Pastors and Missionaries Get In-depth Teaching

Last week at Northland Int’l University in frigid, snowy northern Wisconsin, first I and then Dr. Jason Lisle each gave 14 hours of lectures to 34 men and a couple of women in full-time ministry. Most of them were pastors (from all over the USA) and a few were missionaries in Latin America or the South Pacific. This course was part of their studies to get an M.Min. or D.Min. degree.

Many of them had not studied the question of origins much before they started reading the 1100–1500 pages of books we assigned them to read before the lecture week. They were very attentive and asked good questions. Most of them grew up believing Genesis and many commented that they had no idea how much compromise there is in the church today regarding Genesis 1–11. They were also shocked to see some of the video clips or quotes from compromised theologians and Bible scholars by whose writings they have previously been helped.

A youth pastor who had not studied this issue before said that he now realized that he had a lot to learn and he needs to teach his youth on this subject.

A Christian school principal who also teaches AP biology likewise said that, although he has taught his kids some on this topic, he needs to do a lot more and make sure the other teachers do the same to equip the kids with the knowledge to defend against the false ideas they will get in Christian and secular universities. He shared that one of their school’s brightest students had gone off to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he lost his faith in Genesis (he had not been taught adequately to defend that faith). Then he went to Bethel Seminary, where he got more compromise. Now his life calling seems to be to show that “young-earth fundamentalists” are wrong.

A missionary in Latin America told me that he is training national pastors who are the fruit of CI Scofield’s ministry and that he has a task in weaning these national pastors from Scofield’s compromise via the gap theory, which he taught in the marginal notes of his famous study Bible.

So, these grad students in ministry are better equipped to teach the kids and adults in their ministries, and it is exciting to think of the ripple effects of this course in their diverse ministries scattered around America and the world.

Thanks for praying for this ministry as we equip others to proclaim and defend the truth of God's Word,

Terry