Ambassador Bible Center

The United Church of God, an International Association, has established a systematic and intensive biblical instruction program called the Ambassador Bible Center (ABC). A highly-focused curriculum is offered where students can deeply immerse themselves in the Scriptures. The goal of the Center is to pass along to the next generation the understanding of God's Word and His plan. Classes are held in Cincinnati at the home of the United Church of God, with instruction provided by experienced ministers of the Church.

The Program

The program is designed to provide students with intensive instruction for a period of about eight months. Students take part in course work Monday through Friday each week during normal business hours, completing assignments and tests during the day in addition to attending lecture presentations. The remainder of the students' time (evenings) is then available for them to hold part-time employment to help pay for enrolment fees, housing, food, and other personal living expenses. Students are expected to secure and fund their own housing and other costs, as the Church has no plans to build or maintain a campus.

The ABC Experience
Craig McQueen

After so much planning and waiting, ABC not only has come for us, it has gone. It happened so fast! Now a new year of ABC has begun, and we join the ranks of ABC has-beens, or alumni if you want to sound more grand.

Looking back on the year, we've had a chance to think about what ABC was all about, and how it has changed us. Most obviously, we gained a lot of knowledge about the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, we read most of the Bible in detail, mostly in a systematic Bible study format. That constituted about 75% of our classes. For example, Roy Holladay and Gary Antion took us through the letters of Paul, having great patience to make sure we understood the meaning of the trickier scriptures. Matt Fenchel taught from Acts, and brought it to life well. Ralph Levy taught many of the Old Testament classes, and was able to make good use of his Jewish background to enlighten us.
We had a class called Comparative Religion, which looked at major and some minor religions of the world. Comparative Religion was both encouraging and discouraging - discouraging, because we saw how so many religions and churches fail to match up with what the Bible teaches. But it was encouraging, because we saw just how much our church does strive to live by what the Bible says, rather than the teachings of men.

Jim Franks and Leon Walker taught the 20 fundamental beliefs of United Church of God. They were able to go into a lot of depth on these important topics. For me, it was an especially valuable class that helped to strengthen my faith and conviction in God's word.

We saw, during the year, that the Bible has some major themes that begin right on the first page and are developed through the entire Bible. ABC helped us to see the glory of God's salvation plan for humanity. We realised that the plan is not just for us, such a small group of people, but for all humanity. That helped us to appreciate who we are in the big picture, and what God wants us to do with our lives.

Looking back at my notes, I see that there's so much I have forgotten, though we absorbed as much as we could. The real value of our Bible study is not the knowledge of itself. Various scriptures make it clear that God is interested in us learning something at a higher level than knowledge. ABC helped us to understand the mind of God, and His righteousness. We learned what righteousness really is, and how great it is. We couldn't help but be in awe.

Our instructors made sure to tell us that knowledge doesn't equal righteousness. Our challenge is to put into practice what we have learned, and since ABC I've found that to be the hard bit. But what a worthwhile pursuit - to put on the new man, to have the same mind as Christ. We are very thankful that God has not only revealed to us what He wants, but has given us the sure means, in particular our Saviour, that makes it all possible.