How Important Is God's Word in Education?

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This is the Truth Network. How important is God's Word in education? What about going to college? What about going to seminary? Well, I just happen to be sitting right next to a man of God who's actually been a mentor to me for years, and now he is the president of the Master's College and Seminary, Dr. Sam Horne. Dr. Horne, it is really good to see you, man. Well, Stu, it's awesome to see you, and I have many memories of our, I don't know, several decades friendship. I remember going over to McDonald's, memorizing the book of James together and Bible studies we did together, and so it's a delight to see you again. Well, one neat thing, just a Sam Horne story, I heard you early on, some mutual friends of ours, started a little bit of an outreach Bible study, and you just taught the Word, and it's like, wow, just to hear you teach the Word.

But you've always had, talk about your journey a little bit. You're president of a very awesome place, the Master's Seminary, the Master's College, equipping people in the Word of God, young people, the next generation of Bible teachers and servants. But what awakened you, now you're in academic admissions, you can correct my English here, what woke you up to the Scriptures? Well, you know, I just saw the power of the Word of God in my own life, and then as you referenced, I saw the power of the Word, not just in my own personal life, I saw it in my marriage.

I saw it in the context of a classroom, teaching the Word of God, just opening up the Bible, and endeavoring to cut the Bible straight to be a workman that, as Paul said, doesn't need to be ashamed because they're rightly handling the Word of God. That became a passion for me, and seeing the Word of God change people. And then even as you referenced the story of those Bible studies, just unleashing the Word of God and the story of the Gospel into the heart and life of people who had never heard it before, over the last 20 years, have seen scores of people that have come to know the Lord because of that Word. So the Word of God has always been a very big touchstone for me in terms of ministry. And out of that have come the five major driving theological sort of pillars of my life.

The first being the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture because of its inerrancy. I mean, everything we do rises up out of that. You asked about why I think a Christian university and a Christian higher ed is important, a Christian degree from a higher institution is important.

It's because of that. It's not just tacking the Bible on in chapel or tacking a few Bible classes. It's the imbibing of a scriptural worldview that rises up out of the conviction that God gave us an inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient Word. And out of that comes the conclusion that Jesus Christ must be supreme over every area of your life. Out at the Masters University and Seminary and Grace Church, John McCarthy would talk about it in terms of the lordship of Jesus Christ over every area of your life. Well, the way I imbibe that coming out of God's Word was the supremacy of Christ in all things and then the centrality of the church. I've said many times as I've assumed the role of the president of the Masters University, one of the greatest desires I have is that we would not just graduate great lawyers and great doctors and great nurses and great business people and great accountants and great engineers, but that we would graduate and help form up great church members who would be equipped to do the work of the ministry. So the centrality of the church, the edifying and equipping of the believer for the work of the ministry, and then all of that coming together for the evangelism and discipling of the nations.

And really, all of that comes out of that single idea that the Word of God is what sources that, what energizes that, and what shapes that. You mentioned the name John MacArthur. Now when you hear that name, it's like a lightning rod. Some folks say, oh, there's that guy. They're upset at him.

Some folks love him. But talk about the legacy of John MacArthur and what is it about, what's it like working with him? You're the president of the college and the seminary at the Masters, University of Masters Seminary. And he, I guess, is like the emeritus.

What's the role? And then what's it like working with John MacArthur? Well, you know, I have the wonderful privilege of inheriting a ministry that has been shaped and formed in every way by philosophy of ministry that came out of a ministry that got entrusted to John MacArthur. And it has been awesome coming into that role to see the theological unity, the doctrinal integrity of all of the ministries that sit under the university and the seminary.

It's just been an amazing thing. And I've begun to realize, again, as I've been there now for almost six months, that all of that did not come out of a personality. It came out of a philosophy that deeply, deeply rose up in the heart ministry of a man that gave himself to one thing, and that was to the accurate understanding and exposition of Scripture.

Everything comes out of that. I had heard John MacArthur preach, obviously, over many, many years, and I've read much of what he has written. We used to hand out the study Bible at the church I pastor to every new believer. But I've had the unusual privilege, not just of coming to work alongside John in the role that he at one time occupied, he's my pastor. And so I have gotten to experience something about John that I would never have had the privilege of enjoying, and that is his role as my pastor. He has pastored my family. He has pastored my wife, my daughter, myself, and he's an incredible pastor. And to see what God is doing in his ministry right now as he boldly and courageously stands for what he believes and for the essential nature of the church and following what the Scripture has commanded us to do as we gather together, it's an incredible thing to watch a man at this stage in his life being as committed to obey the Scriptures as any student would be and that he has taught over the years. It's humbling, and it's actually very convicting. That's the voice of Dr. Sam Horne, the president of the Master's College in the Master's Seminary out in sunny Southern California.

I'm Stu Epperson, host of Truth Talk. Dr. Horne, a lot of colleges out there, a lot of colleges really interested in the young people listening, or the parents of the young people, or the grandparents. They want kids to come there. Why should a kid go to, and you're not the only Christian college or biblically sound seminary, but you guys are a good one and have a great reputation, but why should a young person that's listening or a parent, grandparent listening, why should they consider coming, going to a school like the Master's College, the Master's Seminary, or maybe what we would call a big C Christian school, a Christian school that isn't just Christian in name only but truly teaches the word.

Why is that? Why should that be in the cards as they make that very important decision about college or about seminary? Stu, I can't thank you enough for that question, and I appreciate the fact that you recognize something I would want to make sure everybody knows, and that two things. Number one, not every Christian college is Christian in the same way, but number two, I'm so thankful that there are, as you said, big C Christian colleges that are deeply committed to the word of God, and I'm excited about that because I think as we go forward in the culture and in the world that we are called to be salt light in, that big C is going to be so important. It isn't enough now just to get a good degree in engineering and a good degree in English or whatever vocation.

I've told people many times as a pastor, the biggest problem at the State University is not the drugs or the alcohol or even the immorality. It's what you learn in English class. It's what you hear in history class.

It's what you're taught in chemistry class. It's the philosophy of life that is imbued in all of those disciplines, and what makes schools like the Masters University different is not just that we teach all of those disciplines, and then we have chapel and a Bible class or two. It's the biblical worldview that is woven into every aspect of the student experience and the academic curriculum, so that you come out not just a great accountant, you come out as a strong Christian accountant, which is why I said earlier on I'm most excited about the fact that the Masters University is training great church members. My son, and I'll maybe close with their story, I dropped him off at a Christian university, and four years later I was in his room needing to use a book that he had, and I was pulling some of his books off the shelf, and I opened up the books, and I saw all the notes in the margins that he had written, and I just sat there and was overwhelmed by the fact that God had been at work in his life, and all I could do was wonder in my head, I wonder if I would have been reading this if I had dropped him off at the state university in the state where we lived in that he had originally thought about going to. I got a Christian young man who's married to a Christian young lady, and I have a pretty good chance of having Christian grandkids. And you know that's not true for everybody. You can you can take a Christian young person and put them in a state university, and the chances are very high that you'll have pagan grandkids.

Wow, how about that? Dr. Sam Horn, the president of the Masters College, the Masters Seminary. Dr. Horn, real quick, how can our listeners pray for you, pray for all the Christian professors, you know, Christian Seminary, Christian College leaders, administrators, how can we pray for John MacArthur real quick as everyone's listening and pulling for you out there? Pray for courage, pray for strength, pray for wisdom, and pray that the Word of God would speedily go forth and be received for what it truly is, the Word of God and not the Word of man. And then pray that God would be merciful and gracious to us and allow us to continue to be able to minister and do the mission that he's called us to do. And with regard to John, pray those same things. Pray that God would give him physical strength, that God would give him, continue to give him boldness and wisdom, and that God would encourage God's people to pray for him and to stand with him. He is the president of the Masters College and Seminary, Dr. Sam Horn. Dr. Horn, real quick, how can our listeners pray for you, pray for all the Christian professors, you know, Christian Seminary, Christian College leaders, administrators, how can we pray for John MacArthur real quick as everyone's listening and pulling for you out there?

Pray for courage. Even critics of John MacArthur are coming alongside praising him for his courage, standing up on the Word of God, and he gives all glory to God. And so it's really hard to argue with that. It's nice to see in a culture of everyone kind of flown in the wind, someone standing up and having a little bit of a backbone and standing on God's Word.

Well, Stu, that's the point. I mean, whatever you may think, when you see someone who spent his life exegeting the Word of God at 81 years old, doing what he's doing, it's an amazing thing. And it's deeply convicting. And that's what a whole bunch of guys ought to be doing. And I just hope that 10 years from now, when we've given away all of our freedoms and we've lost the opportunities that we've been given, the opportunities that potentially could be lost, that we won't look back and regret more of us not doing what God is encouraging us to do through the example of John MacArthur. We need to take a bold stand. We need to do it wisely. We're not all going to have the same applications as to how it's done, but the same courage and the same willingness to stand no cost is what I look at when I see my pastor. And I'm so thankful that my family's under his ministry. Wow. Website for the Master's College, Master's Seminary, general website, folks can obviously find it.

They Google either one of those, right? Yeah, I would just say Google the Master's Seminary tms.edu and the Masters University tmu.edu. And we'd love to hear from you.

All right. There you go, Dr. Sam Horn, president of the Master's College and president of the Master's Seminary. And we encourage everyone to seriously consider this type of destination for your young person where they'll be equipped to rightly divide a word of truth. That's your alma mater.

So we're very, very, very proud of you, brother. And you're saying that a kid can go there and actually get excellence in all these areas of music and drama and athletics. Yeah, they could go there. There's 71 different majors we offer there. And we have had unbelievable graduates that have gone in really to the top of their careers in almost every major. You know, because Christian colleges have gotten a bad rap, maybe unfairly that, oh, well, the academic, well, they can sure talk about Jesus there. But the academics are subpar, but not so there.

And there's salt. There's the game is the bars and race hasn't a lot of these Christian schools, better academics and solid equipping. If you don't have a strong academic program, you're not even to get to the table.

So that's got to be at the foundation. You have to have rigorous academics and good outcomes in that. But if that's all you have, then you haven't really accomplished the mission of being a Christian university that is distinctly and thoroughly Christian in its biblical worldview. And that's really, I think, what's at the heart of a school like the Masters University and the Masters Seminary. At the university, the Bible isn't just something we tack on, like you maybe would do, you pray at the beginning of class and pray at the end of class. And then there's really, history is not Bible.

So, and again, it's not so much that you're teaching the Bible through history, but there is this biblical worldview that imbues every part of the academic program and the student experience so that somebody comes out the other end completely convinced in every area of life that the scripture is authoritative and it is sufficient for all of life and God. So there's one more devil's advocate shot at you here. Quick, tough hot potato question. It won't be as tough as the one I gave you years ago in an interview. We won't even talk about that. That's another memory for another day. But the people that say, well, it's just, you know, you're in such a bubble, you know, the Christian school, Christian education, we got to put our kids in all the secular schools so they can go out and let their light shine. How do you respond to that? I mean, and going back to, you know, this is preparation for maybe 40 years in the, you know, in the real world, but how do you respond to that bubble attack that you're just inculcating, you know, your kids into this Christian greenhouse and, you know, it's not the real deal.

So you asked me a tough question. I'm going to give you a really straight answer and I realize this is a lightning bolt answer and please understand my heart in this. But since the 60s, higher ed in this country has not been Christian in any stretch of the imagination. And many of the people who teach in higher ed have as their agenda, the destruction of the faith of your children. And so when you take your children and you put them in that environment and you do it because it's cheaper, it's more prestigious, it's the pathway to a better job.

And that's primarily what's driving you. You put the entire faith of that child at risk. Now, thankfully God preserves and there are many young people who've gone to a state university and they found a good Bible study or they've been in a good church and God has rescued them. But the idea that, you know, it's really not that bad.

We can just do that is you want to know the outcome of 40, 50 years of that. Look at the state of the church today. The evangelical church has lost its backbone. Think about what is going on in evangelical Christendom with things like transgenderism and homosexuality and LGBTQ and all of those things and ask yourself, how did the church become filled with people who are embracing those ideals? And the answer is the secularization of the young people.

And where did that happen? It happened primarily through the educational system. And at some point it happened primarily through the educational system of higher ed where they went to college.

Wow. That's a very direct answer and please understand, I'm not making a generalization, but the whole idea that I can just send my young person off to whatever school and the Christian universities live in this little bubble. How is that produced for the church? It's produced very weak Christians who haven't been willing to stand for things. And honestly, I don't know if I could be doing anything I'm doing right now with Truth Talk and Christian Radio and Impact if I hadn't been equipped at the Master's University and so many that I've talked to. And I met my wife there and all that. And of course, God can take anyone anywhere and do anything, but it's nice to have the option.

It's nice to have the choice. So if people are looking, what do they do? Just go find out, maybe take a tour, a virtual tour. Is that the best way to get them hooked in?

Yeah. Get on our website, come out to California. I'd love to talk with you.

Any one of our team would be delighted to give you a tour. We'd love to see a whole lot of people from the East Coast land at the Master's University. I tell people all the time, it's four hours from here.

If you get on a plane four hours later, you land in LA, you got no traffic to fight on the way there. It's just a great way to get there. We're tucked away in a little community called Santa Clarita, one of the top cities and the best cities to live in in the nation. We're in a little canyon on about 67 acres of land. It's beautiful and it's safe. And we'd love to see your young person there. This is the Truth Network.