Apologia for CS, Part 3

We have argued that there is a need for rigorous, church-based, seminary-style education in Albuquerque. I said that such a seminary should be church-based, Word-directed, Christ-centered, and God-honoring. Today, I hope to examine the next characteristic on that list: Word-directed. First, what do we mean by ‘Word’?

When we say that a seminary should be Word-directed, we mean that every aspect of that seminary should be guided and shaped to conform to the Word of God, that is, the Bible. Every decision related to the school should be informed by the Bible, every class taught should focus on biblical material, and every student should strive to understand the Bible better.

I want to be totally clear why we think that this is one of the guiding attributes of a seminary. We believe that seminaries should be Word-directed because we believe that is what the Word directs (cf. 2 Tim. 2:15, 2 Tim. 4:2).

Obviously, then, our reasoning relies on the fact that we regard the Bible as authoritative, specifically, authoritative for all matters of life and doctrine. Having become convinced that the Bible is the only perfect and sufficient revelation of God (2 Pet. 1:16-21), we rely on it for everything. We strive to fully submit to it in every area of our life, which includes the training that our churches provide. So a seminary must be Word-directed.

This means much more than mere guidance in the general ‘right direction,’ though. We hope to be totally in line with the Bible in every aspect of our teaching, which means that everything in our classes and in our lives must be biblical. The Bible must saturate our thinking and our words (e.g. Ps. 19:14). The Bible is the sole, necessary source of our instruction (2 Tim. 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3). We will use other aids to study the Bible, such as commentaries, grammars, academic works, and the like, but these are superfluous—if they were unavailable and all we had was the Bible, we would be no worse off. We would merely have to work harder to understand the Scriptures as well.

This emphasis on the Bible is rarely seen in academic circles today. We praise God that there are a few institutions that really give heed to the Scriptures as the authoritative, inspired Word, but they are few and far between. The reality is that our view of Scripture is often maligned and lampooned in the academy, certainly in the secular academy and also, sadly, in the ‘religious’ academy.

I believe that the reason we are the basis for so many jokes is not because we are backwards, short-sighted, and biased, but because we have become convinced of a position that is antithetically opposed to the direction of the popular culture. We make ourselves an ‘easy target’ in that sense, just as school yard bullies tend to pick on the kids who are perceived as weird. But I believe that the position we espouse is indeed the true and best position. I hope to post more on this in the future.

For now, it suffices to say that if the Bible is what it claims to be—i.e., the inspired Word of God—then we can not do less than give it absolute authority in our lives and our seminary. On the other hand, to reject the Bible as authoritative is a grave error (cf. 1 Thes. 2:13, 1 Thes. 4:8). In light of that, we hope to fulfill the command given in James 1:22: “prove yourselves doers of the word.” For this reason, we strive to bring everything underneath the authority of Scripture. If it is true for our seminary, it is true for every seminary (and every other institution!) as well: they should be Word-directed.

--Dean of Admissions