Our seminaries must stand under the Word of God

by   Jimmy Draper                                                                                                                                             Vol. XII, No. 5, May 1999

[Introduction: The following is excerpted from “The Ground of All Truth” by Dr. James T, Draper, Jr., president, LifeWay Christian Resources, printed in the Spring 1999 Faith & Mission. Most Baptists miss a blessing by not subscribing to at least one of the journals produced by our seminaries. Faith & Mission is published semiannually by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. You can subscribe by sending your address, phone, and e-mail (if any) to SEBTS, Attn: Faith & Mission, P.O. Box 1889, Wake Forest, NC 27587. Cost is $10 one year, $18 two years, $25 three years. TCP]

... Southern Baptists have sought to stem the tide of liberal rationalism and academic arrogance. There are three positions that theological education may take with reference to the Word of God. Theological education may stand over the Word of God in superiority. This is the posture of most liberal divinity schools. The Bible is just another piece of literature for their dissection.

Theological education may stand alongside the Word of God as if the professor or theologian were the equal of the Apostle Paul. This strand of hubris dares to consider professorial opinion of equal value to the written word of the apostles. Finally, theological educators may stand where we will all ultimately stand, beneath the Word of God as our judge and the witness of our salvation.

This is not simply "theological nit picking." What is taught in the seminary classroom one generation will be reflected in the pulpit in the next generation. If you do not think so, talk with the sad members of a prominent United Methodist church in a Southwestern city whose pastor announced on a televised service that he did not know if there was a Resurrection because he had not been there!

We must stand under the same Word of God that we proclaim. John Calvin said when he ascended the high pulpit of the Reformation church in Geneva, which towered over the people, that it would be better for him to fall and break his neck than not to stand under the same Word of God that he proclaimed. We dare do no other in our own theological institutions.

Before he died, B. H. Carroll, founder of Southwestern Seminary, warned Lee R. Scarborough, his successor, that after the former's death, liberal influences would seek to move the school toward rationalism. His dying words were immortal: "Lee, lash the seminary to the cross." He knew that was the anchor. So it must be for us, too. Not the cross of empty theological speculation, but the cross of the early church-as the first Christians actually knew it and believed it to be must be our stay. Ultimately we must not frame the question the wrong way. Our society today asks, "What does education think of Jesus Christ?" We must frame the question, "What does Jesus Christ think of today's education?"