July 1929
322
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
After High School—Where? B y I della S ieben {Student at “Biola")
tablish habits of daily prayer and Bible study, thus realizing in his life a more real fellowship with his Lord. Another advantage in securing Christian training immediately after high school is that the young person-of college age has a tremen dous influence over the younger boys and girls in his own church. If one is teach ing a Sunday-school class of boys or girls who are in their early adolescent years, these years of service may prove to be more far-reaching in their consequences than later years of full-time service would be. Perhaps one of the greatest values of spending a year in a Bible school comes in the matter of surrender. The devo tional life in a Bible Institute challenges the student to a complete yieldedness to the will of God. Those students who have made a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives and who trust Him daily to hold them to that obedient atti tude, will have a purpose and a vision that will hold them steady through all the stress of their college years. They will seek to utilize to the fullest the ad vantages offered in their college courses, realizing that they must be prepared for the most efficient Christian living. The advantages just discussed comprise benefits of a Bible course which would have applied in any period of the history of American education. They would ap ply even to Christian young people who expect to enter immediately into business or some other vocation. The present sit uation in most of our institutions of higher learning makes the need for a well-grounded Christian faith more ur gent than ever before. The late teens and early twenties are the years during which the reason is developing rapidly. In most individuals this period of life is characterized by doubt more or less dis turbing to one’s Christian faith. Honest doubt which seeks open-mindedly to know the truth is not to be condemned. In the life of the young person who is truly born again, this period of doubt can be a great blessing, and out of the struggle will emerge a far stronger Chris tian faith. However, if at this period of his life he is completely under influences which seek to tear down his faith, either his fellowship with God will cease for a time, or he will be unhappy because he feels that he is clinging to a faith that has no justification intellectually.
Aim: To show that Christian young people should spend two years if possible—one year certainly—in a Bible Institute between the completion of their high-school course and their entrance into any college or university not definitely pledged to a faith in the fundamental positions of evangelical Christianity.
general advantages to be derived from taking two years of Bible Institute work before entrance into college. The stu dent acquires a general knowledge of the subject-matter of the Bible and learns to study under the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Thus when special problems arise later in his student life, he will know where to go in the Word of God to find the portion of the revelation which ap plies to his immediate need. In attendance at a Bible Institute the young person has the opportunity to es-
N America at the present time we find great emphasis being laid upon the value of higher education. As Christian young people and their parents con sider the question of w h e r e
these young people are to go for further academic training, they are met with a very serious problem. On every hand they see young people who have grown up in the Christian church, wavering and sometimes utterly rejecting the essential elements of the “faith of our fathers.” In the great state universities and in many of the colleges founded by the Christian church, there is intense an tagonism to the fundamental positions of evangelical Christianity. This opposition is so powerful and so subtle that of the young people who enter, only a very small minority leave without having surren dered, at least to some extent, to the teaching which vitiates their faith and prevents their having a strong, vital Christian experience. There are some outstanding Christian colleges in which the student can receive great help rather than harm in his Chris tian experience. However, it is seldom that these Christian colleges are prepared to offer courses fitting their students for the more specialized vocations. There fore, when students must turn to univer sities or colleges not definitely pledged to the support of our Christian faith, they need special preparation along Christian lines. To be sure, there are some exceptional cases—cases of young people who by their environment and special training are par ticularly well-grounded in their Christian faith and are therefore ready for college. However, that these exceptions are far more rare than is usually supposed is proved by observation. In almost any church one may see the very young people who have been outstanding as spiritual leaders gradually losing the vitality of their Christian testimony. The Bible Institutes in America are pe culiarly fitted to meet the need of the Christian young man or young woman who wishes to continue his or her aca demic work beyond the completion of the high-school course. There are certain
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim." —Joel 3:18.
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