The Manufacture of Ministers 1

Unlike the ancient and outdated apostles, today's ministers have massive sources to be equipped and prepared (by men) to preach the gospel. Dallas Theological Seminary is a dine example of this with its vast offerings of postgraduate masters programs, all of them in the "arts". Just look at all these different programs!

MA in Counselling
MA in Christian & Ministry Care
Ma in Jewish Studies
MA in Apologetics & Evangelism
MA in Christian Education
MA in Christian Leadership
Ma In Intercultural Studies
MA in Media Arts & Worship
MA in Christian Studies
Master of Biblical & Theological Studies

Look at mighty array of knowledge of which Dallas boasts:

Christian Counseling, where modern godless psychology is sprinkled with some Bible verses and dressed up in evangelical garb.

Christian & Ministry Care - forgiving our ignorance, we cannot distinguish the difference between Christian care and ministry care. We always believed that this was the job of the pastors to do through the blessings of the Holy Spirit.

Christian Leadership. What does this mean? How is this different from being a faithful follower of Christ?  We were under the mistaken notion that only God could make spiritual leaders. But, apparently, there are academic studied that can make you one.

Master of Biblical & Theological Studies - just in case one thought that Christian leadership and ministry required a thorough understanding of the scriptures, we stand corrected with this course. Now, through the wonders of the teaching of gifted college professors, men can achieve a mastery of the Bible and theology!

Ma in Jewish Studies - Wow! We are certain the Paul would bristle with jealousy over his lack of training and understanding for the ministry that God had for him.

Could Paul's training at the foot of Gamaliel have matched But it also occurred to us that God must not have thought things through enough to neglect to establish all these programs in apostolic times! Just think what the disciples could have done with all this knowledge and training! Instead, the poor disciples had only Jesus, who promised them that he would be with them to the end of the age. But perhaps Paul could have competed with the mighty graduates of Dallas Seminary. The Cultural Study Bible, commenting on Acts 22.23, where Paul was speaks of his education reads:

"Like Alexandria and Athens, Tarsus was a leading university canter in antiquity; many Tarsians themselves, however, pursued advanced education elsewhere. Jerusalem would have been the ancient center for the study of Torah; Paul's letters reveal particular expertise in Scripture, especially in the Septuagint (the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT), and such instruction was available in Gamaliel's household in Jerusalem...in light of the ancient usage, this probably suggests that Paul spent much of his youth in Jerusalem, though his study with Gamaliel was at a more advanced level, at the feet of, lit. 'sat at his feet' which was considered the appropriate posture for a disciple...one of the minority of Pharisees who belonged to Jerusalem's elite [Gamaliel] commanded wide respect..."

Yet what do we read about Paul's attitude toward his academic education? "Yes doubtless and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for which I have suffered the loss of all this, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Philippians 3.8).

We leave it to our readers to decided which is more important.