As the title says, I am a first-year Seminary student at Denver Seminary. I will answer questions to the best of my ability, but be aware that I probably won’t have all the answers to questions that might come up.
For a little background, I am pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree, specializing in Youth and Family Ministry, planning on being a youth pastor. My undergraduate degree is a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines (I know, odd career choice, if you ask, I would love to tell you the story there).
A little research shows that Denver Seminary is essentially a conservative fundamentalist institution with some rather questionable positions on issues like ID/Creationism and homosexuality.
Mines, do you believe, as is the position of the Seminary, that homosexuality is sexually “deviant” and that it requires "treatment?
Do you accept evolutionary theory and common descent or do you subsrcibe to some variety of Creationism or ID?
Why, yes, I am a bit curious about this, if you wouldn’t mind explaining. If only because my undergraduate degree is in the humanities, but I’ve spent most of my career since in various IT jobs.
Ah, seminaries. My parents went to one when I was a little kid and I have many memories of those days. Do you and your friends make little knowing jokes about various prophets till it’s annoying? What is your gender?
I don’t know if I would say that it requires treatment, but I would agree that it is, as some would say, a sin and a behavior that is not conducive to a good Christian life. That is not to say that I would go around to people that I knew were gay and condemn them or even give them my opinion, unless they specifically asked for it. My task as a future pastor, and even a layperson in the church is to love all, and not condemn. As the Bible says, judge not, or you will be judged.
This is one of those issues that I am not quite sure on. I think that there is microevolution, as in improvements within a species, but I don’t think that one species can, over time, morph into something that is fundamentally different, i.e. a fish couldn’t evolve into a dog, or something of that nature. As far as how the earth was created, I do believe that God created the earth, and everything in it, in 7 days.
That being said, I don’t think this is nearly as big an issue as some make it out to be. The important thing is belief in God and his Son, Jesus Christ, being the savior of the world.
I am male, but in my M.Div class, there are 7 women, to one of whom I am engaged. And we don’t make jokes about prophets, but we do make jokes about Calvinists, being that one of my friends is one.
It wasn’t the battle of Jericho, it was a later battle, with the Amorites. And, if they asked, the obvious explanation, and, I am aware, a somewhat unsatisfactory explanation, is the power of God doing whatever would need to be done to make the sun stand still. To me, the fact of the matter is that God is a being who is so far outside of the scope of my understanding, that I cannot fathom how he could do this, as it does defy all laws of physics, as well as common sense. To me, that is the wonder of the Christian faith, that a being who has the power to make the sun stand still, would care enough about us as humans to help us in this manner.
As far as reconciling my physics education with a belief in God and a relationship with him, the farther along I got in my education, the more I realized that there had to be a God.
This post has already run long, so I will answer this in my next post. And yes, I am well aware of the fact that I am waving red meat in a lion’s den. Anyway, until next time.
I grew up in a Christian family. I was in a church 4 days after I was born, so I have always been in the church. I had a salvation experience, I think when I was 13, after watching Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames, which if you don’t know anything about it, is basically a way to scare people into accepting Christ. This experience really didn’t change my life, but I also was not into the party scene in school. In fact I have never smoked, didn’t have a drink until after I turned 21, and had my first beer a little over a week ago.
In high school, I had participated in the drama program, usually doing lights, or technical stuff. I never, not once, saw myself going into ministry. I went after the degree in physics with the plan of designing intelligent lighting, like the lights you see at the big concerts. The other factor in this was that the summer before my senior year, I started going out with this girl, Jill (not her real name) in my church. We got along great and it was all well and good.
Throughout high school, I had been basically playing at church, not really living the christian life. I was a good little boy, but I didn’t really have a relationship with God like I should have. Then, Jill and I broke up in the middle of my junior year at Mines. We had been engaged, and were planning on getting married after I graduated from Mines. Prior to our break-up, I had been going 2 hours up into the mountains every other weekend to see Jill, as she lived up in the mountains. Looking back on it, the break-up was a good thing, as it allowed me to get more involved in the church I was currently attending here in Denver.
Then, one day after church, the youth pastor, who I didn’t really know all that well, asked me when they were going to get my help in the youth group. I had never thought about it, and told him that I would have to pray about it. Then, the next Wednesday, I showed up and helped out, and have been helping out ever since. I graduated from Mines last May, and went to Seminary immediately after.
Howdy! Glad to have you aboard, don’t get too distressed at the baiting from nonbelievers.
My question:
Do you believe that application should follow hermeneutics?
I ask because I seem to see more and more sermons being presented topically, and the exgesis of scripture being given short shrift. I am saddened by this trend, (unless it’s not really happening, I may be wrong).
Absolutely. If I as a preacher don’t have the proper understanding of the scripture in question, how am I going to be able to apply it correctly? I think what happens a lot of the time is that preachers get the difference between meaning and application confused. For example, I’m sure you’ve heard sermons on the texts in Ephesians and 1 Peter that talk about women submitting to their husbands. Something that the preacher should be sure to bring out in these texts is the different view that was held on marriage at the time these were written. That has a huge influence on what these texts mean, and understanding these texts in their original context, as much as we can 2000 years later, will hopefully bring a right and correct application of them to our lives today.
I think, just from a brief perusal of the website, that their is a lot of stuff I agree with that CoH is doing. Things like focusing more on social justice issues, being inclusive, the clergy equipping and training the so-called lay people to minister to their friends and family. There is also a lot of stuff I disagree with. Mostly the views on homosexuality. As I stated above, I feel and believe that homosexuality, as a lifestyle, is a sin, plain and simple. Now, that I believe this lifestyle is a sin does not mean that I will condemn people that live a homosexual lifestyle, just as I will not condemn someone who is a drug addict or a murderer. That is not my place. My place is to lead them to Christ, and as one of my professors would say, be Jesus with skin on.
That being said, it is possible to change a lifestyle. Look at all the people who have kicked drug and alchohol habits, which was a way of life for them. I don’t think it is possible on our own, but only through the grace of God and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
Also, as to some of the arguments made on that website from the bible, see this site for what is pretty much my understanding of what the bible says.
I believe that the Bible, as we have it today, is a God-breathed and inspired collection of documents, as is stated in 1st Timothy. I guess I should ask if you had any specific passages in mind. I do believe that it is a historically accurate book, at least as far as the people writing it knew, or cared to include in their writings. For example, in the Roman Empire, it was common to exaggerate the size of a gathering or event in order to show the importance of the event. Some scholars feel that this is the basis for the 3000 saved on the Day of Pentecost, or the 4000 and 5000 that were fed by Jesus. Did someone sit down and count every person that was fed? Probably not. Was it probably a large gathering of people that didn’t have food, and could not have possibly been fed by a few small loaves and fishes? This is more likely. And we know that there would have been a large crowd in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, as it was one of the major feast days for the Jewish faith.
Does all this mean that the Bible is not the word of God? I don’t think so. It is a book written by humans under the influence of God’s Holy Spirit, but not controlled by it. I hope that makes sense. Feel free to ask clarifying questions as needed.