Theology Central
Theology Central exists as a place of conversation and information for faculty and friends of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Posts include seminary news, information, and opinion pieces about ministry, theology, and scholarship.Introducing Christopher Dawson
If you’re a conservative–or even if you just think you are–Christopher Dawson is one of the names with which you should become familiar. The Imaginative Conservative has published a long-form article by Russell Hittinger that serves as a useful introduction.
As one sits in the pews of many Christian churches today, he has his attention called to world-historical issues: to the “new” historical moment of the nuclear arms race; to the movements for social justice in the Third World; to the struggle to liberate men and women from structures of “patriarchal oppression;” and, in general, his attention is called to all sorts of momentous issues which are linked together by hyphens along what Kierkegaard called the “prodigious railroad” of world history. Rather than being addressed as individuals who need to cultivate the virtue of justice—as well as the other interior excellences of the soul—we are all too often invited from the pulpit to jump aboard the caboose of the train of world history lest it pass us by altogether.
A New Hymn
Actually, an old psalm (Psalm 122), newly metricized. Along with a reflection on Jerusalem.
Jewish Baptistery Discovered Under Al-Aqsa Mosque
Back in 1927 an earthquake damaged the Al-Aqsa mosque, which occupies the Temple Mount. During the repairs Robert Hamilton, a British archaeologist, was allowed to sift through the rubble, but he was forced to hide much of what he found. Certain artifacts were hidden away, but have now come to light as part of the Antiquities Authority archives at the Rockefeller Museum. Among other things, it appears that the Al-Aqsa mosque is built over the site of a mikveh, a baptismal pool in which Jewish worshippers would immerse before entering the temple.
More recent discoveries indicate that a Byzantine church occupied the temple mount before the Muslims built the Al-Aqsa mosque. Evidently these discoveries are creating a bit of a stir. Read the entire story at Israel Hayom.
Hechinger Report Argues for More Homeschooling Recognition
“Despite Opposition, Homeschooling Is Thriving.” So writes William Heuer in an opinion piece that was even acknowledged by Education Week.
Homeschooling has been legal in all 50 states since 1993. Yet relatively little information is made available to parents about homeschooling as an option. In Massachusetts, for example, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education lists and links to all private and parochial schools in the commonwealth. Yet its website provides no equivalent links to statewide homeschooling organizations. Why leave out valuable information that could assist families when making educational decisions?
The Vice President’s Speech on Israel
To Christians United for Israel. The full text is here. It’s mostly good politics. Theologically? Well, there’s this:
Ezekiel prophesized: “Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.” And the State of Israel and her people bear witness to God’s faithfulness, as well as their own.
How unlikely was Israel’s birth, how more unlikely has been her survival, and how confounding, against the odds, has been her thriving.
Bill Barrick’s Book Recommendation of the Week
See it here. And I’ll add my endorsement. This is one of the books that are tedious to read, but necessary to understand.
19 Odd Musical Instruments
Most defy any brief names. See them at Atlas Obscura.
Central Seminary Begins Distance Ed
A degree online that’s not an online degree
Many pastors and missionaries desire to further their theological training and attend a seminary but cannot take time to leave their churches or mission fields. Because of this, some feel like they must settle for an online degree that is less than desirable. Central Seminary believes that pastors, missionaries, and students should not have to settle. We believe there are no shortcuts in ministry. Effective ministry often comes from effective preparation.
Central Seminary has designed a distance education program that is different from most. It puts the distance student in the classroom during the class. Through multiple high definition cameras and monitors, advanced sound equipment, and the best conference software available, distance students will be able to interact live with each class.
Central Seminary’s distance education program is not a separate program – it’s only a medium. None of our academic programs have been lessened and every requirement is the same. The only difference between resident students and distance students is just that…distance. All of our graduate programs (MAT in either Biblical Studies or Biblical Counseling and MDiv) are offered in their entirety through this medium.
- Learn theology from theologians.
- Learn history from historians.
- Learn Greek and Hebrew from people that know it.
- Learn ministry from pastors, not programs.
- Be a student, not a consumer.
How does it work?
Each classroom has:
- 2 high definition cameras (one facing the professor and one facing the students)
- Large, high definition monitors
- Microphones
- Dedicated computers
- Advanced conferencing software
By using Zoom software, distance students will have the ability to see and hear both resident students and other distance students, professors, and any and all presented media (which includes PowerPoint, writing on the board, etc.). In addition, the resident students and professor can fully interact with the distance students enabling complete and simultaneous interaction.
Be in the class without being in the classroom.
For more information or if you’d like to see a demonstration of how it works, contact Dan Johnson in our recruitment office: djohnson@centralseminary.edu
Haddon Robinson Has Died
Haddon Robinson passed away on July 22. He was not a fundamentalist; in fact, he once presided over one of the nations leading neoevangelical seminaries. Nevertheless, he profoundly influenced the way many fundamentalists preach. That influence, whether direct or indirect, was very good.
Douglas Wilson to the Wife Beaters
Because sometimes Wilson’s explanations are even better than his original propositions. I won’t expand on that remark. Just go read the essay.
Al Mohler on Eugene Peterson
As usual, what Mohler writes is worth reading. His purpose is not to trounce Peterson. In fact, he incorporates a definite pastoral twist.
. . . [Y]ou had better have your answer ready. Evasive, wandering, and inconclusive answers will be seen for what they are. Those who have fled for security to the house of evasion must know that the structure has crumbled. It always does.
Central Seminary Begins Distance Ed
A DEGREE ONLINE THAT’S NOT AN ONLINE DEGREE
Many pastors and missionaries desire to further their theological training and attend a seminary but cannot take time to leave their churches or mission fields. Because of this, some feel like they must settle for an online degree that is less than desirable. Central Seminary believes that pastors, missionaries, and students should not have to settle. We believe there are no shortcuts in ministry. Effective ministry often comes from effective preparation.
Central Seminary has designed a distance education program that is different from most. It puts the distance student in the classroom during the class. Through multiple high definition cameras and monitors, advanced sound equipment, and the best conference software available, distance students will be able to interact live with each class.
Central Seminary’s distance education program is not a separate program – it’s only a medium. None of our academic programs have been lessened and every requirement is the same. The only difference between resident students and distance students is just that…distance. All of our graduate programs (MAT in either Biblical Studies or Biblical Counseling and MDiv) are offered in their entirety through this medium.
Learn theology from theologians.
Learn history from historians.
Learn Greek and Hebrew from people that know it.
Learn ministry from pastors, not programs.
Be a student, not a consumer.
How does it work?
Each classroom has:
- 2 high definition cameras (one facing the professor and one facing the students)
- Large, high definition monitors
- Microphones
- Dedicated computers
- Advanced conferencing software
By using Zoom software, distance students will have the ability to see and hear both resident students and other distance students, professors, and any and all presented media (which includes PowerPoint, writing on the board, etc.). In addition, the resident students and professor can fully interact with the distance students enabling complete and simultaneous interaction.
Be in the class without being in the classroom.
For more information or if you’d like to see a demonstration of how it works, contact Dan Johnson in our recruitment office: djohnson@centralseminary.edu
Rolland McCune on Pastoral Authority
The local church which elects its pastor is the source of his ecclesiastical authority. He carries no inherent authority as a person and does not rule the local church by any native rights or gifts. This type of authority is bestowed by the local church and may be withdrawn by the local church.
Rolland McCune, A Systematic Theology of Biblical Christianity, Vol. 3, p. 250.
Only In Minnesota . . .
The Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, free to the public (donations accepted).
The Shoe Is On the Other Foot
For years, the Left has used the “outrage machine” of the Internet to harass and pillory conservatives. In fact, it’s been used to harass anybody who transgresses the norms that the Left finds acceptable. When a dentist was being persecuted for shooting a lion, nobody cared. When a kid dressed in the wrong Halloween costume, he was expelled from university and subjected to death threats. Now that some on the Right are determined to hold them accountable, however, liberal professors don’t like it one little bit. They want “an organized response” to the “organized outrage machine.” Read about it at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Eternal Generation of the Son
The Eternal Generation of the Son
Frederick William Faber
Amid the eternal silences
God’s endless Word was spoken
None heard but He who always spake,
And the silence was unbroken.
Chorus:
Oh marvellous! Oh Worshipful!
No song or sound is heard,
But everywhere and every hour,
In love, in wisdom, and in power,
The Father speaks His dear Eternal Word.
For ever in the eternal land
The glorious day is dawning;
For ever is the Father’s Light
Like an endless outspread morning.
From the Father’s vast tranquillity,
In light coequal glowing
The kingly consubstantial Word
Is unutterably flowing.
For ever climbs that Morning Star
Without ascent or motion;
For ever is its daybreak
On the Spirit’s boundless ocean.
O Word! who fitly can adore
Thy Birth and Thy Relation,
Lost in the impenetrable light
Of Thine awful Generation?
Thy Father clasps Thee evermore
In unspeakable embraces,
While angels tremble as thy praise,
And shroud their dazzled faces.
And oh! in what abyss of love,
So fiery yet so tender,
The Holy Ghost encircles Thee
With His uncreated splendour!
O Word! O dear and gentle Word!
Thy creatures kneel before Thee,
And in ecstasies of timid love
Delightedly adore Thee.
Hail choicest mystery of God!
Hail wondrous Generation!
The Father’s self-sufficient rest!
The Spirit’s jubilation!
Dear Person! dear beyond all words,
Glorious beyond all telling!
Oh with what songs of silent love
Our ravished hearts are swelling!
Chorus:
Oh marvellous! Oh Worshipful!
No song or sound is heard,
But everywhere and every hour,
In love, in wisdom, and in power,
The Father speaks His dear Eternal Word.
In the Nick of Time
Continuing history on the New Testament Association of Independent Baptist Churches and the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship.
This Is Worth Remembering:
“Governments Don’t Give People Rights,” by Donald J. Boudreaux at the Foundation for Economic Education.
Rights pre-exist government. Therefore, even if – as most people believe – government is necessary to help to secure individuals’ rights, government does not create that which it itself is created to help to secure. Your real-estate agent might be necessary to sell your home, but this fact does not thereby make her the source of your home’s value or the owner of your home.
Anancephalic Children and Zombies
Maureen Condic’s essay at the Witherspoon Institute is a combination of philosophy, bioethics, and science fiction. It’s worth a read. Here is her conclusion:
Stated in more philosophical terms, “rational animal” is the essential definition of a human being, and “developing human” is the essential definition of a human being at embryonic stages. Therefore, if an entity is developing and of human origin it is a human being by definition, regardless of any defect it may exhibit in brain formation. Thus, if a human embryo infected by the zombie pathogen subsequently died and was resurrected, the nature of the resulting entity would depend entirely on what happened next. If the entity proceeded through embryonic development (an unlikely scenario), it would be, in virtue of this fact alone, a human being. And just as is the case for anencephaly, any impact the pathogen had on subsequent formation of the brain would reflect a defect in a part, not an alteration in the nature of the entity. Given that human beings at embryonic stages of life are defined by their capacity to undergo development, it is not possible, by definition, to engineer a developing human zombie; i.e., an embryo of human origin that utterly lacks the capacity to produce a brain capable of rational thought.
McCune on Landmarkism
Some Baptists (e.g., Landmark Baptists) insist that the only ekklesia in the New Testament is a local church. Every usage, according to them, refers to the local church, individually or collectively. However, this view runs up against serious problems.
For instance, it cannot successfully interpret each usage of ekklesia, such as Ephesians 3:21: “To Him be the glory in the church … forever and ever.” Since there will be no local church life in any meaningful biblical sense in heaven, it is difficult to see how this usage can refer to the local church.
Rolland McCune, A Systematic Theology of Biblical Christianity, Vol. 3, p. 210
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