It is impossible for a seminary to make or create a preacher. Preaching is a gift from the King of kings and Lord of lords to His church. It is a gift He bestows on men by His Holy Spirit.

Simply put, the King summons and gifts kingdom heralds to go about heralding. The Lord, not man, constitutes a preacher. This is a truth we must not forget. But we must also remember something else, something no less vital. The bestowal of the gift is not the bestowal of maturity. Just as the new believer must grow up in the Lord, so too must the newly minted herald develop the use of his gift. This is where the seminary enters into the conversation.

According to one online etymology site, the word seminarian in Latin means “plant nursery” or “seed plot.” A seminary is a place of seed plots. Each seminarian has been gifted by God with the seed of a gift. A seminary is the place where the young man, who is a seed plot, is nurtured by faithful men who water, feed, nurture, and prune what will become a beautiful blooming plant. This article will focus on how the seminary contributes to the care of the seed plot, which is the seminarian.

A Pattern to be Followed

When Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, the situation in Rome had moved from bad to worse. Not only had Rome burned, but the emperor was being blamed as the cause! What is more, Emperor Nero began persecuting Christians as a proverbial scapegoat. During those dark days, Paul was arrested and taken to Rome to once again face the emperor. He had been rescued from the lion’s mouth before, but a second rescue from the now-crazed ruler seemed unlikely. He knew he was facing his last days. Evidence for this line of reasoning seems to be found near the final verses of the letter. Verses 16–18 of chapter 4 are laced with phrases that bear a striking similarity to those found in Psalm 22, the psalm our Lord meditated upon as his own death loomed before him.

Phrases from that psalm are woven throughout the final paragraphs of the letter. For example, forsakenness looms large in Paul’s letter and the psalm (Ps. 22:1, 11). Also, being saved from the li-on’s mouth is another thread that comes from the psalm (Ps. 22:21). Paul also speaks of all Gentiles hearing the message (Ps. 22:27) and being safely brought into the heavenly kingdom (Ps. 22:28).

In those days, Paul’s mind turned toward the preservation and propagation of the gospel message. It was vital that a faithful man like Timothy entrust what he heard from Paul to faithful men who would then be able to teach others (2 Tim. 2:1–2). In a very real sense, this is the work of the seminary. The faithful seminary is simply following Paul’s inspired counsel. But this raises an important question. What is to be entrusted to faithful men? To put it pointedly, what does a seminary have to offer? According to Paul, it is simple. Paul instructs Timothy to guard “the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me.” But he is not simply to guard those words; he is to entrust them to other faithful men.

Paul is a practitioner of what he preached. So, even as he instructs Timothy to entrust orthodoxy to faithful men, he uses his relationship with Timothy as an example. For instance, in verse 12 of chapter 1, Paul affirms that he is not ashamed, for he says, “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.” Paul highlights that God will guard what has been entrusted to him, which is the pattern of sound words.

Then Paul writes in verse 14, “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” Here we see Paul following his own counsel. He is entrusting this pattern of sound words to the faithful man, his son in the faith, Timothy. However, there is a slight change. Now the focus is on the means by which God guards the deposit of words entrusted. Whereas God was the guardian in verse 12, now Timothy is the guard! What is more, Timothy is to “entrust to faithful men” this same deposit that they may teach others to do the same.

Indeed, this is the work of the seminary. It is a pattern deeply rooted in Scripture. An orthodox seminary is the guard and must entrust the pattern of sound words.

Faithful Men are Sought

According to Paul, Timothy is to replicate what he saw worked out in his own life. He was to en-trust the same pattern of sound words to other faithful men. But how do faithful men become faithful men? The answer is found in chapter 3 of the same letter. Paul speaks of Timothy’s upbringing. He was raised in a covenant home despite his father’s unbelief. His mother and grandmother saw to it that he knew the Scriptures. And here is the key: it is the Scriptures “which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). God uses His inspired Word accompanied by the Holy Spirit to fashion faithful men. Faithful men are God’s creation. They are men who have been given to a standard of teaching (Rom. 6:17).

We occasionally hear stories of men coming to faith in the seminary or even in the pulpit (e.g., Abraham Kuyper). But surely this is neither the norm nor the vision of a seminary. The seminary is looking for faithful men of God. The seminary is looking for men of integrity. But what does that mean? The word has the idea of integration. All aspects of a person’s character are to be integrated seamlessly into a pure and blameless whole. Jonathan Edwards might have called this a unitary dispositional complex. In other words, the mind, affections, and will are all calibrated toward one thing. Keith Evans, the biblical counseling professor at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS), points to Psalm 86:11 as an illustration of this dispositional integrity.

Perhaps I should say that the seminary is not looking for perfect men; where would we find them? No, the seminary is looking for men of faith who are oriented toward faithfulness or integrity. The seminary is looking for men who are maturing in their faith. They are men whose lives are being shaped by sound words.

Men With Something to Offer the World

Today is different from first-century Rome. However, political tension is not new to any age. The United States has not seen this level of political tension for decades. The evidence for such an assertion is a nation divided into red and blue states.

In such a situation, the seminary can appear to many as an irrelevant institution. But remember Paul’s situation. While in Roman custody facing a crazed emperor in a charred city, Paul’s attention turned to training up men in a pattern of sound words, who were, in turn, able to teach other men. The obvious question is the last one. Where can we find the pattern of sound words? We find them in the Bible.

According to Paul, these Scriptures that are able to make one wise unto salvation are inspired by God, that is, breathed out by God. They are His Word, which means they are infallible or true. Since they are His true words, they are also inerrant. They do not wander from the truth. They are profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work, not the least of which is training faithful men.

RPTS is looking for faithful men, that we might train up the next generation, who will train up the next generation. The seminary is committed to entrusting these faithful men with the pattern of sounds words that come from the inspired Word of God, the Bible. We are committed to training men to learn the Bible in the original languages so that they can faithfully teach them to God’s people. But we are also interested in helping men fan into flame the gift they have been given by God (2 Tim. 1:6). We are committed to helping men mature in the use of their gifts. Our ultimate desire is to see maturing, gifted men who love the church learn how to handle the pattern of sound words taught in Scripture in such a way that might edify the people of God for generations to come.