In Matthew 16:18 Jesus promised to build his church on the rock of Peter and his Christological confession. This promise entails that the church, which is founded on the apostles (Ephesians 2:20), will uphold and preserve that Christological confession, that the church would hold fast to the cornerstone of Christ. Such a promise undergirds the mission of the church, and with it the purpose of seminary education. Indeed, far from eradicating the necessity of theological education, Jesus’ promise undergirds it, for the church is built and sustained only as it stands on the rock of the apostolic confession about Christ. Seminary education exists to support the local church in its call to uphold the gospel of Christ.
At Bethlehem Seminary, we aim to support the local church by equipping students so that they graduate as mature leaders who are ready to shepherd God’s people with biblical clarity and Christ-exalting affection for the rest of their lives. The two elements of this aim—biblical clarity and Christ-exalting affection—propel our method of seminary education.
First, because we aim for our students to have and spread biblical clarity, every seminarian within the Master of Divinity program is required to take two years of biblical Greek and two years of biblical Hebrew. We train our seminarians to have an assiduous attentiveness to the biblical text, so that they can observe what the Bible teaches and thereby uphold its message with conviction and certainty. Across our nation, some seminaries are reducing the requirement for biblical-language exegesis, but this is short-sighted. We believe that pastors are best equipped to uphold biblical fidelity when they can see for themselves what the biblical text teaches. Similarly, in addition to our history and theology electives, we require our seminarians to take three semesters of church history and three semesters of systematic theology so that they can uphold and preserve historic Christian orthodoxy. At Bethlehem we aim for our graduates to defend the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), and therefore we deem it necessary for future pastors to be trained in biblical and systematic theology, church history, hermeneutics, and biblical ethics.
Second, because we aim for our students to have and spread Christ-exalting affection, our seminary classes combine theology with doxology. We strongly believe that right doctrine should lead to worship; orthodoxy undergirds doxology. To emphasize the necessity of Christ-exalting affection, many of our seminary classes include devotions, prayers, and songs to elicit the proper response of worship to the doctrine taught. For this same reason, Bethlehem utilizes an in-person, cohort model so that our students can encourage and strengthen one another in the faith. Of course, we recognize that sometimes circumstances may prohibit someone from moving to Twin Cities to pursue seminary education at Bethlehem, and we trust God’s providence in these circumstances. At the same time, we resist the online-degree model precisely because we think seminary education should involve more than simple information transfer. Rather, as iron sharpens iron, our seminarians are mutually strengthened in their Christ-exalting affection because of the embodied nature of their education. They have gone through the program together, and they have studied and been discipled together. We as faculty know them and their families by name, and can with a clear conscience write letters of recommendation on their behalf because we know them. In this sense, local seminary education best prepares pastors to shepherd in local churches.
If our aim and model of seminary education interest you or someone you know, reach out to our admissions team at [email protected]. We are extending the Early Action Deadline and applications fees will be waived until next Friday, November 8. May the Lord build his church through his word!
For the cause of Christ,
Joshua M. Greever, Ph.D.
Director of Seminary Programs
Prayer Requests:
- Pray that our seminarians would gain biblical clarity and increased Christ-exalting affection.
- Pray that they would love their families and be faithful members of and apprentices at their local church.
- Pray that Bethlehem College and Seminary would be faithful in its mission to provide a robust education in serious joy.
- Pray for the full funding of The Serious Joy Scholarships needed to support this year’s students.
- Pray for our students as they begin final projects and papers.