American Bible College and Seminary

I have been looking at American Bible College and Seminary. I have checked them out as well as can.I have found nothing negative about them. I understand that they are accredited by TRACS,a Dept. of Education recognized accrediting agency. Does anyone know if there are any problems with this school.
Looking forward for a reply

Robert

 

They had a history prior to candidacy and accreditation which Steve Levicoff details. I do not remember any of it being a commentary on the actual quality of the curriculum (had more to do with accreditation by unrecognized accrediting agencies). There are some Regionally Accredited schools which also had some issues in the past (eg. University of Sarasota & Union Institute). Both are now respected RA schools with distance learning programs.

Bottom line is the American Bible College and Seminary is accredited by a recognized accrediting agency. It's M.Div is available by DE and you can build an internship into it. It is convenient, affordable, and accredited. Now, keep in mind that among theological institutions ATS accreditation pulls more weight. TRACS may or may not limit you to other TRACS schools or those like Liberty University which hold RA & TRACS. So, make sure that where ever you want to use the degree finds it acceptable and decide accordingly.

North

 

What level are you intending to study for (ie Bachelors, Masters, or Doctorate).

North

 

I am looking at their DMIn Program. I hold a five year BTH degree from Grace Bible College,a RA school and a MA in Min. from Moody Bible Institute,a RA school. I have talked to several Seminaries that are RA and they want me to take a MDiv.and will only give me about 30hours tword my MDiv, leaving about 66 hours to take. Well to make a long story even longer,I do not want to go to school for ever and American Bible College and Seminary will allow me into their DMIN program and i only have to take 12 hours of MDiv work first. Hey thanks for your response. What you shared with me is what i have already concluded. Still opened to suggestions.
Robert

 

Looks like you have found the best program based on a description of your needs. Luther Rice Seminary has an extended D.Min. for those with the equivalent of a MRE
(60 credit hour degree) or requires you to due another Masters degree to make up the 90 credit hour M.Div.

Someone, Dr. Morris perhaps, posted that ATS schools can admit up to 2% of the D.Min program with just a M.A. That might take some hunting and of course ABCS's residency requirements are very flexible.

Good luck with it. I received their newsletter some time ago and they seem to be growing & establishing overseas links. I had considered them but they have not got the V.A. approval nailed down yet. I liked the fact that you could do an emphasis in Christian Counseling in the D.Min. program.

North

 

A little bit of history might help . . . American Bible College & Seminary was founded in 1955 by now-chancellor W. Corvin as "Modular Education," later changing its name to the University of Biblical Studies for several years. It was under the UBS name that they initially earned candidacy from TRACS. When I last checked into them in the early 1990's, they had a 22-page catalog that stated, "Participating colleges award Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctor of Ministry Degrees," but they did not name the participating colleges. In response to my inquiry at that time, their academic dean wrote, "Presently we are using schools in California and Hawaii as educational institutions to graduate our students. Students may also be graduated from Baptist Christian College or University in Shreveport, Louisiana. If graduated through schools in California or Hawaii, the degree will read the University of Biblical Studies with the address of either California or Hawaii." In other words, even as late as the time they applied for accreditation by TRACS, UBS was located in Oklahoma but couldn't even grant degrees in their own state. Instead, they used schools in California, Hawaii, and Louisiana, which have traditionally had some of the loosest standards in the nation regarding academic institutions. The dean's response indicated that they use this set-up because the state of Oklahoma requires residency in order for a college to graduate students. (He neglected to mention, however, that one of the most respected non-resident secular programs in the nation is the Competency-Based Degree Program based at the regionally accredited Oklahoma City University.) There was no list of teaching faculty in the UBS catalog, but there were eleven "administrative staff" members listed with multiple degree titles, the source of which were not identified. The received Candidate for Accreditation status by the Transnational Association of Christian Schools in 1992, shortly before TRACS' own renewal status was being questioned by the U.S. Department of Education but not by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation.

In terms of admission to the D.Min. program, remember that all ATS schools require a prerequisite M.Div. (This is actually specified in the ATS criteria.) While some ATS schools will make an occasional exception, unaccredited and TRACS-accredited schools have a more open policy. At the same time, their D.Min. programs tend to be more practical and less academic than ATS-accredited programs. In the evangelical market, this may not always be significant, but if you ever expect to do anything that requires ATS criteria (such as teaching in an ATS-accredited seminary), you will definitely fall short.

Several years ago, I called the then-University of Biblical Studies a degree mill. Is it still a mill? I don't know, since the only thing I have seen recently is their web site (with which I was not impressed). Would I recommend them? Nope.

By the way, Robert, you already have outstanding credentials. Grace is top-of-the-line academically, and Moody is one of the best schools out there - I have often recommended their modular M.Min. program. It would be a shame to ice the cake with a D.Min. that will definitely be questioned (as, I believe, many, though not all, TRACS degrees would be). My recommendation would be to check around further with regard to the ATS-accredited seminaries for one that will make an exception. You may find one in which you have to make up some courses, but not enough to do a full M.Div. One item to consider is whether you fulfilled any of the usual M.Div. requirements in your undergraduate program at Grace, especially with regards to the biblical languages, systematics, homiletics, and hermeneutics. There has been a move under wayu by some seminaries to exempt students who had strong biblical undergrad experience, and this could factor into your potential admission to an ATS-accredited D.Min. program.

[Disclosure statement: In addition to being an occasional heretic, I'm also a former Moody Press author. All together now, "My hope is built on nothing less than Scofield's Notes and Moody press . . ."]

 

Thanks for the info. I wonder if ABSC is now able to grant degrees. I also wanted to know if you have any suggestions as to any ATS schools that would be open to my situation?

 

Steve of course makes excellent points. This is an area in which he is an expert.

TRACS was of course re approved and in fact the time before last my understanding is that the committee made positive comments abouts TRACS methodology for verfiying compliance.

As I said earlier and Steve has just stated the ABCS D.Min. will be somewhat limiting. If your goal/need is to simply have an accredited doctorate and be Dr. X then it sounds like it will meet your need. If your goal is to do any sort of teaching in a school other than a TRACS school or one dually accredited by TRACS and a RA then you may run into some bumps.

In terms of TRACS schools Luther Rice Seminary has been a more established school.
The D.Min requires some short residency (no big deal). They have many well known alumni including Dr. Charles Stanley, Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. Spiro Zodhiates (?? - I know I blew the spelling) many Southern Baptist leaders including Paige Pattersons wife. I believe they will require you to either have the 60 credit hours and do the extended D.Min. or do another M.A. program. Another TRACS option is Northwest Graduate School of Ministry (?). They too have a plan for those without the D.Min. but I believe the program (WA state) requires all courses to be done in modular form.

There is a D.Min. program at ORU that is an Executive D.Min. program (management). I believe that Richard Roberts (son of founder) is doing the program with a M.A. http://www.oru.edu


North

 

ABCS can now grant it's own degrees and does. If I remember correctly in talking to them some time ago (couple of years) the issue had something to do with Oklahoma law, probably to do with unaccredited schools granting degrees. The person I talked to at the time from UBSS was excited by the fact that a new governor had helped pass some favorable legislation (??).

Undoubtedly their choice to do some of the things that they did early on was a poor one
(unrecognized agencies and this degree issue). They are accredited, they can grant their own degrees, they are approved for Federal Loans, and they have baggage. So did Sarasota and Union to some extent (although not these two issues). You have also seen this with AICS (?) a fairly newly accredited DETC school that's prior history left something to be desired. My guess is that in time they will all overcome the past as long as they operate in accordance with their accrediting bodies regulations.

North