It is the duty and responsibility of every organization to train its own leadership. This is as true of the church as it is of modern governments. The United States has her West Point and Annapolis; China, her Whangpoo and Central Military Academies. No one would expect Germany to train military leadership for the United States; neither would the Mohammedans be able or willing to train Seventh-day Adventist conference presidents or Bible teachers for our academies.
There is but one conclusion, and that is that Seventh-day Adventists must operate their own training centers. And that is exactly what we are doing. The wonderful thing about it all is that while educators in general are floundering about in confusion and bewilderment, trying to find the best way to carry on educational work, we as a people can rejoice in a plan of Christian education revealed to us by God Himself as far back as the seventies.
With us Christian education is a doctrine. It is part and parcel of the three angels' messages. Salvation of the mind—the intellectual —is just as vital and important as salvation of the heart—the spiritual. What is still more marvelous is the fact that God's plan of education meets man's need in the Orient as well as in the Occident, in Africa as well as in the United States. Surely we should humbly thank Gott for this wonderful provision and revelation.
In our scheme of education, we have a sort of pyramid, with home education as the base and fathers and mothers as teachers, followed by the church school, which covers the elementary level under God-fearing Christian teachers, and then the academy, which gives God's instruction in that most critical period of all—the adolescent period.
Out of this general education plan come thousands of our finest young people for the orientation years in the lower division of our colleges, where they choose their life's work and go on into medicine, dentistry, business, teaching, the ministry, and so forth. The upper-division work of our senior colleges then gives two years of the foundation work in the specialized fields of major interests. Thus sixteen years are used in getting ready for a vocation in a field of service for God and man—none too much when we remember that Christ was thirty years in preparation for His great work.
Other denominations insist that the men entering their ministry must have completed sixteen years of general education in the arts and letters before they enter a theological seminary for a three or four year graduate course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, Master of Systematic Theology, or some other degree.
We have found it very helpful for the ministerial student to go out into the field of actual church work upon completion of his B. A. degree in the senior college, and then when. he has met real problems and has seen just what he lacks or needs in theological training, to come to the Seminary to meet that need. That is the plan which Seventh-day Adventists are following.
Integrated With the Intern Plan
At present we have about fifty or sixty young men graduating each year from the senior colleges with a major in Bible or religion. Our internship plan places them on conference and General Conference pay for a year of intern work, much as the medical student spends a year in a hospital as an intern before he takes his final State or national examinations, which give him a certificate of right to practice medicine. If this year of internship is satisfactorily completed, the young minister is granted his second-year internship. Within this second year, or at least within four years from graduation, there is provision for time at the Seminary.
Surely one year in our Theological Seminary for graduate study and specialized courses designed to qualify for a larger work and greater responsibilities, is the least we should expect when our men must go out and meet the leaders of other church bodies who have had such a long and thorough preparation.
Among the two thousand ministers, evangelists, and Bible teachers in our conferences and schools here in the United States alone, there are many who have not had the privilege of graduating from our senior colleges, but who have enjoyed a rich and fruitful experience in the work. As for the younger men of this group, we can but wish them an opportunity to return to the senior college and there enjoy the added advantages of more schooling. And for the older men of this group, the Seminary offers a rich selection of courses which they may take without looking toward the Master's Degree, which, however, we -are authorized to confer on those who complete their graduate work.
The Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Takoma Park is here to accomplish all this for our workers. It has been established as a part of our great system of education, for the specific purpose of giving more specialized work for our preachers, our Bible and history teachers, and our conference administrators.
To Substantiate, Not to Speculate
It is our business to study our message and bring to bear upon it all the facts of Bible, history, archaeology, and Biblical languages, so that we may know thoroughly the reasons for our doctrines and teachings. We are not here to teach new and strange interpretations, but to strengthen our old doctrinal positions and to know how to array the abundant proofs for the message which we all love so dearly. It is our business to study the denominationally held truths, and to know the reasons why we as a people accept this and reject that. We also attempt to bring the facts of history and theology to bear on objections and oppositions to our teachings, so that we may be able to answer erroneous teachings and give adequate reason for our position.
Opposition is bound to increase, and false accusations will more and more be brought against us. The Seminary is the place for the careful and prayerful, as well as scholarly, study of these things. The Seminary does not teach merely its own ideas. That is not our business or our prerogative. We are but the servants of the denomination—to teach and make clearer the truths held by the denomination. As teachers in the Seminary, our views are the views of the denomination, and we are not free to introduce personal opinions which may differ from the truths held by us as a people and pass them on as representing either the Seminary or the General Conference.
It is our duty to study every viewpoint and gather together the facts, so that we may have at our disposal all the evidence which research and scholarship can produce. Then when the issue has been settled, we can all teach the same truths in the same way. Thus we can truly be said to be teaching the belief of Seventh-day Adventists on any given subject. The following quotation is to the point:
"There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation.
"We are living in perilous- times, and it does not become us to accept everything claimed to be truth without examining it thoroughly ; neither can we afford to reject anything that bears the fruits of the Spirit of God ; but we should be teachable, meek and lowly of heart. There are those who oppose everything that is not in accordance with their own ideas, and by so doing they endanger their eternal interest as verily as did the Jewish nation in their rejection of Christ.
"The Lord designs that our opinions shall be put to the test, that we may see the necessity of closely examining the living oracles to see whether or not we are in the faith Many who claim to believe the truth have settled down at their ease, saying, 'I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.'" —Review and Herald, Dec. 20, 1892.
"The enemy of our work is pleased when a subject of minor importance can be used to divert the minds of our brethren from the great questions that should be the burden of our message. . . The work that the Lord has given us at this time is to present to the people the true light in regard to the testing questions of obedience and salvation,—the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."—Preach the Word, p. 7. (Written July 31, 1910.)
Perhaps one more statement on this important matter will serve to make clear the point that the Seminary is not established to promote new interpretations and give out new light as its own, separate and apart from the denomination. It is our duty to dig deeply and search widely for all the facts of truth bearing on the questions in hand.
"The enemy of truth, through the ministry of fallen angels, would be pleased to introduce uncertainty in the minds of many in regard to doctrines that have been established by the sanction of the Holy Spirit." —Letter 70, 1910. (Aug. 11, 1910.)
There may be some points of Bible truth on which God has not seen fit to give us all the details, but surely He has given us all that we need in order to understand His will, the principles and standards of His kingdom, and the method whereby. the honest in heart may have salvation. Perhaps we shall have to wait a while longer, or even until we reach the earth made new, before we can satisfy ourselves on certain questions which some love to discuss.
Here in the Seminary we are liappy to do our work humbly and quietly, using all the resources God has put at the disposal of His people in order that we may know His mind and His message more fully. Our daily prayer is, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." Ps. 119:18.
