Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 8
January 17, 1957
NUMBER 36, PAGE 1,12b13a

The Craze For Degrees

E. A. Elam (Gospel Advocate, 1923)

There seems to be a craze among young college preachers for the glittering degrees of universities in which they themselves say the Bible is discredited and the divinity of Christ is denied. I take their word for it.

Let me say again, all things being equal, one cannot be too well educated in the true sense of education.

But these university courses require a great deal of time and no little money — namely, four years in college after leaving high school, and four or more years in the university. And I ask, what better preachers of the gospel are they afterward than before? What better preachers are they than hundreds who never saw the inside of a university? I am of the firm conviction that nine out of every ten of them have been ruined in this way as true gospel preachers and effective teachers of the truth.

There are reasons. The sedentary habits formed during long college and university courses unfit these preachers for the active life of going; they have been stopping too long. In order to preach the gospel to the whole creation men must go.

Not only do the sedentary habits of these preachers unfit them for going into all the world in order to preach the gospel; but also the trend of their thoughts (for "as one thinketh within himself, so is he"), the kind of learning they love, their worldly ambitions and aspirations, and their desire for preferment and place and recognition unfit them for preaching the gospel to the poor, for going into the highways and hedges, into the lanes and hills and hollows in the country, and among the unlearned and common people of towns and cities, "to seek and to save" the lost. Jesus says, "and the poor have the gospel preached to them"; and of him it is said, "And the common people heard him gladly."

More still, they have acquired a vocabulary quite different from the Bible and that of every day life and contrary to the "sound speech" which God commands preachers and teachers to use. They forget how to preach the gospel in its simplicity and power, beauty and glory. They fail, if they do not even refuse, to follow the example of the educated and learned Paul — that is, determine to know nothing, save Jesus Christ and him crucified, to preach not themselves, and to become all things to all men if by any means they may save some.

Have they not lost the true purpose of preaching the gospel? Do they not despise the day of small things? Are they not reaching out after big things? Big crowds, "big meetings," big sermons, big salaries, great displays, large numbers of additions are far more attractive and fascinating to many than to preach and work as did Jesus and Paul. There is danger in display and concentrated yearly "big meetings."

The first thing to be accomplished by a preacher in preaching the gospel is to save himself. Paul had to struggle against his own body and bring it under in order to be saved. The one thing with him was to so live as to attain unto the resurrection of the just. He said by teaching the truth Timothy would save both himself and his hearers. Preachers cannot lose sight of their own salvation and the power of example. Paul told Timothy what to preach, what not to preach, how to preach, and why to preach, although, at the time, Timothy was inspired. Not only so; but Paul charted Timothy and Titus to be examples in all purity and holy living; to treat old men as fathers, old women as mothers, and young women as sisters. (I Tim. 5:1, 2.) Some preachers now do not hesitate it seems, to set aside God's law in these respects; rather, they seem to feel licensed to do so.

Brethren Lipscomb and Harding filled the young preachers who attended school with burning zeal for preaching the gospel to people where there were no congregations. In this way many new congregations sprang up every year. Some Bible Schools now too much fill young preachers with the aspiration for worldly wisdom and, therefore, university degrees. After obtaining these degrees, if they continue to preach at all, do they not aspire to become "the minister" of some town or city church? They really seem unable to see anything in the word "minister" except some sort of "modern pastor."

"Minister" and "evangelist" were not intended by the Lord to be used as titles, but to express work. The one who serves — prepares meals, makes fires, sweeps floors, waits upon tables, washes feet, attends to the wants of the poor, visits the sick, teaches others, etc. — is "a minister." Any one who preaches the gospel is an evangelist. To do the work of a preacher of the gospel is to "do the work of an evangelist." It is just as scriptural to accept the "modern pastor" as the modern "evangelist" or "modern minister." The more highly educated one is, the more clearly one should understand the meaning of "minister" and "evangelist" and the more efficient servant of God and men or preacher of the gospel one should be. True education does not blind one to the truth.

Education, as it is commonly understood, never makes men and women Christians. It only quickens, brightens and polishes what is in them, whether good or bad. It is only a tool or a means. There are educated thieves, religious rascals, and polished scoundrels. So education and great learning never make preachers. The love of God and men and a deep and lasting sense of obligation make preachers. The New Testament tells sinners what to do to be saved no more plainly than it tells how preachers are made and all Christians how to live.

It seems difficult to induce some to study this question of how preachers are made, or how they should live.

Let the matter be put to the test. What preachers have gone out into the world and have led the greatest number of sinners to salvation in Christ; have built up the greatest number of congregations or have encouraged the greatest number to continue faithful unto the end? What preachers have made the sacrifices in order to do this?

While Paul was educated, and the other apostles were not ignoramuses, it is most significant that Jesus did not go to the learned and great men of earth to select his apostles.

"Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong, and the base things of the world and the things that are despised did God choose, yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to naught the things that are; that no flesh should glory before him." (I Cor. 1:26-29.)