Apostolic Scholarship

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The response to my statement was overwhelming, but after I thought about
it, I was not surprised.  My computer is at my office, which I try to
stay away from during the weekend.  I will answer a couple of people,
and give a generic answer, my time this week is at a premimum.

>Timothy Litteral asked: Yeah, so what are YOU doing?

This is a fair question since I raised the issue.  I attended
International Bible College in San Antionio, Texas where I recieved a
BRE (Bachelor of Religious Education) with majors in Bible, and
Christian Education and Minors in Theology and Counseling.  I am now
attending the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary where I am working
an my Master of Divinity.  At the end of this semester I will have
completed 75 of the 90 hours that are needed to complete this degree.

It will almost take a miracle to be accepted into a ThD program because
of the entrance requirements of most seminaries.  In addition to a MDiv
(short for Master of Divinity), most seminaries require a Master of
Theology, proficiency in Biblical Languages (Greek and Hebrew and
possibly Biblical Aramaic, not KJV English, this is of course a joke and
you should now laugh), plus German, French and sometimes Latin.  Most
also want to see a good GPA (Grade Point Average).  At this rate I will
be ready to retire before I am finished.  As usual, I should have been a
little clearer and said: What the Apostolic Movement needs is several
YOUNG Godly poeple . . .

>Tyler Nally said: That's because the Book *learned* ministers aren't led >by the Holy Ghost.

I can not think of a diplomatic way to answer this, so just let me say
that I resent this statement.  I do not wish to reopen the annointing
string with my response and will try not to.  The annointing has nothing
to do with education.  God can, and does, use ignorant people, but He
cannot use their ignorance.  I have held classes for young ministers
that felt that they could not attend a Bible College.  One piece of
advice that I usually give is: Study, study, study, like God has noting
to do with your sermon and it is entirely up to you.  Once you have
studied, then PRAY, PRAY, PRAY as if the delivery of your sermon had
nothing to do with you, that it is entirely up to God.  This is of
course assuming that the minister has a relationship with Christ and has
already had communion (verbal) with Jesus about the topic.

>Steven Hall wrote:  When a man has been with Jesus, it is better than 20 >degrees.

We once went to church with a preacher that would say "I don't have any
theology, what I have is kneeology."  He was too ignorant to realize
that he had theology, and it (or at least most) was bad.  Everyone has
theology, everyone practices hermeneutics, it is just that many do not
realize it.  Yes, a relationship with Jesus is to be preffered over
education, but are they mutually exclusive?  Since I feel that the Lord
has called me to go to school, I do not think that they are.  My family
is anti-education, most of my pastors counseled me agianst going to
school, but, when God calls you to do someting you better do it.  Since
my family is strict Apostolics and are anti-education they do not
understand why I am going to school, I am an apostate to them.  However,
my relationship with Jesus is dependant upon my obiedence to Him, not
upon my mother understanding God's will in my life.

>Lisa Knott wrote: Give me time, brother, I'm working on it!

Praise God.  I hope that you not only work on it, but that you acheive
it as well.  I am in my forties, and have been working on my MDiv since
Fall 1992 since I work full-time and go to school part-time.  It would
seem that school for me is a career choice.  I started Bible College in
Fall 1982.  My wife is getting tired of me going to school, as well as
the expense, and I am getting tired also.  For me to complete any more
education after this degree, will require a miracle in finances.  The
student loans is getting too high!  Pray for me as I try to finish this
degree, I have one more year.

>A generic response to several statements made.

My wife has some medical textbooks that I have looked through, and I
have seen a couple of operations on TV.  Would you let me do your open
heart surgery next week?  How about a simpler procedure such as setting
your 8 year olds broken leg?  Why not?  I have taken a course in
business law, and have a book on church law.  Would you let me represent
you in your lawsuit next week?  Why not?  The answer to the first
question is that I am not a doctor and have not went to medical school. 
The answer to the second question is that I am not an attorney, and I
have not went to law school.  We can use common sense in the real world,
why is it so difficult to apply to our faith? 

If a person is not qualified, by virtue of education and experience for
certain occupations in the World, should we give God less?  God can use
an ignorant person, but He cannot use their ignorance.  How can we
effectively reach the world, especially since a college education is now
as commonplace as a high school diploma once was, without using all the
tools at our disposal.  Note: the man that I still consider my pastor
did not finish High School.  Yet, I also know that in his forty odd
years pastoring, he did not reach anyone with a college degree.  Do we
let these people go to hell because we are too stubborn or proud to get
an education?  If any one feels this way they need to pray through!

We are to go into all the world!  That prob. includes Wall Street,
Harvard, Yale, Prinction, The White House and etc.  One of the reasons
(not to discount the Holy Ghost) that Paul had such an effect on the
world was that he was extremely educated (it would prob. be equal to a
Doctor of Theology today).  By the way, Paul was saved after Jesus was
crucified, so he did not spend the 3.5 years learning from Jesus that
Peter, John, and etc. did.  He was taught by the Holy Spirit, but he
already knew the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament) before he was
saved.

It is true that God can use anybody, reguardless of their education. 
Yes, God even used Balaam's Donkey.  Please note however, that He only
used him once, after that the donkey went back to being a braying
jackass.  There have been times that I have heard someone trying to
preach that was doing nothing but a lot of braying--they usually had
little formal education.  This is not to say that God had never used
them to deliever a message, it was just that at that time all that was
going on was noise.  

Many have said that a higher theological education is mans education. 
It can depend on the school and the teachers.  I have been lucky, at the
Assemblies of God Theological Seminary there are Godly men (who differ
theologically from me) that teach Gods Word.  They have a high view of
God, and believe that Jesus is God (surprise, surprise), and believe in
only one God.  This is not to say that they are not Trinitarian, because
they are, this is only to say that they have a relationship with Jesus,
and an understanding of God that we as Apostolics do not believe is
possible.  What is the difference between learning from Godly men in the
seminary classroom, or the sancturary of a church?

Did you realize that the World's leading expert on the Oneness Movement
is an Anglican Minister?  He was once Oneness for a couple of years. 
Why isn't the worlds leading expert on the Oneness Movement an
Apostolic?  Because we have no scholars, or at least very few.  If we
have any, they are not writing.  David Bernard, an attorney, is the
closest that we have, he is a prolific writer, but his degrees are not
in theology.  David Reed became the worlds leading expert on Apostolics
when he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Oneness Movement.  If you
have the Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, David Reed
wrote the article on Oneness for that dictionary.

As I mentioned before, this is one of my soapboxes.  I could say much
more, but I will be mericiful.

Bro. Joe