23
September 1941 A.D. Faith Theological Seminary & Other Seminaries (Presbyterian)
Archivist. “September 23: Faith Theological
Seminary.” This Day in Presbyterian History.
23 Sept 2014. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/09/september-23/. Accessed 23 Sept 2014.
September 23: Faith Theological Seminary
You can’t tell the players
without a scorecard. And you can’t really make sense of Presbyterian history if
you don’t know something of the various people who played out this grand story.
So Ad
fontes! (To the sources!) — There is probably no
better way to assess the character and mentality of an era or a group of people
than to read what they themselves have actually written. Don’t be satisfied
with reading secondary sources! And in the case of Christians, churches, and
denominations, read or listen to their sermons, their discourses, and their
theology.
The following address,
delivered in 1941 by Dr. Carl McIntire on the occasion of the dedication of a
new property and home for Faith Theological Seminary, at the beginning of the
school’s fourth academic year. The Seminary was later to move to yet another
location, the old historical Widener estate. While eventually the school fell
on hard times and had to leave the Widener property, it has managed to continue
on unto this day.
Dr. McIntire was always a
“scrapper,” ready for a fight and unafraid of any opposition. Clearly he had
his faults, some of them glaring, but he was a most remarkable and interesting
character in this story that was conservative Presbyterianism in the twentieth
century. The address that follows provides us with some rich insights into
American Presbyterian history, into the mentality of theological conservatives,
and in particular, some better insight into just who Carl McIntire was.
ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE PROPERTY GIVEN TO FAITH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
1303 Delaware Avenue, Wilmington, Delaware
September 23, 1941.
by the REV. CARL MCINTIRE
President of the Board of Directors.
Faith Theological Seminary is
not just “another seminary.” It stands as a pivotal citadel against a decaying
Protestantism. It is not a small stream off a great river, but it moves in the
very center of the current of the Christian faith.
The founding of this
institution in 1937 was occasioned by the apostasy in the visible church,
particularly the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., and the need for ministers
and missionaries would would stand without compromise for the faith once
delivered unto the saints. It is not “another seminary” because of its cause.
It is not “another seminary” because of its scholarship. It is not “another
seminary” because of its consecration.
[pictured above, the building donated to Faith Theological Seminary in 1941]
EARLY SCHOOLS OF
THEOLOGY
The same motive that led to the
establishment of the early schools of theology, such as Harvard, Yale, and
Princeton, which was the need of a trained and sound ministry, was behind the
establishment of this institution. The roots of this institution go back to the
previous century and can be traced clearly in the rise of what is
popularly called Modernism, the infiltration of the conclusions of destructive
higher criticism into the theological seminaries, the colleges, and then down
into the churches.
Harvard turned aside to another
gospel, and the valiants of the faith broke from Harvard and established
Andover Theological Seminary, but in time the termites of unbelief left only an
outward shell at Andover, and it was joined again to Harvard. Satan focuses his
strongest attacks on sound seminaries. Union Theological Seminary,
New York City, at the close of the last century, was in the death throes
of the same struggle. Men had crept in unawares, even denying the Lord who
bought them. Their craft, their wiles gave them that institution, and it has
since been a leading spokesman for a naturalizing and humanizing message. The
last of these great institutions to fall was Princeton Theological Seminary,
and it is in the succession to the stalwart, unyielding Princeton that Faith Seminary
stands. But the softening and deadening effect that the infiltration of
Modernism has had on Christianity in America had so affected the life of the
church that when men objected to the presence of Modernism and cried out
against it they could do nothing more than pass resolutions affirming their
faith, when what the hour required was the discipline and rejection of those
who denied. This was the hour of real defeat, and the fifth column’s victory.
The struggle in the Presbyterian Church over the historic Auburn Affirmation
was a weak, flimsy struggle compared to what that occasion required,, but the
spirit and temper of the church easily explained the result. America in its
dismal despair and desperate need can never be saved by that kind of leadership.
THE PRINCETON SEMINARY
BATTLE
It was into this mist, with a
deepening fog, that the storm broke over Princeton. God raised up several
brilliant leaders, among them Dr. J. Gresham Machen and Dr. Robert Dick Wilson.
They cried against Modernism, inclusivism, and indifference. Their cry was
protected by a Board of Directors who stood with them. Though the great
Northern Presbyterian Church, to which they belonged, straggled in response to
their cry, the leadership of that body, under the spell of the voices of
inclusivism, found that they could only silence the Princeton testimony by a
reorganization. This was done in 1929. Princeton was made subservient to the
inclusive trend of the church. Men were placed on the board of control who had
said it was not necessary for preachers to believe in the essentials of the
evangelical faith, such as the virgin birth, the blood of Christ, the miracles
of our Lord, and His bodily resurrection, and they denied the inerrancy of the
Bible.
THE LOSS OF PRINCETON
The change in Princeton since
1929 has been obvious to all. It ceased to be a militant contender for the
faith; peace and quiet has been the order of the day. The hatchet between Union
and Princeton has been publicly buried, and a recent General Assembly delighted
in the union in fellowship and purpose of their presidents. Barthianism, with
its relativism and subtle denial of the unique authority of the Scriptures as
an objective deposit of truth, fills the halls where formerly the voices of the
Alexanders, the Hodges, and the Warfields blazed forth in defense of the faith.
Inclusivism is victorious.
But at the reorganization in
1929 those who were of the spirit of Athanasius and Augustine, Luther and
Calvin, walked out. They could be no party to the capitulation. Fifth
columnists had captured Union in New York and Harvard, but it took a siege by
politicians of the church to win Princeton.
WESTMINSTER STARTED
Princeton was the last of the
old-line seminaries to go down, and the hopes of men turned toward Westminster
Theological Seminary which was then organized in Philadelphia. There, under the
leadership of Dr. Machen, the battle in the church continued. The same issues,
loyalty to the Word of God, were raised by the publication of the pagan
“Rethinking Missions” and its blanket endorsement by Pearl Buck, Presbyterian
missionary. This opened the whole question of Modernism in the Board of Foreign
Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. and its loyalty to the Word
of God and the constitution of the church. The Presbyterian Assembly refused to
reform the Board, or to order an investigation. Thus, in 1933. the famous
Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions was organized to receive
the gifts of God’s people for the sending forth of missionaries, true and
sound, and the lifting up of an uncompromising testimony to the Word of God. In
1936, our own Dr. Harold S. Laird succeeded Dr. Machen in the presidency of
this historic and missionary testimony.
ECCLESIASTICAL
PERSECUTION
But the fagots of
ecclesiastical persecution were lighted in the Presbyterian Church. Machen and
those associated with him on the Independent Board were tied to the stake,
branded rebels, “cancers in the life of the church,” and because they would not
bow their conscience to a mandate of the Assembly to disband their independent
agency and support the compromising Board they were read out of the church,
unfrocked, deposed. Some of us standing here have read the church fiats against
our souls, telling us that we are no longer worthy to preach the Gospel, and
forbidding us to partake of the Communion of Jesus Christ. But we have also
read the Word of God telling us of God’s favor in obeying Him and standing for
the precious blood of His Son. The Modernists, the inclusivists, the indifferentists,
and some trembling, silent “Fundamentalists” joined in thus restoring the
“peace,” not by purifying the church, but by disrupting it, and making it
secure for the Modernists.
A new church was started and
the movement had wide appeal. In the midst of the battle the emphasis of the
defenders had been upon the Bible as the Word of God—the faith. But it is one
thing to stand against apostasy, and it is another thing to build a church.
Church history is replete with this lesson. Dr. Machen’s work was done. God
called him Home at this crucial point. Had he lived, perhaps the turn of events
would have been different. However, it is clear that God in His providence did
not want them to be different.
THE FALL OF WESTMINSTER
There were elements smoldering
in the movement closely associated with Dr. Machen which were not in accord
with the historic position of American Protestantism and particularly of the
historic Presbyterian Church in regard to the Christian’s position on certain
vital matters of conduct. After Dr. Machen was removed there came to the fore
an element in Westminster Seminary which told the students that they were not
loyal to Christ if they did not substitute for the ordinary grape juice of the
Communion cup fermented, intoxicating wine. Certain professors declared that
they used intoxicating beverages, not, of course, to become intoxicated, but
for their own pleasure. Under this influence certain students held drinking
parties, and some even went so far as to become intoxicated. As this situation
became known, the leaders of Westminster Seminary took refuge in the doctrines
of Christian liberty. As to the validity and reality of those doctrines none in
the movement disputed them, but there was question as to the expedient use of
such liberty, particularly in our mechanized, high-tempered, present-day
American life. In such an atmosphere the Seminary leaders practically forgot
the old issue of Modernism and apostasy, and the young students were filled
with the arguments for liberty. They went out as flaming apostles for liberty
in the use of intoxicating drinks. Expedience, as taught in the Bible, was
buried.
In a near-by community where
there was a referendum being held against the saloon, one of the students arose
and preached on Sunday morning a sermon in which he explained to the people
their liberty in the use of intoxicating beverages. Church members broke down
crying, some left never to darken the church door again.
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
In the midst of such a
situation, in love these brethren were approached and talked with, and urged to
change their conduct as a matter of expediency, to consider the weaker brother,
and to use not their liberty for an occasion of offense. They refused. These
matters were raised in the new church, and to the amazement of so many, when a
simple resolution by way of counsel and advice was presented, stating that it
was the wisest policy for young people to abstain from the use of intoxicating
drinks, the Westminster force rose and fought It as Satan. Also in such an atmosphere
students who never had smoked began to use cigarettes.
Coupled with this, after the
death of Dr. Machen, to the bewilderment of others there came to the fore an
intolerance of those who believed in the premillennial return of Jesus Christ,
and a Seminary spokesman accused those who loved this view of holding anti-
Reformed heresy. Then there was a harsh intolerance for various opinions. The
new church, they were determined, would be an amillennial body. The Seminary
was going to present the “Biblical view,” which they held to be amillennialism.
But many of the churches believed in the premillennial return of Christ, and
young men were sent to them who immediately took up the battle against the
premillenarians.
It seemed that one cannon
after another was exploded by the Seminary to confuse and drive from the
movement all who did not agree with the new leadership of the Seminary after
Dr. Machen’s removal. A hyper-Calvinism even criticized former students who in
their zeal for evangelism gave pulpit invitations for men to come forward and
accept Christ. They seemed to make their emphasis on the “Reformed Faith”
almost a fetish.
In the midst of such confusion
utter despair and defeat seemed imminent. The enemies of the Gospel rejoiced
and chortled. This new conflict was minor in comparison to the issues of
Modernism, yet it was real and valid, for it represented the birth pangs of a
new church, a continuation of the true Presbyterian succession, and a body free
from Modernism. The enemies of the faith deliberately misrepresented the facts
to justify their unrighteous stand and to misguide uninformed Christians. Many
of the weaker brethren who had gone along with the struggle for the faith fell
by the wayside, or turned back to the material comforts of an established
church organization. But all this was a testing, a sifting, and purging. There
were some who were ready to be made a spectacle All this was pain, but also a
blessing!
FAITH THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY RISES
It was in this hour that Faith
Theological Seminary was born. There was a Gideon’s band who saw the battle
through!
I shall always thank God that
I was privileged, together with many of my colleagues here on the Seminary
Board and Faculty, to be in the thick of the historic struggle for the faith.
For the most confused hours
God gave men faith, and this institution came forth with a conviction that the
struggle for the faith against apostasy had to continue, with a proper emphasis
on first things, and a sane balance on secondary issues. Faith Seminary would
continue the defense of the faith represented by Dr. Machen in his celebrated
works, such as “What Is Faith,” “Christianity and Liberalism,” “The Origin of
Paul’s Religion,” and “The Virgin Birth.” It would sound the call to a
consistent Calvinism, to an appreciation of the Reformed Faith in its warmth
and zeal for the salvation of the lost, its implicit reliance on the
sovereignty of God, and its full honoring of the grace of God. There is no
other institution in existence with this single purpose and clear vision of
America’s need. It is important whether ministers drink or do not drink, and
whether the influence of the church be on the side of separation from
worldliness. Since Westminster took the amillennial position, Faith Theological
Seminary would lift a banner in behalf of premillennialism, granting full
liberty to those Christians who differ.
FOR THE FAITH—BY FAITH
Faith Seminary has come
through blood and fire, thunder and tears, and in those hours of battle there
was one thing that kept and held it. It Was faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
faith in His ultimate victory. Thus the institution was given its name and
motto, “Faith Theological Seminary—for the faith—by faith.”
It was in this hour also that
the Bible Presbyterian Church, a true successor to the Presbyterian Church,
came into being. It has been singularly blessed of God, and many are rallying
to its testimony. There is a chapter that perhaps should not be left
unmentioned, for the sake of the record. Faith Seminary was not announced until
the middle of July, 1937. In June of that year, a month and a half before,
plans were being made for a seminary at Wheaton College under the direction of
the Board of Directors of the College, but when the plan was presented to the
Board they turned it down because they did not want to be too closely
associated with the controversy. This action has proved to be a blessing.
However, one prominent Philadelphia attorney who knew confidentially of the
plans for the Wheaton seminary in June changed his will, leaving a substantial
sum for the Wheaton project, and before he heard that the College had turned
down the seminary he died. The Wheaton Board lost an opportunity of a century,
and then later turned out its fearless leader, Dr. J. Oliver Buswell, for a
more mollifying attitude toward the Modernistic larger denominations. Men
everywhere seem to be afraid to get too close to the Seminary and the movement
which it represents for fear of losing something, or being hurt in some
measure. What a compliment to the Seminary! And what a sad commentary upon the
superficiality of present-day Fundamentalism. Fundamentalists need to take a
deeper view of the Scriptures. There, too, is Elijah versus Ahab, Nathan versus
David, John the Baptist versus Herod. This hour, called by some leading
liberals the twilight of Christianity, this day of darkening apostasy calls to
high heaven for such prophets.
A DOUBLE BLESSING
When the decision was made in
the middle of July, 1937, that Faith would be started, those who had the institution
at heart thought that twelve students would be a token of the Lord’s blessing.
It was to open the last of September. He sent twenty-four. We had no buildings,
no money, few friends, but a great God, and a group of men who knew how
faithful is Elijah’s God. What precious days these were, yea, what precious
days these are!
God has given a
Faculty—consecrated, scholarly, self-sacrificing. These men see the issue. They
love the cause. This is the spirit of our fathers who forsook all and worshiped
in caves, and instructed their students in blackouts. That spirit is more
priceless than all earth’s treasures. God has given us distinguished men of
gifts and vision, willing to suffer and bleed for the truth. Dr. Robert Dick
Wilson groomed his successor for Princeton in Allan A. MacRae. He has nobly and
ably picked up the mantle that fell from the old prophet’s shoulders, having
seen also the chariot of fire. He is excelled by none in America as an Old
Testament scholar and authority. Under the careful scholarship of Dr. Machen,
Alfred W. Eppard was prepared for a teaching ministry and sent abroad for
further preparation. He was ready when the opportunity came to present the
historical, exegetical apologetic of the New Testament in the tradition of
Machen. A younger, brilliant student, R. Laird Harris, was also being groomed
in a similar manner for such a ministry while a student at Westminster, and God
gave him to Faith. It was by an irresistible whirl of God’s providence that J.
Oliver Buswell, Jr., was available to command the Chair of Theology for which
God had qualified him. When God decides to build a Seminary, He first provides
for spiritual needs. Buildings come later.
God has provided us directors
with a determination, “This one thing I do.”
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
It is out of the welter, the
heat, the smoke of battle that we meet this afternoon to receive this gift of
God’s choosing. He makes great and important decisions for us. He wants this
Seminary to be here at Wilmington close to the influences of the ministry of
our secretary of the Board, Dr. Harold S. Laird. Here is visible a half million
dollar church building from whose pulpit Dr. Laird was ejected—to remain there
would have meant to deny Christ—in order to take his flock to an empty church
by the railroad where they could worship Jesus Christ freely and fully with no
yoke with compromise and unbelief in the Presbyterian Church.
America needs the prophets of
Faith Theological Seminary. I see four varieties of seminary students and
ministers today, but there is only one of these four that is worth having.
THE FIRST YOUNG MAN
First, there is the young man,
trained in a liberal school. He is a liberal and not ashamed of it. He comes
from such a school as Union in New York. He does not believe the Bible to be
the inerrant Word of God. He cannot accept the virgin birth, and openly says
so. He has one credit to himself, and that is, he is honest. But he is doubly
dishonest when he goes into a denomination whose creed affirms the things he
denies. But there he easily cajoles his conscience, for the leaders of the
church in letting him in are just as dishonest as he is in denying the creed;
and besides, honesty, like all values in the new order, is only a relative
matter. It is just thus with so many of the agreements of the world. They mean
nothing more than the moment requires. So it is with the constitution of many
of the larger churches. They are words written on paper, but not in the courts
of the elders.
THE SECOND YOUNG MAN
Second, there is the young man
who comes out of a compromising seminary, such as Princeton. He wants to be
fundamental. He has learned the lingo of the Fundamentalists, but he has caught
a vision of a great church, a church which is the hope of the hour. He sees
great buildings and equipment ready for his use. He does not think they should
be turned over to Modernists. He is ready to go in and work With them, to be a
fellow traveler with the Modernists. He is willing to vote along with them, to
keep the peace of the church. Such & person is a miserable servant of man.
His vision is of the glory of the church, of the great good he can do, and not
of Christ. He is no servant of Christ. He must take his cue from the higher
authorities or make his own. He cannot take his orders from the Word of God. If
he did, he would be out and be done with the wicked, adulterous fellowships of
Modernists and believers. He would see that obedience to the commands of Christ
calls for separation.
THE THIRD YOUNG MAN
Third, there is the young man
who is outside of the present modernistic and compromising denominations. He
delights to be called a Fundamentalist. He even loves to preach the
premillennial return of Christ. But he is done with any controversy of any
kind. That word is poison. He wants to be left alone to carry on his own work
quietly here or there and not to worry about what is taking place elsewhere.
Such a young man is to be commended in his separation from the sinful yoke of
indifference and apostasy, but he has only embraced half of the demands of the
Gospel. He does not stand in the succession with an Isaiah or a Jeremiah, an
Augustine or a Savonarola, a Luther or a Knox. He will have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness, nor will he reprove them. He will not lift up
his voice like a trumpet and cry aloud and spare not, showing God’s people
their transgressions. He wants only a so-called positive Gospel. He fails to
see that his mission is only partially fulfilled. There are many today who
would delight to see Faith Seminary turn out such men, and see the leadership
of the Seminary change to that end. But pray God that we may never fall in that
slough!
THE FOURTH YOUNG MAN
The fourth man, the kind of
man we have envisioned stepping through the corridors of this institution in
Wilmington, has vision which is not limited to the few square feet upon which
his own little church will stand. Here we see young men trained to face the
issues of our day, disciplined in study, drilled in doctrine, experienced in
sacrifice, separated in life, going out to build a new church. The status quo
of a decaying Protestantism must be changed. That sturdiness, that drive, that
passion which have been absent from American Protestantism for so long must be
rekindled and restored in Faith. The future of our democratic liberty in
America is involved also! Faith is not ashamed to contend earnestly for the
faith once delivered to the saints.
We must have men who can say
with Paul when life’s journey is nearing its end, “I have fought a good fight,”
and not be ashamed of the word “fight”; “I have finished my course”—and know
that he has had a course, straight and clean; “I have kept the faith,” and
rejoice that God’s grace enabled him to recognize the subtle forms of
compromise and denial of our day. We are not ashamed of controversy, when it is
in behalf of the honor and glory of Christ. We are not afraid to be despised,
abused, When it is in behalf of the Gospel of Christ. We are not afraid to be
poor, locked out, and alone, when it is in behalf of the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free.
It takes men such as these to
turn the world upside down, to endure afflictions, to do the work of an
evangelist. These are dark days, and they are getting darker. It is more
difficult as the days go by to be Christians. The harder the times, the
stronger the leadership needed. It is not saying too much to say that the hope
of American Protestantism at the present time rests in the type of leadership
that Faith Theological Seminary is able to give—leadership in evangelizing the
lost; leadership in establishing new churches; leadership in opening new
mission fields; leadership in preaching on the streets and in halls; leadership
in calling people out of sin unto Christ; leadership in exposing apostasy and
Modernism in the visible church; leadership that convinces those of the faith
that they are a heavenly and a peculiar people; and leadership which lifts the
eyes of born again ones into the heavens from whence they look for their
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ!
SOME PROPERTY GIVEN
But, now, God has given us
some property. It feels strange to have some. There are many perils in this. Do
not think we are going to return the property, for God who gave it will give
the grace to keep it in its proper place while we look away from things that
perish. May the lessons which have been learned in the brief period of fiery
trial ever be kept paramount in the hearts of those who teach in these halls
and those who study here.
The struggle to maintain this
institution true to the faith must ever be vigorous. The men who lead must be
those who know the issues and see the demands of God’s Word. The future is
challenging and commanding. We must occupy until Christ comes. We thank God for
Faith Theological Seminary. He established it. He undergirded it. He leads it.
We thank Him for the property. We thank Him for those who have been His
instruments in giving it. May He give us faith to endure to the end. Amen.
McIntire,
Carl, Address at the Dedication of the Property given to Faith Theological
Seminary, 1303 Delaware Avenue, Wilmington, Delaware, September
23, 1941. [Collingswood, N.J. : Christian Beacon Press,
1941. [14] p. : ill. ; 20 cm. A published copy of this address is preserved in Box 458 at the PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
1941. [14] p. : ill. ; 20 cm. A published copy of this address is preserved in Box 458 at the PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
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