Biblical Higher Education - In Your Own Words … 

I herewith add a new occasional (or perhaps regular) feature of our eNewsletter:  Biblical Higher Education – In Your Own Words.  What are you and your colleagues writing and saying about biblical higher education’s distinctive nature and calling?  Send me what you are saying to your students and your stakeholders.  Here’s an example from Somerset Christian College President, David Schroeder: 
Seven years ago on September 11, 2001, we woke up to a culture war that surprised us, and the world was changed.  Retribution has eluded us; the war on terrorism has not satisfied us.  We still feel insecure and vulnerable, and most Americans do not have a clue about what is really happening.  We have entered a time not unlike the years after Daniel’s prophecy.  Perhaps again, “Many will be purged, purified and refined; but the wicked will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand” (Dan. 12:10). 

Regardless of our individual views of eschatology, the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles clearly points to an apocalyptic future for the world.  So, do we don a sandwich board to proclaim gloom and doom?  What is our post 9/11 role? Have we returned to business as usual, generic evangelicalism in the past seven years? I believe terrorism and cultural wars give today’s followers of Jesus a five-fold prophetic role to:

    •  Know and obey the Word of the Lord
    • Understand the times and the seasons, as well as the cultures of the world
    • Confront the church’s complacency, starting with ourselves
    • Lovingly warn all people of the coming intervention of God and show and tell the good news of salvation
    • Be filled with the Holy Spirit and engage spiritual warfare when evidently needed
What worldview do we need to face such an uncertain future for our world?  I’ve decided to emerge from “the temple of the Lord” mentality (Jeremiah 7:4), and embrace these ideas:

    • God is bigger than theology; theology is important but cannot adequately describe God.
    • The culture that has my allegiance is called by Jesus “the Kingdom of God” and its strategies are love, prayer and witness.
    • Spiritual experiences and identities do not have to be labeled and stereotyped.
    •  A pneumatic worldview is not obsessed with control; the wind blows where and how it will.
    • Only a radical version of discipleship will finish the work of the Great Commission.
    • God will pour out his Spirit on the young and bring renewal through them.
    • Older Christians who are walking in the Spirit will encourage and protect the young zealots.

“Those who have insight will understand” that the battle lines are being drawn between conflicting worldviews.  More than ever, the Lord wants to raise up believers with a biblically-based, Christ-centered education and display them in all walks of life as His army.  I cannot give adequate intensity or emphasis to the importance of young people gaining a spiritual Christ-centered worldview if the next generations are to effectively combat the false ideologies of the world and man-made religions.  The new www is Worshipping Warrior Worldview.  And that’s what a Somerset Christian College education imparts.  Our students are aware that a battle for kingdom supremacy is being waged, and that the radical terror that is inspired by the chief enemy of God must be challenged and defeated by radical commitment to Christ and love for our enemies.

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