Since God made everything we discover, then everything we find out about flows from what God has created. So well educated men and woman are just tapping into Gods creation and energy and opening up their minds to His awesomeness.
Is higher educaton (PhD, Masters, etc.) a secular or a Christian activity, or both?
- Thread starter JosephsDreams
- Start date
-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
J
JamesD
Guest
I think it could be a bit of both. I got my Masters in accounting recently. Most of what is taught in academics is secular unfortunately. But if you really tap into true learning, you will see God in places you hadn't before.
It is not hard to see that God has been removed from just about all secular education, and even from most of Christian education. What seems to get taught in the latter is Denominational position and esoteric creedal values.
Last edited:
they've taken all the P.E. classes out of the advanced law degree curriculum, too
just sayin, i didn't expect to have theology coursework as part of my physics degree. and i didn't - but it doesn't mean that apart from the focused lectures on optics & electromagnetism, i never gained any insight into spiritual things by learning & considering the facts of the material world.
G
Galatea
Guest
Everything that is secular can be spiritual. There is a germ of the spiritual in everything, I believe.
I love well educated Christians, I learn alot by listening to them.
As for just having a degree being useful in a spiritual way, Id imagine it depends on how you use it? Id say the core purpose of them would be to help someone find better work, so nothing spiritual there. But there are many Christians who use their higher education for good purposes.
As for just having a degree being useful in a spiritual way, Id imagine it depends on how you use it? Id say the core purpose of them would be to help someone find better work, so nothing spiritual there. But there are many Christians who use their higher education for good purposes.
Sometimes we separate things which don't need to be separated.
If we are to follow God and serve him with our lives,
and that is our real focus and desire in life,
then our education and career path are all part of our own personal, spiritual life.
If you desire to follow God,
then any education and career He leads you into is part of your spiritual life.
Not everyone should be, or needs to be, a pastor.
God has plenty of use for everyone, educated or not.
All of God's children are part of his plan, and God is concerned about each of us, and our education, and our careers, and everything else.
So, it isn't more or less spiritual to be educated or not.
It isn't more or less spiritual to have one career over another.
It's all about our hearts.
If we are to follow God and serve him with our lives,
and that is our real focus and desire in life,
then our education and career path are all part of our own personal, spiritual life.
If you desire to follow God,
then any education and career He leads you into is part of your spiritual life.
Not everyone should be, or needs to be, a pastor.
God has plenty of use for everyone, educated or not.
All of God's children are part of his plan, and God is concerned about each of us, and our education, and our careers, and everything else.
So, it isn't more or less spiritual to be educated or not.
It isn't more or less spiritual to have one career over another.
It's all about our hearts.
Last edited:
It is interesting that almost all of the early institutions of higher learning in America were begun by Christians and they incorporated God into all the courses. It was a perfectly natural thing to them that God was to be included in everything.
R
renewed_hope
Guest
It is because of God I got my accounting degree and I had no problem telling my professors that. The bible tells me I am the temple of the Holy Spirit and God is with me wherever I go and that's just the way it is 
D
Depleted
Guest
That would be cool! What denominational position or esoteric creeds fit into accounting? Do you know any textbooks that would fit into it? This really is the kind of fun learning I'd enjoy. (I'm an odd bird. I like books on marketing just for fun. But my bookkeeping days would have been double the fun if I could have found a Christian creed going along with the money-calculating.)
S
Susanna
Guest
Whether its a PhD or Masters, it's a degree. Nothing more, nothing less....
It's designed to qualify a person for an advanced position in their field. Just like there are Associates and Bachelor's degrees designed to qualify a person for entry-level positions.
It's designed to qualify a person for an advanced position in their field. Just like there are Associates and Bachelor's degrees designed to qualify a person for entry-level positions.
Last edited:
D
Depleted
Guest
Speaking of denominationalism and creeds, in my denomination, you go for your bachelor degree in whatever you want to do after you graduate. And then later on, when God calls and asks you to be a minister, then you go to seminar. Our seminaries don't do bachelor degrees. Most people going for a bachelor think they know what they want to be and it's required, but somewhere along the way they change their minds. We're not big on thinking kids should go to a Bible College. Matter of fact, if anyone asks, (and few do), we'd go down a list of what we have against that. So, even if someone went to Bible College and then tried to enroll in seminary, it's likely the man would be turned down, until he found his place in the world.
A master's degree at seminary might get you a job at a church. A PhD might get you a job as an assistant to the Teaching Elder, (sort of like a pastor, but only responsible for teaching. Our Ruling Elders work in ministering to the people.) No one becomes a Teaching Elder without an apprenticeship with a trusted Teaching Elder. And no one gets that job without proving first, in front of the whole Presbytery, (the monthly meeting of the churches in the area's elders), they know their Bible AND they agree with our doctrines.
About once every 10 years, someone slips through by lying, (because you have to promise to agree with the basic doctrines, and some are out to prove a better way.) When the Presbytery finds out they don't agree and don't teach the doctrine, they're fired.
I like this. Proves to me they understand the Bible. They commit to it, enough to commit years of deep study while the rest of us just got a job.
And our Teaching Elders don't stop studying at that point either. It is assumed at least 35 hours a week to prepare for the sermon on Sunday. Most of that time is spent studying the Word some more and praying. Last I heard, Philadelphia had 14 churches in our presbytery. This happens for all our churches across the country, so if you live in Joliet, IL or Charlottesville, VA, there are churches all around that area that meet together. And usually one mother-church in the middle. (The rest are usually daughter-churches, sprung from mission work from the mother-church. When they get big enough to plant another church, then they become a mother-church.) For the bigger cities, that usually means the mother-church is well-known. And because of that, the Teaching Elders are well-known. If they stay at that church, (and most do, but sometimes they go on to other jobs), they tend to also write books on theology. Book writing is on their time, but they're still studying to write those books. Donald Barnhouse, (Teaching Elder until the 1960) wrote 14 and had a radio show for decades. James Boice wrote 22.
People can fault my denomination for many things, but we really are into advance learning -- whether you want to be a teaching elder or just a congregant. We love to learn more and more about God.
D
Depleted
Guest
The problem with formal education is that in those years when we get it, we're often too naive to know if it's God leading us into it or ourselves. And it's over before we figure out that answer.
I was born-again when I was 16 and only figured out becoming an English teacher wasn't God's plan for me in my senior year of college when my adviser told me I couldn't be an English teacher. (I stink at grammar. Boy! Picky, aren't they? lol) I did finish college and got the degree, but the one thing that degree did for me was open some doors as a vague college-degree does.
Formal education was over before I figured out what God wanted me to do. Matter of fact, for work, I usually figured out if God wanted me to take a job by finding out if I even got the job. Only once did I refuse a job because it went against God's word to do it. The rest was hit or miss.
Once I got the job, I did it for the Lord and for my bosses, but I really never did figure out what I was supposed to be doing.
D
Depleted
Guest
The problem with living in Charlottesville for a little while -- and then there is UVA, started by Jefferson to avoid God in the courses. (To be honest, I think Jefferson was a bit of a chump too often.)