Sovereignty and Imago Dei Colleges
Philosophy of Education
Our philosophy of education is thoroughly enveloped in the biblical worldview and appeals to Scripture for all its justification. We describe our philosophy in four progressive stages.
Precursor: The first stage is a precursor to the remaining three in that it is only due to the truth that mankind is made in the image of God that he is capable of thinking God’s thoughts after Him (Gen 1-2). From the creation of man but before the fall into sin, he was able to learn and think clearly, logically, reasonably, creatively, intelligently; all without any hindrance of sin. However, after the fall into sin, man’s whole being, including his mind, was pervasively corrupted, which was then part of his nature (I Kings 8:46; Rom 3:9-23; 7:18; I Jn 1:8-10). Now, as inheritors of this same sinful nature, our thinking too is darkened and corrupted. Yet, man remains in the image of God and is capable of restoration by God’s grace in Christ (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10).
Foundation: As we seek be restored to our lofty origins based upon the Spirit’s regenerating work in us, one absolute and foundational truth unequivocally demands that all knowledge and wisdom must begin with the fear of the Lord (Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7; 9:10). If we have any true aspirations of gaining knowledge and wisdom, this pursuit cannot be divorced from our worship of our Lord. We concur with Augustine who confessed that we must believe in order that we might understand. We would also say that doctrine (teaching) must begin and end with doxology (word of praise); in other words, what we come to know must begin with worship and lead us into deeper worship (I Cor 1:18-2:16).
Progression: Having began with the understanding that we are created in the image of God, but that we are all inheritors of a corrupted sin nature, and that we must begin our pursuit of restoring our minds to having the thoughts of God with the reverent fear of the Lord, the Spirit now leads us through a process of sanctification (Rom 8:4; II Cor 3:18; Gal 5:22-25; II Thess 2:13). We must realize that we live in a culture that exalts arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God. Our response and ultimate goal is to bring all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ (II Cor 10:5). This degree of intellect—as opposed to being more restrictive—allows us to think beyond our merely human capacities to thoughts that supersede general revelation. The means by which such intellectual thinking should be restored in us is by the Holy Spirit as we are called to renew our minds and by denying the conformity to the world’s intellectual and practical enculturation (Rom 12:1-2).
Finality: While we recognize that we are in process in this life, we anticipate a full restoration in the image of God through Christ in glory (Col 1:15; Rom 8:18; I Cor 13:12). Even throughout eternity we will grow in our knowledge of the Lord for the sheer truth that God is infinite and we remain finite; knowledge of the Lord is inexhaustibly limitless. Though this is true, our minds will be restored and pure, and will be capable of apprehending these truths of God without hindrance of sin.
Statements of Commitments
MISSION STATEMENT
The Imago Dei College Gap Year exists as a holistic and comprehensive discipleship program in Christian worldview. We take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and do all our activities to the glory of God.
Sovereignty Colleges exists to glorify God by arming Christ’s disciples with the spiritual weapons of warfare and equipping them with the intellectual tools for renewing the mind in conformity to Christ so they are prepared to reform the family, church, and culture.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
We believe the entire Bible, including both the Old and New Testaments, to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God, profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. It stands as the supreme, inerrant and infallible authority of our faith and practice.
We believe in and celebrate the beautiful majesty of the Triune God who eternally and perfectly exists in three distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Godhead is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, and is limited by nothing other than His own nature and character.
We believe that man was uniquely created in God’s image but fell, causing a separation leading to spiritual death. The only hope for man must come through the application of Christ’s atonement and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. By these means alone is man made a new creation and at peace with God.
We believe that Jesus, being perfectly man and perfectly God, and conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, came to satisfy the justice of God, display God’s mercy and offer mankind a way of restored relationship with God by coming to die on a cross as a sinless sacrifice in our place for our sin-guilt.
We believe that Jesus Christ arose from the dead in bodily form, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and will come again in His glory to judge the living and the dead, and His Kingdom is established forever with His people. Those who are not found to be among his people will be eternally separated from him.
We believe that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit for the continuing ministry of the Godhead that he might empower believers to be more equipped to be like Christ through the process of sanctification, and to convict unbelievers of sins and lead them to salvation in Christ through regeneration. This ministry of the Spirit is necessarily ongoing throughout the church age until the Second Coming.
We believe that Christ has called out and organized his people in essential and spiritual unity, and that His Church is empowered and called to continue the ministry of God here on earth. We further believe that Sovereignty and Imago Dei Colleges exist and operate as scholastic and disciple-training communities within this unity.
DEFINITIONAL DISAMBIGUATION
Truth: Truth is reality as God has ordained it. Truth exists regardless of man’s apprehension of it.
Knowledge: Knowledge is simply acknowledging the truth. Acquisition of truth is fully dependent upon God’s revelation. As Augustine has declared, “I believe in order that I might understand.”
Wisdom: Wisdom is the godly skill to apply knowledge and understanding to a life lived blamelessly before the living God. We are given the tools of discipleship to acquire wisdom (Prov 2:1-2) as well as we are invited to appeal to God for the supernatural supply of wisdom (Prov 2:6; Jas 1:5). The precursor to obtaining wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Prov 1:7).
Worldview: A Christian worldview is a consistent, cohesive, and an intellectual comprehension, obedient conformity and life-application of God’s special and general revelation to all areas of existence.
None of these four commitments listed above can be created or invented by man, but only discovered by man as God progressively reveals. There is no new truth, for truth is an attribute of God, who has ordained all truth from the beginning. There is no new knowledge, only new acknowledgements of what God already knows, but chooses to reveal. There is no wisdom apart from the fear of the Lord, who grants the regenerate heart the belief and the fear of Himself. The biblical and Christian worldview must be developed based upon the eternal truth and knowledge as one wisely applies them to the current culture.
VISION
We do what we do because we want to see a young generation of Christians thrive in their faith and to live as bold witnesses to the world around them. We don’t simply want our students to survive but to thrive; not be spectators but to be active warriors in the battle that rages around us; not to be non-combatants but to be strategic generals in the King’s army; not to be silenced citizens in the City of Man but to be courageous builders in the City of God. We want to see young men be spiritual leaders in their households, to provide for and protect their families, to lay down their lives for their families, to disciples their children and to train their children to disciple their children. We want to see young women who manage their households so proficiently well that their husbands trust them as they go to the city gate. And in the near and distant future, to have every generation stand on the shoulders of their godly predecessors.
Partners in the Mission
We are called by God to do a mighty work, but we humbly admit that we cannot do it alone. Better stated, the Holy Spirit is building His people into a Body of organic unity, and we are appreciative that others contribute their efforts to us, and that we are privileged to contribute our efforts to others.
American Vision
We are very pleased to announce that Sovereignty College students will be given the opportunity to learn from the wealth of intellectual knowledge from the Catalog of American Vision, a longtime resource for homeschoolers and adults in the traditions of American History, Christian Worldview, Eschatological Optimism, and Biblically-Faithful Presuppositional Apologetics.
Trinity Law School
Imago Dei and Sovereignty College students who intend to practice law in California have an incredible opportunity potentially to become young lawyers with no to little debt based upon our partnership with Trinity Law School (tls.edu). If a student graduates with our AA at age 18 and only takes the 3 years required for the JD, the student can become a lawyer at 21 years old; 5 years sooner than the national average.
Here are the basic steps:
- Enroll in Imago Dei or Sovereignty College, preferably during late high school years.
- Study for the LSAT. Take an LSAT preparatory class offered by Trinity Law School, free to our students. Meet or exceed the score of 145 on the LSAT.
- Enroll at Trinity Law School in the JD program. Receive 50% tuition scholarship (NACCAP.org) annually.
- Maintain a GPA of 3.0 and carry 12 units per semester.
- Graduate and prepare to take the BAR exam.
Colorado Christian University
Colorado Christian University is a regionally accredited institution with the Higher Learning Commission. As such they offer the best transferability of their units to another university, and students can earn 60 units and an Associate of Arts degree conferred by CCU. Imago Dei and Sovereignty Colleges (listed as Imago Dei Academy) are in partnership with CCU; so while our students take our courses taught by us, CCU has approved the courses and will hold the students’ units until a time of transfer, or perhaps the student will want to finish their Bachelor’s degree at CCU, with a scholarship awaiting. Either way, while transferability is not 100% guaranteed, it is the best possible route for transferring units.
Ligonier
The teaching ministry of RC Sproul and Ligonier are a tremendous resource for Bible, theology, and Christian thinking. Ligonier has graciously allow us to avail their resources to our students for free.
Generations
Generations have produced amazing curricular resources that keep Christ as the center of history, literature and worldview. We are in lockstep with their philosophical approach to curricular design and disciple-making implementations. We gladly employ their curricula whenever appropriate and look forward to their efforts in further developments of expanding their text offerings.
New Partnerships in Development
Stay tuned with some exciting news about new partnerships being developed. These collaborations will build the Kingdom in efficient means for generations to come.
History
The long history is one that goes all the way back to the earliest of the Old Testament when God commands His covenantal people to pass on the faith to the next generation. If a member of the covenant would keep the covenant but fail to pass on the covenant to the next generation, the covenant would have been broken. We are consciously keeping covenant by passing on the covenant with God to the next generation. We are to pass on the Faith to the next generation in faithfulness, and to press on the next generation to pass on the covenant to the generation that follows them.
This organic and family-based model became institutionalized over the centuries; some have had a positive impact, some have had a negative impact, and some were built upon solid ground but allowed the sands to shift and they collapsed under the weight of secular humanism. When good schools go bad, God will raise up new schools to carry on faithful discipleship.
Imago Dei History
In 2008 Imago Dei College was conceived with the ambition of training a select few students in classical Christian liberal arts in the Great Books tradition. Despite the seeds planted for this crop, this particular fruit was providentially not to emerge. What has emerged is a more accessible model to disciple students through academics as well as vocational aptitudes and basic life skills so desperately lacking in this younger generation.
Leadership
Aaron Hebbard, PhD (Glasgow) is the visionary and founding president of both Imago Dei College and Sovereignty College. His passion is the advancement of the Kingdom of God into all spheres of life, but God has called and equipped him specifically for the discipleship of young Believers through the academic process of taking all thoughts captive to the obedience to Christ. Professor Heb is a theologically-centered worldview thinker, integrating academic disciplines together, and together under the Lordship of Christ.
Sovereignty History
In 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, the Lord prompted us to build a college that would skillfully use the available online resources so that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14). We absolutely want to be part of a new reformation, which we believe the Lord will launch for the sake of His Name and His Bride.
The name Sovereignty refers to the recognizable power that the Lord has over all of His Creation. And as a College dedicated to a proper biblical worldview, there is no more important doctrine than that of His Sovereignty. The crown on top of the crest is symbolic of His reign over everything, and hence is not confined within the belted crest. The earth is the immediate sphere of proclaiming God’s sovereignty, and we shall be faithful to carry on with the tasks that we have been assigned.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Gap Year? Gap years have risen in popularity. In the past many students have taken a year off after graduating high school but before jumping right back into academics at their chosen colleges to experience living in this unique time of life. These gap years have now become an official thing. Now there are numerous versions of gap-year programs that revolve around various interests such as missions or humanitarian efforts, traveling, working or apprenticeships, or doing a little bit of everything with the major thrust of having fun. And in our current environs, there is a solid reason for questioning the validity of traditional college; so before a freshly graduated high school student goes off to learn about the subjects that will lead to a Baccalaureate degree and gets into debt, a gap year will give the student and parents the additional time needed to do their homework in terms of vocation and education.
Why prefer Imago Dei College’s Gap Year? There are a wide variety of choices when considering a gap year, but the IDC gap year offers some unique features. We combine bite sizes of the features of many other gap years such as cultural engagement, missions, academics, working and apprenticeships, life skills, and vocational direction, all under the Lordship of Christ; thinking God’s thoughts after Him, taking all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.
What’s perhaps the best feature is that we offer up to 30 transferable college units, meaning that the student can have a gap year without falling behind.
Why engage in Christian Worldview Discipleship? The culture is drifting farther and farther away from its Christian foundations, to a point of outright diametric opposition. Sadly, the Christian culture is in disrepair, and Western culture is on its heels headed for destruction, but all is not lost. Christian culture can and must be rebuilt but we need builders, many builders, younger builders. But Christian culture cannot be built unless it is properly built upon the immoveable Rock, not the shifting sands of our current cultural norms. We have the blueprints of the rebuild in God’s Word—tried and true for eternal significance—not the pragmatic misgivings of our foolish false prophets of doom or of false peace.
What Does the Imago Dei College Gap Year Include? Personal discipleship to guide the student through biblical and faithful living, and to take all thoughts captive to the obedience to Christ, and to prepare the student for life in college, adulthood, marriage, and parenthood. We will give the student basic life skills, intellectual tools, critical thinking aptitudes, cultural engagement and building, work ethics, opportunities for outreach to the downtrodden, and essential character for lifelong faithfulness.
What does the program Cost: $9,000 includes 30 transferable college course units, mentoring, apprenticeships, weekly special events, and the experience of a lifetime. The value of the academic units alone carries the average value of over $30,000 if the same units are taken at a Christian university.
What about the Academics: The 30 units are officially granted by the regionally accredited Colorado Christian University for the highest level of transferability. Even though this is a gap year, we will engage in academic discussions, writings, speeches, and projects that will keep the student on track for graduation in four years.
Courses: Old Testament, New Testament, Philosophy, English Composition, Personal Finance, Traditional Forms of Art, Speech, Theology/Apologetics, Foundations of Business, and Personal Health.