How to 4-R (Take Dominion of) a Subject

"I taught this to my daughter when she was in high school. As a result she can take any subject out of the newspaper and com up with the solution... It works." (Ben Gilmore, Principles of American Government course, May 2013.)

 

1. Take any subject.
2. Go to Webster's 1828 dictionary and look up the definition of the subject.
3. Select key words from the definition.
4. Look up those words in the 1828 dictionary.
5. Select key words, repeat the system again. May end up with a list of 100+ words.

You have just discovered the vocabulary over which the subject you want to take dominion; i.e., the vocabulary for the subject.

Next...

1. Organize the vocabulary into its obvious breakdown. For instance, mathematics--vocabulary, operations, units of measure and quantities, etc.
2. Next, and this is key, pull out Strong's concordance. Look up key words in the vocabulary in Strongs. Inevitably the first and last mention in the Bible of that word will be a key to the subject.
3. You will have found the Biblical foundation for the subject you are taking dominion of.

The concordance is a bridge to the Biblical foundation of the subject.

From here, you can deduce:

• main principles
• leading ideas
• God's purpose for the subject
• major divisions of the subject
• course goals The

The reason for finding the Biblical foundation of a subject is to train the character of the student. The purpose of education is character--not knowledge. Knowledge without character will turn on you; it becomes a Frankenstein monster. This is why teenagers think they are so much smarter than their parents--they are trained in knowledge and not character.

Once this method is learned, one can take any problem out of the newspaper and come up with the solution.

To see an example of a mini-word study, you might like to visit Heather over at Principled Academy and see what she discovered about the word "rib" when she 4-R'd the word.

FACE has created a course for those interested in further study of the 4-R method of learning. The course is designed to guide the participant through an in depth personal study of the Seven Principles of American Christian History and Government using the 4-R'ing Method.

Do your own word study. You might find it helpful to use the Principle Approach Word Study Standard template to get you started.