The popular ETS Saturday Courses will resume on Saturday, 13th September.
How do the Saturday Courses work?
One Saturday a month, from September through to April, three lectures are delivered by visiting speakers. These lectures, which are also available to access online, are specially designed to stretch the Christian mind and deepen an understanding of God’s word. The course content covers Biblical Studies, Practical Theology, Christian Discipleship and Christian Doctrine.
The Saturday Courses, which may be completed with or without essays, are of great benefit to anyone who has a longing to dig deeper into the gospel. No prior qualifications are necessary – everyone is welcome.
The following awards are available in these courses:
- Certificate in Theology: To qualify for a Certificate in Theology, the student is required to submit six essays (normally up to three essays each year).
- Diploma in Christian Studies: This is a further course for those who have already gained their Certificate in Theology. To qualify for the Diploma in Christian Studies, the student is required to submit a further six essays (normally up to three essays each year).
In 2025/2026, the lectures will be delivered one Saturday a month on the following dates:
2025: 13 September, 11 October, 1 November, 6 December
2026: 10 January, 7 February, 7 March, 18 April
Find out more information here.
LECTURES IN 2025-26
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Church History
Saints, Sinners, and Heretics: Early Church History
Lecturer: Arthur Rankin
For many Christians today, the early Church can seem like an alien place filled with unfamiliar events and people with even stranger names! Modern Christians often act like they have just awoken with amnesia with no clear idea how they got here. But this period of church history is precisely what the Reformers were trying to draw from and reclaim. This course will examine the history of the early Church starting with the Apostolic fathers of the first and second centuries, many of whom had heard the Apostles, and it will continue up to roughly the seventh century. We will meet the saints and sinners who endured persecution from heretics, emperors, and barbarians and stood for the faith once for all delivered to them. It is the story of the bride of Christ, and how God has preserved her, sometimes in spite of herself, from generation to generation.
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Christian Doctrine
The Emotional Life of Christ
Lecturer: Dan Peters
In the Old Testament Psalms and Prophets, as well as in the New Testament Gospels, we are given fascinating insights into the human emotions of the incarnate Son of God. The greatest reason for analysing these emotions is that, like everything else about him, they are beautiful! Studying the perfections of his compassion, anger, joy, sorrow, etc. should nourish our admiration of, and love for, Christ. But it also affords us a fuller picture of what was involved in his saving work, taking us deeper into the great truths of the incarnation, the atonement, and the ministry of the Spirit in relation to Christ. And then there are also lessons to be learnt for our own emotional lives: Christ is, after all, the great model of what a human should be!
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Biblical Studies
The Covenants
Lecturer: Iver Martin
Is there a structure that runs all the way through the Bible which helps us to understand its big picture? And does that framework help us understand how the Old and New Testaments are connected and how God relates to his people in every age? This course will examine the theme of “Covenant”. Beginning with basic definitions and moving through the real time examples such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses etc, the course will work all the way through the Bible. It will trace how Covenant functions as a connecting thread and how the loving interaction between God and his people through the ages can be better understood through this important and well recognised lens.
