[b]Why You Should Think Twice About Going to Bible College[i]By Josef Urban
Every year across the world, hundreds of thousands of students sign up to go to Bible College (when I say Bible College, I mean every official ‘institution’ that attempts to train others for the work of ministry). Some of them are eager to serve God and want to be trained and equipped to do so properly. Others are pressured into going by their parents. Still others go with dollar signs in their eyes and greed in their heart, seeking to build a prosperous future. Even others go with a motive based out of the pride of life, seeking to make a name for themselves or to be respected in the eyes of the world. There are many other less common reasons, I suppose, that others attend as well. However, it is only the first class of people, those who are eager to serve God and learn how, that I want to address.
There are many dear precious brethren in Christ who are burning with a passion to serve and glorify God by doing the work of ministry, but who, because of the great neglect and sad state of much of the modern Church, or because of a lack of experience, find themselves ill-equipped to serve God in the capacity they desire. For this class of people, Bible College becomes a strong option for consideration, since it purports to be the best way to learn to do God’s work. However, for many, I believe it is a trap of the enemy, designed to make them stumble, and many times becomes more harmful than it is helpful.
Now let me say that there are some faithful brethren who are in these places, and even teach at various Bible Colleges, who teach the word of God in truth, and are serving the Lord by teaching at just such an institution. These brethren I do not wish to come against, or to speak against, as they are serving God in their capacity and being faithful with the knowledge God has given them, and they shall stand or fall in the sight of their own Master. If this is you, and you are such a person, and a true Christian indeed, then know that I am not coming against you in any way. In fact, I rejoice that you are in such a place in the midst of much that is false, in order to be a beacon of light and witness for truth in the midst of all the darkness of false profession and formal godliness without power that tends to pervade in these places. I rejoice that Christ our Master has placed you in the midst of the rotting flesh and carnality of these places to be the salt of the earth and lead those hungry souls who are under your instruction into the blessed knowledge of truth. I know that there must be much that you see around you that grieves you, and that you don’t need a rebuke, but encouragement, to stand strong on the Word of God, and to never compromise the truth! I am not coming against you, oh no, but exhorting you to earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, even in the midst of much temptation to compromise, and to be strong in your God in the midst of a crooked generation!
I am also aware that there are a few Bible institutions around the world (and most of them outside of America) that actually do teach and demonstrate the truth of God’s blessed Word, which are operated by faithful men of God who are living by faith and not robbing God’s people, but pouring their lives and souls out as an offering for others to live and thrive by. These few faithful institutions are dedicated to the noble work of training soul winners to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and praise God they are! Aware of the fact that there are a few such institutions, scattered here and there as the Lord’s faithful remnant, raising up laborers for the harvest, and sending them forth as sheep in the midst of the wolves of the nations, let me state that it is not these that I am coming against.
What I am coming against is the large and unscriptural institutions that are given over to a large degree of error, and I am attempting to save somebody from making the bad decision to attend such an institution. There are a number of reasons why it is clear, from Scripture, that Bible College is generally a bad idea. While I am aware that there may be a few exceptions where God does call His true saints to attend such an institution, even so, it is necessary that even such a one would give serious consideration to the following points before attending, and refrain from doing so unless they have a completely clear conscience and the obvious leading of the Spirit.
Aware of these exceptions, let us now move into the heart of the matter, and state why, for the vast majority of God’s people, attending Bible College is a bad idea:
[b]I. It is based on the traditions of men rather than the Word of God
[i]“For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men” (Mar. 7:8).
Search your way through the Gospels and see if you can find a single command of the Lord to any of His disciples to start a Bible College. See if you can find a single place where Jesus suggested that it would be beneficial to the spiritual growth of His later followers if they attended an institution of higher learning. Then, search the Acts of the Apostles and see if a single one of the early disciples even thought of such a thing. When you’ve finished that, read the epistles and see if Paul suggested it, or if Peter, James or John even conceived of such an idea. Take special note of the great “Pastoral Epistles”, 1 & 2 Timothy and that blessed epistle to Titus, and see if the Apostle Paul ever suggested or even hinted to these young disciples of his that it might be a good idea to join a Seminary or Bible College. Surely, if in any place in the holy writ of Scripture Bible College should be suggested, it would be in the epistles to these young ministers of the Gospel – but you won’t find it there. Then delve your way through the Revelation of St. John and see if those blessed saints who overcame the wicked one by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and by loving not their lives unto death ever had a greater advantage of overcoming the evil one because they went to Bible School.
Who were the heroes and saints of old that wrought the mighty acts of God by their daring and unwavering faith? Were they not those who were despised and rejected, fools in the eyes of the world, and largely unlearned and ignorant men? Did their learning, or lack thereof, in any way influence the feats they did for God? Which Bible College did Enoch go to in order to learn how to walk with God? Which seminary did blessed Abraham attend in learn how to be strong in faith and to trust in God? In which religious university did Joseph learn to obtain the favor of God? What Bible College did Moses graduate from in order to learn how to hear from God and to perform mighty signs and wonders? In which seminary did Joshua learn to demolish the walls of Jericho with a shout? What more shall we say? In which Bible College did the great heroes of old learn to exercise the kind of faith that subdues kingdoms, administers justice, obtains promises, stops the mouths of lions, quenches the violence of fire, escapes the edge of the sword, makes strength to rise out of weakness, causes to wax valiant in fight, and puts whole armies of the enemy to flight?
Where did the early Apostles of the Lamb learn to heal the sick and cast out demons? Where did they learn how to build the Church of God? Where did they learn how to preach the Gospel with such power that multitudes were converted in a single sermon? Where did they learn to raise the dead, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear, and pray down earthquakes in prison? Where did they learn these things? I will tell you where they did NOT learn them: in Bible College!
The fact is that Bible College is an idea that originated not in the Word of God, but in the mind of man, based on the traditions and customs of this world. It’s institutional structure came straight out of Egypt (literally, as that is where the first institutional Christian Bible school was founded), and not from the Word of God. So what methodology does the Scripture employ to train up eager men and equip them to do the work of the ministry?
The patterns for this in Scripture are very clear and the Word of God is filled with almost countless examples. There are two major ways where a willing and called soul is to be trained for God’s work: (1) Personal mentorship and (2) by God Himself.
The first is a pattern of personal mentorship, wherein the experienced, Spirit-empowered, and godly minister of the Lord trained a willing soul who was called by God to do the same work. No doubt that Joshua was trained to be an able warrior and wise leader of the people and a great man of God by sitting under the mentorship of Moses. Elisha was a prophet of God who had a tremendous ministry as leader of the school of the prophets, being trained to do so, by sitting under the mentorship of Elijah. The Apostles of Christ sat under the mentorship of the Lord Himself. And after the Lord’s departure, they continued to appoint and train faithful men to continue to carry out the work of the ministry in their tradition. Along these lines, we see that Paul mentored Timothy who was then told to mentor, equip, and appoint others:
[i]“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2).
The local church has a responsibility before God to be a thriving body of believers that is self-multiplying. As new converts are won to the Lord, they are to be taught to do everything Jesus commanded, and are to be nurtured into the gifts and callings of the Spirit that God has for them, and the ones who are called to preach and teach, are to be trained by the already established preachers to do the same thing, and when they are able, are to be appointed and sent or established in the blessing of God. As far as the New Testament is clear, this is the best method of training up souls to do the work of ministry and is the pattern which the Apostles of Christ laid down for us to follow.
However, this leaves many of us with a major problem in light of the general and great apostasy of our modern times. Many of the Lord’s people are hard-pressed to find a good place to fellowship, let alone find a godly leader who is well equipped to train them up in the ministry. Though many of the Lord’s people hunger for fellowship with likeminded believers, and long to be trained and mentored by a man of God filled with faith and the Holy Ghost, it remains a great tragedy of our modern times that finding such a thing is equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack, and for many, next to impossible. So what then does such a one do?
That is, they are to be trained by God Himself, which is the second pattern we see in Scripture, and I must admit, the most common. Noah was a man well-instructed in his time, a preacher of righteousness, and a skilled craftsman, because he was taught by God. Abraham was called by God, and was strong in faith, giving glory to God, though no one was there to teach him, and all the nations around him were idolatrous. Moses received his commissioning in the wilderness, directly from God, and was taught by God personally every step of the way. We could go on and on. How about New Testament times? John the Baptist didn’t graduate from the Bible Colleges of his day, he graduated in the wilderness in the school of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul was converted, commissioned, and trained by the Lord Himself, apart from human instrumentation, according to his words in Galatians 1. Time fails to mention all the examples of Scripture, as the Word of God is filled with the examples of men that were taught by no other man, but were taught by the Lord Himself.
Seeing that the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and is still able to speak to His people, and is just as alive now as then, He is still in the business of training the soldiers of His great army of saints. Walking with God is something that no unconverted man can do, but is the privilege of every child of God, and is the means of being mentored by the Lord Himself.
[i]“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
By diligently reading and studying the Word of God, and obeying it, walking in it continually, the man of God, that is, he who belongs to Christ and desires to do the work of the ministry, can be thoroughly equipped to do every good work that the ministry calls for. Everything we need to know is in the Word, not in an institution. Do you want to be equipped for the work of ministry? Saturate yourself with the Word of God! Spend hours upon hours reading through, meditating upon, and applying the Holy Scriptures to your life. Meditate on the promises of God therein until they become written on your heart by the Spirit, and become as necessary of a part of you as the air you breathe. The man of God can be “perfect”, that is, complete and mature, and not only able, but thoroughly able, to do every good work of the ministry, by learning from the Word of God.
Learn from God by sitting in the school of the Spirit. This school is scarcely attended. No amount of money can purchase your admission, for it’s curriculum is priceless, yet it is totally free to attend. It is about as much desirable to the flesh as the wilderness was in John the Baptist’s day. There are no great theologians, no Bachelor or M. Div. degrees, no slick orations, and nothing to appeal to the carnal mind. It is found in your nearest prayer closet. The classes are endless amounts of prayer, Bible-reading, studying, and fasting. The admission price is the embrace of the Cross. The Teacher has a habit of breaking His students through painful chastisement and the more He favors the student the more He whips him. The refining fire is applied and long-held emotional commodities are purged. In this school, pride is abased, selfish ambition shattered, and many good intentions are exposed as completely unprofitable. The student must utterly lose his identity and take upon himself the identity of His Teacher; he must forsake all his future dreams and plans in life and accept whatever the Teacher chooses for him to do. There is no official graduation on this earth, and no honor from men is received for attending. This school guarantees not earthly success, but earthly tribulations and persecutions. –But though the price is high, the reward is great, for this is the only means by which God’s ministers can receive “power from on high”, the one thing that Jesus said was essential to being an effective minister of the Gospel.
[b]II. Bible colleges tend to swell the head and starve the heart
Much of Christianity, in our modern day, has turned into a religion of the head, rather than a power that works in the heart. “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Tim. 3:5). In many circles having a bigger head constitutes having a bigger position in the Kingdom of God. It is a sick and twisted notion that the more knowledge one has, the godlier they are, and it is upon this premise that almost every Bible College has its foundation built. These institutions are designed to pack the brain with knowledge, and often-unessential knowledge, while starving the hungry heart from experiencing the true reality of God. Training for ministry is received in a classroom where the brain is swelled and the heart is starved.
This is more akin to Greek philosophy than it is to true Christian Theology. What is theology? It is the study of the things of God. Why should we study the things of God? –Not so we can know all kinds of things about God (even Satan knows this), but that so we can know God personally, and better, and walk with Him. “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” (Dan. 11:32). To be strong in Christ, and do exploits for His name’s sake, is our highest calling in the last days! This is not done by knowing all kinds of knowledge about God, but by knowing God Himself, personally, which is something these institutions generally fail to do.
Peter and John were ignorant, unlearned fisherman from Galilee. Yet the mighty theologians of their day and the great, learned Jews were astonished at them: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Act. 4:13). These two Apostles had something that the great theologians didn’t –power from on high and boldness in the Holy Ghost, and a living relationship with the risen and glorified Christ. None of the schools of Jerusalem’s theology could teach these things, and none of the institutions of our day can teach these things! Only by knowing God personally, by His grace can we be equipped to be able ministers of the New Covenant, as were Peter and John.
Many men graduate from Bible Colleges with thorough training in homiletics (the art of speaking), hermeneutics (the art of interpreting Scripture), and many more “arts”, but know next to nothing about carrying the Cross, walking in the Spirit, praying in the Holy Ghost, and preaching in the unction of God. Though they can deliver the soundest and most politically correct speeches, they can’t deliver a demon-possessed person from bondage to Satan. Though they know all the geographic and historical backgrounds of every book in the Bible, they are blind to knowing the deep things of the Spirit. Though they are free from the stupidity of unlearned ignorance and zeal without knowledge, they know nothing of being free from sin and of being eaten up with zeal for God’s house. Though they know how to correct heretics and cults with the Word of God, they don’t know how to wage warfare in the spirit and tear down the Devil’s strongholds by faith. Though they have the keys of the world’s storehouses of knowledge, they don’t have the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Though they have authority in the eyes of the world, they have no authority in the Kingdom of God. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” (Act 19:15)
How many hungry hearts go to these institutions, seeking to be filled with the fullness of God, only to be utterly disappointed, and drop out with their hearts even more hungry than when they came? “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it” (Amo. 8:11-12). And not only do they drop out in utter disappointment, but also many thousands of dollars in debt because these greedy money-grubbing institutions have robbed them blind, a fact which brings us to our next point.
[b]III. They are given over to the error of Balaam
[i]“They have rushed for profit into Balaam's error” (Jud. 1:11).
The average tuition for a regular Bible College institution is thousands upon thousands of dollars. These institutions take this money to build large, extravagant facilities often worth millions upon millions of dollars, and the overseeing staff often lines their pockets with the profit. The teaching staffs are hired, and often work for money, not for the love of eternal souls. All this money is charged to the students who desire to learn the Word of God. If the student doesn’t pay, he doesn’t get taught. To put it short, these institutions are peddling the Word of God for profit!
When Elisha, by the power of God, caused Naaman the leper to be cleansed, Naaman tried to offer him money in return. What did Elisha say? “As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none’. And he urged him to take it; but he refused” (2 Ki. 5:16). Elisha wouldn’t even receive money for the things of God after they were given, let alone to charge money before they are given, such as these institutions tend to do! I fear that Elisha may stand up at the Judgment and pronounce woes upon many of these modern day institutions that charge bundles of money for the things of God! This is evidenced by the fact that when one of Elisha’s servants, Gehazi, went out and chased after Naaman, and received money from him, Elisha pronounced the judgment of God upon him, and the Lord smote that servant and his seed for all generations with the leprosy of Naaman. If he was struck with leprosy for all generations for this one foolish act of charging money for God’s gift of grace, what do you suppose God’s thoughts are concerning all the people who charge for His Word today, not just once, but repeatedly? Just because it is acceptable in the eyes of the world does not mean it is acceptable in the eyes of God.
How about Daniel, that great beloved prophet of the Most High? When Belteshazzar, the king of Babylon, needed the handwriting on the wall interpreted, he offered Daniel a scarlet robe, a golden chain, and a third of the kingdom to interpret the writing for him, but Daniel refused. He said, “Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation” (Dan. 5:17). While the true prophets worked for God, and offered His Word freely to all, without money and without price, it was the mark of the false prophets, witches, sorcerers, and fortune-tellers, to charge for their ‘prophecies’.
Again, in Acts 8, when Simon the Sorcerer offered Peter money for the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter outright rebuked him sharply. Peter would not receive money in exchange for the things of God, and Simon’s heart was not right because he thought God’s glorious gift could be purchased with the “Mammon of unrighteousness”. What’s the difference between trying to buy the power of the Holy Spirit, as Simon did, and trying to buy the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, which many people do today from Bible Colleges? The old Reformers had a name for charging money for the things of God; they called it “Simony”, after Simon the Sorcerer. They would denounce the harlot Catholic Church for charging for the things of God. I wouldn’t doubt if they were alive on earth today they would denounce much of what goes on in Protestantism for charging for God’s Word.
Charging for the things of God is in direct contrast to the principles of Scripture. Solomon said, “Buy the truth, and sell it not” (Pro. 23:23). Jesus said, “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Mat. 10:8). Paul said, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit” (2 Co. 2:17 NIV) and, “I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel” (Act. 20:33).
Peter, exhorting the elders and teachers of God’s people, saying, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind” (1 Pe. 5:2). He clearly says that they must teach willingly, because they want to out of desire to serve God and love for Him and His people, and not for money, that is, not as just a job or hired position of employment. Now this is not to say it is wrong to live from the Gospel, for the laborer is worthy of his wages, and the priesthood is to partake of the sacrifices from the altar to get their meat, but this is to say that if anyone is serving as a teacher and is doing it as a job, in order to make money, and not out of love for souls, then they are disqualified. And this is sadly the case with multitudes of Bible School Professors.
What right does any man have to sell that which belongs to another? The truth is God’s, and He gives it to His people freely! In fact, Christ already purchased it all for us in full! How dare any man to take the precious truths that Christ shed His precious blood to purchase for His people to partake of freely by grace alone, and to turn around and charge money for these truths! This is equivalent to Balaam saying, “Give me money and I’ll prophesy to you!” These institutions say: “Give us many thousands of dollars and we will teach you God’s Word”. It’s the same thing. Dare you fall in Balaam’s error, and support his damnable habit of peddling the Word of God for profit?
[b]IV. Bible Colleges can’t teach anybody the most important essentials for ministry
When God teaches, He not only instructs, but He also imparts. That is, when God teaches His people things that will add to their knowledge and increase the light they have received by the Word, as long as they are following Him with all their heart and seeking His face, He also imparts to them the power and ability to live up to the increased light, that they may walk in the light as He is in the light and please Him. Since the Kingdom of God is not in word only, but also in power, the most important thing is that we have the power of that Kingdom working within us. Just knowing the Bible itself, and advanced theologies, philosophies, theories, interpretations, etc. is not enough to constitute able equipping for God’s service.
The Kingdom is not in empty words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power. Therefore, just words, such as students receive by sitting under instructors in Bible College for hours every day, are empty if they don’t have the power of the Spirit causing them to be received and imparted to the soul. Bible College can teach a person that Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, but it can’t actually enable somebody to be poor in spirit. It can teach, “Blessed are those that mourn”, “blessed are the meek”, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”, and more, but often the very programs that are run in these places according to the educational system and ways of this world tend to produce the very opposite of these attributes of godliness, at least in some degree. At the very least, they completely lack any ability whatsoever to impart these characteristics of Christ’s Person to the soul. However, somebody ignorant of knowledge to a large degree might not know exactly what it says in these particular verses of Scripture, or at least not know the meaning of these words, yet may have experienced the power of them working within their heart. Such a one may not be able to explain the Beatitudes, but they have experienced firsthand the Spirit of God revealing to them their own unworthiness, producing brokenness and mourning for sin, enabling true meekness of spirit, and implanting a mighty hunger for God’s righteousness in their heart. Classrooms cannot teach these things, only the blessed Spirit of God can.
The greatest commands of God’s Word, and the tests by which every Christian and minister stands or falls, are commands to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The attributes of love are fruits of the Spirit; they cannot be learned in a classroom. They have to be received directly from God. And oftentimes, the very things many Bible Colleges teach, such as religious pride, sectarianism and denominational division, and more, tend to lay down a faulty foundation in the minds of young ministers that is just the opposite of love. “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Co. 8:1).
The greatest Teacher on earth is God the Holy Ghost. Think about it. The first century church had no Systematic Theologies, no Bible Colleges, and not even a New Testament, but they were strong in their God and did exploits in His name. They didn’t have these things, but what they did have was the Holy Ghost, and He was all they needed.
“But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 Jo. 2:27).
If you are a born again child of God then you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit within you, and He is not only with you, but abides in you. The Apostle clearly says that you don’t need any man to teach you because the Holy Spirit will teach you “all things” (every thing needful for life and practice as a Christian). On top of this, what He teaches is always truth, it is never a lie, and never wrong, and the more He teaches you, you will continually and increasingly abide in Christ. –And the more you abide in Christ, the greater the fruit you will bear in your life for His name’s sake and glorify the name of the Lord.
Let’s be honest. Many of us have slighted the Holy Ghost and treated Him neglectfully. We look upon Him as merely an invisible and influential force, but not as a Living Person Who can personally teach us and instruct us intimately in the things of God. We oftentimes don’t think of personally communing with Him, as in the presence of God, and hearing from Him, letting Him lead us through the Scriptures and apply them to our heart, and letting Him mold our inner man into the likeness of Christ. Too often we look to other things, worldly methods, gimmicks and shortcut tricks from the world, and to man for our learning. It’s much easier to let another man do all the homework and research and then tell us what he finds than it is to submit ourselves continually under the rod of the Chief Shepherd. Many a soul has grown lazy in study, rather than fervent in spirit, and there is very little “rightly dividing the word of truth” anymore because we won’t even attempt to divide and sort the word to begin with, let alone apply it. If God were as lazy in teaching us as we are in learning from Him, I must admit, we would scarce learn anything from God. It takes discipline to be a disciple, and to learn from Him.
This is not to say that there are no teachers in the Church. Teachers are a ministerial gift and an essential part of the five-fold ministry (see Eph. 4:11-12). It is right for us to sit under and learn from godly, Spirit-anointed teachers of God’s Word. However, we are not to look to them, we are to look to Jesus. We are not to put our trust in them, for they are mere men, but our trust should be in Jesus. We are not to blindly accept everything a particular teacher tells us, but we are to examine it with the Word of God. “Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ” (Mat. 23:9-10, NIV). The anointing of the Holy Spirit is to be our Teacher at all times, and we are to submit to the men who teach us as they themselves submit to the Holy Spirit and are taught by Him.
This leaves us with a big problem in many Bible Colleges. In a vast majority of these places, the teachers are largely unconverted. Though their doctrine may look good on paper, their hearts look bad in the sight of God. They have never tasted the true grace of God, and have never been born again. Just ask them what their testimony is. Very few have a testimony of realizing their sinful ways, coming under conviction, repenting, and surrendering their lives to the Lordship of Christ, and being saved from sin and made new creations in Christ. They can tell you what the new birth looks like on paper, but they can’t explain to you how that took place in their lives, because it hasn’t. Multitudes fit this number.
Now, what we have in the institutions is a largely unregenerate staff of hired teachers, who are void of the Spirit of God. They can’t be taught by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, because they don’t have the Holy Spirit. It is a tragic thing for hungry, eager students who want to serve God in ministry to sit under the fallen instruction of unregenerate teachers and to learn from men that haven’t learned from God. Many of these teachers are not teachers in the eyes of God –they are false converts, tares among the wheat, and teachers of an institution, workers of the Prince of darkness transforming themselves into angels of light, who shall most assuredly receive the greater judgment (see Jam. 3:1).
Again, the most important essentials for ministering in God’s service cannot be taught by any earthly institution. The Apostles didn’t teach with persuasive words of man’s wisdom and knowledge, but of demonstration of the Spirit and power. When Jesus was about to ascend to the right hand of the Father to begin His great Intercessory ministry on our behalf, and leave the founding and establishing of the Church to the Apostles, He didn’t tell them to, “Go ye, start a Bible College, and study in it for four years, and if thou really wantest to be great, study for eight years, and tarry there until ye are endued with knowledge from many textbooks and apostate professors”. –God forbid! He told them to tarry in the city of Jerusalem (where all the lost souls are that they are to reach first) until they are clothed with power from on high! They needed the power of God to win the lost! Scarcely, and I mean very scarcely, if ever, do you hear of or see a young man come out of a Bible College institution with the power of the Holy Ghost upon him in such a way. Yet this is the most important essential for ministry according to Jesus!
[b]An Exhortation to those who want to serve God in ministry
We have briefly looked at four points at why anyone who is thinking about attending a Bible College institution should definitely think twice. While there are many other reasons and points we could go into, these should suffice, as I am not intending to write a book, just a short article and exhortation.
Dear soul, if you have been thinking, considering, and praying about going to such an institution then let me speak to you now and offer some advice. First of all, if God has specifically spoke to you and definitely wants you to go then by all means, go! Obey God! He works in mysterious ways and if He is sending you, He has a purpose for you there. –But I would say you better be sure, because making a wrong decision at this point could literally alter the course of your whole life. Let me illustrate.
When I was a new Christian, I was hungry for God and desired to serve Him, as all Christians are. I began to look into Bible Schools, because I was conscious of the call of God upon my life to preach the Gospel and wanted to be trained and equipped properly to do so. Though I was a high school dropout due to living a life of sin before my conversion, I had proceeded to do everything necessary to attend a particular Bible School. I obtained my GED, studied for, took and passed my ACT test, enrolled in the School, got accepted, and applied for loans. But God had a different plan and He put a stop to it. Instead, He led me to dig deeply into His Word Himself. He began to lead me out to the streets to preach His Word to the lost at the bus stops, rescue missions, among the homeless communities, national events across the country, and more. I must confess that He has taught me more in the years since by hands-on ministry of going and obeying Jesus then I could have ever learned by sitting in a classroom. By the grace of God, I have seen a number of sinners truly turn from their wicked ways and receive new life in God. The Lord gave me a wife and I got married as well. None of this would have happened if I went to the Bible School I wanted to attend. My life would be totally different, I’m sure. One such decision has the potential to alter the course of your whole life. Don’t make such a decision rashly, unless you are sure the Lord has spoken to you.
My advice to you is this: If you are a child of God, and desire to serve God in the work of the ministry, and want to be equipped for service, don’t waste bundles of money by squandering it away in an institution and years of your life sitting in a classroom. Seek God’s face! Get alone with God and call upon His name! Go into solitary confinement, alone with just you and the Holy Ghost. Take yourself a Bible, a concordance, and a notepad, and lock yourself away in a room, or get yourself a tent and plot it down in the middle of the woods or the wilderness somewhere, with nothing but water (or plain bread too if you cannot fast), and pray and seek His face in desperation for a week straight or until He fills you with the Holy Ghost! Then, when He has filled you and clothed you with power from on high, take the $10,000-20,000 dollars that you were going to give to a lukewarm institution, and take that money, and get yourself a one-way plane ticket to an un-reached nation where the people are lost and have never heard of Jesus. Then, when you’re there, use that money to get you a cheap place, purchase several thousand Gospel tracts in the native tongue, and Bibles if they’re available, take up the language to learn it, and go out in the foolishness of Christ and Him crucified, preaching the blessed Word of God until you see the Lord move with power and sweep the elect of that nation into the Kingdom! Believe me, it will be much more rewarding, especially in eternity, where “they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).
Let the Bible become your closest companion, and the Spirit of God your personal Tutor. Drop out from the institutions of man and enroll at once in the School of the Spirit, where we are strong when we are weak, where we are wise in the eyes of God when foolish in the eyes of the world, where the greatest in His eyes are the least in the world’s eyes, and where diplomas profit nothing for the Kingdom’s sake, but true godliness is great gain. The time is short, the end of the age is upon us, and the harvest is ripe. –But the laborers are still few, and the lost around the world perish without a preacher to tell them the first principles of the Word of God or the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. These lost souls don’t need a scholar to teach them advanced theological theories, they just need a witness to the saving power of God, who has seen the risen Christ through the eyes of faith, to testify of who He is and what He can do for them, to save them. Where are the wandering Abraham’s, the stuttering Moses’, the over-zealous David’s, the ignorant, unlearned fishermen from Galilee who will reach this lost world for Jesus? What a shame it would be if they wasted time soaking in an institution if the Lord would have them to be sowing in the field of the lost world, or reaping for joy the wages of eternal life!
[i]“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Co. 11:3).