Fundamentalist View On Dallas Theological Seminary Professors

How about Thomas Ice.

 

Thomas Ice is a good brother - we had him at our church last year, he is scholarly and intelligent and one of the great defenders of the premillennial faith in this modern age.

 

Off had I don't know where he goes to church, but he speaks in a lot of Baptist churches. He and Tim LaHaye do a lot of work together and Tim is a Baptist preacher.

 

Thomas Ice

Re the mentions of Thomas Ice, I discovered that if "Thomas Ice (Wikipedia)" is typed on an engine like Google, two schools are listed on Wikipedia as having given him a Ph.D - but both are listed as "unaccredited"! So isn't it misleading if he or LaHaye or anyone else lists him as "Dr."? Since I believe in fairness, I should also mention that there are several less than flattering web articles about him, namely, "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)," "Thomas Ice (Hired Gun)," and "Pretrib Rapture Diehards" (the last part) - all by a historian who has majored for years on the historical beginnings of pretribulation dispensationalism. But don't take my word for what I've said. Checks things out for yourself. Betty

 

He taught at DTS for years. Most dispensational folks like him very much and most nondispensational don't. For one, I've enjoyed his work for years and his teaching.

 

You can read many of his articles here. http://www.pre-trib.org/

Having met the man, and enjoyed fellowship with him I can tell you he is a brain. Anyone who thinks Thomas Ice is some kind of dummy obviously doesn't know the man.

 

I don't konw anything about Thomas Ice, but having a PhD from an "unaccredited" school does not mean you shouldn't call him Dr.

 

1. Save for their dispensational premillenialism, DTS seems fairly doctrinally sound, though it wouldn't be my first choice of seminaries.

2. Don't trust Wikipedia. It's notoriously unreliable. It's like telling the professor the guy sitting next to you is a scholarly source.

 

I think most center/left Fundamentalists still look at DTS as fairly conservative and reliable. Right wingers would condemn it for its use of versions other then the KJV. If you cruise IFB seminary (not necessarily college) websites you'll find a smattering of degrees from there--most probably fairly old. However, there are more profs nowadays with degrees from Trinity.

It's my view that well into the '60's DTS considered itself to be Fundamentalist, though I couldn't prove it without a lot more research. Suffice it to say that DTS prof Robert Lightner wrote Neo-Evangelicalism in 1959 (my edition is 1969), a book which I consider the best critique out there of New Evangelical theology. (Look for The New Evangelical Theology by Millard Erickson for the best defense.)

I haven't heard much lately about DTS, but some years ago developed a prejudice against it because of the "spoil the Egyptians" ("all truth is God's truth") approach of their Christian psychology dept. :type:

 

What, may I ask, is a "center/left Fundamentalist"? Fundamentalism, by it's very nature, is a right wing, reactionary phenomenon, thus excluding anything "center/left."

If by this you mean that some "Fundamentalists" are not as FAR right as others on a myriad of issues, I get it. As for DTS, it remains in my view the premeire Evangelical Seminary with regard to Theology (from a Dispensational-Premil view, which I hold), and I think they have a great Church Planting program. Aubrey Malphurs is excellent.

No, they are not Baptist exclusively, they are non-denominational, but they appeal to Conservative Evangelicals in a wide variety of denominational and independent circles, and I think that fulfills their place and mission in the work of the kingdom.

JDale

 

Hi, JDale.

There is a wide range of people calling themselves Fundamentalist now. The word is coming back into vogue as some Evangelicals look at the failures of their movement. (See Schaeffer's The Great Evangelical Disaster for what I mean--not that we Fundamentalists don't have our own failures.) So just in my own thinking I am apt to use left/center/right for various positions (not people).

I hate to classify people specifically, so don't ask me for any names. I prefer to let people classify themselves. And the following classifications will be pretty general. (If the shoe fits, wear it. :smilewinkgrin: )

Anyway, IMO a right wing Fundamentalist would be KJV only, practice secondary separation and preach hard against pants on women. A centrist would probably (not always) use the KJV but be open to other versions, would be less harsh in separation and would use scholarly works by Evangelicals, but still might oppose CCM, for example. A left winger might even consider himself an evangelical, but one who is in the line of the historical Fundamentalism of the 1920s-1930's. It's my impression that those in the SBC who call themselves Fundamentalist would come in here.

For someone who classifies Fundamentalists in a similar way but names a lot of names, see A History of Fundamentalism, by George Dollar (an oldie but goodie), or the articles by Joel Tetreau on a rival forum (dare I say it), Sharper Iron.

 

I think many would disagree with Dallas Theological Semminary just for aspousing two things that are strongly debated within Christendom and even IFBdom. They proposed a 'new' interpretation of the book of 1 John, thus breaking away from the historic interpretation of the book, as well as being strong advocates of the doctrine of 'carnal Christians', that someone can be a Christian and live in continuos carnality and sin. Just for those two views alone Dallas Theological Semminary loses its respectiability with me, and as well with others.

 

Since those aren't biblical fundamentals... wouldn't that disprove someone's fundamentalism?

The historic fundamentalism is the only one with a real claim isn't it? They seemed to have said "Bible- no more, no less" whereas many self professed fundamentalists today go well beyond the Bible while occasionally even denying/ignoring sound and certain biblical teachings (ie. the de-emphasis of biblical repentance in easy believism).

 

Right, Reverend, Doctor Schools...

have "cranked out" many scholarly people. The holy see has many scholarly people, woefully deceived, deceiving many. The standard has not changed: "preach The Word, reprove, rebuke, exort, with all long suffering and doctrine."

I wonder who headed the Soteriology Dept. in the school from which Nicodemus was a "master"? See John Ch. 3: "Marvel not what I say unto you, you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God."

"It is no wonder, Satan himself is become an angel of light."

Selah,

Bro. James

 

I don't see your point. One can hold to all the Fundamentals and still hold to the things I mentioned, can't they? How would one's Fundamentalism thus be disproved?

Beyond that, most of the early Fundamentalists had very strict standards of personal separation. In fact, that was one thing that Ockenga and the other fathers of New Evangelicalism objected to in Fundamentalism.

Some of those who call themselves Fundamentalists today would be considered lax by our theological forefathers. Just to give one example, Hudson Taylor forbade the reading of novels on the first ship of missionaries he took to China. Years later the China Inland Mission was still very strict when my parents went to their candidate school in the late 1940's.

Forgive me, but this seems to be a narrow view of Fundamentalism. The original Fundamentalism was a "big tent" movement, with Baptists in various groups, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, etc. We don't want to be like the pastor who looked his friend in the eye and said, "Brother, there are only two Fundamentalists left, and I've been worried about you lately!" :smilewinkgrin:

My definition of a Fundamentalist is someone who believes the Fundamentals and is ready to take a stand and fight for them. All of the groups I mentioned above fit in that category. :type:

 

I think to many folks today want to put fundamentalism in a box today that it wasn't in to start with.

The following folks I would call fundamentalism and many today wouldn't, but in their day they were know as fundamentalism:
Alva J. McClain from Grace
Herman A. Hoyt from Grace
William Culbertson from Moody
Clarence Mason, Jr. from Philadelphia College of Bible
J.J. Reeve from Southwestern Theological Seminary
Charles Erdman from Princeton Theological Seminary
A.C. Dixon pastor here and in England
R.A. Torrey from Moody and Bible Institute of LA
James M. Gray from Moody

Just to name a few.

 

Amen! Bro. Joj, Major on the Major stuff, eat the cherries and spit out the pits.:godisgood: