Universities empowered by the Holy Spirit must encourage students to drink deeply from an educational well that contains all the knowledge of other institutions but also provides atmospheres full of deep and thoughtful reflection replete with God moments. The mission of Evangel is not a protection from the world but a preparation to enter these uncertain times by embedding in the student personal virtue and courage, which we call valor. An unapologetically Christ-centered institution confirms that God’s Spirit is at work on the earth today, while the secular institution teaches and acts as if God is not active in our world, continually capitulating toward un-truth and cultural buoyancy to keep customers and fiscally stay afloat. Yet, relevance is not the continual deconstruction of any and eventually all absolutes. Education, by its very nature, is historically rooted in the past.
What has become increasingly clear is that no matter how historic an institution is, if a university professes to house all knowledge and excludes the legitimacy and historicity of theology in the academy, it is being disingenuous to its customers. Along the way, a committee decided that God or the study of or search for God throughout history would be excluded. This is the differentiating factor between Christian higher education and your local college or state university. In my view, the committees that make these substantial curricular decisions are housing less wisdom and more arrogance. Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool says in his heart, there is no God.” Can we not logically say that some mainstream universities have communicated clearly in the development of their curriculums that there is no God? The topic of God, in their estimation, is not worthy of a department and sometimes even a discussion, or as we have learned from culture, they are canceling God out by removing the language of Him.