What’s Wrong With FC?

Years ago, I was impressed with a story I read in the newspaper about a man in Florida who had a pet python snake. He had purchased the snake at the local pet store when it was a mere hatchling of about four feet. He fed and nurtured the reptile until it exceeded nine feet, and it became a source of pride and accomplishment. He bragged about the python and showed it off whenever the opportunity arose, and suddenly he began to think of the snake as his friend.

But some changes were beginning to occur. Though his pet mostly just lay around waiting between meals, occasionally he would shove the lid off of his terrarium and go traveling. This was nothing more than a mere inconvenience until the snake got in the toilet one day. He went down, but he didn’t come up – in our hero’s apartment. Sadly our man went to bed, but in the middle of the night he was awakened by the panicked screams of the woman next door and the wailing of sirens of the local Police. It seems our hero’s pet came up in someone else’s toilet, and she called the cops. Being generous, she decided to share the good news with the neighbors by screaming her head off.

So our friend started taping the toilet seat lid down so that his friend could not slither into someone else’s life. But the python was still getting out of his glassy quarters and moving his now eleven foot tubular frame around in the apartment. Not a problem, our hero thought.

One day the python got into his owner’s bedroom and took up a defensive position under the bed. Could you go to sleep with an eleven foot python under your bed? Neither could the owner of the snake. So he reached under the bed and grabbed the snake’s tail, thinking he could drag that critter out. But something went wrong. The python did not recognize him, and he considered him an attacker. Quicker than you can holler, "Get him off! Get him off!" the snake was coiled around the chest and neck of his owner and friend, squeezing tighter and tighter. Death was the inevitable end of our hero.

The snake was carted off to some snake farm, or zoo, or something like that, and this was the rationale of the authorities. "The snake does not have enough brain to distinguish between one warm-blooded animal or another. They are all either threats, competitors for food, or meals themselves, so it is impossible to have a snake for a pet in any real sense of the word. Accidents like this are common with constrictors. It’s just here we have one who is large enough to do some real damage." Yeah, like kill his owner, who, fancying himself as an expert, should have known better.

The past history of "Christian" colleges should tell us something. From Pepperdine to Lipscomb to Abilene to Harding, they have all enjoyed a day of great prosperity, respect, and influence, and then promptly became liberal institutions who were considered by many of their supporters as "larger" than the church.

I know of several who have thought of Abilene, Texas, as the headquarters of the church, maybe not literally, but at least in esteem. That was because Abilene Christian University was located there, and of course the brightest minds in the brotherhood were called there to teach and preach. An elderly gentleman I know in California always checks with his friends at Pepperdine University to see which way doctrinal winds blow before he "takes a position." Many preachers are hired out of the "brotherhood colleges" and preacher schools without any other factor being considered. "He’s bound to be alright if he’s from Lipscomb," I have heard it said.

And these schools do what they can to nurture this sort of idolatry, that is, the kind where the professors are consulted ahead of the apostles. Books are sold, lectures are held, and representatives of the colleges are sent to the churches to inform and educate. Special programs are held in local church building instead of regular worship services, because the "college people do such a fine job."

Several years ago, we had visitors who were from New Mexico stop in on their way home from the lectures at Pepperdine University. They were so enthusiastic about the things they had learned that were great new ideas. What were some of these? Let’s see – women leading songs and waiting on the Lord’s table. (see 1 Cor. 14:33-34 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12). Humming and singing during the Lord’s supper and dramatic readings from the Bible. Someone asks, "What’s wrong with that?" First, it reduces the memorial of Jesus’ death (1 Cor. 11:23-29) to an artistic performance and distracts from the real purpose. Second, singing is for the purpose of teaching and admonishing one another (Col. 3:16-17) and praising God (Heb. 13:15), not providing entertainment during our solemn worship, or exciting to emotionalism those who are present. [Now note: I did not say it is wrong to excite emotions. I said it was wrong to excite to emotionalism – that is that practice which grows out of and has its roots in feelings rather than faith. It is by Faith that we have access into grace – Rom. 5:1-2.]

The point has not so much with the things that were being taught at Pepperdine, or the other colleges operated by members of the church. The point has to do with the ease with which error is spread as the college becomes a conduit from the source of error to the brethren. The kind of liberal views that we are only recently having to deal with have been the affliction of the institutionalists since they began to give too much weight to "what goes on at the college."

Another problem the brotherhood schools have is that they tend to put people in positions of higher esteem than they deserve, elevating them above their brethren. I don’t believe that any of these institutions have done this intentionally. But among those who are innocent among us, whose word is going to carry the most weight – the poor man who preaches with most of his support provided by other churches, his own hand, or maybe even his wife, or the man who carries himself with the self-assurance of recognition and comfortable living, who has the privilege to work among the scholars of his day in an institution of higher learning? You and I will say that it doesn’t matter as long as they can back up what they say with Scripture – you and I will say that. But we don’t mean it. It is the man who is the "success," the brother who is well-known among his peers that will carry the most weight, and often it doesn’t matter what he teaches, as long as it is not too "out-of-the-mainstream."

Jesus told us, "But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren" (Matt 23:8). But we see some pausing as shouts of "Rabbi, Rabbi" are heard from the crowd, then the knowing nod and the whisper of a smile before they move along. Who do men serve? (Gal. 1:10).

For all of this, brethren of lowly estate – they are not connected to the college except through their checkbook – are not heard when they ask questions. The colleges become independent of the brethren from whom they ask support. They are institutions whose permanence becomes principle. "You are either for us or against us – " you cannot be neutral.

I have learned that it is unwise to ever build or become involved in anything human that you cannot instantly extract yourself from if a matter of right or wrong arises. If you cannot get up and walk away, if you cannot end and dissolve a human work when you must do so to be right, when matters of righteousness are involved, that work, that institutions is wrong. So it is with camps and colleges. That is the inherent danger involved in the so-called "Christian college." Colleges may outgrow their terrariums, and become "bigger" in the hearts of its supporters that the truth.

Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 6:12, "All things are lawful for me; but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any." I believe that any individual, group of individuals, or institution has a right to study the Bible. I don’t believe that any institution has the right to usurp the church in either hearts of the people or work. Though I believe that colleges have a right to teach courses in Bible subjects, I do not believe that it is expedient that they do so. There is too much centralization, too much man-worship, to much opportunity for error.

Some have been brought under their power. No amount of reasoning is going to dislodge some from the ever-tightening grip of the college "out-of-the-budget," not even when principles are at stake. It is for these reasons that I can no longer support the concept of the "Christian college."

Does that include Florida College? I’m afraid it does, for the lid is already off the terrarium, and the beast is somewhere on the floor. It may be lawful, but it certainly has not proved expedient.