1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Should College Professors be allowed to teach

Discussion in 'Baptist Colleges & Seminaries' started by Revmitchell, Mar 11, 2010.

?
  1. Yes

    4 vote(s)
    16.7%
  2. No

    20 vote(s)
    83.3%
  1. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2006
    Messages:
    52,013
    Likes Received:
    3,649
    Faith:
    Baptist
    In SBC Seminaries when they hold to doctrines contrary to the Bf&M?
     
  2. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2006
    Messages:
    52,013
    Likes Received:
    3,649
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I started this thread because I have asked the other one be closed since it has fallen off topic.
     
  3. Havensdad

    Havensdad New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2007
    Messages:
    3,382
    Likes Received:
    0
    Absolutely not. Why would we want our young men indoctrinated with false doctrine? A Seminary is train young men in proper doctrine; there are simply too many excellent Southern Baptist professors, to allow such a thing.
     
  4. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2006
    Messages:
    52,013
    Likes Received:
    3,649
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I have to say I am rather shocked that one who holds to annihilation would be allowed. I wonder if he taught that heresy.
     
  5. mcdirector

    mcdirector Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2005
    Messages:
    8,292
    Likes Received:
    11
    uhhh no. It's an SBC seminary, not a generic seminary. I understand the need for generics, but one of the primary purposes of a denominational seminary has got to be to train folks specifically for that sponsoring denomination.

    FWIW, when Brandon was at SWBTS, I was surprised at the number of non-SBC students attending. This is just a statement. I expected almost everyone there to be SBC.
     
  6. Dr. Bob

    Dr. Bob Administrator
    Administrator

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2000
    Messages:
    30,285
    Likes Received:
    507
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Agreed. If there is a confession/doctrinal statement required of professors, they must abide by its LETTER.

    If not, why would I want to send a nickel or a student to such a place?

    The implementation of the BF&M was to cull out the liberals (called "moderates" by genteel SBC'ers) in the mission field or schools.

    My ifb seminary did NOT require every student to be a "Baptist", but all had to sign fidelity to the general doctrinal statement.

    Book 'em, Dano. Murder (of theology) One.
     
  7. Tom Bryant

    Tom Bryant Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2006
    Messages:
    4,521
    Likes Received:
    43
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Nope! Why would they even be considered in the first place?
     
  8. Martin

    Martin Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2005
    Messages:
    5,229
    Likes Received:
    0
    Faith:
    Baptist
    ==While this issue must be decided by each seminary and their board of trustees I would argue no. If someone does not agree with the Southern Baptist Faith and Message they should not teach at a Southern Baptist seminary. After all, the Baptist Faith and Message is somewhat generic. If someone took issue with it I would be concerned about their general orthodoxy.
     
  9. Ivon Denosovich

    Ivon Denosovich New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2007
    Messages:
    1,276
    Likes Received:
    0
    So... I'm scanning new thread titles and come across, "Should College Professors be allowed to teach".... Nice.

    Btw, I vote no. People who want a doctrine specific education should get their money's worth. Anything less is bait & switch or, plainer!, fraud.
     
  10. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2005
    Messages:
    9,031
    Likes Received:
    2
    I meant to vote no, but the cursor slipped, so subtract a yes vote from the poll.

    However, at the Baptist university where I am a trustee, we do have a few non-Baptists on the faculty, all in the College of Arts and Sciences. In the College of the Bible, all faculty must subscribe, in writing, to the B F & M, and must be members of a Southern Baptist congregation. . In the College of Arts and Sciences, non-Baptists must agree, in writing, not to teach contrary to the BF & M.

    The university in question is thoroughly Southern Baptist and Kentucky Baptist, but is not an arm of either convention.
     
  11. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2006
    Messages:
    52,013
    Likes Received:
    3,649
    Faith:
    Baptist
    So professors who hold to things like annihilation and the ability to lose one's salvation should not be able to teach in SBC Seminaries?
     
  12. Baptist Believer

    Baptist Believer Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2002
    Messages:
    10,720
    Likes Received:
    781
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Why in the world would we want seminary students to be indoctrinated at all? Certainly we need to have supportive professors who help students learn the scriptures, but indoctrination is not education.

    I disagree. The seminary is the place to teach students to think theologically and biblically, and to learn how to become lifelong students so they can teach themselves and others. That being said, yes, the seminary also exists to help students build a strong doctrinal foundation for their ministry, but unless you give the opportunity for students to examine multiple points of view and wrestle with the real historical, philosophical, and theological issues Christians have dealt with over the last 2,000 years, you have not provided an education for the student. Until students can work through theology to discover what they personally believe about a thing, they don't own it as a part of their lives.

    Disclaimer: I have faced indoctrination from both the left and the right many times over the years in disciplines such as politics, religion, sociology, psychology, science and philosophy. Every time it alienated me from the professor's point of view. When I was in college working on a theology degree, the Texas Baptist school I attended made a point of having religion professors from across the spectrum of Baptist life on staff to teach classes. (Yes, we had a real-life Bultmann-style liberal professor who like to "demythologize" everything.) An interesting thing happened... While more fundamental-style Baptists outside the school where railing against the school having that kind of professor on staff (for fear that students mindlessly believe everything they are told in class), students tried to take the professor seriously and would ask probing, penetrating questions to discover that there was very little substance to his position except for a modernistic anti-supernaturalist bias. In the presence of theological diversity, students are required to think, and as a result, they tend to ask the hard questions. By asking the hard questions, they take responsibility for their beliefs and are much less prone to "losing their faith." When I later went to seminary, the uniformity of positions in the faculty actually made the classes duller and less helpful. Since everyone was pretty much walking in lock-step, there was no reason to struggle with many issues or treat them as something other than something that needed to be regurgitated for an exam.
     
  13. Baptist Believer

    Baptist Believer Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2002
    Messages:
    10,720
    Likes Received:
    781
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Paige Patterson didn't seem to mind.

    Ellis' views were public knowledge. One of his masterworks, Christ and the Future in New Testament History (Supplements to Novum Testamentum, V. 97) deals with the issue.

    Although I didn't have him for seminary classes, it is my understanding that it was one of the viewpoints discussed in some of his classes.

    The way I found out about his position was in a small class being taught at our church. He was doing an overview of the scriptures type class over the course of six weeks on Sunday night. One of the nights he mentioned something about the final destruction of the wicked that prompted me to ask him privately about his views.
     
    #13 Baptist Believer, Mar 19, 2010
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2010
  14. Baptist Believer

    Baptist Believer Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2002
    Messages:
    10,720
    Likes Received:
    781
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I don't know of anyone who believes that one can "lose" their salvation teaching at any SBC seminary. Are you thinking of someone in particular?
     
  15. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2006
    Messages:
    52,013
    Likes Received:
    3,649
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Then while his passing is unfortunate for his family we are blessed that he is no longer teaching such trash in our Seminary.


    K. Owen White
    Pastor, Fist Baptist Church, Houston
    President, Southern Baptist Convention, 1964

    If the appeal is made for "academic freedom," let it be said that we gladly grant any man the right to believe what he wants to – but, we do not grant him the right to believe and express views in conflict with our historic position concerning the Bible as the Word of God while he is teaching in one of our schools, built and supported by Baptist funds.
    --"Death in the Pot" Baptist Standard, Jan. 10, 1962
     
  16. TomVols

    TomVols New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2000
    Messages:
    11,170
    Likes Received:
    0
    Just for discussion:

    What if someone is a master textual scholar and he does not teach his views. Does he then have this right?

    I'm thinking that there are some very fine men who would stand in opposition to the BFM. Sinclair Ferguson comes to mind. Derek Prime. Eric Alexander. First rate inerrantist scholars who could not join most Baptist churches because of paedobaptism and presbyterianism.
     
  17. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2003
    Messages:
    15,549
    Likes Received:
    15
    Isn't the reformed theology of today closer to presbyterianism than the baptist theology of 100 years ago?
     
  18. Rhetorician

    Rhetorician Administrator
    Administrator

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2005
    Messages:
    2,208
    Likes Received:
    68
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Flag Issue?

    Rev Mitchell,

    I just have to ask, why fly the flag upside down?:thumbs:
     
  19. TomVols

    TomVols New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2000
    Messages:
    11,170
    Likes Received:
    0
    Not really. Obviously, ecclesiology would be different as well as aspects regarding the ordinance of baptism
     
Loading...