Scholars and Apostasy
Question:
MY FIRST QUESTION IS ABOUT YOU ACTUALLY. I WAS WONDERING IF YOU ARE CONSIDERED A BIBLE SCHOLAR. I SEEN YOU HAVE A DOCTORS DEGREE IN BIBLE OR THEOLOGY, ARE YOU A SCHOLAR?
MY NEXT QUESTION IS HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT DR. ______ LEAVING THE FAITH. HE WAS ONE OF THE TOP BIBLE SCHOLARS IN THE FIELD OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM. I GUESS HE GOT SO DEEP WITH GREEK MANUSCRIPTS HE LOST THE TRUE MEANING OF WHY YOU READ THEM. YOU KNOW HIM? HE STATED THERE WERE TO MANY CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE AND HE GAVE UP ON TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS SAID. A MAN HAS TO TAKE A LITTLE ON FAITH THOUGH. HOPE YOU ARE DOING OK, GOOD TO CHAT WITH YOU AGAIN.
Answer:
Since the primary meanings of scholar means a student I am certainly a scholar as we all should be since we are all to be learning from the Word and the Lord until the day we graduate into Glory. The secondary meaning is someone who has done some advanced study in a particular field and I have done that. Thus, I guess I am a scholar, but it is not really a big deal. You can be highly educated and still spiritually ignorant.
For twenty years I fought against getting a bunch of letters after my name because the only BA that is important means Born Again. The only Masters I need are the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Finally, if the DR in front of my name doesn't mean Divinely Redeemed all is in vain. I finally gave in to gain a hearing but all that and $5.00 will get me a cappuccino at Starbucks. There are more highly educated heretics than you can shake a stick at so I'll stick with the real qualifications to serve that Paul gives in 1 Cor 1:26-31.
Indeed, when I graduated college with a Bachelors of Religious Education I was often accused of being too deep in the Word when I taught or preached in various churches. Yet, when I a pastoral candidate most churches wanted someone with a doctorate, including those with twelve members. My thought was that if I am too deep in the Word for them with my BRE then what will I be with two more? I will be speaking to the air since I will be over everyone’s head.
One of my professors described degrees in this way. A bachelor’s degree teaches you how to study. A master’s shows you what to study and a doctorate means you can teach. By that definition, there are many people with advanced degrees who still have not figured out how or what to study and they are teaching what they do not know. On the other hand, many people without any degree have been teaching for years in their particular field because they know how and what to study. Thus they are doctors/teachers. They are just not documented by somebody’s good ol’ boy club. 😉
I really don’t get excited about paperwork for indeed the documented scholars have been much of the problem over the ages. The Pharisees and Sadducees sat under some of the most notable scholars of the day and you see how much Jesus had to correct them and use mostly unlearned fishermen to train them. Paul cast all his stuff to the curb and considered it dung compared to what he learned from Jesus. One fellow said after forty plus years of study in which he mastered several biblical languages and did much manuscript study that the most profound thing he had learned was that Jesus loved him this he knew because the Bible told him so.
As to the lad you mentioned, I do not know anything about him so I cannot really speak to his departure. We are not to look to man anyway, but noted atheists over the years have become believers and noted theists have become atheists. You can study from the wrong premise and then come to a wrong conclusion. I do not know his heart or his testimony. Was he truly a Christian or a member of a denomination that has a form of godliness but denies the power thereof? I called myself a Christian for years because I was raised in a denomination and could quote a creed or two, but was not saved until 1975.
Whoever loses their faith or maybe their dead religion really does not affect me because like the other scholar I mentioned I know Jesus loves me and that the Bible is inspired by God and no scholar can persuade me otherwise. God is not known by earthly wisdom so if the scholars do not get the picture I am not surprised. If there are not many noble or wise according to this world that are in our calling, why do we obsess on them in the first place? Many heretics have advanced degrees and little old ladies with no degrees get their prayers answered believing in the God and the Word that the scholars would protest or deny. I side with the little old ladies and chuckle at the scholars. We are told in Scripture that there will be some who are ever learning but never come to the full knowledge of the truth.
His problem may have been that he was studying the wrong manuscripts. The love affair with the minority texts will cause you some issues as they do not agree with each other most of the time. That is why the KJV translators used the majority texts that are confirmed by lectionaries, older versions and writings of the early church scholars/pastors.
Maybe, if he dumped the pseudo-scholarship that academia is so enamored with he might not have had the issues he faced. It may have been something other than his studies that triggered this as many leave the faith over something they supposed God should have done or not have done and then use other facades to justify their abandonment. Only God knows for sure and all we can do is pray that God will give him enlightenment that his studies failed to give him and that he will be led back to faith. If he belongs to God then God will work it out with him and if he is not God’s then may God draw him to Himself to be saved.
2 Cor 4:3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
We are in an age of apostasy and it will be no surprise to see some of the supposed superstars of the faith fall away. Some may well have been plants by the devil to be used to discourage the saints and embolden the scoffers. The tares often look as good as the wheat so that only God knows the difference. Satan and his lads often appear as angels of light and many will say unto Him in that day that they did many things in His name but He will send them away and call them workers of iniquity.
The bottom line is to put our trust in God and His Word. We must be Bereans studying to show ourselves approved unto God and making our calling and election sure. Doing this we shall make stand when others fall. Peace be unto you! Maranatha!
Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
