The religion of the Jewish people is dominated by the story of God who revealed himself to the ancient people of Israel. Their prophets recorded their experience and compiled them into a library of books called the Hebrew Bible. These writings are regarded as inspired by God and gave meaning and direction to the people of Israel.

This course provides the student with an overview of the content, flow, and unity of the Hebrew Bible. Backgrounds, literary types, literary structures, and an overall theology of the Old Testament will be presented, with emphasis on how the Old Testament points to Jesus.

The New Testament is a compilation of books that were written by the early church. They tell the story of how the God of Israel ultimately revealed himself in Jesus Christ and what it means for the world. It also tells the origin story of how a movement of Jesus followers grew into the church, what they believed and how they interacted with the world around them.

This course provides the student with an overview of the content, flow, and unity of the writings of the early church: The New Testament. Backgrounds, literary types, literary structures, and an overall theology of the New Testament will be presented, with emphasis on the place of the New Testament in the whole Bible.

The bible is an ancient text compiled by different writers in a time span of hundreds of years. This has become the most influential book in human history. It has inspired countless people but it also has confused a lot of them. 

This course will teach you to study the bible as ancient literature. You will learn to use different tools, to identify different literary types, genres and structures and how to properly read these texts. The goal of this course is to develop the skill to understand what the original writers wanted to communicate, how they wanted their message to be understood and how this message can bring transformation in our lives today.

There has always been diversity in what and how the church believed. The time, place and culture influences how we look at the bible to give answers to the complexity of life, and what we emphasise in the Christian faith. The church, however, has also always been united in some core beliefs that are found in the apostolic confession of faith.

This course will study the origins of the essentials of Christianity. It will explore what and why some topics are non-essential and how these topics are understood differently in the diversity of the contemporary church. The goal of this course is to develop a Christlike mindset on how we keep the unity in the diversity of Christians we encounter and minister with.

In our world today, Christians share the same space with people from other religions, whether in the neighbourhood, at work, or at school. It is necessary that Christians understand these neighbours and colleagues who adhere to these various religions.  

This course provides a general understanding of the world’s religions to help students constructively engage with people from these religions. It explores the teaching of the selected religions of the world such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Traditional Religions, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc. A key question to be addressed in the course is: how can we be respectful witnesses of the gospel to our neighbours and colleagues?

Biblical exposition is considered essential to understanding and applying the teachings of the Bible to daily life. It is a way for believers to deepen their understanding of God’s word and to grow in their faith.

In this course we will select one of the biblical books per semester to study. We will thoroughly analyse the text, taking into account its historical and cultural context, literary genre, and linguistic nuances. It also involves the use of various tools such as concordances, lexicons, commentaries, and other resources to aid in interpretation. The goal of biblical exposition is to understand the original intended meaning of the text, and to apply its teachings and principles to modern life.

According to the United Nations around 70% of the world population will be living in cities by 2030. The urban growth is primarily generated through migration. It is estimated that Amsterdam has over 180 different nationalities represented in the city. There are great opportunities for the Gospel because never before in all of human history the “nations” are moving into the cities on such a grand scale. The future and the peace of the city depends on churches who intentionally engage and interact with these new changes.

In this course we will study the mission of God throughout the bible and focus our attention on why cities play an important role in the mind of God. We will evaluate some of the contemporary urban missional projects in the city. We will also explore how to communicate the Gospel in a predominantly secular and post Christian culture. The goal of this course is to develop a model of ministry that connects the context of your own city with the mission of God.

In our world today, Christians share the same space with people from other religions, whether in the neighborhood, at work, or at school. It is necessary that Christians understand these neighbors and colleagues who adhere to these various religions.  

This course provides a general understanding of the world’s religions to help students constructively engage with people from these religions. It explores the teaching of the selected religions of the world such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Traditional Religions, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc. A key question to be addressed in the course is: how can we be respectful witnesses of the gospel to our neighbors and colleagues?

A walk with Jesus should be a transformative one; it cannot be one of  theory only but of application. As it says in James 1 we must “be doers  of the word and not hearers only”. The goal of doing the word of God  is to be transformed into the image of Jesus. Therefore it is important  to look at the practices of Jesus and follow after him.  

This course will help students understand what and how we are  spiritually formed for practical means of application. The goal is to  equip and cause students to intentionally look more like Jesus for  kingdom purposes by following the practices of Jesus himself.