The Anti-Seminary Movement

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

1 Timothy 3:6

I don’t know if there is an official anti-seminary movement. Am I trying to start one? No! But I am not in agreement with how seminaries are accepting their students.

Not much has been written about the subject. Certain online articles have been written by disgruntled seminary dropouts. Other pieces were written by pastors and religious leaders with Ph.D.’s who equate being anti-seminary with being “anti-education,” “amateur theologizers” (whatever that means), “academically undisciplined” and “ecclesiastically untethered”. These Ph.D.’s think that men who are not willing to make the investment (not willing to go into debt), are not willing to pay their dues. Those who are not willing to go the traditional route are labeled as non-supporters of seminary training.

As I have stated in my previous blogs, I am not against seminary. I believe that they have produced great Bible scholars and teachers in the past. Additionally, conservative Bible schools have been on the frontlines fighting theological liberalism and regaining biblical truth. I’m grateful for that. But I also believe that only biblically qualified men should be attending seminary without any cost to them. If a church truly determines that a man is biblically qualified to be a pastor, then the church should pay for his education and not let this future pastor go into debt for it. (More about this in a future article.)

What is the purpose of going to seminary? One school says, “Seminary is structured training for real ministry impact.” Another one answers with a rhetorical question, “Where should I entrust my mind to be sharpened, my heart filled, and my soul formed for such a significant task as serving God’s Kingdom and leading Christ’s Church?” Scot McKnight, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, asserts, “Seminary can be a time of encapsulation: you are isolated from your work, your church, and you are holed up in a class with other students and a professor…” And one more proudly states they “exist to produce preachers.”

It seems that seminaries have the corner on making the best and brightest pastors. It is the most advantageous way to learn about the Bible, theology, and how to shepherd and preach. As stated above, it is beneficial to isolate yourself from the church to learn about it. It is an investment of time and money, and to show that you have paid your dues. I would differ with those thoughts.

Pastor Mike Parker cautions: “When one considers the exalted nature of the office and the commonness of youth to be aspiring to it, he must see that seminary is necessarily a compacted experience. Ten, twenty and more years of mature and careful reflection must now be crammed into three! Often, young men who have been converted and exposed to the Word of God less than two years are forced to wrestle with problems which have tested the greatest saints and scholars of all history, and come up with ‘creative’ solutions by exam time in a matter of weeks.” (“The Basic Meaning of ‘Elder,'” Baptist Reformation Review [Summer – 1978])

Seminaries claim that they can produce preachers, a.k.a. pastors and elders. What took Moses 40 years to prepare for the ministry that God called him to do, seminaries could have developed him in three! God worked on Paul for approximately 15 years before sending him on his first missionary journey. Timothy was under the tutelage of the great Apostle Paul for 12 years before Paul appointed him to be the head of the Ephesian church.

What about the 12 Apostles? It only took Jesus a little over three years to prepare them for ministry, but they were the exception, not the norm. Also, they were older and experienced men who were already supporting themselves and their families. They were not novices in life skills, whereas today’s seminarians are very young and never had to support themselves, let alone a family. Possibly, the only money they ever managed may have been an allowance from their parents and/or a part-time job. Their only bills may have been just for a cell phone and car insurance.

My main concern with seminary is that they accept novices into their program. Graduates are just educated novices with M.Div.’s. The seminary stamps their approval of them, proving to the Christian community that these men in their twenties or thirties are now ready to be church leaders.

Seminaries use semantics when advertising their school. Semantics is the language used (as in advertising or political propaganda) to achieve the desired effect on an audience, primarily through the use of words with a novel or dual meaning. For example, seminaries exert that they “exist to produce preachers.” When these seminaries claim that they will make men “preachers,” “well-rounded pastors,” and men who will “shepherd God’s people effectively,” they are talking about eldership. But, biblically, you can’t make a man an elder. He is only qualified dependent on his character and experience as depicted in 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, and 1 Peter 5:1-4.

Seminaries are claiming that they know how to produce biblical elders in a classroom setting, with giving their students minimal experience. The seminary can fast-track a young man’s elder training in three to four years simply through classroom assignments, papers, and by reading thousands of pages of theology.

Here is an example from a church that we had attended for a while. During a Sunday morning service, the 26-year-old “prodigy” pastor in my blog, Learn Basic Skills, said that he was training men to be elders like he had been trained in seminary. His “students” were men in their 40’s and 50’s. This young pastor went on to brag about how some of the men couldn’t keep up with his demanding assignments and had to drop out of his classes. As he was gloating about his rigorous training, I wondered why there was such a rush to get these men into eldership in three years. In his experience, he had gone to school full-time and didn’t have a family to raise like the older men he was training. He got married after seminary. He didn’t have to work a 40 to 60-hour week while going to seminary, either. And, just how do you make someone a biblical elder by doing assignments anyway?

I give this short story to emphasize that these seminary graduates truly believe that their education made them biblically qualified to be a church pastor. If that is not true, at what point in their lives did they become qualified elders? Was it at the old age of 18 when they decided to go into the ministry? Or was it when they started seminary?

1 Timothy 3:6 says, “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.” The word “recent” means a novice. Among the ancient Romans, a novice (novicius) was usually a newly imported slave, who had to be trained in his or her duties. This verse is speaking about someone new to Christianity. They are not to be allowed in leadership because of becoming conceited.

Most men entering seminaries are novices. They may not be recent converts, but on the other hand, the only responsibilities they have had in life was just going to school. Most of these students have never run their own household or are just starting one, which makes them a novice according to 1 Timothy 3:4. Most of them are not even husbands or fathers yet.

These students have been in a controlled educational environment for some 22 years. When has their blamelessness, temperament, sober-mindedness, and behavior truly been tested and observed by their home church? When did they ever practice hospitality in their own homes? When have their financial abilities been tested since their parents or federal aid have paid for their education?

1 Timothy 3:5 reads, “For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” If a man does not have any substantial personal experience governing his own home, how can a church biblically recognize that man as a pastor/elder?

Some of the biblical titles of leadership are elder, pastor, shepherd, and overseer. These titles are not synonyms for each other. They describe different functions for a person who is biblically qualified to be a leader.

The term elder emphasizes who they are; men of age (they are not young), experience, and wisdom. Overseer stresses their general duty by overseeing the church, protecting it from false doctrine, false leaders, and anything that may be detrimental to the saint’s spiritual welfare. Pastor emphasizes their teaching and preaching responsibilities. And shepherding emphasizes their care for the church by practicing hospitality, praying for the saints, exhorting the people under their supervision to love one another and to do good works.

If a man in his twenties or thirties has been in school for the past 22 years, when did he have the opportunity to prove to his home church that God had indeed called him to the ministry? His church would not have had enough time to validate his character, nor would any seminary be able to do the same. Seminaries are paid to educate and fast-track a person to eldership. They “exist to produce preachers.”

Seminary cannot truly determine if God calls a man to ministry.

1. The students have not lived long enough to know themselves; it is based on a gut feeling.
2. Seminaries receive students from around the world. Admissions departments have not personally known their students; therefore, they cannot verify their character, their “call” to ministry, or even if their students are genuinely Christians.
3. Upon graduation, all a seminary produces is an educated novice.

The Novice Christian
“The novice Christian is almost totally unaware of God’s plan for his life. Therefore, for God’s plan, he substitutes what he assumes, what he thinks, what his own standards dictate to him, what he concludes from all this internalizing what surely must be God’s plan for his life. Often, the novice concludes that it’s important to have a sweet personality, or to adhere to a particular set of taboos, or moral do’s and don’ts.” (Grace notes)

Again, I am not against a seminary education, but another concern is that seminaries have done an “outstanding” job in spending millions of dollars on advertising and advocating the need for seminary. Because of this, the Church now believes that seminary is the only way to qualify a man as a pastor. The belief is that since these students have paid their dues in time and money, they are now biblically qualified for leadership. No previous biblical experience needed. Mercy!

Seminary cannot raise up a pastor, only God can. Seminary is a great way to learn theology, but the knowledge of theology cannot make you an overseer. At 24 or 30, a man may have learned how to run a church, but it does not qualify him to be an elder. He may have learned how to prepare a sermon and teach it, but that does not qualify him to be a pastor.

Many young seminary graduates who may be theologically sound are puffed up. They paid their dues by earning a religious degree and became proud and arrogant in the process. They are overconfident in their abilities to teach all about theology and Bible interpretation. They can prove they are now biblically qualified because of their Master of Divinity degree and their alma mater.

Seminaries, churches, and leaders will be held accountable on Judgement Day as to who they chose to train to be pastors and elders. Laypeople will also be held accountable as to whom they allowed to be their church leaders. There will be no excuses because Christ expects all Christians to know and act on His Word.

There are a lot of church leaders who may look and play the part, but they are only novice Christians with a seminary degree. These younger men have not lived long enough or had enough life experience to know if they are truly qualified according to Scriptural mandates. Not one of these men has bothered to measure their qualifications against the ruler of God’s Word. Sadly, in our church age, the church leadership qualifications of 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, and 1 Peter 5 have been replaced with a seminary degree.

By Rob Robbins, June 2020, churchfm316.com
Editing and Proofreading by Laura Robbins