Featured Which of these seminaries would you consider?

Stop pushing mills and unaccredited degrees on people. Its the worst advice you can give. Nowadays there are accredited degree programs cheaper than LBU and Andersonville (psst...both are mills)

p.s. if you just want to learn you can download most syllabi for free and merely purchase the books or go the library of the school you are an alumni with. LBU is a terrible choice for learning anyways...

 

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Not "pushing" anything on anyone; just trying to answer a question.
I evidently do not have your expertise in this matter and would appreciate your assistance in enlightening me some on the matter. I always assumed that a "mill" is a place where you send in your money and they mail you back a diploma - without any work.I guess I am wrong. I am curious as to what constitutes a "diploma mill". It can't be just the fact that they refuse to seek government backed accreditation. Are there any non-accredited seminaries out there that would deem reputable?
I would be interested in a link to the accredited degree programs that are cheaper then ATS or LBU. I would love to check those out.
I sincerely thank you in advance for your time in answering these questions.

 

Usually they offer a modicum of "work" in order to look like more than a simple "pay and graduate" P.O. Box. But the amount and quality of the "work" required usually speaks for itself, if you ask anyone who tried going that route.

Real example to make the picture clear: someone took for credit at one of these questionable schools what purported to be a 3-semester-hour course in the Psalms. The sum total of the "work" he had to do was write an outline of three (3) Psalms. Nothing more.

 

Well, check out the syllabus from Andersonville's Evangelism course: http://www.knowimsaved.com/syllabus.pdf

And compare it to Liberty's EVAN 525 course: https://www.liberty.edu/media/3415/courseguides/EVAN525_Syllabus.pdf

Andersonville looks to be asking for maybe 1,000 words, Liberty is asking for well over 20 pages.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have actually taken a previous version of EvAN 525 at Liberty. But my primary reason for grabbing their syllabus was the ease of searching their course guides online.)

 

Rob, your syllabus from Liberty reminds me of mine from New Orleans. I loved my classes and I enjoyed my readings. Andersonville's does not measure up academically but I can see where their syllabus is practical.
Again, I may be showing my ignorance but if a young man can not afford to go to New Orleans, Liberty, or some other seminary that is accredited - wouldn't one of these be better than nothing at all? Or should we tell these young men to go in debt with student loans so they can get a degree that is accredited, when they can not afford it.
Maybe Chris will tell us about these "accredited degree programs cheaper than LBU and Andersonville" that we can refer them too. I am very interested in those.

 

Your phrase "better than nothing at all" seems to ignore both the stigma attached to some of these unaccredited, and the vast resources available today for self study (albeit with no shiny degree to hang on the wall).

If a man told me he had $2500 for education funds, and asked my opinion, I'd tell him to forget the Andersonville MDiv and spend it on 3 or 4 classes from an accredited school.

 

Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development - Degree Programs

NationsUniversity | Affordable, High Quality, Christian Education
$1000 a year for as many courses you can take.

Tuition and Fees | Rockbridge Seminary - Online
Diploma program tuition is $99/per hour or $297/course due at course registration

Tuition & Aid | Shiloh University
Barely more than LBU--perhaps cheaper if you add all of LBU's fees.

Tuition and Fees | Union University of California
Only $20 an hour more

I found tons of schools that are accredited that are just a little bit more.

 

Hello: I'm new to the Baptistboard and was also looking into reasonable schools, desiring self-paced due to my serving schedule. Apparently there are not many options in the self-paced arena.
Wondering what decision you made. While there have been some negative comments regarding Andersonville, my list of good things for me is noted below. These come either from their website, or email answers to my questions:
1. ATS holds to Dispensationalism and not Covenant/Reformed Theology

2. ATS believes in a distinction between Israel and the Church

3. ATS is Self-paced helping with current serving obligations

4. Andersonville is incredibly affordable

5. ATS holds to the inerrancy of the Scriptures.

6. ATS uses the KJV (Majority Text) like men’s shelter requires of me. KJV and NKJV are friendly to the Free Grace position

7. ATS holds that salvation is available to all, i.e., unlimited atonement

8. ATS teaches the Rapture of the Church prior to the coming Tribulation

9. ATS holds that believers will be judged at the Bema Judgment, the Judgment Seat of Christ for eternal rewards, salvation already having been secured.

10. ATS has contracted with a number of professors from Dallas Theological Seminary, Liberty University, and Luther Rice Seminary for the ATS graduate programs.

 

Welcome to the baptistboard. I imagine this thread will be shut down shortly ,since it's a little old. I'd recommend making an introduction in the intro forum, and asking questions about degree mills there or in a separate thread in the Seminaries forum.

 

ChaplainDavid, I second Rob's post.

 

Whichever ones affirm young earth biblical creationism, and it appears none of the above do. If they get Genesis wrong, they likely get much else wrong. Unfortunately there are only about 20 nationwide, but many good choices.

You can view them here:
https://answersingenesis.org/colleges/seminaries/