Promoters of Doubt or Builders of Faith?

Protestant theological seminaries and church-related colleges were founded to train the Christian ministry and laity. Their express purpose was to inculcate faith in their students and to fit them for service in the Church and for Christian living. But the seminaries and church-related colleges are not always carrying out this purpose. Rather than being builders of faith as they were founded to be, they are too often promoters of doubt and disbelief.

One of the greatest shocks in my life came when I transferred from a state college to a church-related college. The main reason for my transfer was my desire to study the Bible and liberal arts in a Christian atmosphere. I soon discovered, however, that the church-related college may be more critical of the Bible and Christian theology than the state college. In fact, I gained the impression that the liberal minister who taught me philosophy was trying to outdo the agnostic and atheist, although this was doubtless not his deliberate intention.

Later on when I graduated from college and enrolled in a liberal seminary, I discovered that the seminary was even more critical of the Bible than either the state college or the church-related college. Every Christian doctrine that I held and still hold dear was criticized and discarded by some of my liberal seminary professors.

The creation accounts in Genesis were neatly discredited as being the work of two authors who were labeled “J and P.” Adam’s fall and the doctrine of original sin were charged to the psychology of the ancient Jew. The account of Noah and the flood was shrewdly undermined by pointing to the fact that the Babylonians also had a flood story. The Red Sea’s opening for the children of Israel to escape from the Egyptians was said to be merely a legendary explanation of Israel’s escape from Egyptian bondage. The account of the sun’s standing still for Joshua was said to be an error on the part of the author of the Book of Joshua. Jonah in the belly of a whale was relegated to ancient mythology. The three Hebrews in the fiery furnace and Daniel in the lion’s den were labeled Maccabean propaganda. The virgin birth of Jesus was laid to early Christian piety. The miracles Jesus did were either called outright lies or charged to Jesus’ psychological power. The crucifixion of Jesus was said to be only Roman execution and not the atonement for the sins of the world. Jesus was said to be not the Lamb of God but just a great moral teacher. And his resurrection was termed a hallucination of the disciples or a carryover from mystery religions.

This was the way the Christian religion was taught to me in the church-related college and seminary. The Bible was treated as though it were an ancient conservative Jewish newspaper, unreliable and colored by ancient prejudices. And all this was taught, not by atheists or agnostics, but by so-called liberal Christian ministers who professed to be followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

After six years of this kind of liberal Christian education, I received two degrees and was turned loose on a church. The Lord have mercy on those faithful Christians in that first church where I was the pastor! When I left the seminary, I did not believe in the Bible; I did not believe that the blood of Jesus washed away my sins; I did not believe that the Church is a divine institution; I did not believe in heaven or hell. In short, I did not believe in anything that could not be supported by human reason—that is, my own reason. And the sad part of it all was that I was proud of my critical attitude; after all, was I not a product of a liberal Christian education?

My sermons and addresses were filled with liberal teaching. I never preached on the Atonement, the Resurrection, or any of the other cardinal Christian doctrines. I suppose one could say that my sermons were more or less lectures on ethics. After the first few months of my pastorate, my parishioners got tired of listening to me and stayed home, and even I got bored with my essays on ethics. And then toward the end of my first pastorate I was re-enlightened, thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit. Now I fully understand the Psalmist when he says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee” (Ps. 51:10–13).

After my re-enlightenment, my preaching changed from that cold lecturing to warm proclamation of the good news of God. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is the news so good that it must be true. And this I began to preach and am still preaching.

Thus, my experience in a liberal church-related college and a liberal seminary was of little benefit to me as a Christian minister. Moreover, my experience was and is shared by many other young people. If someone were to make a survey of all the graduates and students of liberal Protestant schools, he might be surprised to discover that the majority of them do not believe in the cardinal doctrines of the Church.

Since these liberal Christian institutions have become arms of the world and sow doubt and disbelief in the Bible and its teachings, the question might well be asked, What justification do they have for existence? Could not a private secular college or state college do what they are doing? Could not an atheist or agnostic do even better at inculcating doubt and disbelief?

But a more important question is, What can Christians do to rid themselves of the liberalism that has infected so many of their colleges and seminaries? There are two things that they can do. First, they can look carefully at the present faculty and prospective faculty of their colleges and seminaries. Secondly, they can withdraw support from all colleges and seminaries that tear down the faith. Christians have the right to know what the faculties of their church schools teach. Therefore they ought to demand that each person who teaches in a church-related college or seminary believe in the authority and reliability of the Holy Bible.

Many liberal Christian colleges and seminaries are no longer arms of Christ and the Church; they have become arms of the world, out-questioning the agnostic and out-doubting the atheist. They are so busy trying to reconcile the Gospel to a doubt-oriented culture that they have lost sight of the fact that the Church is not of the world. The task of the church-related college and seminary is not to make the foolishness of the Cross reasonable to the natural man; their task is rather to build an informed faith in the hearts of the young people who sit in their classes. And they will fulfill their task when they heed the words of the Apostle Paul in the first chapter of First Corinthians: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.… Hath not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

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