit in Austin federal court, as Civil Action 1:09-CV-382-SS (W.D. Tex.), ICR Graduate School v. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, et al.

Cite this article: 2010. From Parasites to Pictographs: ICR Apologetics School Surges Forward. Acts & Facts. 39 (8): 19.