Jimmy Swaggart Bible College
A Great Commission Bible College
Oct 2023
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As a young Bible college student, I can remember sitting in chapels and hearing the stories of great missionaries doing awesome works for the kingdom of God throughout the world. The president of my alma mater was a retired missionary and instilled in all of us a love for missions both at home and abroad. I wrestled with the call that God had on my life. Was He calling me to foreign missions? Were the stories that were told meant to unlock my compassion for God’s people around the world? Eventually, God’s plan for my life began to unfold in a way that His will for me would involve serving as a pastor of a local church. God revealed to me that the local community was my mission field, and I was to partner financially and in prayer with those who were working in missions abroad. God was revealing to me, as a young minister, that all of us are to play our part in fulfilling the Great Commission.
It is important to note what it means for all of us to fulfill the Great Commission. The Great Commission is the instruction of Jesus to His disciples to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world. The Great Commission is outlined in Matthew 28:16–20 where, on a mountain in Galilee, Jesus calls on Christians to go into all the world and make disciples of and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
In the fall of 1984, Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart and Dr. Don Paul Gray opened the doors to Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. The college was founded upon the idea of equipping men and women to fulfill the Great Commission in their world. According to the JSBC website: “The founding of a Bible college to prepare men and women for an in-depth, Spirit-filled ministry was the dream of Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart for a number of years. He felt such an institution would play an important role in evangelizing the world as the coming of Christ draws near. As a result of this vision, JSBC opened in the fall of 1984. The goal of JSBC is to build students into the kind of men and women God wants them to be. From its doors, JSBC is sending out missionaries, evangelists, pastors, teachers and leaders to all the world.”1
At Jimmy Swaggart Bible College, we believe that every Christian is called to ministry. God certainly calls and equips individuals to vocational ministry as pastors, evangelists, missionaries, etc. But everyone, whether you are a schoolteacher, businessperson, or a stay-at-home mom, is called to do his or her part to fulfill the Great Commission. During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther began to emphasize what became known as “The Priesthood of all Believers.” Luther stated, “Since he is a priest and we are his brethren, all Christians have the power and must fulfill the commandment to preach and to come before God with our intercessions for one another and to sacrifice ourselves to God.”2
This doctrine of the priesthood of all believers states that everyone in Christ shares in His priestly status so there is no longer a special class of people who control the knowledge and forgiveness of Christ to the rest of humanity, and all Christians have the authority to read, interpret, and apply Scripture. This is one of the foundational doctrines that defined Protestantism. In contrast to the beliefs of the medieval church, the Protestant doctrine of the priesthood of all believers holds that there is no longer a priestly class of people within God’s people, but that all believers share in Christ’s priestly status by virtue of their union with Christ. Although there was a select group of priests in the Old Testament who mediated the knowledge, presence, and forgiveness of God to the rest of Israel, Christ has come and fulfilled the priestly role through His life, death, and resurrection. Therefore, Christ was the final priestly mediator between God and His people, and Christians share in that role through Him.3
The alumni of Jimmy Swaggart Bible College are a testimony to the commitment of training ministers in every walk of life. JSBC/WEBC alums serve not only as pastors, evangelists, and missionaries, but also as teachers, journalists, businesspeople, medical professionals, and so on. The evangelistic thrust of the college that was instilled many years ago by Brother Swaggart is still at the forefront of what we do today. Every student at Jimmy Swaggart Bible College is thoroughly instructed by capable professors in the message of the cross, biblical hermeneutics, Pentecostal theology, and practical Christian living.
Brother Swaggart has made the statement many times that we are living “in the last of the last days,” meaning that the return of Jesus is very imminent. We have a mandate to equip men and women of all ages with the tools they need to reach their world with the gospel. If you are seeking a Bible college to attend, or you want your young person to attend a conservative, Pentecostal Bible college built on the foundation of the message of the cross, then please prayerfully consider Jimmy Swaggart Bible College. It is my belief that God established this college in 1984 especially for this time—to send out workers for this great end-times harvest of souls.
SOURCES:
1 https://www.jsbc.edu/about/about-overview
2 The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, ed. Samuel
Macauley Jackson and George William Gilmore, (New York, London, Funk and
Wagnalls Co., 1908-1914; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1951).
3 Bloesch, Donald G. Essentials of Evangelical Theology. 2 Vols in 1. Peabody,
MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2009 [1978]. ISBN: 9781598560404.
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