A beginning

In his letters to young Timothy, the Apostle Paul gives much divinely inspired counsel, advice, and exhortation. One thing that strikes me about several of these exhortations is the Apostle’s metaphorical language of military service and warfare. Though these verses should be studied in context, I give them here to simply illustrate the metaphor:

“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.” (1 Timothy 1:18-19a)

“Fight the good fight of faith.” (1 Timothy 6:12)

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4)

As one who has just started seminary, I am very thankful for this inspired metaphor. Thinking of a call to the ministry as a solider’s calling is a good reminder of the seriousness of what the Lord has created me to do. A call to the ministry is not something which should be taken lightly or flippantly – there is a war being waged, and though we know that our King is sovereignly in control of every aspect of that war, including its ultimate outcome, we must be “sober minded” in the tasks of each day, each battle, and each campaign.

All of us as Christians are blessed subjects of the King of Kings, and each of us have a certain aspect of the “war effort” to which we’ve been called. Some are soldiers in the front line trenches, some are support staff in back of the lines, and some are back on the home front, far removed from the actual fighting, but indispensable in support and production.  Whatever calling the Lord has given us is worthwhile, good, and valuable, regardless of what it looks like, because God is the One Who has called us to that position, and all of it is ultimately part of the campaign.

There are certainly no value differences in any calling, but there are practical differences. One practical difference is the particular, day-to-day tasks of any particular calling, and the training needed for those tasks. This, beloved friends, is why I am at seminary. Paul tells young Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) The phrase “…rightly handling the word of truth” is one which should be taken with the utmost seriousness. The explicit assumption here is that it is indeed possible to wrongly handle the Word of truth — and that is a fearful thing.

Thankfully, God has graciously given us faithful institutions where those called to preach and teach His Word may go and learn skills necessary to fulfill their calling, walk the path set before them, and fight whatever battles they are ordained to fight. And so, with all that in mind, I and my fellow soldiers-in-training are currently in the middle of an intensive, summer Greek class (which is humorously called “Boot Camp Greek”) learning the very beginning stages of how to “rightly handle” God’s Word of truth.

Westminster Seminary California takes the study of Greek and Hebrew very seriously. There are many upper division classes where students are not allowed to use an English Bible, and the overall curriculum is designed to give students the skills necessary to do exegesis from the original texts for the rest of their lives.

So, we are plugging away at first semester Greek (the first of four parts) and learning about such things as second aorist verbs, substantive adjectives, predications, contract verbs, and third declension noun variations. Being an intensive class, it takes hours and hours of study each day (I think I’m averaging around 50-60 hours a week, including class time) but it is absolutely worth every second, and our professor continues to remind us, through daily examples, of how valuable and necessary it is for pastors to be able to do exegesis from the original languages.

Thank you all for your faithful support and prayers – both are very much needed, and both are very much appreciated. Please do continue to pray for all of us here as we seek to become faithful soldiers of our King by participating in rigorous, intensive academic training. We need much grace and strength.

I shall end my comments now, but below you will find a very well articulated explanation, (written by Dr. J. G. Machen regarding the first Westminster) of how the faculty and staff here view the purpose of the seminary.*

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Let it never be forgotten that a theological seminary is a school for specialists. We are living in an age of specialization. There are specialists on eyes and specialists on noses, and throats, and stomachs, and feet, and skin; there are specialists on teeth—one set of specialists on putting teeth in, and another set of specialists on pulling teeth out—there are specialists on Shakespeare and specialists on electric wires; there are specialists on Plato and specialists on pipes. Amid all these specialties, we at Westminster Seminary have a specialty which we think, in comparison with these others, is not so very small. Our specialty is found in the Word of God. Specialists in the Bible—that is what Westminster Seminary will endeavor to produce. Please do not forget it; please do not call on us for a product that we are not endeavoring to provide. If you want specialists in social science or in hygiene or even in ‘religion’ (in the vague modern sense), then you must go elsewhere for what you want. But if you want men who know the Bible and know it in something more than a layman’s sort of way, then call on us.” J. Gresham Machen, “Westminster Theological Seminary: Its Purpose and Plan,” in Selected Shorter Writings (D. G. Hart, ed.; Phillipsburg: P&R, 2004), 193 (an address given on September 25, 1929).

*Electronically copied from: http://www.wscal.edu/baugh/index.php