/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

Careful giving your money away.

Give this a listen if you'd like.

His points are basically

>pulls manpower and resources out of churches

>demographic of young folk missing from churches

>churches won't preach deep and complicated doctrinal sermons because bible college is covering that base

>has to appeal to a broad, ecumenical Christianity to get money from all opinions and denominations, so colleges won't say or do anything too controversial

>shouldn't have to pay for the truth

>>593031

Near all those points apply to the "college church" movement (http://collegiatechurchnetwork.com/churches/find-a-church/ and similar)

They can* displace young people from real churches and put them into some baseless individualistic evangelicalism, teaching them that every opinion and personal interpretation has basically the same value and then once they are out of college they're ready to join a megachurch.

I would say, pros of Bible college:

- Some actual study of Biblical text, in a structured setting.

- A number of Christians around you

Cons:

- Christianity indistinguishable from culture, might make you get tired of it

- Compromise of doctrine to keep all kinds of evangelicals happy

Note that more conservative Bible colleges will encourage you to find a real church nearby for Sunday mornings, but if the choice is between saving money, going to a state school, and getting a car (allowing you to actually go to a church that teaches doctrine you find acceptable), and going to Bible college, it is not quite an easy decision.

* perhaps I am just bitter about my personal experience though

>>593024

For some of your specific questions:

>Also do you have to be apart of a specific denomination to attend certain ones?

Not for regular "bible college", but be prepared to disagree especially if you aren't a fan of sola scriptura.

Speaking of which, if you don't uphold Sola Scriptura, how are you still technically a Protestant? Still trying to figure out which is the original Church (between Orthodoxy and Rome)?

What is the Protestant seminary? If it's a "evangelical baptist" thing you may not have trouble denomination wise, but it is kind of a waste of time if you are going to begome orthodox

>>593047

>Some actual study of Biblical text, in a structured setting.

>A number of Christians around you

So… like a church?

I agree that there could be, in theory, a well founded Bible college that does everything right and creates zealous young preachers, but I'm not sure they're out there today. Even if they were, it's a better system for a young person to be raised in the church, taught the Scriptures from a young age, marry the girl that sits three pews up, and maybe come to preach there himself one day.