James White at Golden Gate

Dr James White, of Alpha and Omega Ministries, will be teaching Apologetics for Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary this coming winter. If you are in the Phoenix, Arizona area this would be a great chance to learn from one of Christianity's most successful apologetists. Dr White has personally debated John Crossan and Marcus Borg of the Jesus Seminar, Islamic apologists Shabir Ally, Bob Wilkin of the Grace Evangelical Society, Dave Hunt, Roman Catholic apologists such as Gerry Matatics and Mitchell Pacwa, Jehovah's Witnesses apologists, and pro-homosexual advocates such as Barry Lynn, and this coming week he will be debating John Shelby Spong.

For Further information contact the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary's Arizona Regional Campus:

2240 North Hayden Road
Suite 101
Scottsdale, Arizona
480-941-1993
Or see Alpha and Omega's website


I really wish I could attend! :tear:

 

==The situation that occured with the Liberty Debate really put White at odds with many in the Southern Baptist Convention' s leadership and seems to have something to do with his being dis-invited to speak at Southwestern.

 

==Well the story is that Liberty, at the last minute, tried to change the rules (time, etc) and White/Ascol were having none of it. I think the people at Liberty did not really understand the kind of debate White/Ascol were wanting, thus the confusion. However Falwell, the Caners, and others have refered to White/Ascol as "Hyper-Calvinists" and thus adding to the "bad blood" between the two sides. Of course neither James White nor Tom Ascol are "Hyper-Calvinists", rather they are what I will call "Classical Calvinists". The whole mess is sad because I think it could have been a very good debate.

 

==The reason White/Ascol backed out was because Liberty tried to change the rules at the last second. What the good folks at Liberty and Southwestern keep forgetting to mention is that there was a set, signed agreement between White/Ascol and Caner/Caner that the Liberty side just tossed. You can't do that and expect people to go along with it. It was not just timing issues either, another part of the problem was that, at the last second, the folks at Liberty changed their minds and asserted full rights to the recording (video/audio) of the debate (thus if it went bad for them it would never see the light of day). This is a problem for several reasons but one major problem was that Liberty had already agreed to allow AOMIN to film, record, and have equal rights to the recording. Another problem is honesty. It would benefit both Liberty and AOMIN to have their own recordings of the debate if for no other reason to keep the other side "honest" (as they say). So there were a whole string of issues that played into the cancelling of this debate. Some may say that White/Ascol jumped too fast, others may say that Caner/Caner tanked the debate by giving into Liberty's demands, I say that both sides probably played a role in what eventually happened.

 

==Yes but, for several reasons, he is the exception and not the rule.

 

==I think he is refering to White's degrees from Columbia Evangelical Seminary (ThM, ThD, DMin). White also holds degrees from Grand Canyon College (BA) and Fuller Theological Seminary (MA). White worked with the group that provided us with the update New American Standard Bible and he is a top notch author and apologetics/greek scholar. I think it is his MA from Fuller combined with the latter points that allow him to teach (on a very much part time basis) at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

White's education is usually what Mormons and Catholics (etc) focus on in their attempts to discredit him. However I would make two points:

1. Regardless of his educational background his arguments are very sound. His arguments should be the focus on theological debates.

2. While Columbia Evangelical Seminary is not accredited, and they admit this up-front, the school seems to have a good system. If it were accredited I would highly recommend it. I really like the idea of one-on-one mentor education.

"Each student has one primary mentor (professor) with whom he/she will work throughout the degree program. Students, however, get to select the person that they want to work with. At the time of enrollment, the student selects and submits five or six names from the faculty list (in the order of his/her preference) that he/she would like to work with. We then check with those mentors in the order listed to see if one of them is available to serve as that student's mentor. If so, we then give the student the professor's phone number and (or) email, and the student either calls or emails the professor and discusses his/her educational goals with the professor. The student and the mentor together determine if they want to work together. If for some reason the student or the professor does not feel that this is a good match, we will contact the next person on the student's list, and so on until we make a match....
What exactly is required for each class?
There is a basic answer to this question, and then a creative one. First, the basic: Each 4-credit class requires a certain amount of research and writing. Some students simply do those two learning activities, i.e., 1) research a topic and 2) write an academic term paper on that topic.
Second, the creative: However, students may be more creative in their classes. Though there will always be a certain amount of reading and research required for each class, students may be more creative in their final product than simply writing an academic term paper for each class. For example, one of our students was completing a degree in apologetics. Rather than doing the two-pronged learning activity of "research and writing," he did all of his reading and research and then he engaged a non-Christian philosophy professor at another college in a public debate. Then, rather than handing in an academic term paper on a certain topic of apologetics, he handed in his debate notes along with a video tape of the public debate. His debate was then graded for his final class grade. Another student who was an associate pastor did his research and reading in an area of Christina history, and rather than handing in an academic term paper, he gave a serious of lectures to his church on the topic of church history. Then, he handed in his lecture notes and a video of the lectures for grading. Other students have done other creative things, like leading short term missions trips, producing a television show that aired on a Christian television program, developing a study guide on a certain topic and text for future use in teaching, or teaching the topic under study at a college or adult study group."

In short, most of the degrees at Columbia are research degrees while others are more practical and directed at student needs. I would never, however, suggest anyone earn a graduate degree from an unaccredited school. Keep in mind that Dr White's success is the exception and not the rule. Seminary's rarely, if ever, hire people with PhDs or ThDs from unaccredited schools.

 

==I would suspect that is the case. That and his MA from Fuller Seminary. However keep in mind that he does not teach full-time at GGBTS. He just teaches a course now and then. So it is probably not a problem.

I could be wrong though. It is just a guess.

Either way I would love to be in one of his classes. I am sure it would be very educational.