Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Ivy League schools are considered to be the most prestigious of all colleges in the United States. These schools are primarily located in the Northeastern part of the country. There are eight total colleges that are considered to be Ivy League.

These schools are Brown, Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, and Columbia universities and the University of Pennsylvania. Of all institutions of higher learning, these elite schools are considered to be the most outstanding and the most sought-after in terms of acceptance and graduation.


How Christians Started the Ivy League

The FORERUNNER

By Editorial Staff
Published April 6, 2008



Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth – all owe their origins to the gospel.

Probably no segment of American society has turned out a greater number of illustrious graduates than New England’s Ivy League. Labels like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, still carry their own mystique and a certain aura of elitism and prestige.

Yet perhaps it would surprise most to learn that almost every Ivy League school was established primarily to train ministers of the gospel – and to evangelize the Atlantic seaboard.

Harvard, 1638

It only took eighteen years from the time the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock until the Puritans, who were among the most educated people of their day, founded the first and perhaps most famous Ivy League school. Their story, in brief, is etched today in an entry way to Harvard Yard:

“After God had carried us safely to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government; one of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advance learning, and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.”

Harvard College’s first presidents and tutors insisted that there could be no true knowledge or wisdom without Jesus Christ, and but for their passionate Christian convictions, there would have been no Harvard.

Harvard’s “Rules and Precepts adopted in 1646 included the following essentials: “Every one shall consider the main end of his life and studies to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life. Seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, every one shall seriously by prayer in secret seek wisdom of Him. Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that they be ready to give an account of their proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of languages and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths….”

According to reliable calculations, 52 percent of the 17th century Harvard graduates became ministers!

Yale, 1701

By the turn of the century Christians in the Connecticut region launched Yale as an alternative to Harvard. Many thought Harvard too far away and too expensive, and they also observed that the spiritual climate at Harvard was not what it once had been.

Princeton, 1746

This school, originally called “The College of New Jersey,” sprang up in part from the impact of the First Great Awakening. It also retained its evangelical vigor longer than any other Ivy League school. In fact, Princeton’s presidents were evangelical until at least the turn of the Twentieth Century, as also many of the faculty.

Dartmouth, 1754

A strong missionary thrust launched this new school in New Hampshire. Its royal charter, signed by King George of England, specified the school’s intent to reach the Indian tribes, and to educate and Christianize English youth as well. Eleazar Wheelock, a close friend of evangelist George Whitefield, secured the charter.

Columbia, William and Mary, Rutgers, Brown & UPenn

The first president of New York’s Columbia University, first known as “King’s College,” at one time served as a missionary to America under the English-based “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.”

The Church of England established the College of William and Mary, near today’s colonial Williamsburg.

Dutch Reformed revivalists founded Queen’s College (later Rutgers University) in New Jersey.

Brown University originated with the Baptist churches scattered on the Atlantic seaboard.

With the exception of the University of Pennsylvania, every collegiate institution founded in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War was established by some branch of the Christian Church.

Even at UPenn, however, an evangelist played a prominent part. When Philadelphia churches denied revivalist George Whitefield access to their pulpits, forcing him to preach in the open, some of Whitefield’s admirers, among them Benjamin Franklin, decided to erect a building to accommodate the great crowds that wanted to hear him.

The structure they built became the first building of what is now the University of Pennsylvania, and a statue of Whitefield stands prominently on that campus today.

Though the Ivy League schools eventually turned secular, they fed into the mainstream of society in those earlier days a great army of graduates who could claim Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, and who left a strong impact on our nation.

Their presidents and their faculties helped to set a high spiritual tone, and at times their campuses in turn felt the impact of revival. The educators of early America understood that the moral climate of its schools, colleges and universities would shape its future generations, and could ultimately decide the course of the nation.

Reprinted from The Rebirth of America, published by the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation.

See also: The Boston Awakening

Rose42

I never would have guessed.

Thanks for the info.

bahmer

Very good information Zemirah thanks for the information.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Having read this years ago, - that our colleges were built to educate young ministers, I was surprised to see a post by Radiance3 earlier today, claiming the Catholics had established the Ivy League schools in the 1600s, so an online search brought up a page of info. that verified what I thought I knew...

Love it when that happens.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Thanks, Bahmer,

It's sad though, to compare what those universities are teaching today, in comparison with their intended purpose.

How far have we fallen as a nation.

bahmer

I am sure that somehow in her mind it is because we stole the scriptures from some Roman Catholic Church somewhere and all of those schools are somehow Roman Catholic and that we are all liars and that Peter is the head of the Catholic Church etc. etc. etc..

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

That sounds about right, Bahmer,

That is what I expect to read whenever I run across her quote again.

It had a "how great we Catholics are" theme to it.

bahmer

I really do worry about Doc110 because his anger is so intense all of the time I am afraid that he will end up in Purgatory with his twin sister if he is not careful and if that is the case I don't know if they have enough relatives with money to get them out of jail sorry purgatory in time.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Learned this as a kid but can't recall if it was in church or school. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Hi Peewee,

I read it years ago, but couldn't remember where either.

I had also read that the high school curriculum in the U.S. demanded students take Greek and Hebrew, principally for the purpose of being able to study the Bible, in its original languages...

The fact that these very early communities had as a top priority the use of their funds and work effort to build establishments of higher learning primarily geared to produce "men of the cloth," i.e., ministers of the Word of God, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, clearly demonstrates how the will, focus, and values of this nation's citizens has changed during the six or so generations since.

I just took this info off the internet.

(Begin Quote) The typical curriculum of a public grammar school in 18th-century America:

It consisted of language, because it is the key to understanding antiquity, which is key to civic virtue. There was an emphasis on Latin, Greek, and Hebrew for languages.

Subjects included Logic, Philosophy, Theology, and Math.

Typical college entrance requirements and curricula in the 18th century:

1. Be an expert in Latin and Greek authors.
2. Take Virgil and Tully's orations and turn them into English, into true Latin, and translate any Greek into Latin and English. (End Quote)

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

The education of the founding fathers would blow most people's mind. So would an eighth-grade final exam in the mid-1800s.

We are certainly not evolving but devolving. We have no clue how to recreate most ancient structures. Those pyramids are showing up everywhere. No telling how many are under the ocean.

Personally, I think the credit goes to fallen angels and their offspring. Not buying the alien idea at all. I think that's what they are doing in Antartica, looking for ancient cities, technology, gold, and weapons. Maybe even flash frozen giants.

Hope you are doing well and warm enough. Don't always comment but always read your posts. Not much to comment on, your foundation is rock solid and posts are truthful. Or that we agree and one of us isn't needed, ha.

Hope you had a thankful Thanksgiving and hope you have a Christ-centered Christmas and a Prosperous New Year with good health and peace!

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Peewee, you're always needed as your comments and experiences are unique to yourself, and some reader will benefit from reading what you think.

Every member of the Body of Christ has a God-given purpose.

Remember, we each receive different gifts, as the Holy Spirit chooses them for us, so we need you.

I'm always cold in the wintertime, thank you for your concern. I rarely go out, and never without first dressing like an eskimo.

Ice skating and snow ball fights were great in my youth.

You're right, I believe, regarding the alien concept; they may have been here when the earth was young, before Noah's flood, when the earth was protected from the sun's rays, and plants, animals and humans could grow to enormous size, but they disappeared thousands of year ago.

Other than guardian angels, who protect believers from danger, but aren't here to socialize,
I believe we're alone in our universe, except for God and the Holy Spirit, and that suits me.


I hope your Christmas is one of joy, also, with your favorite people, food and relaxation.