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Christianity Today, November, 2007 |

Dispensational Dustup

Student dismissed from leadership for 'potentially divisive' beliefs.

Sarah Pulliam | posted 10/10/2007 09:00AM

Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, removed a senior as student ministries director because of theological views that some at the college called "hyper-dispensational."

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Joshua Strelecki

Posted: October 23, 2007 12:00 AM

Gilbert I never called God a liar in fact I take Him at His Word. Dispensation is not just a period of time that is where your understanding is lacking. Also, to respond to the comment about not getting the whole James written to Israel read James 1:1 then you might understand. Thank you Vanessa for having a soft heart to the Word of God and realizing the Body of Christ is not 12 Tribes such as Israel, that right there will help you grow in your faith. I never even preached or talked to anyone about my position at my school, besides my roommates and best friend. They then heard it about my "potentially divisive beliefs" that don't change my position or character in Christ but strengthen and grow them, they then decided to remove me before the school year.

Jim Maier A man Christ died for so we could be set free

Posted: October 16, 2007 11:09 AM

Hear what the Word of the Lord says in 2 Timothy 3:1-5; "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. Jesus is coming back soon, are we ready for His return? If you are not ashamed of Jesus pass this on to everyone you know. In Christ's Love, A man Christ died for so we could be set free. Jim Maier

Raymond Takashi Swenson

Posted: October 11, 2007 3:37 PM

If I understand this story correctly, some people who are considered Evangelical Christians reject the Epistle of James as "applying to them". While this is considered inconsistent with the particular college's statement of beliefs, it does not exclude them from being considered Christians. On the other hand, I, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is considered "not Christian" because I believe that God has given scripture in addition to the Bible, even while I accept James and all of the Old and New Testaments as scripture and don't try to escape the obligation to live according to part of God's word by simply erasing it from scripture. If you can erase scripture and still be a Christian, why can't you accept more scripture and still be a Christian? Especially if the additional scripture reaffirms that Christ is the Son of God and the resurrected Redeemer of mankind? Who gets to censor God?

Dave	Posted: October 11, 2007 2:42 PM

Every Christians holds "potentially divisive" beliefs. It appears nobody has charged him with actually causing division. I would venture to say that Strelecki could and would sign the schools generic statement of faith. Instead, they have declared there are other unwritten doctrines he must hold to. I hope if they decide on a "screening" method it is published openly for those who consider attending there. Religious schools should have standards for leadership, but they should be clear ahead of time.

Colby

Posted: October 11, 2007 11:39 AM

The school is not saying that Strelecki is not a Christian or a bad person. They are saying that his theology does not match the school's theology, and therefore it's not appropriate for him to be in leadership. That is a perfectly defensible position, especially if someone is using their privileged position of leadership to teach something contrary to the stated doctrine of the particular institution. We attended a hyper-dispensational church for a time, disagreed with the very same issues mentioned in this article, but still were able to teach - as long we we didn't teach that the church's position was patently wrong. The leadership was fully aware of our theological differences. The topic of dispensationalism is boring if it's left in the classroom, but the theology does affect praxis and determines which passages are applicable to Christians in the 21st Century. THAT'S significant - not theological bickering, but "What part of God's Word applies directly to me?". Big stakes.

Anonymous

Posted: October 11, 2007 4:57 AM

the church began when Jesus said: Matthew 16:18 "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." This 'founded' the church upon Peter's brand of faith. Peter's faith was to be a foundation. Pentecost grew out of Peter's faith and his speech to those assembled at pentecost: The church was added to out of Peter's "work" to spread the good news. Without the faith and work of Peter and the annointing work of the Spirit there would be o church. So the intellectuals can sit and scratch their heads and number-crunch as much as they want, it still remains that the church was build before pentecost and and is rooted in salvation and work: For the LORD laboured 6 days to create the world and the intellectuals want to smear the value of adding upon the joy of the Lord through diligent freedom and everlasting faith and hope.

Vanessa

Posted: October 11, 2007 3:19 AM

New American Standard Bible (©1995) James 1:1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, *To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad*: Greetings. Why would anyone NOT think James was written specifically to Israel (and not the Church), when that's exactly what the Word of God says? James was written before the Church ever existed, and no mention was made of Gentiles. The Church never had 12 tribes, let alone 12 dispersed tribes like *Israel* did. "From James, TO the tribes" - seems pretty straightforward to me.

Cleaving to Orthodoxy

Posted: October 10, 2007 6:47 PM

There is an old trend in many parts of the church, that counts intellectual orthodoxy much higher than true faith. The orthodoxy in question is usually defined, as "not computers" puts it, by the intellectual Sanhedrin of our day. As a whole, the church seems incredibly preoccupied with defining who is in and who is out, usually on the basis of stated intellectual belief. The terms most commonly thrown around these days are "Biblical" vs. "Unbiblical". While I understand and agree that the church must constantly seek the Truth as revealed to us through Christ, I have real problems with our resorting to an artificial yardstick of biblical orthodoxy. Being labelled "unbiblical" has become, in effect, a means of stifling debate and criticism, and of squelching intellectual engagement. The real problem is that our standards of orthodoxy are not (and I would argue cannot be) ripped verbatim from the pages of scripture. Our orthodoxy, our biblical yardstick, is only as good as human wisdom.

we are not computers but friends

Posted: October 10, 2007 5:11 PM

I am horrified at the idea that someone who is developing (hopefully) as a disciple of Jesus can be removed as a leader because his understanding is not word-perfect as the intellectual Sanhedrin of the day requires. Peter the disciple of Jesus often got it wrong, badly, but ultimately got the faith and love right. I would be bold enough to say that the intellectuals of today who preach a faith-equals-salvation doctrine do not understand the type of faith required and that they have a purely cerebral understanding of faith. Their faith is a kind of intellectual computer-like "works". But the faith that saves is when you have a junior wanting to adopt a mantle of leadership you have long-suffering patience and kindness towards him waiting for his love-work with Jesus to advance before you cut-him-off and then when you cut him off (or he cuts himself off) you reinstate him like Peter was. Unless he's immoral and perverse in his covetousgreed or sexuality. Then have nothing to do with him

John G. Pierce

Posted: October 10, 2007 1:06 PM

Agreed, there must be more to this story. As for Gilbert's comments, he didn't read the article carefully. Northwestern didn't remove Josh as a student, only as a student leader. And Josh, according to this, never called God a "liar." Apparently, he accepts the Bible as the Word of God, but interprets it differently in some spots. Remember that even the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, dismissed James as a "gospel of straw" for its seeming emphasis on works. Josh doesn't seem to go quite that far, but only to believe that James was addressed to Israel -- which doesn't make sense to me, but is hardly heretical. But the university needs to address exactly what it expects of students, especially in leadership positions.

Gilbert

Posted: October 10, 2007 12:42 PM

It is excellent to see Northwestern College in St. Paul have the courage to remove anyone (Josh Strelecki in this case) from their school when that person says that GOD is a liar, as Josh obviously did. So Josh may I recomend that you get your 'heart' rigth with GOD first and then fill your mind with the Word of GOD. I'm all for freedom of speech when telling the truth. Another issue is that we use "ages" "years" "centuries" etc. to express periods of time. So I'm surprised when I meet a religious "simpleton" who doesn't understand that dispensation just means a period of time.

Doug	Posted: October 10, 2007 12:36 PM


I find the whole dispensational thing a crashing bore--yawn; however, I strongly advocate for any Christian group to screen potential leaders for problematic beliefs. One has only to look at the Episcopal Church (perhaps I should say EpiscoBaal Church) to see the results of a failure in this area. Strong churches have strong beliefs...top down.

Chris

Posted: October 10, 2007 12:30 PM

We perhaps do not know the whole story, either. While I am not a dispensationalist, the question arises as to whether or not the student was espousing his beliefs as part of his elected position. His beliefs obviously go against the doctrine of the school, but students do not have to agree with the doctrine of the school. However, he was in a position of leadership at the school, and if he was using that position to espouse his unBiblical beliefs, then there might be grounds for removal, if the school has policies in place about student leadership positions. As student ministries director at that school, he should have been focused on student ministries. If he was focused on spreading his theology, then there is a problem. Otherwise, he should not have been removed. My gut tells me that there is more to the story.

John	Posted: October 10, 2007 12:00 PM

"I think there will be discussion about how close to doctrinal positions of the college students need to be," (Dean) Paulson said. Scary, "1984" type stuff! While I am in no way a dispensationalist, to remove a student at a college from a leadership position over a theological disagreement is pretty chilling on the whole idea of free thinking and inquiry that one would HOPE to encourage in college students. Conservatives that rightly condemn "speech codes" on secular campuses should be horrified by this sort of action at a Christian college...

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