I enjoy reading Imprimis, a monthly newsletter of Hillsdale College. I just read the February 2019 issue, entitled, “Shall We Defend Our Common History?” by Roger Kimball.
I found parallels between modern political correctness and the way in which many seminaries discuss the writings of the authors of the New Testament.
Kimball gives example after example of cases in which political correctness is rewriting American history. Statues are being removed all over the United States in what he calls “the monument controversy.”
Why remove monuments from the past? “It is an attack,” Kimball says, “on the past for failing to live up to our contemporary notions of virtue” (p. 2).
Who is more enlightened, modern political correctness warriors at our leading colleges and universities, or the Apostle Paul?
I’d say the Apostle Paul. Wouldn’t you?
Yet many seminaries today say that the Apostle Paul was a misogynist. We of the modern enlightened times know, for example, that women should be elders in local churches just as men should. Paul was wrong to limit eldership to men.
Likewise, Paul was wrong when he said that women should keep silent in the churches. He just wasn’t enlightened. His ideas were fine for the first century. They were even cutting edge in many ways. But history has shown that Paul needs updating.
And what about Paul’s writings concerning homosexuality? He certainly evidences a very unenlightened view on the subject. Many modern theologians are correcting Paul on that subject too.
I find the same sort of thinking pervades New Testament studies on the four Gospels. Even at historically conservative seminaries, it is now widely taught that the Gospel writers used the antiquated practices of Thucydides when they reported on what Jesus said. At times, we are told, the Gospel writers changed the meaning of what He said. They also sometimes put words in His mouth. Sometimes they chronologically moved events. For example, many scholars today believe that Jesus only cleansed the temple once, at the end of His ministry. In their view John moved the cleansing of the temple to the very start of Jesus’ ministry.
How can conservative Bible scholars say such things? Because we live in such enlightened times! The Gospel writers wrote during a time when such inaccurate practices were considered acceptable. If this sort of historical reporting were done today, we’d say that the writing was filled with errors. But most conservative Bible scholars today don’t say that about the Gospel writers. Instead, they say that their writings are without error if evaluated as the work of a flawed ancient view of historiography.
Is it possible that the political correctness that has taken over our secular colleges and universities is also making inroads into our Christian colleges and seminaries?
Is it possible that Paul and the Gospel writers got it right and that many Bible scholars today are getting it wrong?
The answer is obvious if we believe that the Bible is the Word of God.
KEN TAMASHIRO
Thank You Pastor Bob,
I did not know that Seminaries are following the lead of a worldly thinking system.
I’m thinking in my opinion that we have lost our ability to piece together a historical account of the motivation and circumstances of the Authors of the New Testament.
I think it has come down to a lost meaning and the purpose of the writings have gone to the wayside and now people are playing around with words rather than the circumstances explain the words.
I’m thinking if we do not understand History we are doomed to repeat it again.
I’m hoping for more background information that can support what is being taught in Scripture rather than guessing about what something means. The Reformation folks are famous for misundersanding Scripture.
Grace and Peace to You,
Ken Tamashiro
Mike
It’s pretty clear that those “scholars” don’t even believe the Bible is inspired if they are saying those things. Jesus himself was upset that they let a woman teach in the Thyatiran church. So is he unenlightened too?
What’s the purpose of a seminary anyway? It seems to me it exists to spread false doctrine. There were no seminaries in biblical times. We need not that anyone should teach us according to the Bible. The Holy Spirit and reading the Bible should be sufficient for us.
Rod Norville
Hi Mike,
You appear to be referencing the following passage: 20 “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21 “And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22 “Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.” (Rev 2:20-22 NKJ). Jesus appears to be concerned not with her gender but with the immorality of her teaching and her actions in seducing some in the church into following her into immoral and idolatrous practices. I see nothing to indicate that Jesus had any problem with her gender, only the content and result of her teaching.
As for not needing teaching, why then did Paul exhort Timothy to study in order to teach (2Ti 2:15) and to teach others to teach sound doctrine (1Ti 4:11; 2Ti 2:2, 24)? And why did Barnabas and Paul spend a year at the Church in Antioch teaching a great number of people (Act 11:25-26)? Did not Jesus Himself command us to teach others as we make disciples of all nations (Mat 28:19-20)?
How are you able to read the Bible if someone didn’t teach you to read? Did anyone teach you about Jesus before you came to believe He was the Son of God?
Brady Pollitt
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,
1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2.
Brady Pollitt
And here’s the KICKER, some of our very OWN that KNOW John 3:16 are afraid to follow this,(for fear of speaking up and being I’ll treated by their very own, sad) “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.”
1 TIMOTHY 4:13.
Tim Amoroso
Paul is right. It is a downward battle to fight against God’s Word. We ought to get in line with it.
Great blog. I appreciate it. I love it. And I hope they keep coming. They are really helpful for me. They’re helping me to get my life in line with God’s Word. So thank you so much GES.
Keep up the good work and God bless!
Alvin
Zane Hodges: When I taught Greek at Dallas Theological Seminary, I used to say to the students, “In seminary you can easily get the notion that if you study your Greek language, and you know how to use all the tools, and you know how to read the commentaries, then you can interpret the Bible without the assistance of the Holy Spirit.”
Nobody would ever quite say it that crassly. But that’s what they felt. And there were a large number of students who thought that the way to interpret the Bible was just getting all the technical stuff lined up and it would lead to the truth.
The problem is, people get the same technical information and still disagree about what the Bible means. So, this should tell us something. The Bible is God’s Word. No man understands the things of God but the Spirit of God. Therefore, He is the only One who can teach us. (Page 19-20 What Is The Outer Darkness).