Kootenai Church Sunday School

The third commandment does not just forbid a four letter word substitute. It forbids treating the name of God as empty, meaningless, or vain. In this lesson, teacher Dave Rich moves the Christian Ethics and Old Testament series into the third commandment, You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain. Rich walks through the Hebrew words behind the command, nasa, meaning to lift up or carr...

Dave Rich continues his study of the Second Commandment in this lesson, tackling a question every believer eventually faces: if God forbids images of Himself, why does Scripture describe Him as a lion, a lamb, a light, and even a moth? Rich walks through the Bible's own use of figurative language for God, showing how these pictures teach us about His character without becoming objects of worship t...

The Second Commandment raises questions that don't always yield easy answers—and Lesson 32 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament leans into that tension honestly. Dave Rich picks up where he left off, first addressing mental images of God, then turning to one of the more genuinely contested questions in Reformed ethics: may Christians use images of Jesus? Rich walks through the relevant biblic...

What's actually prohibited in "you shall not make for yourself an idol"? Dave Rich works through the Second Commandment verse by verse, and the answer is more precise than most people assume. Lesson 31 in this verse-by-verse study examines Exodus 20:4-6, comparing it carefully against its restatement in Deuteronomy 5. Rich breaks down the Hebrew terms behind "idol" and "likeness," then makes a cas...

Charles Spurgeon hated controversy. He spent nearly forty years fighting it anyway. In this second installment on the life and legacy of the "Prince of Preachers," Phil Johnson, executive director of Grace to You, traces Spurgeon's place in what he calls the Truth War: the long, reluctant fight against error that defined Spurgeon's ministry far more than most modern admirers realize. Johnson walks...

What does the whole Bible teach about which acts, attitudes, and attributes receive God's approval? In Lesson 30, Dave Rich shifts the class into Normative Ethics — the search for answers — and announces the organizing framework for the rest of the series: the Ten Commandments. Dave opens with a survey of biblical ethics summaries, from Ecclesiastes 12 and Micah 6:8 to the Golden Rule and Paul's c...

Most Christians agree they should read the Bible—but how often? How much? And what do you do with the genealogies and census lists? In Lesson 29 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament , Dave Rich turns the lens on the Bible itself, examining what Scripture says about its own intake and what that means for everyday practice. Rich walks through Psalm 19, Psalm 119, Joshua 1:8, Deuteronomy 6, and...

The Bible is trustworthy. But how do you know—and how do you use it rightly? In Lesson 28 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament , Dave Rich brings the series' extended examination of scriptural authority to a close and turns the corner toward a foundational question: how do we interpret the Bible we've established as God's Word? Rich opens by tackling the charge of circular reasoning head-on....

The Bible we hold is a translation of ancient manuscripts. But does that gap between the original autographs and our English Bibles introduce error we should be worried about? In Lesson 27 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament, Dave Rich works through the transmission and translation of Scripture—and makes the case that we have every reason for confidence. Rich opens with the logic: reliable m...

How do we know the Bible we hold today actually contains God's words—all of them, and only them? In Lesson 26 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament, Dave Rich works through the doctrine of canonicity and its direct bearing on Christian ethics. If the whole Bible teaches us which acts, attitudes, and attributes receive God's approval, then it matters enormously whether we have the right books....

Dave Rich returns for Lesson 25 in the Christian Ethics and the Old Testament series. After establishing Scripture's authority through inspiration last session, this lesson works through the next essential questions: Is the Bible clear enough, necessary enough, and sufficient enough to serve as the foundation for Christian ethics? Rich opens with the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture—what theol...

What makes the Bible the right place to go for Christian ethics? Before addressing how source material can be misused in moral reasoning, Dave Rich steps back to answer a more foundational question: why is Scripture authoritative in the first place? In Lesson 24 of the Christian Ethics and the Old Testament series, Rich grounds the authority of Scripture in the doctrine of verbal inspiration — the...

Christians are called to obey God's commands — not merely to know them. But what happens when Christian ethics slides into error, minimizing the obligation to obey? In Lesson 23, Dave Rich continues the survey of antinomian ethical ditches, finishing Christian pragmatism before turning to free grace theology and a topic he calls "Sovereign Constraints and the Death of Choice." Christian pragmatism...

What happens when Christian ethics goes wrong — on either side of the road? Lesson 22 of the Christian Ethics series covers the final rigorist errors and opens the antinomian ones. Dave Rich finishes the fundamentalist ethic from the previous lesson, drawing a clear line between biblical separation and the error of letting the world define the church's ethic in opposition to it. He then addresses...

What does it look like when law overrides grace? In Lesson 21 of the Christian Ethics series, Dave Rich identifies a class of ethical errors he calls "rigorism" — a broad category of views that elevate obedience to law above its proper biblical place, sometimes to the point of outright heresy. Rich walks through four distinct expressions of this error. Pelagianism, the most extreme, denies grace e...

The truth isn't out there — it's already here. That's the claim Michael Anderson brings to 1 Timothy 3:14–16 in this Sunday school message, setting up a sharp contrast between the world's fruitless search for external meaning and the life-transforming revelation of the gospel. Working through what he calls the constitution, commission, and confession of the church, Anderson shows why Paul found th...

What does it mean that Jesus was truly tempted—yet could not sin? Can God use Satan to accomplish His purposes? Where do our souls come from? And does God still speak apart from the Bible today? In this wide-ranging Q&A, Jim Osman fields questions from the congregation on some of theology's most searching topics. He opens with an extended treatment of Christ's two natures—fully God, fully man...

What happens when obeying one of God's commands seems to require breaking another? Dave Rich continues this examination of impossible moral conflict by applying three major Christian ethical frameworks to two of history's most challenging scenarios: Rahab's lie to protect the Israelite spies, and the ten Boom family's decision to deceive Nazi soldiers to save Jewish lives. Conflicting absolutism s...

What happens when obeying one command of God seems to require breaking another? That's the question at the center of this compelling lesson on Christian ethics — and it may be one of the most practically important questions a believer can wrestle with. In this episode, Dave Rich opens a multi-part series on apparent moral conflict — those moments when two God-given duties seem to pull in opposite...

Simon Pranaitis examines how Paul's conversion testimony reveals three essential ways the gospel continues to work in believers' lives decades after salvation. Writing to Timothy thirty years after his Damascus Road encounter, Paul demonstrates that the gospel isn't just for new converts—it's the ongoing source of spiritual strength, evangelistic motivation, and worshipful joy. Simon walks through...

Dave Rich concludes his examination of how Christians should approach the Old Testament for ethical guidance. Building on previous lessons about the Mosaic law, Rich shifts focus to the creation ordinances—commands given to Adam before the law of Moses even existed. He walks through Genesis to identify seven binding ordinances that remain in force today: procreation, subduing the earth, dominion o...

Dave Rich continues his examination of how Christians should approach the Old Testament law. This teaching tackles one of the most debated questions in biblical ethics: Are believers still bound by the Mosaic law? Rich methodically works through the traditional categories of moral, ceremonial, and civil law, revealing why these divisions—while useful—don't actually appear in Scripture itself. He d...

Dave Rich tackles one of the most debated questions in Christian theology: How should believers use the Old Testament law for ethical guidance? With clarity and biblical precision, he examines the 613 Mosaic laws and asks which ones still apply to Christians today. Why do we follow some commandments but not others? Are the Ten Commandments still binding? What about dietary restrictions and civil p...

Dave Rich continues exploring the conscience, part 2, in this biblical teaching on conscience development and maintenance. The conscience must be trained through God's Word and obedient choices to function properly. A clear conscience results from confessing sin, accepting God's forgiveness, and walking in truth. This lesson addresses weak, evil, and seared consciences that require biblical renewa...

Dave Rich begins a critical examination of the Christian conscience in this first installment of Fire in the Hole. Drawing from both Old and New Testament texts, Rich explores the biblical foundation of conscience as a God-given human faculty that judges our actions and thoughts. Fire in the Hole examines how conscience functions differently in believers and unbelievers, examining passages in whic...