SFXPJ Firm Foundation Bible Study on the book of The Creed with Bishop Robert

Barron
January - March 2022
Mtg ID :
Passcode :

Scduele

03/01/2022 : Orientation
10/01/2022 : Introduction
17/01/2022 :
24/01/2022 :
31/02/2022 : NO CLASS CHINESE NEW YEAR EVE
07/02/2022 :
14/02/2022 :
21/02/2022 :
28/02/2022 :
07/03/2022 :

Introduction
What do Christians believe? What do you believe? What does it even mean to
�believe�?

The keys that unlock the beliefs of the Christian Faith are stated succinctly in
the Nicene Creed, which we profess along with most Christians around the world.
Words that roll off our tongues easily, but are often not fully understood, define
our Faith.

This video-based study program can be experienced individually or in a group.

Groups meet for seven two-hour sessions to watch the video and participate in small
group discussions of the Study Guide questions. Participants will use Bishop
Barron�s book, Light from Light, along with the video to delve into the study guide
questions and prepare them before each small group discussion.

There are two sets of questions. First, the Questions for Understanding are based
on the video presentation, references from Scripture and the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, and Bishop Barron�s book, Light from Light. Secondly, the
Questions for Application will encourage reflection on how the material is relevant
to each participant�s own life and experience. Question preparation can be done
either before or after participants view the video as Bishop Barron�s book includes
all the necessary detail to complete the questions.

SFXPJ Firm Foundtaions Bible Study on The Creed with Bishop Barron Group Discussion
Quesstions

17/01/2022 Introdcution
1.
2.
3

24/01/2022 Lesson 1 I Believe

1. Why is the Nicene Creed Importain? How does it serve as a point of cntact among
Christians>?
2. What is the tension between the early introductory words "We believe" and the
current form from the Latin "I believe"? How is each statement appropriate in
expressing the doctrine of Christinity?
3. Is faith accepting things without evidence? How is St John Henry Newman's
explaxation of how we come to assent to a proposition relvant to this queston?
4. Read Exod 3:14 and CCC 198 & 206) What is the Christian understanding of the
word "God? Why is knowing God not like knowning anying else?
5. What principles of science and rationality suypport belief in God as Creator?
6. What is the moral argument for God's Existence?
Applications
1, How can you stress the common ground in your reltionship with non-Catholic
Christinity?
2. in your own words, how would you explain that faith and science are not mutually
exclusive?
3. Do you have any agnostics or atheists in your circle of love ones? What was the
lesson that you learn that helped you beter understand and potentialu communication
who God is and the thruth that he exists.

07/02/2022 Lesson 2 God the Father Almighty

1. Read CCC 2097 What does saying I believe in one God imply for profess it in th
Creed?
2. According to Bishop Barron, what are the attributes that undergrind the
statement one God in the Creed? How would you explain each attribute?
3. Read CCC 239 & 295 Why does God create?
4. Read CCC 300 What did St Augustine mean when he said that God is higher than
anything we can imagine, yet closer to us that we are to ourselves?
5. Read CCC 302, 321, 1730-1733) What is God's noncoercive providence and how does
it relate to freedo? What is tghe difference between the mdoern concept of freedom
and biblical freedom?
6. Read Job 40:P-5; 42:1-6, CCC 312) Why does evil exiist in a universe that the
infinately good and loving God has created and continually directs?
7. Read CCC 326-327 What is meany by the statement hat God creates heaven and
earthm all things visible and invisible?
Applications
1. Is God the Father your ultimate authority or do you have oher Gods before him?
2. What example of God's noncoercive priveence have been evident in your life
3. What sense of the invislbe realm have you experienced?

14/02/2022 Lesson 3 Jesus Christ, The Only Begotten Son

1, Read CCC1849-1850, Geb 3:1-6, 17-19) How does St Augustine define sin? When
temped by the serpent, how did Adam and Eve's action characterize thus defination
and what was the results?
2. Read Ps 51:10-12, Psalm 79:9, CCC430-431 Why can't we fix the consequces of sin
ourselves? What is needed? What was promised in the old Testament?
3. Read 3:14, John 3:16-18, 10:36, Matt 26:63-64, CCC444-454) How is Jesus
different from others who are in close friendship with God and often called sons or
cchildren of God? How is this difference reflected in the Creed's phrase only
begotten Son of God?
4. Read CCC 465 Why were these lines of he Creed included...born of the Father
before all ages. God from God, light from light, true God from true God?
5. Read CCC 221 How does the belief that God is love support he doctrine of the
Trinity?
6. Read Eph 1:7-10, CCC 1066 What is the meaning of salvation?
7. What belief are we starting when we say and by the Holy Spirit,
Applications
1. What would you say to someone who does not believe he/she needs salvations?
2. What in your life is a tangible experience of the Christian belief that "God is
love"?
3. Does your perspective on Jesus's identity skew toward his himinity or to this
divinity? If so, for what reason? reflect in prayer about both the divine and human
natures of Jesus?
21/02/2022 Lesson 4 : HE suffer DEATH
1. Read CCC 597-600 Why is Pontius Pilate mentioned in the Creed?
2. Read 1 Cor 15:14; CCC 651, 653, Historically, why would the Crucifixion be a
source of embarrassment for the disciples of Jesus and a source of Confusion for
later generations? What is the only way to make sense of it, according to Bishop
barroh?
3. Read Isa 53:4-5; Mark 190:45; Rom 3:24; Eph 5:1-2 Explain the perspectives from
the early Church that shows the maning of Jesus's death, Jesus as victor and nesus
as sacrifice.
4. Read 2 Cor 1:20, 1 Cor 15:20-22; CCC652, 655) What are the implications of the
Resurrection of Jesus?
5. Read Dan 7:14; CCC 663-664 What is the Ascension? What is Jesus doing now?
6. Read Matt 25:31-46; Rev 20:11-15; CCC1038-1041, 1046-1048) When jesus comes to
earth again (2nd coming) what will happen?
Applications Questions
1. What does Jesus's Crucifixion and Resurrection eman to you, personally?
2. Reflect on the fact that God gives his grace to all, how does this encourage you
to follow jesus command to love your enemies?
3. What troubles/excites you about jesus coming at the end of the world to judge
the living and the dead?

28/02/2022 Lesson 5 : HOLY SPIRIT, THE GIVER OF LIFE

1. Read CCC 685 Who or what is the Holy Spirit?
2. Read Gen 1:2; Ezek 37:4-5; 1 Sam 16:13' Lule 1:35; John 20:22-23; Acts 2:1-2, 4;
CCC 691
3. Read CCc How did the Holy Spirit Influence the ealy church? How does the Suirit
act in the contemporary Church?
4. Read CCC 246-248, 689 What is meant by saying the Holy Spirit proceed from the
Father and the Son?
5. Read John 14:25-26' John 16:13; CCC 2465-2466 What is it about the Holy Spirit
that leads Christians to profess in the Creed that he ahs spoken through the
prophets?
6. Read CCC is the Church's democracy? Why or why not?
Application Questios
1. What new insight did you received about the Trinity from thi section?
2. How often do you think about the Holy Spirit> What does or can he do for you?
3. Reelfct ob the doctrine of Christinity does ot come from below, what role does
the church havem, then as the receiver of true doctrine?

07/03/2022 :Lesson 6 ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC

1. Read Eph 1:22-23; CCC 789 How can we believe jn the church if it is only an
instuyttion or an organization?
2. Read John 17:20-21, CCC 788 What does jesus prayer tell us about the nature of
the Church?
3. Read CCC 871, 790-791, 798, 1267 If the Church is the body and the Christ is the
hadm what role does the Holy Spirt have? What role do the members of the Myssical
Body have?
4. Read John 15:16 the Church is called Ekklesia, which means to call out from? Who
does the calling? What are its members being called out of and what are they being
called into?
5. Read Gen 6-8, How is Noah's Ark a particularly rich symbol of the Church and its
missions?
6. Read Eph 1:20-23; CCC 749, 813m 827, 1426 How is the church one and Holy? How
would you explain the holiness of the Church in the midst of the corruption and
scandals that have occurred over the centuries?
7. Read Gal 3:27-28, CCC 830, 857 How is the Church Catholic and Apostolic?
D. Red Matt 28:19; CCC 1213, 1263 Why does the Creed mention the Sacrament of
Baptism "I confess one baptsim for the forgiveness of sins?
Applications Questions
1. What is your role im the Mystical Body of Christ?
2. How does belief in the holiness of the Church, regardless of tis members
sinfulness, affect you and your opinions of the Church?
3. What does the Churistian belief in the resurrrection of the dead and the life of
the world to come mean to you? How does it affect your daily life?