“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.”
~Isaiah 1:18

“Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;”
~Proverbs 2:2

“Why do you need to go to school to do ministry?” “We don’t need to study in order to know God.” “Why go to a non-accredited school when it can’t get you a good job?”

One of the many hats I wear at Aletheia Christian College includes recruiting, and these questions, or ones like them are daily music to my ears.

As a Christian organization, many people see the purpose of Aletheia Christian College as training Christian ministers and teachers, and this is a part of what we do; without understanding our philosophy of education and ministry, it would be all that we do. ACC is a community that exists to seek the glorious light of the King. What is the purpose of education? Here it is to come and reason together with the very Lord of Hosts. While many technical Christian and secular organizations prepare people for jobs, this is a minor side effect of studying at Aletheia Christian College. Our goal is to prepare our students to think, worship and serve the Lord. Sometimes this can be difficult to see, because at the heart of any person’s relationship with truth, with wisdom and reason is a choice. Do they believe the truths they have been taught, or do they seek another way?

I have been challenged many times by people who think that learning to reason on one’s own promotes atheism. I would ask them what their image of God is. If God is false, than study, learning and reasoning will lead one away from Him, but who wants to serve a false God? If God is true, then study all you want, the more you question, the more you can find wisdom, because she “shouts in the street” saying “How long, O naïve ones, will you love simplicity?” God invites us in Isaiah to come and reason together, in 2 Chronicles 7:14 He challenges His people to turn from their wicked ways and seek His face. ACC exists as a learning community to produce study which seeks the Lord. Our students do not have to come as Christians or leave as Christians because we know that internal government is the product of the Holy Spirit’s work in the inner man and we cannot force a conversion. But, if you are a Christian and your response to further education is to say “I don’t need to study to know God” or “I can live my Christian life just fine without a community of learning” I challenge you.

I challenge you to think. I challenge you to not accept an emotional response, because God demands so much more than an emotional response. I challenge you to ask questions, because James tells us that if we doubt, we should ask God who gives to all liberally. I challenge you to seek to know God in a way you have not, because His ways are higher than our ways. I challenge you to study because Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life. I challenge you with the challenge of God through Isaiah the prophet:

Come, Let us reason together.