Do they really make you trample on the Bible before they let you be a teacher or administrator at a seminary? Or does it only seem that way?
The president of Union Theological Seminary–that’s one of the biggies–says you don’t have to believe Christ rose from the dead, to be a Christian. Erick Erickson quotes her: “For Christians for whom the physical resurrection becomes a sort of obsession, that seems to me to be a pretty wobbly faith. What if tomorrow someone found the body of Jesus in the tomb?” [They won’t.] “Would that mean that Christianity was a lie?” (https://townhall.com/columnists/erickerickson/2019/04/26/flatearth-christianity-n2545394).
Let’s see if St. Paul can field that question.
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15: 12-17)
If Christ is not raised then, yes–the whole New Testament is a lie. And if there’s no New Testament, there’s no Christianity.
Unless this seminary half-wit thinks there’s such a thing as a Christless Christianity, in which salvation comes not from Jesus Christ, but from Science, the state, left-wing politics, and NPR, etc. And Jesus was just a nice guy who got crucified because he was a union man. Or something.
How do sins get forgiven? By voting for Democrats? Who forgives them? Hillary Clinton? And who gets to say what’s a sin and what’s not? The Bible, or some left-wing fat-head in a seminary?
This is why the flatline Protestant churches are dying the death. I can’t find it in my heart to waste tears on them. Those who know their Savior, who know His voice and follow Him, don’t need those churches. Nor those seminaries.
That is truly egregious. Obviously, in spite of their formal education, such people don’t really understand the Bible. Let me give them their first clue; the Bible was written to be accessible to common people. I’ve been studying the Bible for 50 years now, and I learn more almost every day. I didn’t have any of this crammed down my throat by some seminary whose curriculum was chosen by . . . God??? No, it was chosen by me. Perhaps well-intended men, but fallible, imperfect humans.
An interesting side note: I recently watched a documentary called the Moses controversy. The claim is sometimes made that Moses could not have written the Torah, because he lived before alphabetic writing. The video refutes that and shows that a proto-Sinaiatic script has been found in Egypt, which seems derived somewhat from Egyptian hieroglyphics, but uses these derived symbols as elements of an alphabet, essentially the Semitic alphabet used in Hebrew and other Semitic languages.
They’ve found cave writings in these scripts, in the Sinai, which seem to be instructions not to store Manna. The use of these scripts vanished in Egypt (sort of like the Hebrews) and then shows up in Canaan.
Anyhow, the upshot of it all was that perhaps alphabetic writing was given to mankind through the enslaved Hebrews in Egypt, in part because it was the only way God’s word could be accurately preserved and disseminated.
We covered that ancient Sinai script in an issue of the Chalcedon magazine.
And since then, we’ve come to know about the Dispilio Tablet and the Vinca Alphabet–evidence suggesting that there were alphabets before there were Egyptian hieroglyphics! Yep–before.
Of course, the Enemy plants his most destructive agents where they best serve him. However, we are told to have faith in Christ and if we do, all such gadflies and parasites are rendered harmless.
Satan deceived Eve by questioning God’s word, “Did God really say…”, and mankind has been running with that lie ever since. The resurrection, like the virgin birth, are essential to Christian doctrine. They are the cornerstones of Christianity, without it you can’t call yourself a Christian. It is nothing short of heresy.
Lee, you say: “This is why the flatline Protestant churches are dying the death. I can’t find it in my heart to waste tears on them.” May I modify that statement before I can agree with it? I may not waste any tears on the churches as institutions — in fact, their death may be a cause for rejoicing in a way — but I have many tears for the people who’ve been and are being led astray by them. The souls of those led astray are in danger, and even their lives in this world are sadly diminished. Oh, they may have pleasures here below, but pleasure isn’t the same as joy. If only these straying souls could be led back to Christ…. So yes, I have some tears for them. Maybe even for the hireling shepherds who’ve led the flocks astray, since they too have gone astray. Every day I pray for the return of the straying.
Meanwhile, an awful lot of people are streaming out of those churches–because they simply aren’t really churches anymore.
God warned in His Word that the time before His second coming would be filled with apostacy – amazing how TRUE the Bible is!
No one can argue that this is NOT an age of apostasy.
Definitely a time of apostasy. The Flatline Church is evidence enough.