Scholars with questionable degrees?

couple of quick hits during a busy ministry week...

I am speaking of University of Texas at Arlington...which I believe is indeed a fine school which many people are well educated through attending. UTA has provided excellent degrees for many people throughout the years and will continue to do so. They offer great secular education, which one should expect from the University of Texas system.

My concern is the abundance of terminal degrees from such an institution at seminaries when viable theological alternatives are readily available in the same metroplex region (i.e. SWBTS, DTS, even TCU or Texas Wesleyan) is a bit confounding to me. I just think that some theological degrees from accredited theological schools (beyond an MDiv) should be strongly considered for seminary leadership. I'm not being legalistic about this just thinking outloud about the quality of our educational institutions reflected in the viability of experience.

Also, to my knowledge our recently departed brother in Florida was released from his employment because of a resume notation of an MDiv from Southeastern which he had never received. Again not stirring the pot, just adding some clarity...

 

OK you rambled long enough, what was the point of all of that?

 

I wish someone had asked about that kind of thing back in 1881. The lads that have caused all the confusion with the Critical text freely admitted that they did not have the expertise to what they did but they did it anyway and we many follow their errors.

Degrees really only mean that you spent some money and time but not that you really know anything. only that you can parrot back on a test or in a treatise what you were given.

One of my professors spent 5 years getting his ThB and then spent 5 more years studying the exact same thing at a different college to get his ThM. He said that a Bachelors is designed to teach you how to study and that a Masters tells you what to study and the Doctorate means you can teach what you studied, Most of it is a good old boy and money racket. You can find heretics and Leftists with lots of paper but little else.

The School of Hard Knocks is not the easy way. I learned more in the ministry than I ever did in a classroom or from a book. They don't even offer classes or degrees for a lot of what I have learned.

Jesus picked mostly unlearned men that He could teach for three years OJT and then let the Spirit teach them the rest. If a man went the the way that some people teach he would be in school 15 years before he really got a FT ministry going and by then he would be too old for most churches. If he started at 18 he would be done at 43 and now churches want 30 year olds.

If you have been in the ministry for 10+ years you have been teaching and doing things seminaries do not offer. The private secular recognizes related learning and life experiences. That is why CLEP, DANTES and other programs exist. I have credits in courses like SE Asian Governments, Sociology and even Psych because I passed the final exam. You can actually get 60 hours or more towards a BA from these programs.

So, if a man has been in the ministry a number of years and some school wants to grant him a degree or give him a modified program to fit his experience then it is no different than what the military and many secular schools allow. Wantt a degree? Give a bunch of money to any "established" or "accredited" school and they will give you one. One rocker only attended a semester at one school but because he was famous they gave him a PhD. Why, they may benefit by beng associated with him or maybe they did see that he mastered the course material. Whatever, he is a Doctor with all the rights and privileges pertaining to that degree.

You couldn't give me a full scholarship to go to many of the seminaries in this country. They have a name but are dead. Harvard, Yale, Princeton have all gone apostate and many of the others have as well.

I fought getting anything for 20 years because I realized that many thought I was too deep in the word after l got my BRE. What the heck would I do with all that education if my people couldn't understand me? I don't use half of what I learned there because no one is interested or understands. It is only helpful when I get into a debate with someone on the Net.

Paul said that not many wise after the flesh were called and yet we cater to that bunch. Why? Because we are spiritually stupid or as Paul put it ignorant. We want to kiss up to the world so we use worldly standards to deem men worthy of ministry. Balderdash!

There is so much stuff available today through the Net and bookstores that good old fashioned apprenticeship is a much better way to train a pastor than shipping him off for 4-15 years of training. Ideally, a pastor should be grooming the man to take his place rather than throwing the sheep to the wolves through the methods we use.

Questionable degrees? I question the whole concept for a pastor. Should he study, sure but he doesn't need all the hoopla we say that he does. I was told by Criswell that I couldn't pastor in TX without a Doctorate. Well, that t'ain' t'xactly so as there are many in TX that don't have one. In fact, in some places my letters are a hindrance rather than a help. I only use them as eye candy for the people who need them but once a redneck, always a redneck and I is proud to be one. Better a lad with an 8th grade education who believes the Book and preaches Hell hot and real than an erudite scholar who can't pronounce God right and isn't sure if he has a bible or what verses should be in it or if Hell is a literal place or an allegory.

DEGREES? We don't need no steeking degrees! Give me a D. L. Moody over a book infidel every time!

 

You're presenting a both-and as though it were an either-or, but I kinda like your post anyway.