Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul recently announced plans to begin undergraduate programs at Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies in Sanford, Florida.

According to the press release, the founding of this Bible college establishes a premier center for discipleship and for in-depth instruction and fellowship in central Florida, united around Ligonier’s core ministry commitments.

“Ligonier Academy is a Bible college for the next generation that offers a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies, a Bachelor of Arts in Theological Studies, and an Associate of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies,” says founder and president, R.C. Sproul.

“I am convinced that if you ground students in biblical truth at the college level, it will capture their thinking for the rest of their lives and enrich the church, and enrich the culture in which we live.”

Ligonier Academy desires to welcome students with a range of educational goals. These would include those who want to lay a foundation for seminary or graduate school. Others may seek to prepare for further undergraduate work by first laying a foundation in biblical and theological studies, while others may choose to complete their college education begun at another institution.

Dr. Fowler White, vice president for academic affairs, explains the academic focus. “Our degree programs are designed to give graduates a thorough knowledge of the Bible, a firm grounding in theology, and a conversance with the classic works of literature, philosophy, and music that shaped the intellectual world within which the great theologians of the church lived and wrote.”

Faculty is expected to include Dr. R.C. Sproul, Dr. Fowler White, Dr. Keith Mathison, and Rev. Michael Morales.

Prior to joining Ligonier Ministries in 2008, White served as a Professor and Administrator at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, an institution founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy and operated by the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. He also is a PCA Teaching Elder.

Dr. Mathison is director of curriculum development for Ligonier Ministries and an associate editor of Ligonier’s Tabletalk magazine. Most recently he served as the assistant editor of The Reformation Study Bible.

Morales has recently transferred his ordination credentials to the PCA. He is a graduate of Knox Theological Seminary and remained as an instructor there after graduation. He had served a number of years as pastor of a
Christian church, but left that fellowship as he studied Reformed theology. He is completing a PhD in the Old Testament at Trinity College in the UK.

This core faculty will be joined by other teachers, to include Dr. Paul Helm, Dr. Stephen Nichols, Dr. Duncan Rankin, and Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr.

Helm, who may be best known for his 1982 Banner of Truth publication, Calvin and the Calvinists, is a long time professor of history with focus on Calvin, Edwards and others. He has been a Teaching Fellow at Regent College in Canada since 2005 and also taught at Highland Theological College since 2007 and was the J.I. Packer Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Regent College from 2001-2005.

Stephen J. Nichols has beena professor at Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School. He earned a Ph.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary. He has written several books on church history, including works on Augustine, Edwards, and the Reformers.

Duncan Rankin is a PCA Teaching Elder who, until recently, had pastored Christ Church, Presbyterian in Evans, Georgia and the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He holds a PhD from New College, Edinburgh and taught at Reformed Seminary in Jackson, MS for a decade.

Sproul, Jr. is a teaching elder of Saint Peter Presbyterian Church (a congregation in the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches) and is founder, chairman, and teacher of the Highlands Ministries (formerly Highlands Study Center), both in the Bristol, Virginia area.

Ligonier Academy states its commitment to the historic Reformed faith as expressed in the solas of the Reformation and in the consensus of confessional standards from the Reformation era. The institution’s doctrinal commitments also include endorsements of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and the Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The student body of the Academy is expected to represent a broad range of evangelical affiliations. Ligonier Academy is a natural expansion from the ministry’s nearly four decades of teaching Christians to think deeply, critically, and obediently about every aspect of their faith.