RBC Alumni Spotlight: Isaac Fox
Posted On February 26, 2025
Isaac Fox is an RBC alumnus who is continuing his education at Westminster Seminary California.
We recently asked Isaac to share how his time at RBC helped prepared him for seminary and what advice he would give current RBC students who are considering attending seminary after graduation.
1. What did you take away from your time at RBC that has impacted your studies in seminary?
Education is always formative. As an education in the Reformed classical tradition, Reformation Bible College supplied me with more than a liberal arts education. Now that I’m in seminary, let me outline a few of the specific reasons I’m grateful for my time at RBC.
RBC’s curriculum, faculty, and students presented me with a living theological vision of the church and society which the Lord has created and upholds. This vision is shaped by the fundamental reality that all truth, goodness, and beauty is God’s truth, goodness, and beauty— and RBC formed me, as any classical education in the Reformed tradition ought, with a moral and spiritual character reflective of this great reality.
I cannot overstate just how profoundly this has helped me in my seminary studies. Successful seminary education is more than merely a matter of reading, writing, and knowing how to argue with others using Anselmian exactitude. Seminary is meant to be a time of preparation where one is steeped in the gospel and equipped to be a worthy instrument in the hand of the Lord in service to the church. “It is,” as B.B. Warfield—that Lion of Old Princeton—observed, “the business of the seminary to give him this knowledge of the gospel. That is the real purpose of the seminary.” Throughout my time at RBC, the gospel was consistently set before us in all its life-giving primacy—whether it was in my Old and New Testament survey, biblical theology, or systematic theology courses.
Having four years of study at RBC also helped me to develop critical categories and skills that enabled me to go deeper with my seminary education. Seminary is a rich time of focused study, and there are a myriad of ways in which the Lord can use these times to grow you and your family. Yet, those three to four years of preparation go by quickly. For many, seminary may be the first time that they are introduced to difficult books, write their thoughts in a structured and compelling way, or gain opportunities to interact meaningfully with church history before being sent out to feed Christ’s sheep.
Another way RBC helped me was by giving me categories to understand the world in which we live and the churches that we serve. Even with a seemingly narrow focus on theology, the curriculum at RBC is remarkably holistic—and I can honestly say that it holistically prepared me for my seminary studies. In some respects, the classes I took at RBC in systematic, biblical, and historical theology gave me a greater breadth of exposure to terms, topics, figures, and concepts than I would get in seminary. You can cover much more material in a four-year course of study than you can in most American seminaries. I don’t say this to degenerate the rich quality of a seminary education. Rather, this is to say that this freed me to go deeper with my seminary studies than I suspect I could have gone without that broad foundation. It enabled me, as one RBC professor encouraged, to dig deep wells from which I could draw water for Christ’s people.
RBC supplied me with answers for the skeptic, encouragement for the doubtful, and an appreciation for the profound complexities of suffering in this life. Sometimes we simply must sit in recognition of the fact that God is God and we are not. We live in a world that is in desperate need for the waters of life which only Christ can supply. My classes in history and the great works of the Western canon exposed me to the thinkers and ideas of the great conversation that has been happening for millennia. The great history of ideas, the social and developmental concepts, which swirled in the background during the eras of Homer, Dante, Pascal, and Nietzsche are, in many respects, the foundation to the world which we now inhabit as late modern people—and the world our spouses, children, churches, and neighbors also inhabit. These classes gave me an appreciation for the kinds of people I will meet in the world; they gave me an appreciation for those whose experiences and life questions are frankly outside the scope of my own limited experience.
Perhaps most significantly, my professors at RBC and their families modeled for me what it meant to be godly churchmen and churchwomen—what it actually looks like to love Christ and His people. I can remember Dr. Mathison reminding us over and over again in those wood-paneled classrooms that mere knowledge divorced from love for Christ and His people is just a clanging gong—it’s worthless. There are, of course, many godly college professors in the world who seek to instill these values in their students, but my classmates and I who’ve gone on to seminary from RBC can all attest that love for Christ and His people; love for what is good, true, and beautiful; were impressed upon us in a remarkable ways through a “living curriculum.” Hardly a day goes by where I don’t ask myself “What would Dr. Tweeddale do?” (WWDTD). I draw upon my relationships with these godly men and women daily.
In one sense, seminary is pretty straightforward. If you spend your time diligently, you learn what material you’re expected to read slowly and what to read quickly. You write carefully and research attentively, and if you laminate your Greek and Hebrew flashcards (so the tears roll off more easily), you’ll be fine. You’ll probably graduate with decent grades and be fairly well-equipped to pass any of the preparatory phases of ordination for pastoral ministry or any number of other ministry opportunities. These aren’t unimportant goals, and an RBC education can prepare you to do all of them—and excel. But they aren’t primary.
Because of my time at RBC, I’ve been able to approach my seminary studies confidently, to read, reflect, and communicate God’s truth, goodness, and beauty in a more compelling way. Yet, having had an RBC education doesn’t automatically mean that I’m ready to complete reading and writing assignments at seminary or pass my classes in Greek and Hebrew since I was able to take those classes already. It means that I’m able to go so much deeper and draw so much more out of my time in seminary, and—God willing—have so much more to offer in service to Christ and His church.
2. What advice would you give a student who is looking to further their studies at seminary?
If you are considering seminary, allow me to offer some brief words of advice:
First, remember, as one theologian put it, that “Jesus died for the sins of Christians too.” Before seminary and in seminary, remember that you must know Christ’s goodness shown to you in the gospel before you can share it with others. Remember the gospel.
Second, remember to stoke the fires of your affection for Jesus. It’s easy for us to neglect our love for Christ, especially when life gets busy. Those of us in any kind of theological education often fall into the traps of thinking that education is a shortcut to a mature faith or that our affections are engaged because our minds are active. Knowledge is good, but without affections our hearts can become shriveled and that emptiness can become all the more pronounced. Our knowledge of God gives our hearts space to grow and allows our love for Him to increase. Tend to your heart.
Third, if you aren’t already, make regular physical activity and bodily health a priority. This might seem strange since most of what I’ve discussed so far has pertained to intangible things like study and worship. Yet God has created us as a real psychosomatic union. Your studies and effectiveness in ministry can be impeded by your physical well-being in profound ways. Tend to your body.
Fourth, become fascinated by all kinds of people. Recognize that every believer who surrounds you in the church is one for whom Christ is not ashamed. Take note of the strangers you walk past in the grocery store or at the mall. Think about them when you read books about different kinds of people. Do what you can to look up from your own life every once in a while and consider the needs of the world around you. Develop a love for your neighbor as yourself, remembering how God in Christ has loved you.
Lastly, find opportunities to enjoy things that aren’t theological or academic. Become as well-rounded of a person that you can. It will help you in life and ministry in ways that may surprise you. Love the Lord and have fun.
Are you interested in learning theology for life at RBC? You can earn a Certificate in Theology, an Associate of Arts in Theology, or a Bachelor of Arts in Theology with our affordable on-campus degree programs. Contact our Admissions team with any questions.