I did not start this thread because I have a problem with being educated. I respect all the hard work people have done to benefit their service of the Lord. Although it should not be a matter of pride.
But all the degrees in the world do not give a person the right to claim that their doctrine is correct and others are wrong simply because they have a "degree". That was the statement that caused me to start this thread.
It was stated that the majority of Calvinists were professors and Seminary grads and that is the reason they discovered Calvinism to be the correct doctrine. Basically, the reason the rest of "us" aren't Calvinists is because we don't have the training to understand the scriptures.
Although this began as a debate about Calvinism, that is not what this thread is about.
This arrogance could also be applied to other doctrines such as Eschatology, baptism, the atonement, speaking in tongues, and on and on and on.
If a professor or other formally educated person says that his view of baptism is the correct view because he is more educated than the laity, that is arrogant and prideful.
That is the purpose of this thread. It is not to disrespect those who have studied hard to achieve a degree.
This is a straw man, though Amy. Haven'sdad, nor me, nor anybody else said that just because one has a degree it makes them right and the layman with whom they are debating wrong.
We have stated this no less than a dozen times. I don't know why you keep misrepresenting what we say. Are you trying to makes villains of us here? Because if you could convince me that someone said that on here it would cause me to think less of that person. So is that what you are trying to do? Make folks think less of us?
If not, why do you keep misrepresenting us.
We have said clearly, numerous times, that a degree TENDS to give one a leg up on the average layman concerning biblical knowledge.
Havensdad never said that because a majority of seminarians are Calvinistic that that means that Calvinists are right and Arminians are wrong. He said that it is "telling".
So is blood on the hands of a person at a murder scene. It is telling evidence but it is not conclusive by itself. That is all that you can rightly deduce from Havensdad or my statements. That's it.
Please retire this straw man who said that having a degree makes one right and the one that says that NO layman can ever be as knowledgeable about the Bible as any seminarian.