An Unholy Alliance
The Free Church College is at a very low ebb. Although there were almost thirty students in the early nineties, there are now only a handful. For the first time in living memory there are no new Free Church students this year. The College Board believes the answer to this problem is to obtain degree awarding status and is currently negotiating with Edinburgh University with a view to the Free Church College awarding Edinburgh University degrees. However, a Reformed church beginning to lean for help on a liberal university which does not hold to the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture, is asking for trouble and perhaps signing its own death warrant. It is written: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2Cor.6:14).
Church of Scotland Link
Writing in the Stornoway Gazette (March 26th 1998), Dr. Ian MacIver (Chairman of the College Board) states that "there have been consultations with the University of Edinburgh Faculty of Divinity", but claims that this is, "nothing to do with the Church of Scotland". However, the Universities of Scotland Act 1932 and 1966 require that university theological appointments are made jointly by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the University Court. The Act says that the right of presentation or appointment to any theological chair in any of the Scottish Universities is vested in the University Court (2:1:A). The board of nomination is composed of representatives elected in equal numbers by the University Court and by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (Cox, Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland, 6th ed., pp557-8). So, the Church of Scotland is deeply involved with the University Faculty of Divinity.
Independence
Dr MacIver assures us that: "consultations do not envisage any linkage between the Free Church College and the University's Faculty of Divinity leading to any loss of identity or independence". Yet this is exactly what happened to other evangelical colleges such as Trinity in Glasgow, New College in Edinburgh and the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow. They have lost what marked them out as solidly biblical by their desire for secular degrees. Getting the degree has always had its price. In the Bible Training Institute, it was recently taught that Paul did not write the Epistles to Timothy and Titus though they bear his name in the Scriptures. In Trinity (Glasgow University), Jeremiah is said never to have existed. In Edinburgh University, Ruth is regarded as sexist and Isaiah is declared never to have written the book that carries his name. "Loss of identity" began in all these places by allowing an unholy alliance and gradually teaching what was previously unacceptable. Error rarely introduces itself as error but usually disguises itself as 'scholarship', 'advance', 'development' and 'learning'.
Under What Guise Will Liberalism Appear?
Critical Openness
This is usually one of the concessions that has to be made as any fully biblical institution aligns itself with a liberal university divinity faculty. Critical openness means that there must be teaching of modern critical views of the Bible. This is the death of true spirituality because it proceeds from the premise that the Bible is not inerrant. It cannot be true because miracles do not happen, and that includes the miracle of an inerrant Bible. Many Church of Scotland ministers have been fed on the anti-miracle diet for generations, and observe the result. Do we want to go down that road? Being critically open means that although we can call the Bible the Word of God, we must not dogmatise on it being infallible. But the belief that we hold in our hand the preserved and infallible Word of God is basic to our Reformed faith. Expressions such as "infallible truth", "kept pure in all ages", and "only rule of faith" the liberal university cannot accept. But we are totally convinced of them and even supposing angels deny the inerrancy of the Bible we will not.
External Assessment
If the Free Church accept an external degree it will also, according to the Dearing Report, have to accept external assessment. This means that Free Church students will have their exams marked by academics from outside the Free Church. These external examiners will be drawn from a pool of academic staff recognised by the Government's Higher Education Quality Assurance Agency. This will almost certainly mean that Free Church students and potential ministers will be at the mercy of a theologically liberal examiner.
Appointment of Staff
At present the Free Church has total control over who staffs her College. However Edinburgh University will now have the final word. Dr MacIver has admitted this in his recent College Board newsletter: "Although...the appointment of College Staff would remain a matter for the Church, the appointment process would involve a representative of the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Edinburgh having access to all papers relating to nominations and appointments, and to be present in a non-voting capacity at any College Board Meeting making nominations to the General Assembly. This would be to ensure that the academic credentials of applicants would be appropriate for the University as the degree awarding institution. In the event of the General Assembly appointing an academically underqualified person for the position as a professor, the validation process would be jeopordized".
Such a procedure would have ruled out the appointment of many godly, able Free Church Professors of the past because they were, in the eyes of the world, academically underqualified. To limit the Professorship to those who have the necessary letters after their names will have serious consequences for our Church. It will result in ministers being diverted from their pastoral and evangelistic responsibilities in an unseemly rush to obtain the coveted letters PhD. It will also severely restrict the Church's choice of future Professors to the few acadaemics who have the necessary qualifications. Academic qualifications will be seen as more important than pastoral experience and godliness. Even the present Professors will be affected. They will have to undergo training in 'accredited programmes' to enable them to teach in a way that is acceptable to the University.
College Board Representation
Dr MacIver claims that the College's identity and independence will remain intact. Yet, he admits that Edinburgh University Faculty of Divinity will have a representative on the College Board. As soon as this happens our identity is threatened and our independence has gone. He may have no vote but neither did Gillespie or Rutherford at the Westminster Assembly and their influence was incalculable. Indeed, the University representative will have far more influence than a mere vote could give him, because he holds under the table the ultimate sanction of withdrawing degree-awarding status should he be unhappy with a decision. Also, who will this representative be? Will it be a liberal or a woman minister or an ex-Jesuit from the Faculty of Divinity?
Student Recruitment and Losses
Of late fewer and fewer students have gone to the College and some have even left the course due to problems in the College. Two students who would have preferred to study at the Free Church College have gone to a seminary in the United States because they were looking for full-orbed Reformed teaching. Another left for the Free Presbyterian Church.
The Free Church College has never needed to award degrees to attract students. The Lord sent them our way. Orthodoxy and spirituality were our supreme attractions, especially our visibly full adherence to the whole doctrine of the Confession of Faith. Now undoubtedly there is a perception from those outside as well as those within, of a new spirit at work in the Church and especially in the College. The evidence suggests that this is the reason above all others why Reformed students are not coming to the College and why some have left. The only remedy for such a situation is an open return to biblical discipline and a reiteration that we hold without compromise to the Westminster Confession of Faith in doctrine and practice. Then the students will return.
Conclusion
If we must have degree awarding status granted to Free Church College then we must have in writing before the General Assembly that: (1) No university will have any say whatever in the curriculum and content of our course; (2) The staffing of our College and the assessment of our students is wholly and exclusively the remit of the Courts of the Free Church of Scotland and (3) No Free Church College Board or Committee will have present on it a representative of the University of Edinburgh or of New College. The Lord is wiser than we are. He says: "The friendship of the world is enmity with God...whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (Js.4:4).
Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.
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