did I ever say uneducated??? (other than a refernce that was made in Scripture about Jesus' disciples from Galilee)

You have missed my point - COMPLETELY, and burnt a straw man to the ground.

The Bible does not require that a man have a college, university, or seminary degree in order to serve the church as an elder.

It requires he be educated IN THE WORD, to handle it rightly. But that can be done without any "formal" education. Spurgeon is proof enough of that!

Adding the office of "doctor", and defining it as receiving a degree from an educational institution, ADDS to the Scripture my friends. The Bible speaks of pastors and teachers, but never of profesisonal academic theologians called "doctors."

It may be nice to have the degree, but it is not required to be Scirpturally qualified for being a pastor.

Nobody I think would argue that we should put uneducated men in the pulpit - but let's be clear - education is more than a piece of paper conferring a degree. A man can receive the best education the academic world has to offer and earn that little paper to hang on the wall, and he can still be an idiot and a heretic.

A pastor should know the Word, living and written. And any church that REQUIRES a "degree" to qualify that knowledge has made more of the requirements than the Bible does.

Phillip

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Pastor Phillip M. Way
[url=http://www.timeintheword.org][color=blue] Maranatha Community Church of Central Texas[/color][/url]
A Reformed Baptist Congregation and Member Church of the
Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals [url=http://www.firefellowship.org][color=red](FIRE)[/color][/url]

Blogging at: [url=http://pastorway.blogspot.com/][color=blue][i]pastorway[/i][/color][/url]
Sermons Online at: [url=http://www.sermonaudio.com/timeintheword][color=blue]TIME in the Word Ministries[/color][/url]

When all souls are saved and all mourners comforted we may venture to discuss recondite theories, but not while graveyards are filling with those who know not God. -- CH Spurgeon

[b]The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
Luke 18:27[/b]