John Leland Baptist College   

 1300 Mt. Vernon Dr.  Georgetown, KY 40325

Phone: 502.316.8154
Email: admin@johnlelandbaptistcollege.org 

THE LELAND NEWSLETTER

FALL SEMESTER 2021

CLASSES BEGIN AUGUST 24

CALANDER

Registration Deadline: August 20^th

Classes Begin: August 24th

Mid-Term Exams: Week of October 11^th

Thanksgiving Break:  November 22-26^th: No Classes.

Last Day of Class:  December 7^th

Final Exams: Week of December 13th

THE NEED OF BAPTIST SCHOOLS

We are excited about getting back to school. We trust that the worst of the Corona Virus is over, but we leave that in the Lord’s hands. We all have work to do, and a large part of that work requires an ever-increasing greater knowledge of the Word of God to preach and defend the Gospel of Grace and proclaim the whole counsel of God. In addition, we all need more wisdom, knowledge, and skill to refute the heresy and error that is abounding everywhere. And this is where John Leland Baptist College comes in.

Some few men, like A. W. Pink, on their own apart from any formal education may manage to do quite well in their study and understanding of Scripture; however, the road more commonly traveled is to receive grounding in the study of the Bible at the feet of men—whether in a college classroom or elsewhere. For anyone who might still have disdain for formal education, it should be noted that all the men whose books we read and esteem highly for their knowledge and insight into the Bible (including the Puritans)—were all men who had years and years of rigorous college training. We perhaps should note that regarding Bro. Pink, though he freely uses Hebrew and Greek in his expositions, his writings show he was not trained in those languages.[1]

A WORD OF THANKS

We wish to thank everyone who has had a part of this outreach ministry of Grace Baptist Church in Georgetown, KY. We are not only thankful for your financial support, but we also greatly appreciate your prayers on behalf of this ministry. We sincerely covet your prayers, and these are not just words. I have long sensed that many have a diminished view of the great Christian Doctrine of Prayer as it pertains to the earthly realm of God’s people; too often it is incorrectly filtered through the Doctrine of Predestination which pertains to the heavenly realm of God alone. To a finite mind it would appear we have a contradiction. Theologians have worked for nearly two thousand years trying to resolve these types of things but with little success. In theology when two firmly established doctrines like these find no real resolution as to how both can be true at the same time—we have what is called an “antinomy.” And so, as it stands, despite God absolute predestination of all things, there is such an abundance of evidence that our prayers for one another and other earthly concerns not only “help” (1 Cor. 1.11) but “availeth much” (Js. 5,16). We must be content to stay within our earthly realm and to believe and act upon all that is revealed and promised to us in His Word. This being the case, we would be wise to confine ourselves to our prayer closets for longer periods of time.

GRADUATION DECEMBER 4^TH

Because of the Covid pandemic we were forced to cancel our graduation exercise that was scheduled last Spring. We have rescheduled it for Saturday December 4, 2021, at 2 O’clock here at Grace Baptist Church. We have three graduates that have worked long and hard to accomplish their goal. Only those who have studied at the college level can appreciate the fortitude and determination  they have shown to accomplish their studies. 

 TUITION REMISSION

Thanks to the continuing generous financial giving of our supporting churches and various individuals, we are offering Tuition Remission for any one class offered this coming semester! The student will still be responsible for the cost of the textbook, but he or she will not be charged for any tuition or fees for the one class of their choosing. Again, we wish to thank everyone who financially supports, contributes, or helps in any way to further the efforts of John Leland Baptist College. 

NEW LANGUAGE COURSE

We are excited about a new Biblical Hebrew course that we have added to our curriculum. A corresponding Greek course will be offered later. The course is titled, An Introductory Survey of
Biblical Hebrew. Not everyone is called to be a  Hebrew scholar, but every serious Bible student should have some appreciation of the language God used to give us the Old Testament. This one semester course provides an introduction to the study of Biblical Hebrew much like one gets in a music or art appreciation course. It can be used to fulfill the 12-hour minimum language requirement for most programs.

TWO NEW ON-LINE COURSES

The first is Biblical Hermeneutics I. This combined with Hermeneutics II may be the most  important course we offer. If someone attempts to interpret the Bible without knowing the rules in which to guide him or the requisite hermeneutical skills needed to be a good exegete, there is little to stop him from making the Bible say what he wishes it to say. I think we would all admit that you can get five preachers to give their interpretation of a verse or passage and we are likely to have six answers. There can be several reasons for this but often it is because they are not using the same guidelines and rules.

The other new on-line course is MA 101The Fundamentals of Mathematics. Occasionally I am asked why does a Bible College student need Math, English, or Philosophy? Mathematics helps to round out a proper education; but also, we use math in every facet of our lives. There is usually a right and a wrong way to go about solving some mathematical problem; this class will show you the right way. Mathematics builds on itself. If the foundation is not properly laid, there will be problems building on it. As to English, our motto is “If a man can’t write, he can’t preach either.” What this means is if a preacher has not been trained to articulate his thoughts clearly on paper where he has all the time he needs to read and reread his words and correct his mistakes and to strive for less ambiguity and greater clarity, how could he (or any teacher) ever give the preaching of the word of God the due diligence it deserves? As to Philosophy, it is not taught as an extension or aid to the study of the Bible as in liberal seminaries. We seek only to know our enemies by name and the errors they teach. It goes without saying that the better one knows his enemy, the better he is able to protect himself against him.

THE COMING DAYS

In closing, we live in exciting times believing that the Lord’s return may very well happen in our lifetime. We must occupy till He comes. It appears to me and others that there are not many young men surrendering to the ministry as we would like and need. A Hyper Calvinist might brush that off with, “God will call as many men into the ministry as he pleases.” However, for those of us who recognize that we live in the earthly realm of Scriptures, we know it is incumbent upon us to pray “the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest” (Matt.9.38). Let us pray that the Lord will raise up one the greatest generation of Baptist preachers to proclaim the truths of His Word.

In Christ, 

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