Threat to Free Church College

Proposals currently under consideration could lead to far reaching changes in the Free Church College. We need to inform ourselves as to what is happening. Changes to our College will sooner or later affect the entire Church. The College Board is proposing to seek accreditation (the power to confer degrees) for our College. It is thought that this will attract more students, although it has failed to do so in other Bible Colleges.
There can be no harm in our students receiving a degree provided that nothing else is at stake. There is reason however to believe that something else is at stake. We have been told that the University would insist on having a non-voting member of their Divinity Faculty on the College Board when it is considering appointments to the teaching staff of our College. He/she would have the right to speak and advise and to that extent would be in a position to influence the outcome.

What Harm is there in This?
It might be thought that this is a very small price to pay for the honour of our College being able to confer degrees. It is certainly reasonable from the University's point of view that they should require to be confident in the academic qualifications of those whom the Free Church appoints as its professors. What are the dangers, then? Firstly, very few of the University's academic theologians are evangelicals. Most do not believe in the inspiration of the Bible. Few would respect our Church's historic stand for pure doctrine and pure worship. Yet one of them would have a powerful voice in the appointment of all our future professors.
Secondly, the University looks for academic qualifications rather than spiritual ones. The Apostles were the greatest men who have ever been in the ministry of the Christian church, yet they were men who were not outstanding for their academic qualifications. Some of them were fishermen and regarded by the Jewish Council as “unlearned and ignorant men” (Acts 4:13). Yet they were men full of the Holy Spirit and mighty in preaching and prayer. They turned the world upside down. Neither C.H. Spurgeon nor Martyn Lloyd-Jones was formally trained in an academic theological institution. Of course, the ideal is that our College professors should be both academically excellent and also spiritually eminent, but spiritual eminence and godliness must come first.
Thirdly, if the representative were unhappy with a professor appointed by the Free Church, the University would have the right to withdraw degree-awarding status from the College. There could be no greater external pressure on the Free Church to choose the University’s preferred candidate.

Other Problems
Another possible problem comes from a body known as the Quality Assurance Agency, whose responsibility it is to monitor the standard of all British degrees. Inspections are carried out and any university department regarded as not maintaining a high standard could lose its funding. The whole system lays our College open to unwelcome government interference.
A further danger is that in the long term pressure might be brought on our College to bring its courses more into line with those taught in the University and so to have a greater openness to liberal theology.
One way round this would be to seek to tie up with a university that does not have a theological faculty. At least one evangelical college to our knowledge has chosen this route to accreditation. It has representation from the non-theological university staff to ensure that there is no special-interest interference with the substance of its courses.

The Future
Some may worry that if our ministers do not get theology degrees, our Church will be left behind. But the urgent need of the hour is not for academically well-qualified men but rather for preachers who walk with God. McCheyne well said that what God blesses is not great learning but great likeness to Jesus. If we cannot always have academic greatness we might at least have great faithfulness.
It is a wrong to think that the mere giving of degrees will bring blessing. Look at the larger denominations in our country today. They have men with many degrees but instead of preaching the gospel, they are busy promoting ecumenism of an unbiblical nature. Only the Holy Spirit can give conversion and the religious revival which we need.
The pre-1900 Free Church departed from the faith largely because it did not ensure the soundness of its professors. The same could be said of many other churches. Once a church loses its full control over the appointment of its professors a critical stage is reached. In the light of this we would urge all our people in the Free Church to take an active and prayerful interest in the proposals which are at present before the College Board. We urge them to monitor with the utmost vigilance whatever changes are to be suggested at the next General Assembly. The supreme consideration is that our Free Church should have complete control over its own training of ministers and that no outside body should be allowed to interfere with this vital part of our Church's ministry.

Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.

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