By Gurgen Sahakyan
Staff Writer
Every believer’s testimony is highlighted by one miracle: the sinner being dead in their transgressions but being saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The President of The Master’s University, Dr. Abner Chou, experienced this grace of God in his life, and since then the Lord has raised up a great servant for His own glory.
Having received the blessing of growing up in a Christian home, Dr. Chou had heard the gospel throughout his childhood. Due to his parents faithfully preaching the gospel to him as a child, he began to understand it.
“The Lord called me to Himself at a young age, I knew and I understood the gospel, that I was a sinner and I was terrified of God’s wrath,” Chou says.
Having understood the weight of his sin, he recognized his need for a Savior.
“I knew that the only security and the only salvation was to believe in Christ, that He died and He took my place,” Chou says.
Dr. Chou was left with no option but to call upon the name of the Lord, and be saved. Having tasted the gift of salvation, he had begun his journey as a follower of Christ. At this moment, the Lord began a good work in him that He will bring to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.
Growing up in the church, he was adept at memorizing Bible verses and answering Bible trivia questions in the children’s ministry. However, with much knowledge came much pride, and much ignorance to the Word of God.
“I could say the words of Scripture but I didn’t know what they communicated,” Chou says.
He viewed the Bible as “boring,” and thought that he knew everything there was to know about Scripture.
However, God is faithful to bring us to repentance. In middle and high school, Chou attended public school where he had to defend the Bible, and the Lord used that to humble him
“Soon it became very apparent that my unbelieving teachers knew the Bible better than I did,” Chou says.
At that point, he became determined to learn the Scriptures through the help of his mother.
As he began reading the books of James and Matthew, Dr. Chou was fascinated by the beauty and depth of the Word.
“At that moment, I began to just be so compelled by Scripture … Accompanying that was a realization of who God is,” Chou says.
He grew a love for the Bible and a willingness to learn what God had to say in His Word. He began to realize that the Bible is not about him, but it is about the Lord Jesus. He is the center of focus, not the sinner.
“When you start discovering things about Christ, that’s the most delightful subject,” Chou adds.
As he grew in his love for learning about the Bible and about his Lord, Abner Chou grew a desire to be a minister of the Word of God.
“All of that, the realization of the Word of God and the God of the Word, I just wanted to teach that to people, and that became the desire for ministry,” Chou says.
It was at this moment that he decided to attend The Master’s University, in order to learn about the Bible and to teach it to others.
Dr. Chou went on to become an alumnus of both The Master’s University and Seminary. He now serves as a pastor at Grace Community Church and is a professor at TMU and TMS, fulfilling his calling from the Lord to be a minister of the Word of God.
When asked, “What is one thing about Christ you want every student to know?” Dr. Chou explained his desire that we all learn who the true Christ is, that He is not the means to our end. Christ is not just the man who rescues us from hell, makes us feel better about ourselves, or helps us solve our problems.
“What we have to realize is that there’s no one greater than Christ, no one more central than Christ, no one more exalted than Christ,” he says “He is the perfection of all perfection. He is glorious, He is the King of kings, every knee will bow to Him. We are the means to His end… He is above everything… There’s no greater joy than what He bought for us.”
Praise the Lord for raising up a servant like Dr. Abner Chou. He is an example to all believers of someone who is willing to lay down his life for the Lord.
The TMU Mane 