Transcription of Professor Gary Matsdorf address cont:

"We are obviously doing something unique tonight in the sense that we don’t normally have a major celebration at the end of a single class. But in talking to Dean Baird and Apostle Lucille, we felt that we wanted to make a big celebration on the completion of our Kingdom Class because of what it represented in the Spirit as we go forward. It is my firm belief, that this represents not only the completion of something very significant, but the launching of your Institute in the sense that now you can say, ‘we can do it’.

We started this class as a bit of a divine experiment to see if this level of homework, this level of time commitment and this level of formal study could be added to your already busy lives and what you are doing in the work in the Kingdom of God already. Could we add this other layer of formal training? And you have more, as Pastor Derik said, shown the Lord, yourselves, Mount Zion and me the Professor that you are fully capable of doing it. And we are grateful for what that represents.

So we are celebrating tonight, not only the accomplishment of Kingdom of God course, but the launching of a series of steps that we feel, will take us:

1.To the granting of a one year certificate before the March 2020 Symposium; which I am firmly believing that you will be Globally recognized as a Certified School of Ministry. Which will then, we are believing the Lord, will turn into a two year Training Institute and who knows beyond that, even to the possibility of a degree granting Bible College, on your own island.

The Lord says, “do not despise the day of small beginnings” and we have had a small beginning as it were sitting here on an island in the Caribbean, but who knows what God will do with these small beginnings in terms of the ministry here on the island and the ministry through you as you move forward with what God has for you in the future. That is why it is such an honour for me to be here.

I want to commend you because you have worked very hard. You were challenged Spiritually and as you told me, you were challenged intellectually.

My guess is, three months ago many of you didn’t even know what the ‘Eschatological Reign of God’ was, but now it’s part of our working vocabulary. We have built a new language of understanding our worth.

You read a theological classic on the Kingdom of God that has influenced people around the world for over 60 years. I can tell you, knowing him personally, Dr Ladd if he were here today, would celebrate you, would rejoice with you and would be so honoured that you worked through his book. You wrestled with the practical and Pastoral implications of the Kingdom of God. You wrestled with the paper by one of Foursquare’s most influential leaders of the last 50 years and I trust that you are now convinced, as is Dr Hayford, that the message Christ preached is the message the Church preaches today, the church in Barbados.

You have practiced emailing as Professor requested, every Sunday before midnight and sometimes the emails came at 11.59, but they came and I am proud of you. I personally, along with the leadership of Mount Zion’s, am sure your family and I am absolutely convinced, the Lord himself are proud of you, what you have accomplished, trust me I know it is no small thing and many of us in this room with our Pentecostal traditions, have at times been suspicion of formal theological training. There has been the thought that formal theological training pulls us away from God. That it can fill our heads with concepts that are not in keeping with our faith. But as we said last night you have experienced quite the opposite and we are grateful for that and I am sure things are now richer as you explore the Word of God through the new lenses and it is only the beginning. Your leadership will be sharing with you in the weeks ahead, your next step, because we have something next in store for you.

Paul wrote to Timothy and said “I want you, Timothy, to keep reminding God’s people of the things I taught you. I want you to warn them before God against quarrelling about words. It is of no value and only ruins those who listen. I want you Timothy to do your best to present yourself to God as a workman approved, a worker that does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth. I want you to avoid godless chatter because those that indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene.“

I am convinced in going through this class and what many of you will do as you continue with your formal training through the Institute, is that you will become sharper and sharper in fulfilling the very thing that God said to Timothy, that I believe applies to all of us and that is to train ourselves as best as possible to handle God’s precious Word of Truth correctly.

As Paul said, “to avoid godless chatter,” in other words, now you are beginning at a new level to develop a way to discuss Biblical truths with people that has more than just heated arguments and opinions. That we can now do it at a level that offers people substance and understanding, because as Paul said to Timothy, untaught opinions are really only godless chatter that lead to quarreling about words that have no value and only ruin those who listen. And so we want to always do our best to understand this incredible Book (the Bible) as best as possible that we can share it with confidence, we can share it with assurance.

And lastly, in that very same letter just a few verses earlier, the apostle Paul said, “The things that you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses I want you to entrust them to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2

Dr Ladd and I did our very best, along with Pastor Hayford and his paper, to entrust to you, as reliable people, Biblical truths that we trust you are now qualified to pass onto others and I want all of you to realize that you have learnt and are learning, the Word of God as well as possible so that you and I can influence other people with what we have learnt, we can take that knowledge to disciple them, we can take that knowledge to minister to them and we can both proclaim and demonstrate the power of the Kingdom of God. It is here already, it is here not yet and we want to experience everything and all that the Kingdom of God has for us.

May God bless you and may He make His face to shine graciously upon you, may He lift up the light of His countenance upon you and grant you Shalom in every area of your life, both now and forever.”Said Professor Gary Matsdorf

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