Who Are We For?

Firstly, let's make it clear that Aletheia Bible College isn't intended for those who are just looking into Christianity or who would like to get acquainted with the basics of the Christian faith. We recommend sites such as http://www.biblebasicsonline.com for this.

As explained on the Who are we? page, there are generally two kinds of people interested in studying with an online Bible College:

1. Christians interested in obtaining training and qualification enabling them to serve in pastoral, mission and outreach work.

2. People who would simply like to study Scripture more deeply in a systematic way, and learn how to apply it to their lives in a dynamic way.

We accept students from all backgrounds, without discrimination on any grounds.

We offer a Diploma in Biblical Studies which can be obtained by 100% online study and assessment work. We honestly believe that our Diploma course is the ideal course for those who wish to:

- Simply study the Bible and theological matters deeply and systematically, with academic rigour

- Make the crucial connection between Biblical study and life-changing personal spiritual growth

- Obtain relevant training from a highly experienced tutor team in pastoral and missionary work. The Diploma course has been developed over many years by people with lifetimes of experience in the field as well as in church life and consistent Christian living. It will empower the student to take on pastoral, missionary and general ministry work with a sound spiritual and practical basis.

Until a relatively few years ago, if you wanted to study the Bible deeply you went to a traditional university and did a three or four year full time, residential qualification in theology or Biblical studies. And you can still do that. And have more kudos than having studied and obtained an online qualification- although times and perceptions are rapidly changing. But people are looking far more and what a person knows, the skills they possess, and how they were trained- rather than where or through which medium they trained.

If you wanted to go into ministry, as a missionary or pastor, then you went to the Bible college or seminary attached to your denomination. If you wanted to be a Catholic or Anglican priest, then you went to the appropriate seminary. If you wanted to be a Baptist missionary, then you went to a Baptist missionary training college. And if these are the specific things you want to do, then our course likely isn't for you.

But the Christian world has changed remarkably in the last 20 years. Churches and denominations have come together. The move is now towards non-denominational churches and missions. To be frank about it, non or inter-denominational churches are the way things are going. "High Street Bible Church" and "Suburbia Christian Fellowship" are becoming the order of the day, whilst the traditional denominations are nearly everywhere in decline, or becoming themselves far less 'denominational'.

The majority of pastors, missionaries and people "in ministry" in the new Christianity are people like you who've trained with a Bible College like our own. The opportunities and possibilities for well and appropriately trained enthusiastic people are huge. We sincerely believe, we even dare to say we know from much experience, that the training we're giving people is indeed high quality and what they need. When you graduate from us, you'll receive not only a nicely embossed certificate, but you'll have the skills with which you'll be able to legitimately enter Christian ministry if that's what you want. Of course there are many people who simply want to seriously study the Bible in depth, and we're ideal for that too. But it's what you've learnt and how you've learnt it that's important. When a church or mission organization wants to use someone "in ministry", they're looking for them to have had some training, both practically and theologically. Most Bible colleges offer qualifications, like we do, which are not recognized by traditional universities. But this is not important to most churches. They want to see that you've completed a course, not that you're an ivory-tower academic; and especially, want to see how well you've completed it, what the course was about, and what your tutor's report on you is like. This is what's important.