some brief thoughts on theology and online education

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:08:19 -0500

Theological education is a vital component to the advancement of the kingdom of God. God has called all of his followers to know him, his word, and to make disciples of the nations. He has also called some to preach in local church settings. One cannot teach God’s people if he is not equipped to do so. Theological education accomplishes all of these goals. It equips pastors to teach and all Christians to accurately defend and share the gospel. It is clear then that we cannot then dispense of theological education. The question arises as to how the educating is to be done?

Currently when one desires to be trained in the scriptures one has to attend a seminary. This is often a great distance away and means traveling and uprooting families from churches and homes. The necessity of this is no doubt due to the special gifting of some to teach at a seminary level and the need then for others to be trained under them. However, many argue that this uprooting is not best for the seminarian’s family or their local churches and communities. To further complicate matters one cannot always be trained at their own local church (which is ideal) because the local pastor may not be adequate for such a responsibility. Must we still require that students travel across the country to prepare for ministry? The answer is no. God has blessed the church and the world with great technology and it should be used for his glory. There are ways to accomplish seminary training without leaving the place that God has put individuals and without sacrificing the responsibilities God has given them. This is through distance education.

Distance education makes use of the resources God has made available through technology to train men for ministry without requiring that they leave their church or community. Education in this manner is not without its drawbacks. However, each drawback can be overcome. First, distance education can create an impersonal learning environment that stunts real mastery of a subject. This is easily dealt with through the use of discussion boards and e-mails. Through these modes a student can interact to almost the same degree as a traditional on-campus student could. Furthermore, distance education could prevent the student from learning how to apply his knowledge in the real world. This too can be overcome with the proper use of a mentor. When one nearby the student is engaged in the learning process the student can work out his new found knowledge in real life situations.

The positives of distance education far outweigh the negatives. To begin with, the ability for a student to train without leaving his church is a blessing to that church and the student. Why should a local congregation have to lose its gifted men when they may very well need them? It seems strange for a church to send their own off to seminary and then add a graduate from another local churches’ loss. How much better to have the student train within his local body. Another benefit to training where the student is located is the community. Students have built relationships in their community and God can use those relationships and the student’s new found knowledge to grow his kingdom. Third, God has given all men the responsibility of providing and caring for their families. When the student is able to stay in his current location he is better able to fulfill his responsibility by working and living up to his biblical duties.

The final consideration is the quality of the education administered through distance education methods. Since God has gifted some to teach at a high level their abilities should still be taken advantage of through this form of education. The internet and other technologies have made their gifts accessible to people in all areas of the world enabling students to still learn from the best without ever leaving their local church. This idea is not new, many have had it before. The benefit we have now is the ability to train men at their churches while still having access to gifted teachers and sound theology.

Gao Zhisheng

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 22:21:23 -0600

Please pray for Gao Zhisheng. He is a Chinese Christian who has been arrested and suffered much persecution. In the link you will find specific ways you can help. Please do what you can for this man who so boldly lives his life like this.

Why we should be doctrinal

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 14:54:12 -0500

While reading Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology for class I have been rather impressed with his reasoning for a unified belief within the church. He is basically arguing for the necessity of a systematic representing of the truths or doctrines we hold. We, as a church, should be a able to articulate for the world and ourselves what it is exactly that we believe. Historically this has been regarded as a confession, a systemized presentation of our beliefs as we are convinced they are taught in God’s revealed Word to us.
I hope to interact with his arguments which I believe are biblical and extremely practical. So why is it that doctrines (aka dogmas or truth) are essential to Christianity?

As with all things the Word of God is our final authority and the scriptures themselves represent truth as essential to Christianity. This is quite contrary to the prevailing belief in our day that Christianity is not a set of doctrines but a way of life. Now I will be the first to admit that has a rather nice sound. After all we believe in a living God who is real and involved, shouldn’t we then just seek to live and love? As Berkhof points out while “...that may have a rather pious sound...[it] is after all a dangerous falsehood.”
Christianity certainly is a way of life but it is a way of life founded upon on a message! It is God’s self-revealed gospel in Christ, delivered to us in the form of truth. That truth is revealed to us in the bible and it is only by a proper understanding and accepting of the message that people are made partakers of the new life in the Spirit through Christ.
So the foundational element of Christianity is knowledge, knowledge of doctrine, of God’s revealed truth to us. Berkhof states it like this, “Participation in the life of Christianity is everywhere in the New Testament made conditional on faith in Christ as He has revealed himself, and this naturally includes knowledge of the redemptive facts recorded in Scripture.”
Jesus says “And this is eternal life that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Further Paul says that “...[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” He wants all believers to “...attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ...” And Peter says that “...[God’s] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence...”

It should not be debatable that knowledge of truth is essential to Christianity according to the Word of God. We must hold fast to the teachings of scripture. We must have a knowledge of what God has revealed to us. These truths are what we call doctrines and rather than run from them we must embrace them and seek to understand them.
Jesus viewed doctrine or truth as the very means by which Christians are sanctified, “sanctify them in truth; your Word is truth.” More scripture is available that makes this point but I will close with a prophetic point made by Berkhof, “They who minimize the significance of the truth, and therefore ignore and neglect it, will finally come to the discovery that they have very little Christianity left.”

Morality and Politics

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 07:27:54 -0500

This interview with Brad Pitt really got me thinking the other day. In defending his belief that gay marriage is a “freedom” that should be allowed he says that if Christians were being told they couldn’t practice their religion he would do the same thing for them. His idea is that freedom should allow us to live our lives according to our understanding of what is “right”.

Now the constitutionality of gay marriage is something we can debate (because I do find it hard to limit marriage to one woman and one man based on what is written in the constitution itself) but that however, is not the heart of this issue. For at the center of this discussion is morality. Do we believe that we should legislate our moral convictions? Most would argue we should not, because after all not everyone agrees on what is morally acceptable or “right”.

If America where to grant Mr. Pitt his dream of legalized homosexual marriage because as he believes, to do otherwise is simply “not fair”. Then I would ask Mr. Pitt (and all of those who agree with him), where does it end? If you allow homosexual marriage then we can’t leave out the polygamist, I mean, it is their constitutional “right”. I’m not so sure those who argue for legalized homosexual marriage would really even have problem with that but eventually we could come across an issue they simply wouldn’t stand for (like legalized murder). Why? Because their comes a point when even they believe something isn’t right and it is at that point they are appealing to a standard of morality higher than themselves and ultimately seeking to impose it upon others.

You see here is the main point, our morals shape who we are and they certainly shape our political and social decisions, if they didn’t I would question just how committed to them we really are. The truth is I believe gay marriage should remain illegal not based on the man made constitution but based on my firm conviction that it dishonors God. If this sounds a little like a crazy Christian idea then I would challenge you to think long and hard as to why you believe the way you do about the laws currently in place. For each and every one of them is based on some moral idea.