Daniel Kok

Though seminary can often look like an ivory tower to the outside world, I believe that the instruction I had at Westminster Seminary California contradicts that idea. Some of the best moments in seminary were the times of instruction that I received from pastors who themselves led and were leading the flock of Christ. I would say the norm at WSC was: how do we go from the text to the pulpit? How do we as pastors live out these truths as an example to others?

WSC's focus on the broader Reformed tradition was one of the main reasons that I was first attracted to the seminary. I wanted an education that challenged me to think wider and deeper than my current convictions. Thankfully what I found was no slavish commitment to the confessions but rather a biblical, Christ-centered instruction that strengthened and sharpened me in the doctrines of my youth.

This commitment to the Gospel is very timely in an age where relativism and application are the focus of so many ministries. We are called to speak to the world, but not in the language of the world. As Dr. Clark would say, “Just try the gospel.” The ordinary means of grace that I heard stressed so often in my education at WSC are the true application that the world so sorely needs. Why? Because we must preach Christ and Him crucified. There was nothing trendy about the teaching I received at WSC; rather my seminary training consisted of an obvious commitment to the tried and true methods of the
historic church.

But perhaps the most important aspect of my education at Westminster Seminary California was that the instruction I received was grounded in the original languages of the Bible. One of the great benefits of studying Hebrew and Greek was not that I found previously unknown theological and exegetical insights but rather that I came to appreciate the richness of God’s redemptive plan even as it is revealed in our English Bibles. God has spoken! This is no esoteric message but one that speaks to and reaches humanity in the midst of our sin filled lives. The fullness of salvation in Christ can be proclaimed with surety by the one who speaks it because he already knows what God would have him say—it is found in his Word.

So I am grateful to the Lord for my brief stay in California—my education at WSC has equipped me to serve the church of Christ in a manner pleasing to Him.