Emmanuel Baptist Theological Seminary

Distinctives

From the very outset, our founder, Dr. J. Michael Bates, outlined the distinctives of Emmanuel Baptist Theological Seminary. These same principles remain true to this day.

  1. This seminary stands solidly upon the position that God not only inspired His Word perfectly in the autographs, but that He has preserved this Text in the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament and the Textus Receptus (the Received Text) of the New Testament.
  2. EBTS is a Baptist seminary under the authority of an independent, local church. We stress our Baptist heritage and our Baptist distinctives. WE ARE A BAPTIST INSTITUTION.
  3. EBTS trains students to be effective theologians, knowing the details of Bible theology and doctrine. We are not satisfied with a "general working knowledge" of biblical theology, but we emphasize the details of the Word of God.
  4. The primacy of preaching is not overshadowed with academic study at EBTS. Chapel is a regular feature of the seminary week where the fires of enthusiastic preaching will be fanned. This Seminary refuses to be the proverbial "cemetery."
  5. EBTS seeks to train men to start churches, especially in New England, under the authority of Emmanuel Baptist Church. Our spiritual heritage can, in a large measure, be traced to New England. We want to see God do again what He once did — through independent Baptist churches founded by graduates of EBTS.
  6. It is the aim of EBTS to practice consistent, biblical standards of personal and ecclesiastical separation. We do not want to go down the road of compromise, neo-evangelicalism, neo-orthodoxy, or wild-fire charismaticism.
  7. EBTS refuses to be a practical wasteland of theologians who know nothing of real-life Christian living. We have not lost our ability to enjoy the things of God and the work of God. Ministry is both a theological and practical activity.