How Calvin College Lost Its Hold on the Bible

By: American Decency Staff

 

(Although speaking specifically of Calvin College, these are questions and issues that apply to many Christian colleges and individual Christians. Read carefully; think deeply on Christ, and purpose in your own heart to stand guard.)

“Man is now thinking out a Bible for himself; framing a religion in harmony with the development of liberal thought; constructing a worship on the principles of taste and culture; shaping a god to suit the expanding aspirations of the age. … The extent of the mischief no one can calculate. A soul without faith, a church without faith, a nation without faith, a world without faith – what is to be their future? What is their present? When faith goes, all good things go. When unbelief comes in, all evil things follow.” — Horatius Bonar

Not only does Calvin College, indeed most of America, find itself standing on the edge of this dangerous precipice; but it’s also the beginning of an article published by Banner of Truth (BOT) in July 2015—“How Scotland Lost Its Hold on the Bible.” This 28 page BOT article spells out what happens when the precious treasure of God’s Word is compromised by the church’s desire to better fit in with the world, or when man lifts his word and his “wisdom” above the word and wisdom of God. May this article and BOT’s article serve as a warning to Calvin College and all who are tempted to raise the creature above the Creator.

“How Scotland Lost Its Hold on the Bible” can be read in its entirety here.

The Free Church of Scotland, “the denomination which became the power-house for ideas which would reach all parts of the English-speaking world,” and Calvin College, named after reformer and theologian John Calvin, were both citadels in their own right—blessed by God for their attention to guarding the precious treasure of God’s Word. Yet both of them, having let down their guard for the sake of acceptance by man and man’s wisdom, have forfeited (are forfeiting) their place of prominent influence in an ever-increasing secularization of a once God-focused church society. Instead of pointing to the wisdom of God and His holiness, they now point to the wisdom of man, calling good evil and evil good. They forget the fact that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men,” and the warning that “He (God) catches the wise in their own craftiness.”

We are deeply troubled with Calvin College’s LGBT policies and their entanglement with interfaith dialogue, to name only two—albeit important—issues, and how these things relate to what God SAYS about them. We are concerned over their lackadaisical handling of Holy Scripture and their neglect to fulfill their duty to the students, community, and Bride of Jesus Christ, by refusing to guard the sacred authority of God’s Word. It would seem that when the serpent asks, “Has God really said…,” their response is a scratching of their head, replying, “That’s a good question; has He said?” Rather, the answer should be a resounding, “YES, God hath said, and we will hold the line here—for love of God and our fellow man. We can do NO OTHER.”

When the strong worldly winds of adversity blow, our desire would be for Calvin, and every Christian, to be like the weather vane. The stronger the wind blows against it, the more steadily it points in the true direction. When the torrents assail, may we ever point decidedly to Christ and His atoning work of grace for this lost and dying world, of which we once were.

A Calvin College Chimes (student newspaper) recent headline read, “Wolterstorff affirms same-sex marriage.” This highly respected and well-educated man, having taught philosophy at Calvin College for 30 years before moving on to teach philosophy at Yale Divinity School, dismissed Biblical texts which condemn homosexuality, heralded the homosexual as the most vulnerable to being wronged in our society, and claimed that “listening has changed me.”

Oh that Nicholas Wolterstorff had listened to the loving words of Jesus, hearing the Shepherd’s direction, rather than listening to “relatives, students and former students who were gay, as well as people in committed, same-sex relationships.” Instead of listening “to their agony, to their feelings of exclusion and oppression, to their longings, to their expressions of love…,” he’d have been better off listening to the wisdom of God, following after obedience and holiness, that he might offer a holy hope rather than a false ecclesiastical hope, based on man’s wisdom. We do not go to society, the government, our friends, family, or some hobby group or school for the answers to any question. We are to go to the Word of God. Listen to Al Mohler’s The Briefing, where he talks about this topic and discusses the question “Can a same-sex relationship be holy?”

Some would say we are where we are today on this topic because of politics. NOT SO! We are where we are because Christians have become lazy in reading and studying the Scripture, pastors and professors have neglected to guard the precious treasure, and we have focused on loving the world, the things of this world, and acceptance from the world more than loving Christ and longing for His acceptance. The truth is suppressed instead of heralded and we have forgotten that the “foolishness of God” is still much wiser than the wisdom of man.

The “New Apologetic” (that which stole the Light from the Free Church of Scotland in the BOT article mentioned above) and the apologetics of this current, progressive theology are closely related. Both, pickaxe by penknife, chisel and cut away from the foundation of the authority of God’s Word. As one tears away at the foundations within the church, we also chisel away at our foundational relationship to society. We negate our influence and remove the only rightful authority belonging to us within our community—an authority which is based solely on the infallible, holy, Word of God!

Trading authority for acceptance, we are driven to ask, “‘What has to be done to make the Bible acceptable to modern men and women?’… Much more than one doctrine (biblical inerrancy) needs to be laid aside. Leave out all that humbles man, take out the supernatural, suppress God’s word on what sin deserves – do this, and the church and the world can live in peace.” (BOT p. 13)

This is what Wolterstorff, Calvin College, and a host of other Christian colleges and churches have done. But beware; there are unfathomable dangers in this. “The process may be slow, yet disbelief in Scripture leads inevitably to disbelief in Christ himself” (BOT article p. 8). 

Churches and Christian colleges will have much to answer for, as Moody Stuart warned: “The word of the Lord is pure, and out of this trial it will come forth in all its brightness as silver out of the furnace. But, meanwhile, an unutterable calamity may overtake us, for our children may lose the one treasure we were bound to bequeath them; and for long years they may wander ‘through dry places seeking rest, and finding none’, before they recover their hold of the word of life, and regain their footing on the rock of eternal truth.” (BOT p. 10)

It doesn’t matter if we are addressing the false narrative of interfaith dialogue, a bridge building movement, with other faiths, which neglects both Christian evangelism and the beautiful truth of the exclusivity of Christ; the narrative that the LGBT agenda is acceptable to our Creator, or any other narrative that changes “the truth of God into a lie, and worships and serves the creature more than the Creator;” we must recognize that God’s Word stands authoritatively supreme in opposition to such doctrines and those who espouse them.

What should our Christian response be to this issue which Calvin College and so many others raise?

First, we must recognize and “draw a definite line between those who uphold the authority of all Scripture, and those who do not.” (BOT p. 24) Taking heed to Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ admonition: “There is a call today to separation. It is the only distinction in the Church which I recognize at all: those who submit to the Word of God, and its revelation, and its teaching, and those who do not.” (BOT p. 24)

Secondly, we must recognize “the demonic dimension” knowing that “we need the supernatural to fight against the supernatural.” In other words, we must pray.  Pray for these Christian institutions of higher learning, their students, churches, and all that claim the name of Jesus, that blindness would be removed and that they would accept the authority of Scripture. Pray that Christians everywhere would accept and stand on the authority of God’s Word.

Above all, we must arm ourselves with this precious treasure. Purpose to know the Scriptures for yourself—“study to show yourself approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” Decide, here and now, that Scripture will be your authority. Stand on it, by it, and for it. Rest in it, as Wesley did:

“I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach that way; for this very end he came down from heaven. He has written it down in a book! O give me that book! At any price, Give me the Book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be, ‘a man of one book’.” (BOT p. 26)

When one part of the Bible’s authority is attacked, all of its authority is under attack. If Calvin and other colleges, any church, or any one of us, neglect the authority of Scripture, neglect to be an institution or person of “one book,” we will have lost our hold on the BIBLE. God help us.

Check out the schools that you are affiliated with—not just their statements of faith, but where they actually stand in relation to what God says in His Word. Particularly look at their stances on the LGBT agenda and interfaith dialogue. Ours is to be a convictional Christianity, not a conditional Christianity. Stand firm, bringing light to presidents, principals, and professors/teachers, regardless of the age group of their students.

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