Question(s) for ExC's who attended Seminary

[Guest SerenityNow]

I can't imagine any of you as christians, willingly being deceiftul, in being a defender of the faith. I have several questions for this thread but I would like to start with this one.

 

What did/do they teach in bible college, seminary, that kept you from discovering the truth about Christianity? Meaning, how do they get through all the contradictions and historical errors, in order to keep such intelligent people in the dark?

[Ouroboros]

The Bible School I went to had a class in Bible history, and used a book, but it only brought up things that were positive and supporting the "divine" claims.

 

It's not until recent I'm learning about all the conflicting details about the history.

[been borg again]

a weird environment ( Multinomah bible School) , I think they start from the assumption that the student comes from the perspective/ background that just assumes a dualistic black/white christian world view is true and accurate without question..... and secular world-view/education institution is flawed and anti-god, thus bias and inaccurate.. it is not even questioned.. they begin education from this perspective... I am convinced so many students and teachers are sincere, they just begin higher education from too many assumptions they never even question. Afterwards so much money, time and effort is invested in bible education, then pride,egoism, self identity gets in the way, and makes a person even LESS TOLERANT to critical perspective.

 

Propaganda in its highest form, I never rememeber once being taught the principle of Critical thinking or Logical fallacy.

[Lokmer]

At the schools that I've attended, the liberal and secular schools of biblical criticism were taught in an anemic fashion with the slant of "this is where they're wrong." As such, it served as a vaccination against the desire to get into higher criticism or form criticism or anything of the sort, so that the student leaving the class would be hyper-skeptical or dismissive of any such material he came in contact with in the future. One of the (many) pebbles in my avalanche was discovering that most of the conservative scholars I know personally were very acomplished textual critics, so I couldn't help but learn the method and the reasons it was necessary. From there, it seemed artificial and dishonest to draw the line ONLY at textual criticism in order to avoid form crit and higher crit.

 

-Lokmer

[Alice]

I majored in Theology at a completely secular college. Mine was a Humanities degree and I also took social science and English Literature courses. It absolutely amazes me now ... but what I was taught just didn't really seep into the 'religious' bit of my brain at all at the time, and the few times that I let the conflicting things I was learning come into contact with my pre instilled beliefs ... I ended up explaining it away with a sort of dismissal of my tutors as not 'really knowing the truth'.

 

I know this is slightly different from going to Biblecollege ... I add this in because my experience of being taught at a secular university didn't even affect my faith at the time (I guess it may have contributed to where I am now !)

 

I guess it came down to what they taught me in sunday school aged 3 - 7 years actually had a more powerful effect on me than all the textual criticism and so on that I had access to at uni. (I think I paid more attention in sunday school as well)

[Guest grammi]

Well, I'm new to posting but I've been visiting every now and again for about 2 years. I am not an X-Christian but traditional ''conservative'' Christians would say that I was.

 

I currently attend Liberty University. I find the name funny as I type it because the class I am in now spends a great deal of time ''arguing'' with the ''liberals.'' The professor completely disrespects President Clinton and his family and almost constantly speaks of liberals like people who are less than human and not entitled to their own beliefs and thoughts. I am very displeased with this aspect of my schooling, very displeased.

 

I just cannot ''believe'' that the God who commands us to love others as He loved us would not follow His own laws. He commands us to bless those who curse us so I cannot imagine Him cursing someone who curses Him.

 

 

To answer the question, the don't ''explain'' anythin logically. Its pretty much "this is what the Bible says so it must be this way.''

[Ouroboros]

Well, it's maybe out of place to say welcome Grammi, since you've been lurking and reading for two years. But hey... here it is anyway... Welcome Grammi!

[♦ ficino ♦]

Yes, welcome, Grammi!

 

When i was in seminary we had a professor who said, "the best thing to do with liberals is kick them down the stairs."

 

The place I enrolled required everyone to sign a pledge saying they would judge all questions and matters by the Bible. They had to pledge belief that the Bible is inerrant, etc.

 

When I started asking isn't the Bible more consistent with Catholicism than Protestantism, people would debate single issues but not the whole question. They wouldn't acknowledge that "the dogmatic principle," which they propounded, could possibly lead some people in good conscience to Rome or Eastern Orthodoxy.

 

There was a lot of rhetoric against liberals of all types, as well as rhetoric against pre-Reformation churches.

 

When the going got tough, they would rely on several strategies:

1. claim that when read in context, the bible never contradicts itself. They made up ad hoc explanations for a lot of classic contradictions. For others, like disparity in numbers of things between books of the OT, etc., they just said scribal error.

2. They used Josh McDowell-style evidential apologetics as far as it would go. A number of the professors did not have Ph.D.s. The archeology guy was not a trained archeologist, and he just swallowed and taught "biblical archeology" of a type already a generation out of date.

3. if evidential apologetics was questioned, they'd fall back on TAG. Van Til was still alive then and we'd go over and listen to him hold forth every so often at Westminster. My professors were not averse to letting someone have lots of epistemological doubts, so they'd doubt their own ability to discern things and throw up their hands and say, well, I guess if we are to have any hope of ever justifying our knowledge, we'd better believe that the Bible is true and guarantees the truth of all other judgments.

4. Although it was not a charismatic seminary - they in fact as Calvinists denied that miracles are still performed by God - everyone had a conversion experience or other religious experience that was very dear. So no one was willing to let cognitive dissonance push him out of the comfort of belief.

[Abiyoyo]

I can't imagine any of you as christians, willingly being deceiftul, in being a defender of the faith.  I have several questions for this thread but I would like to start with this one.

 

What did/do they teach in bible college, seminary, that kept you from discovering the truth about Christianity?  Meaning, how do they get through all the contradictions and historical errors, in order to keep such intelligent people in the dark?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Never got that far. Actually, since God has directed me to do some unconveintal things, I was recently told by my pastor, I'm not sure about that.

 

I was so shocked on how a man can say that we need to be more hungry for God, yet tell someone that is truly seeking God and His word, then turn to the left and say, I have to think about that.

 

God did give me peace though. He showed me the scripture where Jesus says Woe, to the world for there offenses, although there will be many. He also gave me the understanding that He wants to use me for all people, not just a denomination.

 

So, Bible school is probualy out of the question. I actually told my wife last night( with her still scepticism), that Its going to be about a man, a Book, a Holy Spirit, and Gods word to me. I felt much peace about that, and God again lead me to some more scripture. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. When He spoke to Peter, and said, Rise eat. Peter said No Lord, I have not eaten anything unclean since my youth. God said, What I have cleansed, do not call unclean( regarding the Gentiles).

 

Anyhow, I would gladly skip schooling, and just go with Gods wisdom and understanding to me. Kinda like Jesus( blasphemer).

[Fweethawt]

[♦ ficino ♦]

Today there was a quote in the New York Times that struck me as relevant. It is from the Scopes trial.

 

Clarence Darrow asked Wm. Jennings Bryan what he thinks about evolution or something.

 

Bryan: "I don't think about the things I don't think about."

Darrow: "Do you think about the things you do think about?"

Bryan: "Well, sometimes."

[Guest grammi]

Thanks for the welcome...