Whether you’re a parent or a teacher, children have a way of teaching us little lessons about life.  As a recent volunteer missionary teacher there weren’t many days I didn’t leave my classroom without one of these “little lessons.”   Too often we laugh, or scold, without stopping first to gain a little knowledge they may have unknowing shared. 

Lesson #1

 A child’s logic is unique and strangely makes sense somehow. For example, if a pencil sharper sharpens pencils, then it must sharpen crayons as well.

(I spent over an hour cleaning the sharpener so it would work again.)

 Lesson #2 

Why take a test today when you can take it tomorrow? This also works well for chores and just general every day things your parents make you do at home.

Lesson #3 

Kids have a language all their own.  Don’t assume a word you hear means what it used to mean when you were a kid. 

Lesson #4

Children are VERY creative when it comes to cheating.  If there is a way, they will find it….trust me.

 Lesson #5 

Keeping a child in their seat is nearly impossible.  Like a determined puppy they will always find a way to escape and wonder the classroom.

Lesson #6

Young children love unconditionally.  You can punish them today and they will love you tomorrow.  It seems that only with age brings the “I haven’t forgotten what you did to me yesterday” idea. 

Lesson #7

Every day is a fresh start.  The problems of yesterday are past; it’s a clean slate so let’s start over again.

Amber Baus holds a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from California Baptist University and is pursuing a teaching credential and Masters Degree in Special Education. She recently returned to the United States after completing a year of missions work in the country of Belize.  Amber attends Inland Lighthouse Church pastored by Rev. Larry Booker.    

Are we cheating our kids in material things? In observing the clothes they have, the cars the teenagers drive, and spending money they seem to have available for eating out after church, I would have to conclude that our kids are not being cheated materially. 

Are we cheating our kids spiritually and morally? This is much more difficult for a human to evaluate because man can only look at the outward while God looks at the heart. One can, however, observe things like pregnancies occurring outside of marriage, attendance at church and Sunday School, and test scores on Bible Content examinations. For most of the past twenty-three years I have taught in three of our Bible colleges. In each of these schools I have administered the 150 question standardized Bible Content Tests of the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges to incoming freshmen. Each year I am dismayed by how little they seem to know about the Bible. This is really alarming when I consider that we are getting choice students at our Bible Colleges. Most of them want to do something for the Lord. Also astonishing is the little some know who have been raised all their lives in the homes of pastors and district and national officials. Another interesting fact that we have discovered is that young people who have graduated from Christian schools do not score significantly better on these Bible content tests than those who went to public schools. This fall the median score for both groups was 67 out of 150. This leads me to wonder if, after spending a substantial amount of money on Christian Schools we might be failing to accomplish one of the main purposes of having a Christian School – that is, solidly establishing our children in the Word of God. 

Are we cheating our kids educationally? In a society that is becoming increasingly more global and technical will our children be able to cope? Will they have the necessary skills in math, science, communications, and foreign languages? Can they learn these skills from teachers who don’t have this knowledge? The first law of teaching given by John Milton Gregory in his classic book The Seven Laws of Teaching is that “The Teacher must know that which he would teach.” No other qualification is so fundamental and essential. While our Christian schools are doing a good work, why shouldn’t we lift our standards of academic excellence in order to truly equip our children academically as well as in the scriptures? I heard this saying years ago: “One can no more teach what they don’t know than they can come back from where they’ve never been.” How can students learn correct grammar from teachers who don’t use correct grammar? How can they learn to write from teachers who are not skilled in writing or have to work a second job and thus don’t have time to correct writing assignments? If in the final analysis, we can’t financially afford to provide an adequate educational program, perhaps we could concentrate on doing what we should be able to do, that is, in training spiritual and moral values. Even if a church is unable to sponsor a Christian school, wouldn’t it be helpful if a good after-school or Saturday morning and Sunday School program were instituted? I refer to a program which the parents supported financially while requiring attendance by their children. It would have to include some fun time since the kids would be in public school earlier in the day. If it was held after school it would help solve the problem for working parents who struggle to know what to do with children between school dismissal and the time parents get home from work. Statistics show that many of the moral problems of youth occur during this time often at the homes of parents who are at work. 

Do we really care about our kids or are we willing to let them be cheated? I have observed that only a small percentage of parents attend parent-teachers meetings whether they be at public or Christian schools. One of the key ingredients in the success of a child’s education is parental involvement. I assume I am writing to parents and I would like to challenge you to find out how your children are doing. Why not have your child take the tests that most selective colleges require such as the SAT or ACT exams? Why not give them a Bible Content test such as the one found in the Pentecostal Publishing House Youth Teacher’s Manual, Winter 1991-92? Another way to determine their Bible knowledge is to play the game Bible Trivia. To improve their Bible knowledge I would encourage you to read the Bible through with them. The General Sunday School Department has an excellent program called BREAD (Bible Reading Enriches Any Day.) The teacher has not taught unless the students learn. The ultimate goal is not what they know but what they do. But how can they do right unless they know right? Let’s not cheat our kids! They are so valuable both now and in the future.

ELK GROVE, CA – November 2, 2010. Apostolic School of Theology (AST) has begun their quarterly newsletter compiled by Rev. Carl Gurley of Washington, a Graduate student from AST. The following is an excerpt from the Executive Director, Nathaniel J. Wilson. If you would like to download the complete newsletter, please click on the following link: AST Newsletter Download.

What a day to live and be in ministry of the gospel! The world is in ferment. In many different forms, convulsion and chaos are evident. However, quantum mechanics has taught us that disequilibrium and chaos are, inevitably, the seed bed of renewal. We see this in apostolic revival services over and over. In these, the Spirit confronts, challenges, demands a verdict, and leaves no alternative but to “change” (e.g., “repent!”).

Hence, we should not be filled with fear when confronted with our changing world. Ferment spells opportunity. Disequilibrium spells the opportunity for positive feedback. Instead of hesitating at the confusion around us, it is time to ACT. Our gospel is enough. It works. AST is about the gospel. What a joy to see what

God is doing for and amongst those who are sensitive to His guidance.

Good News! This newsletter is evidence of a slowly-but-surely forming “alumni consciousness” among those of us who are blessed to, in one way or another, be connected with the dynamism which is part of AST. We are growing . . .not only in numbers but also in anointed direction. Our vision is that out of this group can emerge a powerful leadership for sure-footed direction for the future of God’s people. As you know, such has invariably come from a small group of highly committed people.

In this light, we do want to announce, waayyyy ahead, that in October 2011, AST will have its first “CHALLENGE WEEK!” It is going to be VERY EXCITING and will include a “think tank” gathering with national and international apostolic leaders as well as all of faculty, the Board of Stewards, the Academic Committee, and as many or our students as can attend. The event will also include a celebration of our recent graduations, special sessions, discussion of the future, new connectivity, developing opportunities, and how to make the growing alumni a spiritual force for revival and renewal. More details will be provided on this exciting time as we move closer.

Welcome to our first newsletter of this kind.

Nathaniel J. Wilson

To view the complete newsletter, click on the following link: AST Newsletter Download.

Aaron Cydrus (left) and Matthew Mullins (right) both received a $1000 scholarship to AST.

ELK GROVE, CA – September 17, 2010. In the summer of 2009, Everyone’s Apostolic (EA) joined together with Apostolic School of Theology (AST) to form a $1000 Scholarship to new AST students who are members of Everyone’s Apostolic. Already two members have received the scholarship: Matthew Mullins and Aaron Cydrus. This scholarship can be combined with Federal Financial Aid and decrease the cost of tuition dramatically. Since AST is the “Pentecostal” school of Hope International University, it shares the benefits of an accredited degree program. That means government grants are available to their students. 90% of AST undergraduate students are receiving government grants. So combined with the EA scholarship, the first year’s tuition may be virtually free. For more information, go to www.goast.org.

Scientists have altered the cycle many times as to the transitional species that brought about man.

When I wrote my book Creation Versus Evolution : Scientific and Religious Considerations, I pondered over several other possible titles. Among these were “Evolution – Hoax of the Centuries” and “Have You Been Brainwashed By Evolution?” I do not know how marketable the book would have been with one of these titles, but still feel these phrases have some merit. The reason I believe that the theory of evolution is a hoax is that the public has been brainwashed into believing that the theory of evolution is supported by scientific evidence. In most of the school boards and courts considering Creation versus evolution, the issue has been presented as religion versus science. They argue that Creation should not be taught in public schools because it is religion, but that evolution can be taught because it is science.

The theory of evolution is not scientific.

It is important that we know what science is and are able to distinguish between “science” and what is “falsely called science.” A typical definition of science is that it is a branch of study concerned with observation and classification of facts, especially with the establishment of verifiable general laws, chiefly by induction and hypothesis. Webster defines science as “systematized knowledge derived from observation, study, and experimentation…”. You can look at various dictionaries and get slightly different definitions but the key words will be “observation,” “experimentation,” “verifiable,” “testable,” and “repeatable.” In other words, if it cannot be observed, repeated, verified or subject to experimentation, then it is not scientific. Evolution has never been observed, repeated, verified nor has an experiment ever been performed regarding it. Thus evolution is not scientific.

The theory of evolution contradicts known scientific laws such as the law of biogenesis, the law of kinds and the second law of thermodynamics. The law of biogenesis is that life can only come from other life. Life does not spring from non-living things. This is what we observe and what the Bible teaches in Genesis 1, where various forms of life were created to reproduce. Perhaps the most difficult problem that evolutionists face is the question of how self-replicating life systems could form from non-living, non-replicating systems. Some evolutionists propose that in the beginning small inorganic molecules such as water, methane and ammonia, somehow by chance chemical reactions, formed amino acids. These amino acids supposedly combined to form proteins and eventually living cells. The idea that living creatures can be produced naturally from non-living substances is called spontaneous generation. Never has this been observed, repeated or verified, and thus this idea is not scientific. The law of kinds is that life reproduces after its own kind. The phrase after his kind is used at least ten times in the creation account (Genesis 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25). This applies to both the plant and the animal kingdoms. Specifically mentioned are grasses, herbs, trees, fishes, birds , beasts and creeping things. What this means is that pear trees produce pears and not bananas or monkeys. Cows have calves and horses beget colts. In other words, “like produces like.” The theory of evolution contradicts the “law of kinds ” by saying that one kind of creature evolved into another kind.

The second law of thermodynamics shows that systems left to themselves go to a condition of greater disorder, probability and randomness. Hurricanes do not build buildings. Explosions in junkyards do not build airplanes. Earthquakes do not create living systems. Systems go from order to disorder. This contradicts evolutionary theory , which assumes that disordered particles eventually evolved to form ordered life. The second law of thermodynamics also contradicts the idea that a Big Bang Explosion could have produced an ordered universe. For an ordered pattern to occur, there must be a designer and energy. The orderliness of the universe and the complexity of living organisms confirm the work of a divine Creator. Our ordered universe could not have developed from chaos. There are no exceptions to the second law of thermodynamics. Evolutionists try to point out that snowflakes forming, trees growing and embryos developing are exceptions to the second law. Snowflakes and other crystals form because of the sizes and shapes of atoms, ions and molecules that predetermine the shapes of the crystals. For example, if you dropped some marbles on a Chinese checkerboard, the marbles would take the pattern of the indentations on the board. This “disorder to order” is really not that at all, but is rather that the marbles are falling into a pre-designed order. Likewise, the order of a growing tree or a developing embryo has been pre-encoded into the cells of these systems.

Both Creation and evolution are religious views. The issue is not religion vs. science, but religion vs. religion. Any concept regarding origins is not scientific, in that origins were not and cannot be observed, repeated or verified. Scientists can only deal with present evidence. The choice of which theory to accept becomes a matter of faith. To accept something without evidence requires faith. Hebrews 11:1-3 states, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” The Christian believes that God created the universe, life and man, while the evolutionist believes that the universe, life and man somehow evolved without any supernatural direction. “Evolution cannot be proved or tested, it can only be believed.” Considering the majesty, beauty and complexity of the earth and universe, it is relatively easy to believe in Creation. But to believe that dead matter could create life, and have absolutely no evidence, requires faith of another order. Some believe that a cosmic egg of energy exploded to form chemical elements, stars , galaxies and finally people. Some even have the faith to believe that life was planted on earth by an unknown civilization from outer space. Since evolution cannot be observed, repeated or verified, it is no more “scientific” and no less “religious” than Creation. One person was asked, “Why aren’t you an evolutionist?” His reply was, “I don’t have enough faith to believe that random particles arranged themselves into ordered life.”

The zeal of Darwinists to evangelize the world with their theory makes it also seem like a religion. They see evolution as a light which illuminates all facts. To them evolution is the god they worship. Christians however recognize that the great Creator became our Savior and all of God’s fullness dwells in Him. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.  

Hope Corps 2009 Graduates at PEAK Conference

TULSA, OK – July 23, 2010. The Worldwide Pentecostal Fellowship (WPF) has set up a short-term missions program, called Hope Corps, for men and women under the leadership of their Global Missions Chair, Rev. Johnny King. This week during their national youth conference called PEAK, there were 117 young people that signed up for the missions program. Hope Corps starts in October of this year and has become an integral part of the missions department for the WPF. Hope Corps director, Jonathan Shoemake, states that they expect many more as they are taking this to all of the WPF regional meetings. The program ran last year as a pilot program and had their first graduating Hope Corps students at PEAK. Many of the students have already been scheduled for their missions trip to places such as Belize, Honduras, Germany, and France. The WPF plans on making this an integral part of their youth. The goal is to prepare every young person to be well-equipped in leadership, doctrine, and spiritual development, so that they can become leaders within their local churches and abroad.

Already so many of the students that have taken the course in the past 12 months have stated that their lives are completely changed. One of them stated within the coursework, “I have been raised in this movement and always believed the doctrine, but now I know why we believe what we believe.” This has been a common statement from many of the students.

The Hope Corps students will take six courses that are college accredited and will include:

1. Biblical Introduction
2. Fundamental Doctrine
3. Personal and Spiritual Development
4. Basic Theology
5. Leadership Development
6. Intercultural Missions

Upon completion of the courses, they will receive the Apostolic Foundations Certificate from Apostolic School of Theology (AST).

His only problem will be trying not to meow in his job interviews. You see, Colby is not an eager young man with a golden future in business. He’s a black house cat. In fact, Colby is the pet of a prosecutor in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, who used Colby’s name in a sting operation against Trinity Southern University.

While there are a number of Apostolic Bible Colleges in the US and Canada, there exists only one that is fully accredited. One of the best ways to determine if a school is fully accredited is to apply for federal financial aid (FAFSA). FAFSA can only be applied by students entering accredited colleges. Another benefit to the college is the fact that the military will pay the whole costs of the program from start to finish for their servicemen and women that qualify for the GI Bill.

While Apostolic Bible Colleges are declining in student enrollments, AST has increased every five weeks. Students seem to love the idea of taking our 5-week courses. They are full-time if they are enrolled in one course at a time and take at least 8 courses per year. So, students do not have concentrate on a few courses at a time as in the traditional style of Bible College; they concentrate on only one course and that creates a more flexible and convenient method for pastors, leaders, and working students. Apostolics can download their lectures to their iPods for future and more convenient access. Students love the idea of doing their schoolwork and viewing their lectures at their own leisure, instead at set periods of time. Another aspect of the school is the fact that courses include some live lectures where students participate in live discussions via their webcam and headset. The sessions are recorded and uploaded for future use so as to be more convenient for the pastors. If the student wants to login to class from anywhere, he/she can as long as there is an internet connection.

With all of these benefits, it is no wonder why AST is the fastest growing Apostolic Bible College in the Nation.

With Denise’s high achievements, she is eligible for scholarships to other colleges to further her education into the graduate arena. Everyone’s Apostolic site has an EA Scholarship for students interested in a graduate degree from Apostolic School of Theology (AST). AST just got approval for UPCI bible college graduates to enter their fully accredited graduate program.

6 Regional Accreditation Associations

Elk Grove, CA. – June 8, 2010. For centuries Apostolics have established Bible colleges to meet the needs of equipping men and women for ministerial careers. Thousands of ministers have been produced from these schools and have impacted the world. Bible colleges have been one of vital foundations for establishing and maintaining Apostolic distinctives and identity.  There has been a move from many Apostolic ministers to pursue degrees from Universities that are fully accredited—meaning that they are regionally accredited. Many of them have shifted to these types of schools because of the quality, government recognition for programs, teaching credentials, financial aid programs, and much more.

While many of the Apostolic Bible colleges are starting to pursue accreditation, so far Apostolic School of Theology (AST) is the only one that has regional accreditation. Regional accreditation is the highest accreditation available in the United States and is the only accreditation that provides complete transferability to any other university or college in the nation. When one hears of any major university such as your state universities, it is speaking of regional accreditation. If a potential student is inquiring whether a school is “accredited”, they should ask, “is the school a regionally accredited school, that is, accredited by one of the six regional accredited associations in America. AST is a school within Hope International University which is accredited through the Western Associations of School and Colleges (WASC). With the move towards accreditation, we will probably see more of our Apostolic colleges join the accreditation process. Urshan Graduate School of Theology (UGST) is another school that is pushing in this direction. They are moving in the direction of regional accreditation, but have only received approval from the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), which is not a regional accrediting agency. There has also been much talk about Gateway College of Evangelism moving in this direction also.

Regional Accreditation

The Regional Accreditation network consists of six agencies – each having jurisdiction over a clearly demarcated region of USA. These boards accord approval to both conventional as well as online schools. It can be stated, without fear of contradiction, that regional boards are older than national accreditation boards and thus more rampantly seen form of accreditation. One of the disadvantages of national accreditation is that while all graduates from regionally accredited programs can transfer to all colleges including nationally accredited colleges, graduates from nationally accredited colleges are not accepted into most regionally accredited colleges.

All regionally accredited schools predictably accept credits and degrees from other regionally accredited schools and generally none of these schools try to belittle or undermine another regionally accredited school. Thus, with a degree from a regionally accredited institution, students can, with less difficulty, transfer from one school to another. The six regional accrediting agencies are:

• North Central Association (NCA)
• Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU)
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
• New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE)
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)

For more information on the differences of regional and national accreditation: http://www.elearners.com/guide/regional-and-national-accreditation.asp