Not required, but would be very helpful!
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Should pastors be required to know original Biblical languages?
- Thread starter Yeshua1
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think we would agree that while God not expecting all pastors to now become next Dr Wallace or AT Robinson, would profit all of them to have at least a working knowledge of Greek and Hebrew in order to effectively use study tools!
Problem is the ones with the full tool box usually keep their tools pristine and never use them.
Think that there are those who really do misuse the greek/Hebrew, but better to have the chance to see use them!
37818
Well-Known Member
No. What is the word of God is infallibe. Not the translation nor the reader.
if true, then since we do not have any originals, nothing infallible!
37818
Well-Known Member
We do not, as you yourself said, bave any of the originals. We have copies handed down from them. God's word is inerrant.
Not perfect, but reliable and trustworthy!
Maybe....
But, the question is really about whether or not it is a valuable tool.
Truth is, it's a valuable tool.
One shouldn't judge the value of a pursuit by its abuse or misuse, but on the merits of the skillset itself.
Knowing Greek or Hebrew is, on its face, a valuable skillset. That it is often misused (I don't discount that, it's very true) is not the point though.
It is hardly the case that a rural country church with simple folk who simply want to know their Bibles and want to serve God should pay for a P.H.D.
But, here's the good news....
If they stop assuming that their pastors job is to be the sole visitor of every bored and lonely old lady over 60 and that all soul winning is their pastor's job...than they can get for themselves (at a bargain price) an extremely well-educated and knowledgeable pastor who has the time and resources to buy Pratico and Van-Pelts Basics of Biblical Hebrew (so Universal it is used at Gordon Gonwell, Liberty, SEBTS, R.T.S. and the University of London where I went)
It's right here...for next to nothing:
https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Biblic...581623828&sprefix=basics+bibli,aps,524&sr=8-5
This doesn't mean that he will get formal letters behind his name...
But, I have formal letters....and do you know what my course work was??
That information above.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Pastors need to be skilled and knowledgeable theologians and teachers who dilligently and regularly spend their time in prayer and the study of the word. You tend towards insisting that they spend hrs. a week knocking on doors, "soul-winning", visiting every member and kissing their boo-boos etc.
That's not what God called them to.
What God called them to, is to be that seminary professor you speak so poorly of.
I don't disagree. The "pillar and ground of the truth" is the local church, NOT the seminary...
If you don't want your pastors poisoned by an institution Jesus never instituted as the ground of Christian learning....than don't disparage the notion that pastors be the most highly educated persons they can possibly be.
Pastors MUST be the most highly educated and knowledgeable persons they can be.
They MUST be the best Theologians they can be.
This is simply classic Independent Baptist Ecclesiology at work.
It's not "letters" behind the name....it's the knowledge available.
You seem to be forcing us to choose between ignorant pastors and highly educated seminary professors....that's the wrong way to go about it.
Pastors need to actually be the theologians that we can look to and respect and learn from....Thus, teaching them original languages is an invaluable tool-set to equip them with.
You keep carping about pastors as passionate soul-winners....
Frankly, I disagree.
I want my pastor to care deeply about souls, but his job is to "equip the saints"... for the work of the ministry, not do the job for them.
Every post you make you seems to suggest that the highest calling a pastor has is to be a level 20 soul-winner.....and also a deacon.
That is EVERYTHING wrong with the local church:
It is the work of the members to be the visitors, soul-winners, etc... (also pastors don't escape this of course).
You want to pay a man to do YOUR job instead of his......
The role of a pastor is to equip the Saints, that requires knowledge and the best education he can get, formal or informal.
Otherwise, your only choice is ignorant (but passionate soul-winning) pastors..
and a flock that goes online to youtube or on a podcast or ANYWHERE other than the local church to find deep and learned theological truth.
Baptist Ecclesiology suggests that the local Church is the place where Theology is learned and practiced....
Therefore, your insistence that ignorant pastors are the best pastors of local churches is profoundly un-Baptist and incredibly destructive...… I'm sorry if this post is too long, and too harsh, but, I do think that it is a necessary commentary, and I believe what I say deeply.
God bless you.
Interesting to me that the Lord jesus chose as the one to give forth Romans to us the greatest theologian in history, Paul, and he certainly was a man of "letters"
More interestingly...…..(as far as word-count) Luke wrote more of the New Testament than Paul.
Some of our brethren seem to think God was a moron to choose the equivalent of a P.H.D. Theologian and a Medical doctor to write the New testament.
More interesting to me is how some want only “men of letters” and some want only “unlearned fishermen,” while God in his sovereignty uses both.
It would all depend on what you consider ignorance to be. Ignorance can be judged on a sliding scale. What do you need to be a good pastor? 2, 4, 6 year degree? Doctorate? Double Doctorate?
Compared to Al Mohler, 99% of pastors are ignorant. Why not set the education requirement equal to Mohlers education level?
Pastors should visit and personally evangelize outside the church doors. They should lead by example. The modern notion that pastors preach, pray, study, and hide in their office is leading to the demise of the SBC. Go witness to someone instead of worrying about a nuance.
They were the smartest and most learned of the bunch!
Yes indeed, but point is that getting well educated in not a sin!
majority of what pastors are called by God to do though entail studying and preaching/teaching on scriptures....
.
I anticipated this objection and answered it before you asked it....
Every post I submitted already stated that it isn't about the formal letters behind the name, but the studied knowledge accrued.
Anticipated and answered, I would refer you to the posts I have already submitted...
I have "letters"...
They are not particularly impressive "letters" either...
They are formally, "C.E."
Which means "Certificate of Higher Education in Theology....University of London.
I didn't learn so much from ACHIEVING the degree....I learned from PURSUING it.
Also, anyone with higher formal education from any quality institution learns VERY QUICKLY that the value of the pursuit isn't what you learn per-se.... but rather the skill to know HOW to learn, and where to seek valuable expertise...
More than what you are "taught", you learn how to learn, and where to go for the best information available.
That's only because you are referencing the fact that his is a terminal degree...namely a doctorate....
which I anticipated in my answers to all your posts.
It is not, and never has been about "letters" behind the name...it's about whether knowledge of the original languages is a valuable tool. I assure you, it is.
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They should, I said that already.
They should, that is self-evident "Leadership 101" that's not novel information, and they can do that either knowing Greek or not knowing Greek. I would assume it's best if they ALSO knew greek. Those aren't mutually-exclusive concepts.
It's a profoundly biblical one, actually, I'm sorry if you hate it, but it is straight out of God's word. And that is not what's killing the S.B.C.
NO....
"Worry about nuance" is the job of the pastor....
Otherwise, as I said, you are beholden to the Seminary Professor to do so.
Someone....Somewhere....eventually... is the knowledgeable Theologian to whom people must look.
That is simply human nature.
If you are a real Baptist in Ecclessiology, you MUST understand that that person is the Pastors which God called to teach the Scriptures in the "Pillar and ground of the truth"...the local church.
That isn't formal letters.....
It's time spent studying dilligently the Word of God, and original language study is integral to that skillset.
Based on what?
That did not appear to be your initial point.
By the way, getting religiously educated is not a sin for others either, even if not a pastor. It might be a sin to tell others that their education is only acceptable if gotten “our way.” As they say, a good education never hurt anyone who was willing to learn something afterwards.
Are you a pastor or preacher?
Not, just someone who has taught others....
37818
Well-Known Member
God's word is inerrant. Not people. People need to hear what is actually God's word in their own language so they can believe what is actually true.
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