ICCM’s courses offer little theological training
Anyone who has received a theological degree at a recognised Christian seminary knows that it takes hard work to complete it.
Not only will you need to learn the languages of the Bible (namely Greek & Hebrew), you will also need to do exegesis on Old and New Testament books. Not to mention, diving deep into church history, systematic theology (eg. soteriology, anthropology, Christology, hamartiology, etc.) and the historical development of Christian thought (ie. historical theology).
ICCM’s courses offer little or none of the above.
That being said, there is a brief attempt to do an exposition of Luke’s Gospel by studying Darrell Bock’s commentary in the Baker Exegetical Commentary series, as well as a briefer attempt (in the Master’s program) to study Christian history by reading 3 pages of Bruce Shelley’s “Church History In Plain Language”. Ironically, it is worth noting that neither Bock or Shelley belong in the ICC, but are actually evangelical Christians – the same people whom the ICC are convinced are not truly Christian.
An example – ICCM’s Bachelor’s Degree offerings
As of the current date (26th October 2022), these are the course offerings in the Bachelor’s degree, directly copy and pasted from ICCM’s website.
ICCM’s Bachelor’s Degree
Semester One
- Session 1: The Dream
- Session 2: Glorifying God
- Session 3: Structure, Order, Protocol
- Session 4: A Greater Glory
- Session 5: Jesus and Paul: The True Leaders of the Women’s Liberation Movement
- Session 6: The River of God
- Session 7: Harvest the Earth
Semester Two
- Session 8: The Ten Commandments of Preaching
- Session 9: Jesus’ Bible Talk
- Session 10: Writing that Changes the World
Semester Three
- Sessions 11-17: Session 11-17 The Baker Exegetical Commentary
Semester Four
- Session 18: Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witness and Mormonism
- Session 19: Hinduism & Buddhism
- Session 20: Islam & Atheism
A contrasting Bachelor’s Degree
In order to see the lack of scholarship in ICCM’s offerings, we must contrast it against other Bachelor programs in recognised theological institutions.
The following is the Bachelor of Theology program of Sydney Missionary and Bible College, a well-respected theological seminary in Sydney, Australia where I live. This is a 3 year full-time course.
As you can see in the above screenshot, this is the type of course that you would expect in a Bachelor’s program in a theological seminary. There is a good mix of language subjects, theology subjects, history subjects, as well as practical subjects (such as preaching and critical thinking).
Conclusion
Judging by ICCM’s curriculum, the entire course seems more geared towards practical ministry rather than to train students to think theologically and engage with different Christian perspectives. This is particularly disappointing (as well as dangerous!), since the International Christian Church makes the bold claim to be a “restoration of the NT church” and, therefore, superior to other Christian churches today.
So why claim superiority when you do not even theologically and intellectually engage with opposing theology?
