What do people really learn in bible college?

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Dont know much about what goes on in bible College. But i do know a good brother in Christ who was telling us in Church that, just as he was about to go to bible school, inorder to train and become a pastor, the Lord stopped and told him, he was going to receive his training in the wilderness alone instead, with the holyspirit. So he would not be influenced or corrupted by a system that delivers diluted teachings.

I think quite a few denominations nowadays also own their own bible schools. Im sure anyone who can afford, can start their own too. & I believe some are called into ministry whilst others are not yet they just go on and join anyway.
 
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bèlla

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There was a period when my church encouraged me to look at seminary. I planned to take a few courses in bible college. There’s one in the area I’m familiar with.

But one of my bible study instructors was doing the same. She shared her experiences and they raised concerns. I began to feel the emphasis on intellect would affect my spirit. I’d become reliant on head knowledge rather than the Lord’s leading.

That wasn’t my calling and it’s taken awhile to get back into study to the degree I was in the past. But it’s returning. I’m comfortable working with the Holy Spirit. I don’t need all the other stuff.

Just because you’re a scholar doesn’t make you right. They make mistakes too.

Yours in His Service,

~bella
 
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ViaCrucis

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If you wouldn't trust your physical health to someone who refuses to go to medical school, why would you trust your spiritual health to someone who refuses to go to seminary?

Not that I believe a seminary somehow makes someone magically a better pastor or minister; but Christ our God taught, "To whom much is given, much is expected." When we place a person into a position of guidance, leadership, and authority we are granting them a great deal of responsibility, and such a person should be held accountable to that responsibility.

The Church has always trained and taught ministers. Whether we are talking about the Apostles themselves who got the absolute best hands-on seminary training ever, directly from the Lord Jesus Himself; or to all the pastors and churchmen down through the centuries who learned and studied under those themselves who had been trained and studied in the Scriptures and the right teaching of he faith.

You wouldn't go to see a quack for medical help; you shouldn't seek the guidance of heretics, self-appointed teachers and preachers, false prophets, and other wolves.

Be firm in Christ, stand firm upon the faith, devote yourself to study. The Church calls and ordains ministers of the Gospel, faithful pastors of Christ's Flock--for the sake and good of the Faithful. Therefore, we ought to hold our ministers and leaders to high standards in doctrine, education, and in godliness. Not elevating them on pedestals, but holding their feet to the fire to keep them accountable.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Nata Herman

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If you wouldn't trust your physical health to someone who refuses to go to medical school, why would you trust your spiritual health to someone who refuses to go to seminary?

Not that I believe a seminary somehow makes someone magically a better pastor or minister; but Christ our God taught, "To whom much is given, much is expected." When we place a person into a position of guidance, leadership, and authority we are granting them a great deal of responsibility, and such a person should be held accountable to that responsibility.

The Church has always trained and taught ministers. Whether we are talking about the Apostles themselves who got the absolute best hands-on seminary training ever, directly from the Lord Jesus Himself; or to all the pastors and churchmen down through the centuries who learned and studied under those themselves who had been trained and studied in the Scriptures and the right teaching of he faith.

You wouldn't go to see a quack for medical help; you shouldn't seek the guidance of heretics, self-appointed teachers and preachers, false prophets, and other wolves.

Be firm in Christ, stand firm upon the faith, devote yourself to study. The Church calls and ordains ministers of the Gospel, faithful pastors of Christ's Flock--for the sake and good of the Faithful. Therefore, we ought to hold our ministers and leaders to high standards in doctrine, education, and in godliness. Not elevating them on pedestals, but holding their feet to the fire to keep them accountable.

-CryptoLutheran
Correct words, I support. Bearing the word of God is a great responsibility.
 
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aiki

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I'm confused..Is a bible college different from church?

Nowadays, very much so. Sadly.

I'm not sure how this works..if you are studying at one or have studied in one can you share your experience? Are they good or bad?

Depends on the Bible School/seminary. As in most things, some are good, some are mediocre, and some are horrible. I'm encountering fewer and fewer graduates of either Bible school or seminary who have been helped in their walk with God by their studies at these institutions. Instead, what I most commonly encounter are graduates of Bible school and/or seminary with profound uncertainty about their faith, weaker by far in their walk with God than when they embarked upon their studies. Unfortunately, at the same time, they graduate with the idea that mere accumulation of religious knowledge qualifies them to teach and guide fellow believers in knowing and loving God. And those in the local church community assume that a credential from a Bible school or seminary certifies the spiritual maturity of the holder. In my experience, generally, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Does God call you to one and how do you know which one to go to? Are there different denominations? Or are they just for people who grew up in religion, decide they want to be ministers because it runs in the family?

These days, anyone is welcome to attend the typical Bible school or seminary.

I'm curious because I'm not sure why some people would go to bible college if they didn't believe in God. I was reading this book by Phillip Yancey, which I found interesting because he said he went to a bible college but didn't have any faith. I don't know the whole story, or what he learned, or how he found faith, or exactly what his faith now is..

It was the practice of many Christian parents to send their kids to Bible school upon graduation from high school with the intent of securing their child in the faith. Of course, this securing was their job, not the responsibility of a Bible school. Many Bible schools and seminaries apply "distanc(t)iation" to their students, which has, for those already weak in their faith, the effect of ejecting them completely from it, rather than strengthening them in it as is intended. "Distanciation" is the challenging of the student's firmly-held beliefs with the view to motivating them to find even stronger grounds for those beliefs, or to see that their beliefs were faulty and ought to be abandoned, or held far more lightly. The idea is to give the student some "distance" from those beliefs so that they can more objectively assess their good and bad points. Because many students come to this process actually very weak in their beliefs, distanciation has the effect, not of strengthening them in their faith, but giving them the impression that nothing about the Christian faith can be surely known; that all of Christian doctrine is up for debate and thus uncertain. Many times, this dissolves the student's faith entirely and they exit their studies apostate or powerfully reluctant to say anything dogmatically about the truths of the faith.

This doesn't always happen, I'm sure. But I know quite a few seminary graduates personally who have never recovered a confident conviction about the doctrines of the faith even years after their studies and whose lack of confidence is reflected in a confused and badly compromised walk with God. Spiritually-mature believers, in their estimation, are both naive and deluded, and would not live as joyfully, and confidently, and faithfully in their fellowship with God if they knew as much as the average seminary graduate. It's been remarkable to me to see the great disdain of some seminary graduates toward those who know God well, having walked in close fellowship with Him for decades, though the graduate's life is in spiritual meltdown.

In the Bible it says the church is the priesthood of all believers - WE are priests. It also says we don't need man to teach us, the Holy Spirit teaches us. It is up to us to search the scriptures and study the Word prayerfully, we don't need to pay someone to help us do this. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts making us pastors, teachers, ministers, healers etc. It never says we have to go to a bible college to learn all this...all the apostles were empowered by the Holy Spirit, without him they could do nothing.

so..i'm not sure about bible colleges.

Yes, the Holy Spirit is our primary teacher of spiritual truth, the only one who can truly transform us and deepen us in our walk with God. But this doesn't mean the teachers and preachers whom God has gifted for the edification of the Body Believers can be ignored or are extraneous and useless. God works through our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, using them to help us grow, and understand, and deepen in our walk with Himself.

Ephesians 4:11-14 (NASB)
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;


The "lone wolf" believer who forsakes entirely the God-gifted teachers and preachers within the Body, determined only to be taught by the Spirit directly as they study Scripture, is going to fall prey to "winds of (false) doctrine, to the trickery of men and their deceitful scheming." God intends we should be secured against this in no small part by those whom He has gifted as teachers and preachers of His truth, who are senior in the faith, well-seasoned as "priests" and "saints," careful, long-time students of Scripture, and so, able to greatly aid us in our own spiritual growth and walk with God.

But, as I see so many Bible schools and seminaries grow highly secular, business-oriented, and enormously tangled in the relativism of modern, western culture, I look at the value of their training with increasing skepticism.
 
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Glorytothefather2245

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I'm confused..Is a bible college different from church?
I'm not sure how this works..if you are studying at one or have studied in one can you share your experience? Are they good or bad?

Does God call you to one and how do you know which one to go to? Are there different denominations? Or are they just for people who grew up in religion, decide they want to be ministers because it runs in the family?

Do they treat women differently from men? Do you have to be a certain age?

Is reading the Bible not enough and do you have to learn all about church history and theological arguments as well? Do they teach rituals and rites or is that only in catholic seminaries? Or are they practical?

I'm curious because I'm not sure why some people would go to bible college if they didn't believe in God. I was reading this book by Phillip Yancey, which I found interesting because he said he went to a bible college but didn't have any faith. I don't know the whole story, or what he learned, or how he found faith, or exactly what his faith now is..but it seems to me you can go to bible college and never really read the Bible. Because he writes in one of his books that he decided to read the bible from the beginning, straight through something he'd never done and I'm going, ?? hold on, didn't you go to Bible college? Do some bible colleges just treat the Bible as a Christian dictionary to pull quotes from to bolster their own ideas about religion? Or am I just generalising, that bible colleges don't teach this it's just the student doesn't believe.

Another one is Karen Armstrong the former nun who now writes lots of books about religion and God. I'm pretty sure she is a humanist, she likes the IDEA of God rather than having a personal faith in the Lord himself. I read her memoir, and she was writing constantly about trying to find God but failing in her catholic religion. I wanted to tell her it was very simple. She just needed to be humble and pray.

I just feel quite sceptical about people who treat God as their hobby and make him more complicated than He really is, then go to bible college and write books that make them out to be scholars and theologians as if they were above ordinary believers. I tried to read some books written by christians because I wanted to know how their walk with Christ was, and what they learned. But they don't turn out to be believers at all. Like Lloyd Geering. And then I want to know if the people who teach in these bible colleges are not believers, because if the teachers don't believe then what are they really teaching?
And then the people that attend the churches where the ordained ministers don't believe..what is it the church members are learning?
Do churches just hire pastors based on how well they passed their exams and adhere to the churches own doctrine rather than whether they have a heart to serve God?

I had a pastor in church one day say how he was finally going to get a chance to get up and speak, he didn't spend 3 years in bible college for nothing. And it made me question..if you had something to preach in church, wouldn't it be because the Spirit led you to say it rather than because you studied for 3 years and got a diploma?

In the Bible it says the church is the priesthood of all believers - WE are priests. It also says we don't need man to teach us, the Holy Spirit teaches us. It is up to us to search the scriptures and study the Word prayerfully, we don't need to pay someone to help us do this. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts making us pastors, teachers, ministers, healers etc. It never says we have to go to a bible college to learn all this...all the apostles were empowered by the Holy Spirit, without him they could do nothing.

so..i'm not sure about bible colleges.
I don't agree with having to go to college at all to be a pastor or a rabbi or a christian school. To many people in todays world look up to pastors and etc for answers of the truths which are misinterpreted and passed down over tradition. I am not saying sunday churches are useless and dont serve a purpose. But that nobody can be more qualified to lead a church than what God ordains. Where in the bible did God send the apostles to college to learn how to teach the word? Jesus taught the apostles to go and make disciples not open up a college teaching the word.

today most of people beliefs are based upon:
.what "my" pastor said
."These people are biblical scholars, they know what they are talking about!"
. This is the church i grew up in
.


We do not need a church curriculum over the Word of God. The biggest problem is due to education purposes we have sought to send our children to the best teachers we can find to teach us stuff. But doing so it has crept into the church. Would you want someone who went to college to learn about God teaching your children or family the word if he is not truly saved and filled with the holy spirit. i just dont agree with havibng to go to college to learn how to teach the bible to other people.
 
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Jeffwhosoever

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ViaCrucis

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I don't agree with having to go to college at all to be a pastor or a rabbi or a christian school. To many people in todays world look up to pastors and etc for answers of the truths which are misinterpreted and passed down over tradition. I am not saying sunday churches are useless and dont serve a purpose. But that nobody can be more qualified to lead a church than what God ordains. Where in the bible did God send the apostles to college to learn how to teach the word? Jesus taught the apostles to go and make disciples not open up a college teaching the word.

today most of people beliefs are based upon:
.what "my" pastor said
."These people are biblical scholars, they know what they are talking about!"
. This is the church i grew up in
.


We do not need a church curriculum over the Word of God. The biggest problem is due to education purposes we have sought to send our children to the best teachers we can find to teach us stuff. But doing so it has crept into the church. Would you want someone who went to college to learn about God teaching your children or family the word if he is not truly saved and filled with the holy spirit. i just dont agree with havibng to go to college to learn how to teach the bible to other people.

If I walk up to someone who is entirely unfamiliar with Christianity, hand them a Bible, do you really think they'll--just from reading the Bible without any guidance or instruction--be able to actually believe and confess the Christian faith?

I don't. I don't think they'd know right from left reading the Bible. And that's because our Lord Jesus Christ did not come down to earth and write a book, and then give people a book to read. Our Lord Jesus Christ came down and actively taught to crowds, called together disciples to hear Him that He instructed and guided. Then He told those same disciples to go forth making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them on all that our Lord has said.

Jesus taught people. Then He sent those disciples out to make more disciples. Those disciples met together for sacred purpose, and these communities of disciples continued to grow and expand across the Mediterranean. In order to manage the churches, those same disciples-become-apostles called by Jesus called and ordained people to stand in to oversee the communities, these episkopoi along with the elders, the presbyteroi, served as shepherds, pastors, of Christ's own flock. To minister to the Church in Christ's name, through the authority of Christ which He gave to His apostles and for the whole Church; to do this by being preachers of the Gospel, and instructors in God's righteous commands, by the service of the sacred seals and works of God given by God--called sacramenta in Latin. Such as the administration of Christ's Holy Supper: the shared communion and agape of the Church gathered together.

And in these believing apostolic communities, from the frontier provinces in the East all the way to the heart of the Roman Empire, lived together, they worshiped together, they believed together, and they suffered together. And in the midst of this, those whom the Lord had taught, or those later called, took advantage of the Roman system of roadways and boatways; not only to travel across great distances in shorter time, but also because of the relatively quick mobility of information through the sending of letters. St. Paul, to the Church in Ephesus, St. Paul to the Church in Rome. They also took care to write down the very story they bore witness to and experienced, and some other works in due time.

The Jews heard the Scriptures read in the synagogue every Sabbath, so also these early Christians when they began to meet together for their worship followed Jewish liturgical practice with readings from the Scriptures. There was not, as of that time, so much as a well defined Jewish Biblical Canon as there was an emerging consensus among Pharisaic Jews as to what constitutes "The Scriptures", with the Torah and Prophets well defined, but the third category of miscellaneous works or "Writings", was still fluid. Even still, there did exist at the time a ready-set Jewish "Bible" already in the common language, the Septuagint.

In addition to these received Scriptures inherited from Judaism, these early communities also began to include readings from the letters circulating from the Apostles, as well as from the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. How these began to enter into regular readings isn't entirely clear, but possibly it began as these letters were already being cycled around. Some of the New Testament epistles are intentionally written to groups of churches, such as the Epistle to the Galatians which is addressed to all the churches in the province of Galatia. Even letters to specific churches, such as those to the Romans and the Corinthians would have been passed around, cycled through the churches, and most importantly, being copied by hand. These hand-copied writings then slowly entered into the regular readings of the assembled worship. And a growing consensus began to emerge that some of these apostolic and near-apostolic writings were as deserving of the recognition of being called Scripture as the time-honored writings of the Law, Prophets, and the Psalms.

It isn't entirely clear when exactly, but by the mid of the 2nd century we can be quite confident that there was already a proto-New Testament, consisting of the books of the Homolegoumena (the Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, 1 Peter, and 1 John). Both the Old and New Testament Canons were debated, discussed, but even still with time a continuing, growing consensus eventually did arise, eventually nearly everywhere (hence the 27 books of the New Testament today), while the Old Testament would remain a more complicated subject even into our own times.

The Scriptures and the Church exist together, one doesn't exist without the other. The Scriptures govern the Church, but it is among the responsibilities and duties of the Church to carry the Scriptures, that means to carry the Scriptures in their transmission, as well as to teaching, expositing, etc. We would be helplessly lost without the guidance of the last two thousand years of Christian life and teaching. I wouldn't even have a Bible to read without that guidance, teaching, and practice--because without someone to receive and transmit a select group of works, then copy and later print copies of those writings, confessing and reading those writings; and then someone there to at least put a Bible in my hand, I couldn't have a Bible in the first place.

Christianity is not "just the Bible". And we can't treat it like it is. The Bible is within Christianity, it is vouchsafed within the people of God to whom the word of God has been entrusted, both in the precious teaching of the apostles, and as retained in the sacred words of the Scriptures.

That is why seminaries exist.
And that's why we don't say the Apostles had no seminary training, but that they had the best seminary training. The Apostles got a doctorate in about three years from the Greatest Rabbi Himself.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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auwebber23

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Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on this. I learned a lot of new things for myself. I want to add that I went to college after graduation and it was hard for me there. Now I see that it is much harder in Bible colleges and studying there is a big responsibility.
 
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timf

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Bible college is less about education than it is a place to find someone to date if you haven't found someone in your own church.

Sadly unsupervised 18 and 19 year olds do not always make sound decisions. However, since parents have come to have so little influence in their children's lives, parental involvement today is less advantageous than it was 100 years ago.
 
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