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Taking a break today from the Testimony of a Man series in order to discuss the attached post.
The Following article was posted today on www.gospel.com. You can click on the title to go to the sight.
I think this is a very important discussion, because we are witnessing a secularization of the Evangelical church throughout the western world. Many churches are removing their core positional statements regarding the objective truth of the Bible, they are changing their names and removing crosses to be more accommodating to other faiths. They are choosing to honor people over God in their programming and sermons. And people are being told that simply believing that Jesus died for them is the substance of assurance (as opposed to 1 John and the rest of Scripture).
Read the following article.
Is There Value in a Multi-Faith Seminary?
Lillian Kwon writes in a recent Christian Post article about the ways that Claremont School of Theology is partnering with colleges from other faiths. Their goal is to create a multi-faith seminary.
Understandably, this has some Christian leaders taken aback. Here’s a portion of the article; you can read the whole thing to get a few dissenting opinions on Claremont’s plan:
Also, a World Religions class in this environment could be excellent; instead of one professor attempting to accurately describe many different religions, spiritual leaders from those religion could come in to teach. As a consequence, Christian students might leave with a much better understanding of the intricacies of preaching the Gospel to adherents of those religions.
What do you think? Assuming the Christian arm of the seminary is orthodox, do you think there’s value in a multi-faith seminary?
By: Chris. This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Faith, People, Religion.
If we read the Bible (God's testimony), Have mans attempts at inclusive faith ever led to harmonious Christ-centered, God-honoring life? Like many things on the Wide Road that many find today, the idea sounds good because we try to spiritualize it by laying evangelism on top of it. However, Scripture leaves room for only one acceptable path of instruction - the teaching of Christ, the prophets and the Apostles (Ephesians 2:19-21, Deuteronomy 6). Being knowledgeable is very different from dancing with man's foolishness.
In our desire to bring peace to this side of eternity, we need to make sure it is God's Peace to men, not broken mans flawed peace to broken man.
Think about it.
With you for His glory
Understandably, this has some Christian leaders taken aback. Here’s a portion of the article; you can read the whole thing to get a few dissenting opinions on Claremont’s plan:
Claremont’s president, the Rev. Jerry Campbell, announced Wednesday that the seminary will be partnering with Jewish and Islamic schools to offer clerical training to students of various faiths. Students will be trained in their own religious traditions as well as gain understanding of other faiths through shared classes with the Academy for Jewish Religion and the Islamic Center of Southern California. Eventually, the seminary plans to expand its training to include Hinduism and Buddhism, among others.While I think that Claremont’s reasoning for partnering with other schools is a little theologically shaky, the end result could be interesting. Keeping one’s faith intact in a setting like this would require a deep understanding of and commitment to one’s Christian faith. I have a hunch that Christian students at this school will find themselves articulating their faith to outsiders nearly every day.
The new consortium of graduate schools, which is believed to be the first of its kind, is being launched to essentially better prepare students for the multi-religious world they are living in.
But a multi-religious environment isn’t anything new, said Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative watchdog that monitors mainline denominations.
Christians have had to deal with such an environment for the past 2,000 years and Christianity has stuck to its truth claims amid the diversity, he noted during Mohler’s radio program.
“If they are to be faithful to the Gospel then they should be accepting the multi-religious environment as a challenge rather than trying to accommodate it or succumb to it,” Tooley commented.
Also, a World Religions class in this environment could be excellent; instead of one professor attempting to accurately describe many different religions, spiritual leaders from those religion could come in to teach. As a consequence, Christian students might leave with a much better understanding of the intricacies of preaching the Gospel to adherents of those religions.
What do you think? Assuming the Christian arm of the seminary is orthodox, do you think there’s value in a multi-faith seminary?
By: Chris. This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Faith, People, Religion.
If we read the Bible (God's testimony), Have mans attempts at inclusive faith ever led to harmonious Christ-centered, God-honoring life? Like many things on the Wide Road that many find today, the idea sounds good because we try to spiritualize it by laying evangelism on top of it. However, Scripture leaves room for only one acceptable path of instruction - the teaching of Christ, the prophets and the Apostles (Ephesians 2:19-21, Deuteronomy 6). Being knowledgeable is very different from dancing with man's foolishness.
In our desire to bring peace to this side of eternity, we need to make sure it is God's Peace to men, not broken mans flawed peace to broken man.
Think about it.
With you for His glory
