Bible

About this course

Third grade keeps the eight-strand pattern from second grade but raises the level of every strand. The Old Testament survey now runs the full arc from Creation through Abraham, Moses, the Ten Commandments, David, Solomon and the temple, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Daniel, and Esther, and ends by tracing the promise of rescue from Adam to the prophets. The New Testament survey works through the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, the triumphal entry, the Last Supper, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the Great Commission. Church history stops being a summary of Acts and becomes real history: the Roman persecutions, Constantine, the Nicene Creed, the Middle Ages, Wycliffe and Hus, Luther and the Reformation, the Anabaptists and the Martyrs Mirror, the Great Awakenings, and the modern missionary movement. Apologetics introduces the actual named arguments (cosmological, design, moral), the reliability of the Bible, fulfilled prophecy, the evidence for the resurrection, and the problem of evil. Worldview compares the biblical account of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration with secular humanism and materialism, and ethics reaches into media choices, peer pressure, online kindness, care for the poor, and stewardship of creation.

The year is 180 lessons across 15 units, one per school day, at about 20 minutes each. Each unit is 12 lessons on a single strand, and seven of the eight strands come around a second time in the back half of the year with fresh material rather than repeats. A lesson is a page or two of teaching prose quoting the King James text, a key verse, two or three discussion questions, and a journal or hands-on activity. Every lesson ends with a ten-question multiple-choice quiz that grades itself.

This is the first year the course expects your student to read most of it independently, though the discussion questions are clearly meant to be talked through with you rather than answered alone. A Bible your student can mark, and a notebook to use as a Bible journal, will both get real use. One thing worth knowing before you begin: the ethics and church history strands present the Anabaptist peace position, adult baptism, and separation of church and state warmly and as the house tradition, while questions such as the age of the earth and the details of the end times are generally laid out rather than settled, and left for you and your family to decide.

What the course covers

• Old Testament survey: Creation through Daniel and Esther
• New Testament survey: the Sermon on the Mount through the Great Commission
• Church history: persecution, Nicaea, the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Anabaptists
• Apologetics: cosmological, design, and moral arguments
• Evidence for the Bible, fulfilled prophecy, and the resurrection
• The problem of evil and suffering
• Worldview: creation, fall, redemption, restoration, and rival views
• Ethics: honesty, care for the poor, media choices, peer pressure, online conduct
• Peacemaking and the Anabaptist tradition
• Bible study method: observation, interpretation, application, genres, and tools

What your student will be able to do

• Locate and study a passage using observation, interpretation, and application
• Identify the genre of a Bible passage and read it accordingly
• Explain the cosmological, design, and moral arguments in plain words
• Place the major events of church history in order from Pentecost to the present
• Compare the biblical worldview with secular humanism and materialism
• Work through an everyday ethical decision using Scripture and a written plan

Scope and sequence

All 15 units of Bible for Grade 3, in the order they are taught.

Inside the course

These photographs appear in the lessons themselves, not just on this page. Every one is freely licensed and credited to its photographer at the foot of this page.

Every lesson, by title

All 180 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

Unit 8: Worldview · Lesson 9

How We Know Truth

20 minutesBible (KJV or children's Bible)PencilCrayons or colored pencils

What this lesson is for

• Students will learn about How We Know Truth
• Students will memorize the day's Bible verse
• Students will apply the lesson to daily life

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

How We Know Truth

How do you know something is really true? The world gives many different answers to that question — but only one answer is fully reliable.

Key Verse: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." — 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Teaching: Epistemology (ep-ih-stee-MOL-oh-jee) is the philosophical term for the study of how we know things — how we tell truth from falsehood. Different worldviews use different sources of authority. Feelings: "If it feels true to me, it is true for me." But feelings change constantly, and history is full of people who felt very sure about things that were very wrong. Majority opinion: "If most people believe it, it must be right." But majorities have been catastrophically wrong many times. Science and observation: "If we can measure it and test it, it is real." But science can only address questions about the physical world — it cannot tell us what is morally right or why we exist. Personal experience: "What I have lived through is my truth." But experiences can be misinterpreted, and we all have blind spots. All these sources have some value — but they all have serious limits. The Bible teaches that God's Word is the ultimate standard of all truth (2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 17:17). It is "God-breathed" — every word inspired by the God who made the universe, knows all things, cannot lie, and has revealed Himself to us out of love. This does not mean we dismiss feelings, science, or experience — we value them all. But we run every idea and experience through the lens of Scripture, letting God's Word judge our perceptions rather than our perceptions judging God's Word.

Can you think of an example where feelings led someone to a wrong decision? Why is the Bible a more reliable guide than feelings, opinions, or experiences alone?

Activity: Read John 8:31-32 together: "If ye continue in my word... ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Make a list of five truths from the Bible that you are genuinely glad to know.

Homework

Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17 again. Write or tell what today's lesson, How We Know Truth, teaches us.

Note for the parent

Today's lesson covers How We Know Truth. Estimated time: 20 minutes. Encourage independent work but be available for questions.

The first three of this lesson's 10 questions

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says 'All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.' What does this establish as a foundation for knowing truth?

1. Scripture, as God's inspired Word, is our most reliable source of truth for faith and life
2. We know truth mainly through our feelings and experiences
3. Truth is found by combining all the world's religious writings together
4. Truth is discovered mainly through scientific experiments

Show the answer

Answer: Scripture, as God's inspired Word, is our most reliable source of truth for faith and life

The philosophical study of how we know things and tell truth from falsehood is called what?

1. Ecology
2. Eschatology
3. Epistemology
4. Etymology

Show the answer

Answer: Epistemology

What sources of knowledge does the lesson identify that humans use?

1. Senses (experience), reason, and revelation (Scripture)
2. Only Scripture — nothing else is reliable
3. Feelings and intuition alone
4. Only logic and reason

Show the answer

Answer: Senses (experience), reason, and revelation (Scripture)

Another 7 questions follow in the lesson itself, each one graded the moment it is answered.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 180 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.