Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, APRIL 30
Shalom Bible Seminary (SBS) of Sechü Zubza, under Kohima district, conducted their 17th commencement exercises on April 29. Dr. Atsi Dolie, executive director of the Angami Baptist Church Council was the guest of honor for the event.
38 students graduated in Master of Divinity, while 16 students graduated in Bachelor of Theology. Besides Nagaland, the students comprised those from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Myanmar and even from Thailand.
Shalom Bible Seminary was established on 8th October, 1996, by the Angami Baptist Church Council. The seminary has students coming from all the northeastern states and other states including Jharkhand, West Bengal and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
There are also students from countries such as Bhutan, South Korea, Nepal, Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar and China.
Addressing the graduates on the day, the ABCC executive director Atsi Dolie, said that they had been called out by God to serve him. He urged them to give their best to spread the gospel to the unreached.
“Our calling is much more than a social service. It’s more a humanitarian service,” Dolie said. He said that the graduating theologians will now have to engage in a ‘very serious business’, one that is ‘life or death’ of human souls.
Suffering has a place in the proclamation of Gospel, he told the students. They must be ready to suffer, and at the same time, guard and communicate the Gospel.
“We are given the responsibility to preserve the purity of the gospel. Our duty is to guard the gospel, to communicate the gospel and to suffer for the gospel, if needed be,” Dolie remarked.
The church leaders also went on to say that “theologians have no liberty to alter the substance of the message of God.” He also reminded them to ‘always be on the watch’, adding that the future of Christianity would be depending a lot on their performances.
“We must fulfill our duty to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said in encouragement to the theologians who will now be venturing out to all the parts of the world to spread the Gospel.
