Tree of life vs the tree of knowledge.

I dare say that there will be more grandmas in the inner courts of heaven than Bible school graduates. Grandmas know the Bible as good as any Bible teacher. They know the theology as good as any Bible teacher. But the primary difference is that the Bible school graduate gets told at the end of their program that they are qualified to do ministry. Where as the grandma took on the responsibility of her family and cried and labored for their souls, and for their hearts, and for their relationship with God, and in doing so, she developed her own relationship with God. The Bible school graduate initially believes that what the people need is knowledge. What the grandma believes her family needs is God.

Helping Bible school graduates get away from the tree of knowledge and into the tree of life is a difficult task. Bible school is designed to divide the graduate from other schools of thought. Grandma uses the Bible to bring her family together. Her use of theology is to pray better and to admonish her family.

We fail our students by telling them that completing a program of coursework qualifies them for ministry. The only thing that can qualify you for ministry is precise alignment to the subject of our faith, Jesus Christ by life. The fact that so many Bible school graduates apostate, fall away, quit ministry, divorce, fall into sin, become weird, follow strange doctrines Etc. proves that merely graduating does not qualify the Christian in anyway.

So then the missing ingredient in Christianity is simply Christ. One need not critique school so much as encourage the replacement of qualification by knowledge with qualification by life. Have we done our students a disservice by graduating them on the basis of knowledge and not life? Because grandma knows the difference. And many a grandma has successfully prayed a Bible school student through school. Maybe we need more grandmas teaching school.