|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WHATEVER
HAPPENED TO OUR BIBLE COLLEGES? PART V -
Philip P. Eapen |
 |
|
Author's webpage:
http://philip.eapen.googlepages.com
|
| |
"Now that you are here, you should brace
yourselves to encounter different views. You have come
in here with a certain set of views about the Bible, the
church, Christian mission, etc. A Bible College is a
place where every view that you hold will be jolted by
various other views. My only request is that you should
cultivate what I call intellectual honesty. When your
teachers or your friends, talk about a different view,
and if they succeed in proving their point, have the
honesty to accept the stronger view.”
Those were the words that greeted me in the Bible
college that I went to. I wish every Bible college in
India could say that to its students. I had an added
advantage. There were students from various
denominations in our college.
Unfortunately many Bible Colleges in India and abroad do
not encourage intellectual honesty or a spirit of
independent inquiry. There simply doesn’t exist any need
for intellectual honesty because students are exposed
just to one set of teachings and views—the views of
their church denomination or the views of the college’s
founder. Teachers in such colleges just parrot the views
of the church. No one is allowed to raise questions or
to differ from the established views.
Our churches too are to be blamed for this insularity to
anything new or different. Our pastors (and church
members), who are products of such Bible colleges,
advice their young people to keep away from new ideas!
“It is good to see you going off to a Bible colleges.
But see that you come back in one piece without loosing
your spirituality and your doctrinal positions!” If
students should go through theological education and
come out ‘unscathed’ and ‘unchanged’, then why send them
to a Bible college? I feel it is high time for us to put
an end to this deadly cycle of ignorance and
stubbornness.
Some Bible schools and colleges expose their students to
variant views on a given subject. However, students –
even the fiercely independent ones – are influenced by a
teacher’s views. If a teacher should dismiss every view
that contradicts his church’s or college’s official
view, the only lesson he will succeed in teaching his
students is how to have a closed mind. Shouldn’t our
teachers and students display an openness similar to
that demonstrated by the Stoics and Epicureans of Athens
who came to listen to Paul’s “new idea?” (Acts 17:18,19)
Shouldn’t we be like the Jews in Berea, searching the
Scriptures to reexamine our own long held views?
Teachers and students who dare to think out of the box
or hold variant views often do so in the comfort of
privacy. Many do not wish to upset the apple carts of
their church or college. Even if they are right in their
views, their views will either remain in their minds or
at the most in some academic publications, never to be
read by ordinary Christians. When thinking Christians
exile themselves to academic islands or when they lack
the courage and tact to speak up, they betray their Lord
and their high calling. They also forget their
obligation to edify the Church that pays for their long
years of study or teaching career. The Church is better
served when her teachings are refined from time to time
and not when her learned members defend some of her
untenable positions.
It disturbs me very much to see the ill effects of this
conspiracy of silence maintained by “learned”
theologians in our churches. On one hand, we spawn
seminaries and college. We send our best students to
learn, some even to the best Universities abroad. These
enlightened teachers and students are a tiny band at one
end of the spectrum. They try to interpret the
Scriptures faithfully according the best principles they
have been exposed to. The church scenario (at least
among the Pentecostals), on the other hand, is dominated
by ill-trained pastors and preachers whose sermons
showcase every bad style of interpretation. The learned
minority maintain a dignified silence. If they speak up,
they might lose whatever opportunity they get to preach
in these churches! Talk about opportunities to preach
and you are talking about opportunities to earn. Those
who dare to speak the truth in love are fewer than those
who are worldly wise.
This is why the Pentecostal and Brethren churches of our
land are continuing in their impoverished states. Even
the ‘best’ sermons that are televised are concoctions of
proof-texting (if ever they quote Scripture),
allegorical interpretations, ill-seated typologies, or
fables about ‘dispensations?’ Bible schools – an agent
that should bring in change – are failing in their
crucial task.
At such times as these, Bible colleges should hold our a
hope for change. But is it sad to note that instead of
becoming centres of free thought and intellectual
exploration, our colleges are comfortable with the
titles they have earned for the degree of intellectual
insulation that they have carefully cultivated. Mention
the name of a great Seminary in the US and you would
conjure up the image of a fortress—a fortress that
guards
Dispensationalism. Or talk about a College in Bangalore
and you know that you are referring to a bastion of
liberal theology. Why are Bible Colleges branded as
“liberal, ” “dispensational,” “reformed,” “Pentecostal,”
or “Fundamental Baptist?” I think it has to do with the
way they dig in their heels to defend one viewpoint or
the other. Once a college takes up or accepts such a
label, it is at a disadvantage when it comes to
free-thinking is concerned. We label ourselves with one
of these and other labels because we have “arrived”
finally at the pinnacle of all knowledge on a particular
subject.
I am not saying that a college shouldn’t have a written
statement of faith or hold a certain theological
viewpoint. On the other hand, I say that a college,
being a centre of learning, should demonstrate a
disposition of learning. How else can it infuse such a
disposition in its graduates? Now that I mentioned
“statements of faith,” let me also state that there is a
great need for a discernment in us to distinguish
between doctrines that form the nonnegotiable core of
the Christian faith and those teachings that are
otherwise. Our statements of faith should emphasise such
non-negotiable elements. At the same time, we must give
sufficient room for people to hold variant views on
lesser important teachings.
Over the centuries, the church has zealously guarded her
doctrine of Jesus Christ. We need to be crystal clear
about the identity and person of Jesus Christ. It is
therefore commendable when we include our basic
Christology in our statements of faith. But is it
absolutely unnecessary to include our view about
Daniel’s seventieth week into our statements of faith?
But that is what most colleges do!
Let us not forget that the modern Pentecostal movement
began in a Bible School in the US. A ‘new’ discovery
that glossolalia (speaking in new languages) is the sign
of Holy Spirit baptism took place in Charles Parham’s
Bible school in Topeka. Parham had assigned his students
to search the Scriptures to determine the visible sign
of Holy Spirit baptism. Who would have thought that a
seminary assignment could lead to such a large movement?
The charismatic movement too began in an atmosphere of
learning, in Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania (1966). It quickly spread to the University
of Notre Dame. It all started when a couple of people
were convinced about Holy Spirit baptism after they read
John Sherrill’s book, “They spoke with other tongues.”
An open mind to learn, willingness to read a book
written by someone outside your group, humility to
reexamine a teaching ... these can lead to earth-shaking
movements that change the course of history! (Concluded)
|
|
|
This page
is updated on June 23, 2009 |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
PRAISE THE ALMIGHTY
10 YEARS CELEBRATION
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
