Biblical Life College and Seminary

Are there any recent opinions/changes of opinions regarding this school since it has become the headquarters of a legitimate denomination and has increased its requirements for a ThD? Latest requirements are an 85,000 word thesis, read and review 30 books in field of thesis, and oral defense. They seem to have added some faculty with actual degrees! Previous comments about this school were from 2 or 3 years ago. Thanks.

 

Have a look at Dr. Jason D. Baker's Accreditation: Frequently Asked Questions:

Some non-traditional institutions, particularly within the Christian community, attempt to bypass the standard accreditation process by claiming accreditation from a different agency. Christian magazines are full of ads from schools claiming accreditation from the American Accrediting Association of Theological Institutions, Accrediting Commission International, or even the University of Liverpool. My advice is simple: look elsewhere....

http://www.gospelcom.net/bakersguide/accreditation.php

 

Yes 75,000 words is long enough.

But ,



(1) Do the profs who supervise doctoral work have accredited docs themselves in the appropriate areas? If not, why would we think the profs are capable of supervising genuine doctoral work likely not having experienced it themselves?


(2) Are grads with a master's from BL proven successful in accredited doctoral programs? There are ,you know, some unaccredited schools which regularly place grads into accredited doc programs wherein they succeed. If BL students do not, why should the BL rigor not be suspect?


(3) Do BL ThD grads contribute in significant manners to the research field as in the generally recognized standard journals or present papers to societies as ETS or author significant commentaries, lexicons, grammars etc? If they do not, then where is the evidence of their competence?


(4) does the school require an accredited masters for entering the program and an academic thesis done in it? If not, the pool of doc students may include some not qualified at all to do doc work.


(5) BTW, requiring "30 book reports," is a stupid measure of preparation to do a dissertation .


(6) Why does the school mess with Mickey Mouse accreditors? If it wishes recognition in academe it should tend to 1-5 above.



So, while 75,000 is a fine figure, that does not cover numerous other deficiencies the school appears to have or may have.

As Charles says, look elsewhere.

 

ie, 85,000

 

Bill:
Thanks for your input. As far as answering your questions (and I'll assume they weren't just rhetorical), without further information only BL's own claims are available:

1) According to them, yes.

2) Don't know

3) Don't know, but they claim that some of their grads are professors in other schools. I wonder where?

4) Yes

5) True. Maybe instead of seeking real accreditation, they think a way to avoid being labeled a degree mill is to require more work?

6) This is the most disturbing question, because if they are all they claim, I would think they could get better accreditation without too much trouble.

 

===

Hi Fletch

1) Most of the profs at BL have unaccred docs from such winners as: Evangelical Theological seminary;North American School of Theology; Minnesota Grad School of Theology;Theological International seminary;Calif Grad school of theology;Florida Theological seminary; and several from BL itself!

I saw not ONE accredited PhD/ThD in Bible/Theology on the faculty, but might have missed one!

Why would anyone think that someone with a ThD from, say, "International Seminary", as Hooker, would by that educational "experience" be able to supervise genuine doc level work? International Seminary itself has no one there with an accredited doc in Bible/Theology, and most faculty are grads of International. Where does it end?

2) Were there such successful grads , that would be worth mentioning I suppose. I did not see any listed.

3) Generally profs are urged to write and present.

4. yes???? The school requires ACCREDITED masters to enter the doc program???? Don't think so.

5. The work needs to be qualitative not just quantitative. Given 1-4 above why anyone think it is suffient in any way except in number of words?

6. Actually at this time NO USA DL only PhD/ThD is accredited in the USA by a gov approved accreditor. Therefore, doing 1-5 above very well are ways to evidence quality.

 

Bill:

I sent this reply earlier today but it never showed up, so I'll try again. As I wrote, my info on BLCS was based primarily on claims I had heard. Thank you for taking the time to check out their faculty. You are far more familiar with the "schools" they listed than I. The only PhD that came from a school I recognized (Ohio State) was that of their church history prof, but it didn't say what it was in. Some of the master's degrees of their instructors were legit, such as Gordon-Conwell and TEDS, but that doesn't help me, since I'm interested in a doctoral program.
You were right, too, about the type of MA they required. They did want a 60 sem. credit program, but they do not include the term "accredited". Guess I was assuming, since I have not really been exposed to anything other than accredited education in the past. And, yes, I do know what happens when one ass-umes.
Thanks.

 

Fletch

Thanks.

If you have an accredited masters , then I suggest you consider an accredited DL research degree from the UK or SA or? Jason Baker's Christian distance learning site describes some of these.

 

Are you sure that the United Full Gospel Church is a real denomination? Its website lists no churches, claims no membership figure and consists of a statement of faith and instructions on how to get "credentials" by mail/internet. I am uninterested in the group's theology, but I have never heard of any legitimate denomination that granted ministerial credentials in such a manner.

My guess is that this denomination is simply a public relations adjunct to a cash cow of a less-than-'most-anything school.

 

Fletch,

I notice that you graduated from the same two schools which I did. Never knew a "Fletch." Is this code? If you ever knew a Jim Crouch (me), email me at [email protected] if you'd like. It seems we are in something of the same perplexity regarding future studies.

Jim

 

uncle janko:

The more I learn, the less I am sure we can use the terms "real" or "legitimate" about anything concerning this school. "Full Gospel Church" is an appellation used by hundreds of Pentecostal churches in the US, but apparently the "United Full Gospel Church" is a separate, small affiliation of churches of which BLCS is now their HQ. Although a few of their churches can be found with a web search, I, too, find it suspicious that their own web site (part of BLCS's) does not give more details about them.

 

Jim:

Yes, Fletch is a handle, and yes, we are OLD friends (as in 25 years ago). I'll contact you separately, but I posted this so that those curious few could see the denouement.

 

Hi Fletch: Yes, I know that "FG" is used by many legitimate Pentecostal Churches and organizations--this outfit just didn't sound kosher to me because of lack of evidence. Thanks for confirming suspicions. Janko