Blessing of a Christian education

He's a living legend of Christian education. I'm in his office in Southern California, Dr. John Stead. Dr. Stead, you have been, you just told me the number of years you've been doing this Christian education thing.

Can you tell, can you remember what you told me? Two years of teaching, but at the same time, I held pretty much every academic level that there is in the institution, including interim president for a year. And as you may or may not know, we kind of have a niche nationally. And the niche is basically our doctrinal statement, Christ in Scripture. And that dominates everything we do. And why that has been important is because there has been so much wokeness in evangelicalism that it's really hard for parents to find a school that is still totally committed to the gospel and to Christ in Scripture. And so that still drives this institution. And because of that, we've grown quite a bit.

And also we've added a number of majors, including engineering, which we have over 100 students in it now. And so the Lord has really blessed us, blessed Dr. MacArthur and the ministry here. And yet, we've now built beyond that. And we're continuing to grow. And we just trust the Lord that we will be able to be found faithful.

To me, the whole key of moving forward is simply this, Christ and Scripture. The school is the Masters University. And we're running out of schools now that are big C Christian schools. Dr. John Stead, you've seen it happen.

You've seen a kid go take a science class at a quote unquote, Christian university, and they're getting a bunch of Darwinian evolution drivel, and the gender confusion and all that. And yet, very, you know, very few schools, Masters isn't the only one, but you all have held your ground on that, right? We have. And we're going to hold it for as long as the school exists.

Yeah. So there's been a legacy Dr. MacArthur, President yet Sam Horne come in during that COVID time. You have Dr. Abner Chow. Now he's the he's the president of the school. But all of the leadership, all the professors, there's a commitment from top to bottom talk about the commitment from top to bottom of everyone here, even the coaches that are committed to Christ and Scripture. It all starts with we have an incredible biblical studies program. And when we when we recruit other faculty outside of biblical studies, what's very important to us is that they have to go through a session with somebody in our Bible department to totally test their theology. It starts there. Every single full time faculty then goes through that process before we hire them, even in their field.

Wow. And so a kid that comes here, parents can send their kid here, knowing that they're going to get a thoroughly now but what if someone says, well, that's a bubble? I mean, you know, they need to go out there and they need to experiment. They need to hear. They need to go to the secular school to bust out of the bubble and all that stuff. Well, there's plenty of that to do. I mean, if you're involved in a local church, we would expect you to become the kind of church member that would put forward what they learned here in the here in at the at the at the Masters University, which would be obviously bottom line, Christ in Scripture, and we want that to permeate all of our students when they go out of here.

And it's just not in a bubble. It's the ability to relate the Lord Jesus Christ and Scripture to wherever they end up working. Well, as Dr. Johnston, friends, you want your kids to have him as professor, even though he's retired from teaching, he's still teaching me. And he was one of my professors and your son, Jonathan, one of my best friends, the whole world. He's pastor. Now, you're wonderful kids, you know, in just God's bless you got nine great grandkids.

But I want to go back real quick history back back on memory lane a little bit. Something happened in your life to awaken you to Christ. How did Dr. Johnston come to know Christ back before the 70s when you were here is school back before your son and your kids came along, I was born in 1940 40.

So I'm, I'm in a sense of depression, baby. And the war broke out a year, a year later, World War Two. And so I was raised, I was not raised, my mother became a Christian, accepted Christ as her Savior, when I was about five, I would say five or six years of age.

And basically, it's kind of an old time, it's kind of an old time process. I basically was at a summer camp when I was 10 years old. And I was shown a movie about revelation.

And that movie had to do with all kinds of explosions and all this stuff. And I was a little guys only 10 years old. And at that time, I knew that I was not saved. And but then I would have to say this, later on, when I got I believe I was, I was saved at that point. But I didn't really mature, I would say until I was in late high school. And then when I went to college, but it wasn't college so much as it was our youth group in the in the church, church that we were at that time, MacArthur Memorial Bible Church. And but even then, I think, within when I was about 19 or 20, is when Francis Schaeffer really became a major spokesman for evangelicalism in the United States. And basically, through reading him, and having having discussions in that whole area, really, really, I got to the point where I really understood what I really wanted to do. And that as a Christian, with a with a college education, I did not have to back down from the truth. Wow. And so Dr. Frazier, really, built that into me just from reading his reading his books.

Wow. And so translate that to the classroom, because a lot of folks talk about college. And it's really sad, especially the leftist, more socialistic colleges and universities today.

It's a bunch of indoctrination. But when I took classes from you, you challenged us, you asked us tough questions that really stretched our faith, even as a born again, big C Christian professor, right? Well, you know, I taught, I basically taught Stu, I taught in political studies, that was that was that was my major majored in teaching and also in history.

And obviously, when you're talking about, even in the development of the government of the United States, there's all kinds of things you can talk about, that basically also relate to Christian life to politics, or history. And that's what we try to that's what we try to do here. Dr. John Stead, thank you so much for the witness, you've been in my life, you got all these grandkids, all these great grandkids, you're even losing count, you know, we're talking trying to put the numbers together here. And but a lot of great example for me and so many listening. What's your challenge in terms of your legacy? Like, what is it that that we all gather around and celebrate your life one day, you know, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, what's your what I like to think that in terms of my skills, I'm a relation builder, the ability to work with people, and to bring out the best of them, I would say, and when I say the best of them, I'm talking about Christ likeness, talking about Christian humility, because really, if you're not a humble believer, you know, in a sense, you you really, you're really unable to even question yourself and to grow in your Christian life.

If you're not if you're not humble. And so I would say that was would be the key I would I would like to think people would think of me as that kind of a relational build relation building, especially in in sanctification. And I got to ask you about Dr. MacArthur. You've known him for how long a lot of folks here.

I mean, he no one gets more heat controversy than that guy, you know, he's he's he's but but he's been faithfully preaching the word. And I talked to friends that have completely different doctrine that love him, because they're like, I know what I'm going to get, you know, it's, you know, talk about, you know, you're how long have you been friends with him and how he's impacted your life? Well, I went to high school with John. We started I met him back in 1954. And we went to high school together. We also went to a year. And I that's where I met used to back at Bob Jones. And then I was always in their church MacArthur Memorial Bible search. And so we've always stayed, we've always stayed.

I would say, I don't bug him a lot, because he's a busy man. All right. But we do have this ability to communicate with each other.

Yeah. And I was thankful that I had I was I played a small role in bringing him to the university as a president, which really turned this whole school around. And a lot of people hear about the great things and the millions of tapes in circulation and Dr. MacArthur's legacy and teaching a great church. But I think it's neat for them to meet even maybe for the first time if you're hearing this broadcast or podcast, one of the guys that Dr. MacArthur's turned, you know, leaned on for decades, to keep this Christian school going. And so what a blessing that that's been, you know, that you're kind of an unsung hero behind the scenes. Well, Stu, I hope I hope you haven't built me up too much here. All right. But it's great to see you again.

We've not we've not seen each other for a number of years. And I want you to know, Stu is one of the best personal evangelism evangelists I've ever known. In fact, he revolutionized my son's life. Well, you're kind to say that, give us a word of revolution for everyone listening. Next generation people that long when you and I are gone to heaven, they're going to hear this broadcast. What's your challenge to this generation, the great king is returning, we know that's the next great event in history, the return of the king, what's your challenge, Dr. Stead, to do once again, faithfulness, trust, and that basically is the foundation for that is it's got to be a Christ like humility, where you're always willing to look at your self, and to see where you still need to grow as a believer in your sanctification, because you never get to the end of that.

If you're really humble, you're finding things every day in your life that you know you need to improve in. That's something Dr. John Stead, what a treat to meet with you. Thanks for your encouragement. Thanks for being a blessing and a mentor to me and so many others. And we're going to hang out again, you're going to make it that hundred anniversary Lord willing, right? We hope so in 2027.