Why ‘Bible’ is Our Middle Name

Written by: Dr. Israel Steinmetz, Academic Dean and Professor 

When I meet people and tell them I’m a professor, they often ask where I teach. When I say, “The Bible Seminary,” a common response is, “Which one?”  

It’s a fair question.  

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Bible colleges and seminaries across the United States are named after a founder, donor, or historic Christian personage. Some draw their names directly from core biblical terms such as Christ, grace, or covenant. Many schools combine one of these terms with the city or state where they are based.  

As The Bible Seminary (TBS) celebrates 15 years, we rejoice in the fruit of seeds first planted by Pastor Jim Leggett of Grace Fellowship Church. He dreamed of training ministers in, through, and with all 66 books of the Bible based on a conviction that Scripture is the foundational training text and basis for any curriculum designed to prepare women and men for gospel ministry in the Church and the world. 

That conviction remains central to the identity, mission, and culture of TBS. It’s why one of our foundational commitments is to provide, “Comprehensive, strategic training in all 66 books of the Bible integrated into instruction in the standard historical, theological, and practical disciplines critical to developing professional skills for 21st century ministry.”  

In practice, this means TBS courses combine the standard topics of ministerial training (Bible study, theology, preaching, counseling, evangelism, etc.) with studies of Bible books. When students study church administration in “PAS 512: Pastor-Leader II,” they also study Joshua, Ezra, and Nehemiah to discover how those gifted leader-administrators served God’s people. When students learn to practice individual and corporate devotional habits in “PRA 501: Prayer and Worship,” they also study Leviticus, 1-2 Chronicles, and Psalms to explore how God’s people worshipped and prayed in Scripture.  Every TBS course represents intentional, intricate blending of Bible with practical knowledge and skills. The Bible sets the agenda for how we approach each topic and engage in each practice. It’s how we fulfill our mission “to foster biblical literacy through studies of all 66 books of the Bible, cultivate professional and lay leadership skills, and deploy trained Christian disciples in service worldwide.”  

“Because the Bible is the fully true Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16), we will offer and require the study of all 66 books of the Bible before graduation with a degree. We will seek to creatively integrate classical theological disciplines and ministry training by studying books of the Bible (i.e. Church History will begin with the Book of Acts and keep going; Pastoral Leadership will come through the study of the Pastoral Epistles; Systematic Theology will flow out of the study of the Pauline Epistles).” 

Central to our commitment to orienting our entire curriculum and culture around the words of Scripture is II Timothy 3:16–17 (NIV), “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Paul is stating that all Scripture is “God-breathed” or “inspired by God.” This identifies God as the source of the words of the entirety of Scripture, the divine author of the collection of 66 books we call The Holy Bible. God wrote through dozens of human authors over approximately 1,500 years in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), but He remains the singular voice behind Scripture.

God’s voice in Scripture makes it utterly unique from every other written text in human history. His authorship carries God’s divine authority. The Bible is human literature, but not merely human literature. Peters explains it this way in 2 Peter 1:20–21 (NIV), “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

The words of Scripture are the Word of God. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul writes that Scripture is useful for four things: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. I’ve often compared these to GPS directions. When you enter your desired destination into GPS it tells you where you are and how to get to where you’re going. Scripture provides this same orientation to reality, life, and our ultimate destination through its teaching.

Scripture also has the power to rebuke. Just as a GPS notifies us that we’ve gone the wrong way and recalculates our route to get back on track, Scripture tells us where we’ve gone wrong and directs us back to the right path. This is not simply a matter of teaching right from wrong. Rather, the same Holy Spirit that inspired Scripture speaks to us through the words of Scripture to bring conviction which leads to confession and the Spirit’s power to repent, leading us to follow Jesus—the Way.

Restored to the path, Scripture provides us with ongoing “training in righteousness” as one of God’s primary tools to make us mature, complete, and holy. Scripture—like a GPS—can help guide us to our final destination. Inspired and illuminated by God, Scripture helps equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17; Ephesians 2:8–10).

Given the authority and purpose of Scripture, we are committed to relying on Scripture as the primary source of our curriculum and training. Every other textbook, lecture, or teaching tool we use is, at best, a commentary on the words of Scripture to help us better understand, interpret, and apply them in every aspect of life and ministry. God has revealed himself to us in the words of Scripture and the Person of Jesus Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we remain committed to teaching and training our students through Scripture and rejoice that Bible is our middle name.