The Name, Seal & Motto of
PROVIDENCE
Our Name
The name given to Providence Christian College speaks boldly of God’s wonderful provision in the past and our trust in His goodness to provide for the future of this college. God’s Word, “providence” means that our sovereign God controls, upholds, and rules all things so that nothing simply happens to us by chance. As one of our Reformed confessions states, as a result of God’s providence, “we can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love” (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 10).
Our name also demands that we remember His sovereign care every day in the future. Whenever we stop trusting His providence, we will fail. Whenever we begin trusting in ourselves, we will fall. It is our prayer that Providence Christian College, and all those associated with it, will always promote its name, trusting in the gracious care of our Heavenly Father.
Our Seal
The Providence seal represents, in symbols and in words, the context and mission of Providence Christian College. The imagery of the seal represents the college’s context both literally and figuratively. It is an artist’s rendering of our literal, local context: the view north from our campus to the San Gabriel Mountains. Providence students hike in these mountains and have summited the tallest of them—Mt. San Antonio, or “Mt. Baldy”—many times, in the warmth of the California sunshine. Beyond the literal, however, these elements represent Providence’s spiritual context. They are suggestive of God’s providence coming down from above and His strength supporting and sustaining us. Together they form a picture of the grace and power that combine mysteriously and wondrously in the person of God. The other elements in the seal convey Providence’s mission in this context.
The book icon at the bottom of the seal contains the date of the college’s founding in Latin (MMV for 2005). The traditional outer ring contains the college’s Latin motto, In Christo omnia nova. The fact that both are rendered in Latin is indicative of the college’s link to the old and venerable western collegiate tradition, in which Latin long served as the language of the schools. The college’s motto, In Christo omnia nova, when directly translated from the Latin, means simply “in Christ all things new.”
Our Motto
In Christo omnia nova serves as the motto for Providence Christian College. Directly translated from the Latin it means simply “in Christ all things new,” though there is a lot packed into this little phrase without a verb. It derives biblical warrant from several passages in the New Testament that describe Jesus Christ’s reconciling work in the world (II Cor. 5:17; I Cor. 15:22; Col. 1:15-23; Rev. 21:5), and it serves as a constant reminder both of the work that Providence is about and the One who is accomplishing that work. At the core of our mission stands the fact that God is reconciling this fallen world to Himself through the death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ. This work begins with his redemption of sinners like us, and–in His time and by His power–extends to the restoration of a world that groans under the weight of our sin. At Providence, we are equipping students to know and trust in Christ’s redemptive work in their own lives, to embrace the truths of His word well-articulated in the Reformed confessions, and to work out the implications of those truths for every dimension of life as they move on to faithfully pursue their callings in this world.
