While Anglican in foundation and governance, it has also trained Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists and others who are sympathetic to the evangelical ethos and theology of the college.

While the largest group studying in its four-year full-time undergraduate program is typically those preparing for Anglican ordained ministry, Moore has also trained other Christian workers.

[5] In the 1980s and 1990s these ideas were developed by Robinson's pupil, Graeme Goldsworthy, in a series of books, Gospel and Kingdom, According to Plan, and Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture.

[6] Biblical theology in this mode has been characteristic of the work done at Moore College since Robinson's time as vice principal.

Robinson was also influential in developing a doctrine of the church which in a distinctive way resisted the strongly ecumenical tone of the mid twentieth century.

A study of the terminology and contextual associations of 'church' in the Bible led Robinson to insist 'church' is a gathering, either fundamentally around Christ in heaven and instantiated throughout the world in local congregations.

[8] Such structures exist to support the local congregation in its life as a community of faithful men and women committed to the global gospel mission.

[citation needed] Thomas Hobbes Scott, the first Archdeacon of New South Wales (1825–29), shared his vision for a tertiary training college in the colony in the 1830 Report of the Church and Schools Corporation.

[10] With this vision in mind, one of the early settlers of the colony of New South Wales, Thomas Moore,[11] made provision in his will to leave a substantial portion of his considerable fortune[12] to found a college to train young men in 'the principles of the United Church of England and Ireland'.

After a theological controversy which, alongside a downturn in student enrollments, led to the dismissal of the principal of the day (T. E. Hill), the teaching activity of the college was suspended in 1888.

[14] The college began to grow in student numbers and influence, particularly under the important principalships of Nathaniel Jones (1897–1911) and later T. C. Hammond (1935–1953).

In 2017 a major new building was opened which houses, amongst other things, the Donald Robinson Library and Marcus Loane Hall.

By 1985 the Donald Robinson Library held 90,000 books[17] and it has since grown to contain close to 300,000 works including numerous manuscripts and other items of significance to Anglican, Australian and Evangelical history.

International guests who have contributed to the lecture series have included J. I. Packer, F. F. Bruce, D. A. Carson, Kenneth Kantzer, Henri Blocher, Mike Ovey, Ashley Null, Gerald Bray, Michael Horton, Kevin Vanhoozer, Carl Trueman and James Hely Hutchinson.

Also in the late 1970s, an annual school of theology began to be held which enabled faculty and graduates to explore subjects of interest and importance in the wider Christian community.

By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the college was preparing students for the Oxford and Cambridge Preliminary Examination for Holy Orders.

At the same time, from 1958 to 1986, around 200 students were prepared for the external Bachelor of Divinity degree of London University, tutored by the Moore College faculty.

Moore College has developed four academic and ministry centres alongside its mainstream academic program: In addition to these centres, the John Chapman Preaching Initiative is a network of activities designed to promote excellence in biblical expository preaching.