DTS Magazine - Fall 2017

Fall 2017 | Vol. 3, No. 3

DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

INSIDE:

REDEEMING MYTHS OF THE REFORMATION

LESSONS FROM MARTIN LUTHER

THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS

A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Courage to Take a Stand FROM THE PRESIDENT: DR. MARK L. BAILEY

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he responsibility that Christians have to stake out a claim for the cause of Christ in today’s culture is critical. We are witnessing a moment in history when Christianity—that was once respected, then tolerated—is now under suspicion and even attacked.

Important biblical issues have split the populace of values of life and love, on one side, and values of justice and compassion, on the other. In his latest book, Impossible People, Oz Guinness describes it like this: “It is surely undeniable that only rarely in Christian history has the lordship of Jesus in the West been treated as more pliable or has Christian revisionism been more brazen, Christian interpretations of the Bible more self-serving, Christian preaching more soft, Christian behavior more lax, Christian compromise more common, Christian defections from the faith more casual, and Christian rationales for such slippage more spurious and shameless.”

If you’re like me, you’re finding yourself wrestling today—trying to develop biblical conviction and courage while continuing to demonstrate biblical compassion.

Our Lord also lived during tumultuous times. He was courageous to stand convicted, never compromising truth, but incredibly compassionate toward those who just didn’t yet understand. His life teaches us to do the same—to have the courage to take a stand with the conviction of Scriptures, and the courage to develop a heart of compassion.

In Acts 17 we find Paul, in Athens, provoked in his spirit as he watches the city and its culture under idols. Like Christ, he remained true to Scripture and ever available to be used by God in whatever way God might choose to use him in that culture.

At the Diet, or church council, of Worms, Martin Luther was called to give an account of his faith. Willing to debate and ready to proclaim the truth, he stood before the Emperor of

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the Holy Roman Empire along with representatives of the Pope. Refusing to hear anything, the leaders asked Luther to recant. Luther gave this response: “Unless I am convicted by Scriptures and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of Popes and Councils, for they have contradicted each other. I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scriptures, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot, and I will not, recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.

Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”

Like Christ and the spiritual giants who came before us, we need biblical courage to stand and hold on to biblical conviction and not bow. We need to stay compassionate and not harden our hearts. Let’s commit ourselves to be a faithful generation of Christians who have the willingness to engage a conflicted culture with the proclamation of God’s grace and biblical truth in spite of the range of responses that we will see.

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I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scriptures, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God.

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DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Our mission is to glorify God by equipping godly servant-leaders for the proclamation of his Word and the building up of the body of Christ worldwide.

IN THIS ISSUE

DTS Magazine® Fall 2017 Vol. 3, No. 3 ISSN 1092–7492 ©2017 Dallas Theological Seminary. All rights reserved.

Published three times a year by Dallas Theological Seminary 3909 Swiss Avenue Dallas, Texas 75204 Mark L. Bailey, President John C. Dyer, Executive Director of Communications and Educational Technology Michael J. Svigel, Guest Editor Raquel P. Wroten, Editor

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REDEEMING MYTHS OF THE REFORMATION

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WHY THE FIVE SOLAS MATTER TODAY

Keith D. Yates, Director of Creative Services and Publications, Layout and Design

Michael J. Svigel (THM, 2001; PHD, 2008) explains the “myths” of the Reformation and highlights significant truths worth remembering.

Debbie J. Stevenson, Production Manager Kathy Dyer, Matt Holland, Kelley Mathews, Margaret Tolliver, Copy Editing Matt Snyder, Ad Designer Aeriel Eichenberger, Greg Hatteberg, Alumni Connection

What are the five Latin phrases that came out of the Reformation? Do they make a difference today? Should they be impacting how we live?

John Adair (THM, 2000; PHD, 2008) breaks down the Five Solas of the Reformation and how they should influence Christians today.

Kevin Stern, Books & Resources SUBSCRIBE Subscriptions are free of charge to addresses in the United States. Go to dts.edu/magazine or call 800-DTSWORD and ask for the DTS Magazine subscription office.

EMAIL Contact admissions@dts.edu for information about DTS’s graduate degree programs.

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SIX LESSONS FROM THE LEGACY OF MARTIN LUTHER

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ANABAPTISTS: “FORGOTTEN” VOICES OF THE REFORMATION Glenn Kreider (THM, 1990; PHD, 2001) looks back at the influential and significant voice of the Anabaptists and what transpired out of their submission to the authority of the Word of God.

Contact rwroten@dts.edu to submit articles, request reprints, or make comments.

DONATIONS For information on how you can support the ministry of DTS, call 214-887-5060.

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Send email address changes to ckirchdorfer@dts.edu, or mail to DTS Magazine 3909 Swiss Ave. Dallas, Texas 75204

What insights can the life of Luther give today’s reformer? John Hannah (THM, 1971; THD, 1974) writes about the life and influence of Martin Luther and the six lessons Christians can learn from his life.

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DISPATCHES FROM THE LAND OF LUTHER: ALUMNI PROFILES OF JÜRGEN SCHULZ, SCOTT WAY, AND STEVE HENDERSON

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Q&A WITH DR. J. LANIER BURNS: THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS Dr. Burns (THM, 1972; THD, 1979) explains the much-debated principle of the Reformation and why it’s important for all believers to understand.

Unless noted otherwise, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011

by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission.

All rights reserved worldwide.

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REFORMATION T I M E L I N E

Redeeming

1455 Gutenberg completes printing the Bible with moveable type.

1483 Luther is born in Eisleben.

1484 Ulrich Zwingli is born in Switzerland.

1492 Christopher Columbus makes first voyage to the Americas.

1506 Leonardo da Vinci paints Mona Lisa.

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of the

mperor Nero didn’t really play the fiddle while Rome went up in flames. Paul Re-

vere didn’t ride through the night shouting “The British are coming!

The British are coming!” And, no, a little George Washington didn’t actually chop down a cherry tree and told the truth about it later. Nevertheless, the well-meaning but misinformed still tell these stories—and many like them—over and over and

1508 Michelangelo begins to paint the Sistine Chapel.

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over again.

1512 Luther earns doctorate; leaves the monastery to teach at Wittenberg.

1515 1517 Luther delivers a On October 31, Luther lecture on Romans. He distributes his Ninetyis appointed district Five Theses on vicar over ten indulgences. monasteries.

Myths Reformation What’s true of myths of world and American history is also true of church history.

Over the course of 500 years, several exaggerations, misrepresentations, legends, and outright lies have been told and retold. Many of these myths are hard to bust.

However, a few “myths” of the Reformation may still be redeemed. Some of them may, in fact, be true; we just can’t prove them.

Others may not be entirely accurate, but they highlight an important truth of the Reformation worth remembering.

1. MAILED OR NAILED? Most historians of the Reformation today reject the account of Luther’s nailing of the Ninety-Five Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Some are adamant: “It never happened!” Others are more measured—“Maybe he did it, maybe he didn’t . . . who knows?” Whether or not Luther wielded a hammer on October 31, 1517, however, all historians agree that Luther mailed a letter to the archbishop of Mainz containing his protests against the sale of indulgences, including the Ninety-Five Theses.

This mailing—and subsequent printing and publishing—proved far more effective than nailing an obscure Latin document on a door crowded by announcements of interest only to scholars and students.

1518 Luther appears before Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg, but refuses to recant.

But think about it—the image of Martin Luther, hammer in hand, striking a blow against the church with a list of protests?

That’s the stuff of legend. That icon itself is more memorable than Luther dropping a fat letter in the mail. No artist would have ever thought of painting a young German monk calmly sealing a document and handing it off to a courier.

Scholars Leppin and Wengert sum it up well: “Whether they were posted or not, the content of the theses and their role in shaping the theological debate that followed their publication determined their significance—completely apart from the psychological effect that the later recounting of their posting may have evoked.”1 MYTH: The nailing of the Ninety-Five Theses itself on October 31, 1517, was a pivotal moment in the Reformation, without which we’d all be Roman Catholics.

RELEVANCE: Historic change is almost never wrought with one strike of a hammer. Luther’s lifelong determination to see the gospel of grace prevail over works righteousness carried him through decades of distractions, debates, and doubts. The Reformation was forged over a long stretch of time—centuries, really—with repeated blows on the anvil of history. The same is true for us today. Spiritual transformation and cultural reformation require sustained commitment and unwavering determination . . . not one individual action, one political election, or one social victory.

2. HIGH FIVE: THE SOLAS OF THE REFORMATION This year, you have seen spotlights illuminating the five pillars of the Reformation commonly referred to as “the Five Solas”— Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria. In fact, a lot of Reformation celebrations have organized around these “slogans” or “rallying cries” of the Reformation. The problem is,

FACT: Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 to challenge the theology and practice of the sale of indulgences, and he sent them to the archbishop of Mainz on October 31, 1517, which set off a chain reaction leading to the Protestant Reformation. It’s possible the Ninety-Five

1519 In July, while debating Johann Eck at Leipzig, Luther refutes supreme authority of popes and councils.

Theses were posted on the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, or sometime after, but the evidence for it is not decisive.

1519 Zwingli begins New Testament sermons; Swiss Reformation starts.

1521 Luther is excommunicated. He refuses to recant his writings at Diet of Worms. An edict condemns him as a heretic and outlaw. He hides at Wartburg Castle where he translates the New Testament.

Private masses abolished in Wittenberg.

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these Five Solas first appear together as a tight synthesis of Reformation theology only in the twentieth century!2 This doesn’t mean, however, that Luther and other Protestants didn’t hold the views that these Solas summarize. Early on, they strenuously argued that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. They appealed to Scripture alone as the final authority in matters of faith and practice. And they believed all things were to be done to the glory of God alone. But such a neat packaging of the “high five” was at least four hundred years in the making.

Not only the packaging, but the place of the Five Solas has been often misunderstood. Luther and other Reformers, when asked to sum up the Protestant Reformation, would have pointed first to the person and work of Jesus Christ as the center of everything. They would have appealed to the Bible, to be sure, but they would have understood it in light of the classic orthodox doctrines of the faith, articulated in the Protestant catechisms and confessions, and lived out in a life of faith. In some ways, reducing the Reformation to a bullet-point list of Five Solas does an injustice to the bigness and beauty of the orthodox, Protestant, evangelical faith. But as long as we avoid simplistic reductionism, we ought to continue to teach the proper place and relevance of the Five Solas.

David VanDrunen sums it up well: “People may have begun speaking of the ‘five solas of the Reformation’ only long after the Reformation itself, but each of these five themes does in fact probe the heart of Reformation faith and life in its own way. The Reformers may not have spoken explicitly of ‘the five Solas,’ but the magnification of Christ, grace, faith, Scripture, and God’s glory—and these alone—suffused their theology and ethics, their worship and piety.”3

1523 Katharina Schütz Zell marries clergyman, Matthew Zell. They were both excommunicated and wrote a letter in defense of clerical marriage.

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MYTH: The Reformers summed up their theology with the Five Solas, which was the rallying cry of the Reformation.

FACT: Though the Protestant Reformation held to the basic content of what became the Five Solas, the grouping of these together as the fundamental pillars of Protestant theology didn’t occur until the twentieth century.

RELEVANCE: As we look back at the Protestant era, the Five Solas do give us a good foundation for understanding the essence of the Reformation, but as with any foundation, we should continue building upon it.

As we do, we’ll begin to see how the Five Solas mutually support each other, find their basis in the grounding in Scripture and the legacy of the church’s history, and provide a powerful basis for living a God-glorifying life by grace through faith in the glorious savior revealed through God’s inerrant Word.

3. INNOVATION OR RESTORATION? From the earliest days of the Reformation, the teaching that sinners are saved “through faith alone” has been rejected as a “novelty.” While Luther and the Reformers were claiming to be engaged in doctrinal restoration, Roman Catholics charged them with innovation. The charge is still leveled today—by both Roman Catholics and Protestants! However, is it true that the idea of justification by grace through faith alone was invented in the sixteenth century by Martin Luther?

No. Regarded by Roman Catholics as one of their earliest popes and likely an in-the-

1524 Elisabeth Cruciger marries Caspar Cruciger and writes the first Protestant hymn, “Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn” (“The Only Son from Heaven”).

flesh associate of the apostles, Clement of Rome wrote regarding salvation, “Therefore all of them were glorified and magnified, not through themselves or their deeds or righteous actions which they accomplished, but through his will. And we, therefore, having been called through his will in Christ Jesus, we are not justified through ourselves, or through our wisdom or understanding or piety or deeds which we accomplished in holiness of heart, but through the faith by which all those [since the beginning] Almighty God has justified to him be the glory [forever]” (1 Clement 32.3–4).4 In the next generation, around A.D. 110, Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of the apostle John, wrote, “In whom [ Jesus], not having seen, you believe with joy inexpressible and glorious, which many long to experience, knowing that by grace you have been saved, not by works, but the will of God through Jesus Christ” (Polycarp, To the Philippians 1.3).5 These earliest fathers—associates of the apostles themselves—demonstrate that Paul’s teaching on salvation by grace through faith alone (apart from works) was very much alive in the late first and early second centuries.

Though the doctrine of “Sola Fide” becomes obscured in later developments, the doctrine is still evident in the writings of later church fathers who are reflecting on Paul’s writings. Thus, the fourth century writer, Marius Victorinus, in his commentary on Galatians, wrote, “Faith itself alone grants justification and sanctification.

Thus any flesh whatsoever—Jews or those from the Gentiles—is justified on the basis of faith, not works or observance of the Jewish Law” (Victorinus, Commentary on Galatians 2:15–16).6

These are not isolated instances of a doctrine of Sola Fide, but only representative of numerous voices stifled by a millen-

1525 The first rebaptism of believers takes place, beginning the Anabaptist movement in Zurich spreading to Germany. Luther marries Katharina von Bora.

1527 Marburg, the first Protestant university, is founded (although the name Protestant would be first used in 1529).

nium of cluttered dogmas that accrued during the medieval period. So obscured was the notion of Sola Fide that when Luther and the Reformers revived the phrase in the sixteenth century, it sounded like a novelty!7

an innovation, but a restoration and reinforcement of a doctrine that had been articulated by pastors and teachers of the past. ______________________________

1546 Luther dies in the county of Mansfeld in Eisleben.

NOTES

MYTH: The Protestant doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone was unheard of prior to the Reformation, casting doubt on whether the Bible can really be read that way.

FACT: While the Protestant Reformers certainly clarified and refined the teaching of salvation in light of medieval exaggerations, errors, and distortions, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone can be found in early Christian writings and among orthodox fathers of the church.

RELEVANCE: Many evangelicals today respond to this issue this way: “Well, who cares if Luther was the first person to discover this teaching? Our standard is the Bible, not tradition or the history of interpretation.” Yes, the final written authority in all matters of faith and practice is the Bible—the writings of the apostles and prophets. However, if the Spirit who inspired the Scriptures is also indwelling the body of Christ, shouldn’t we expect to find important doctrines of the apostolic period echoing into the early centuries?

It would be right to be suspicious of interpretations or doctrines that are utterly new, never seen in the history of the church, even among the earliest disciples of the apostles.

1. Volker Leppin and Timothy J. Wengert, “Sources for and against the Posting of the Ninety-Five Theses,” Lutheran Quarterly 29 (2015): 373–98.

2. Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority after Babel: Retrieving the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant Christianity (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2016), 26–27.

3. David VanDrunen, God’s Glory Alone—The Majestic Heart of Christian Faith and Life, The Five Solas Series, ed. Matthew Barrett (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 14.

4. Translation from Rick Brannan, The Apostolic Fathers in English (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

5. Ibid.

6. Translation in Stephen Andrew Cooper, Marius Victorinus’ Commentary on Galatians, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2005), 282.

7. For more examples of sola fide in the patristic period, see Dongsun Cho, “Ambrosiaster on Justification by Faith Alone in His Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles,” Westminster Theological Journal 74:2 (Fall, 2012): 277–90; Thomas C. Oden, The Justification Reader (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002); D. H. Williams, “Justification by Faith: A Patristic Doctrine,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 57.4 (2006):649–67; Nick Needham, “Justification in the Early Church Fathers,” in Justification in Perspective: Historical Developments and Contemporary Challenges, ed. Bruce L. McCormack (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006): 25–53.

MICHAEL J. SVIGEL (THM, 2001; PHD, 2008) serves as department chair and professor of theological studies at DTS. Many of his written works can be found online at bible.org and retrochristianity.com. He and his wife, Stephanie, have three children, Sophie, Lucas, and Nathan.

1545 Council of Trent convenes for the reformation of the Catholic Church.

1543 Copernicus declares in his writing that the earth revolves around the sun.

1538 John Calvin is expelled from Geneva.

1535 Anabaptist uprising at Münster; Anabaptists are executed.

Thomas More is beheaded for opposing Henry VIII. 1534 Henry VIII declares himself supreme head of the Church of England. Luther publishes the German Bible.

It should comfort Protestants that their adherence to salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is not

1528 Embracing Luther’s theology, Ursula von Münsterberg flees the convent in Freiberg and writes a letter to her family—a treatise summarizing the major points of Lutheran theology.

1530 The Diet of Augsburg attempts to mend the divisiveness in the Roman Empire.

Luther does not attend because he is still considered an outlaw. Melanchthon presents Augsburg Confession.

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ONG BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION, certain practices in the life of the church, for ordinary people, had ceased to be meaningful expressions of the Christian faith. Rather than relying on God, people entrusted their faithfulness for transformation and took part in established empty rituals regardless of understanding. Over the course of many centuries, certain key Christian teachings atrophied in the church—especially those around the issue of salvation.

In the midst of this decline, the Reformers (such as Martin Luther and John Calvin) sought to define Christian doctrines related to salvation. These pillars—the “Five Solas”—are five Latin phrases that emerged providing a foundation for understanding the basis for the Reformation and creating a bedrock for Christians to continue to build and restore the essential teachings of the gospel. Ironically, these most significant emphases sometimes take a similar “empty” character themselves. Do they make a difference today? IF SO, HOW?

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SOLA FIDE

BY FAITH ALONE

One of the great temptations in our culture is our propensity to live by sight rather than according to faith. “Seeing is believing” leaves us reliant on our actions to help us feel better about ourselves. When we live as if salvation depends on our abilities, we can easily fall prey to a “gospel” of fear.

We hold on to our doubts and anxieties in place of clinging to the true gospel of faith.

Fear trusts in the self, whereas faith trusts in God. Fear says, I have to do something to rectify my situation. Faith admits, I can do nothing about these circumstances, it’s in God’s hands now.

Adam and Eve, afraid in the wake of their sin, trusted in fig leaves and hiding to “fix” their situation (Gen 3:7–8). Many of us today hide from our need for God. We dismiss God’s grace and his provision of salvation through Christ, and we depend on our own merits. We often forget that through restoration and forgiveness we can rediscover the joy of our salvation. Our faith prompts us to place our trust in the only one who can help us overcome the ugliness of sin and death.

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SOLA SCRIPTURA

BY SCRIPTURE ALONE

The Bible occupies a central place in the life of the Christian church. Hopefully, each Christian treats God’s Word as true, authoritative, and sufficient to live the life of faith. Over time, however, traditions— localized beliefs and practices—have increased in our church communities and denominations, affecting how we approach Scripture. These traditions draw us away from the more significant and central practices and beliefs of historic Christianity. Every church community has such traditions. To name a few common contemporary examples, think community standards on alcohol, or political affiliations. The Reformation teaching of Sola Scriptura meant to rein in these kinds of traditions that had gained prominence in the Roman Catholic Church.

But the Reformers, in advocating for Scripture alone as the supreme authority in matters of doctrine and practice, also appreciated a different category of what we can call Tradition—universal beliefs and practices that unite Christians everywhere.

Think of beliefs about our triune God or the person and work of Jesus, for example.

Like the Reformers did, we should also honor Scripture as critical and fundamental to our understanding of our faith. We need to follow the Reformers in drawing upon Tradition, to help us with the disunity we currently face within the body of Christ and to encourage us to read our Bibles in concert with those who have gone before us.

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SOLUS CHRISTUS

THROUGH CHRIST ALONE

We live in a pluralistic world. While this has created the promise (and sometimes the reality) of peaceful living among people of many tribes and religions, it also presents particular challenges for Christians today.

Should Christianity adapt its doctrine to this new cultural reality by suggesting that we focus our missionary attention on promoting good morals rather than prompting Hindus, Muslims, or atheists to accept the gospel and affirm historic Christian orthodoxy?

The Reformation ideal of salvation states that we come to God through Christ alone, which excludes such a pluralist vision around the issue of salvation. As Christians, we cannot change the doctrine that has animated our faith throughout its 2,000-year history. There is nothing more central to Christianity than the person and work of Jesus. In this, the Reformers help us to clarify one of the core tenets of salvation in the Christian faith, one that Jesus himself emphasizes. “No one comes to the Father except through me” ( John 14:6).

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Why the Five Solas Matter Today

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SOLA GRATIA

BY GRACE ALONE

Jesus operates according to grace. He continually works with and through people who deserve, at the very least, dismissal and, at the most, the harshest judgment.

Need an example of such a person? To find an undeserving co-laborer with Jesus we don’t need to look any further than to one of the leaders of the first generation church, Peter—who denied Christ three times.

Despite this emphasis on grace in the ministry of Jesus and the early church, Christians have long struggled with the temptation to make Christianity in general and salvation in particular about following a series of rules and regulations. The testimony of the Reformation is that salvation comes to us not through the careful obedience of clear (and often, not so clear) church rules, but through the gracious gift of the triune God. As Christians we are prone to “rules and regulations” thinking. We would do well to embody a more grace-saturated heart for one another on social media, in our churches, and in our communities.

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SOLI DEO GLORIA GLORY TO GOD ALONE

People of all kinds—from children to volunteers to high-powered executives—angle for credit. Everyone appreciates a little recognition for a job well done, and we have a tendency to overestimate our contributions to a completed project. We’ve seen it before: a basketball player shoots the winning basket for his only two points of the game and gets all the glory from the assembled media. Never mind if he stood alone in a position to hit the game winner because of other teammates who contributed to the final score. Who gets the glory?

They all do at some level.

When it comes to salvation, the Reformers made it clear that only God deserves the glory. The Roman Catholic Church of the sixteenth century had a habit of divvying up glory. God got the most, but the sinner deserved a share for their cooperation (in performing rituals and doing good works).

The Reformation heritage clarifies for us that we don’t get credit for bringing about our salvation (Eph 2:8–9). Only God deserves praise for the glorious new life he brings to his people.

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ow can we, then, as children of the Reformation, seek to help others appreciate Christian doctrines related to salvation especially in the midst of our culture’s decline? Over the course of our lives, we need to strive to live the array of biblical truths that will help others understand salvation and that Scripture is our only final authority. We need to show the world God’s love—that God accepts us by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ, and that God often uses the unlikeliest of reformers in different places and circumstances to bring about his will—all working and conspiring to the glory of God.

JOHN ADAIR (THM, 2000; PHD, 2008) emphasizes guiding his students toward a Christcentered, historically informed faith. His research interests include historical exegesis and the role of culture in theology. He and his wife, Laura, have three children, Nicholas, Harper, and Thomas.

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Six Lessons from the Legacy of Martin Luther

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ould Martin Luther—given his personality and prejudices—be acceptable on any modern university faculty? Reformation scholar Heiko Oberman raised this interesting question in the conclusion of his work on the heralded reformer, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil. Oberman’s conclusion is that Luther would not stand a chance, because many of his late medieval values, such as his strident belief in the realities of the unseen, would be viewed as archaic and nonsensical to a postmodern audience. Furthermore, a psychological battery of tests would have eliminated any vestige of chance. His fear of the Lord and a very real perception of the realities of the demonic would lead to a diagnosis of either neurosis or psychosis caused by childhood trauma.

With this said, is there anything in Luther’s career that would offer the portent of a successful faculty career or pastoral position today? Can this sixteenth century individual offer us insights for life in the twenty-first?

A LESSON OF TRANSFORMING GRACE Martin Luther offers insight into the wonder of the transforming realities of the gospel when the claims of Christ are understood and embraced. It would seem that human nature has not been altered through what historians frequently have called centuries of progress. (In fact, advances in technology seem only to have brought into vivid relief the barbarous potential of human ingenuity.) The recognition of human blight is revealed frequently in the endless quest to dull tarnished dreams and painful memories.

Though Luther’s struggles had more to do with a troubled conscience preventing acceptance by a holy and just God, he, like many today, found that the advice and instruction of his teachers did little to assuage the emptiness felt in the depths of his soul.

When Luther prepared lectures at the University of Wittenberg, the light of the gospel gradually flooded his heart and mind.

An accomplished monk, a devoted follower of the Christian disciplines, he discovered that God through Christ was not a wrathful judge, but a compassionate redeemer. Freedom from a guilty conscience was a gift purchased by Christ and granted as a gratuitous gift. And that forgiveness could not be earned or merited but was granted because Christ stood alone as the sinner’s substitute and advocate. This is the old, old truth that is forever new to those who experience it for the first time (and return to it many times).

A LESSON OF UNFLINCHING BOLDNESS The depth of Luther’s commitment to the life-changing gospel of redemption offers a model of discipleship that is timeless. The courage to present an unbending, unwavering witness to the absolute sufficiency of a Christ-wrought redemption, without the mudding mixture of complementary or any supplementary endeavors, stands as a sentinel for us to resist compromise so characteristic of the “Age of Tolerance” (perhaps more accurately, “the Age of Concession”) promising the removal of the blight of obscurantism but threatening the diluting of the gospel of Jesus, the only and final redeemer.

He was a man of conviction who thought lightly of the opposition of his church or the power of the state to silence him. Standing before Charles V, the imperial emperor, he became an unflinching witness to the narrowness of truth. His words ring out in contrast to this century’s morality of the impropriety of conviction, sadly propagated in our citadels of supposed academic freedom and commitment, as well as our religious schools that purpose to train leaders for tomorrow. “Unless I am convicted

by Scriptures . . . I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand.”

Subsequently at the Wartburg Castle where Luther was sequestered by Frederick the Wise for his protection, and where he translated the Greek New Testament into German, any lingering doubts fled when he observed smoke rising over the Thüringen Mountains from the burning of charcoal, only to be blown away by the wind. “So it is,” he said, “the Lord removed my doubts.”

Oh! That our pulpits would be filled with those who would faithfully explain the claims and commands of Jesus.

A LESSON OF INGENUITY AND INDUSTRY Luther should serve as a witness to us of the power of technology in setting forth the message of Christ. In that day, the cutting-edge tool was the printing press, the invention of typesetting and its development by John of Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany; in our day, we would likely call it the computer, the tablet, the smart phone. The possibility of access to information multiplied exponentially; actually, it exploded.

His literary productivity was simply stupendous. In addition to the celebrated Ninety-Five Theses, Luther wrote a number of small pamphlets (his little work on prayer is a wonderful howto guide); numerous book-length treatises, including the masterpiece, The Bondage of the Will; the translation of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures into German, merging the various regional dialects through careful word selection that created a unified national language; and a variety of catechisms (perhaps among the most treasured is the Small Catechism of 1527 for children).

The collection of sermonic material is a treasure trove as well as his numerous commentaries. Most particularly the work on the Epistle to the Romans remains a classic. Though the medium for the dissemination of ideas has proliferated beyond the printed

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We can be thankful that God does not require spotlessness of character to truly love him and serve him. page, Luther remains a testimony to the power and importance found through the diffusion of ideas in the nurturing of the church.

A LESSON OF DISCIPLESHIP When Luther came to the fledgling University of Wittenberg (est. 1501) to take the position of lecturer on the Bible, initially preparing instruction on the Psalms, Galatians, and Romans, he entered the world of training the next generation of students, inspiring them to become leaders. He was a master-teacher. His instruction was not only his own path to a deepening understanding of truth, it aroused and guided many to emulate his passion for Christ and a free salvation through his atoning sacrifice.

Such inspiring insight caused some to pay the ultimate cost in martyrdom and many to be tireless advocates. In this regard, Table Talks provides indispensable insight into this competent, impassioned teacher. Luther brought light to the classroom and the classroom to life. Luther has left us both a legacy and a challenge in this regard, certainly for those who seek to teach in whatever capacity. Would that the spirit of Luther’s giftedness in the classroom be emulated in our classrooms today, crafting many zealous Jesus-followers.

A LESSON OF FAMILY LIFE While Luther hoped to secure a former nun, Katharina von Bora, as a wife for a colleague and former priest, eventually she married Luther himself. Luther commented that he married for reasons other than love, but he later confessed that he found it. He became a caring father. His home was not only blessed with children, but it was always filled with eager students at his table. Together they filled the Black Cloister, where they lived, with music and singing.

Luther composed many songs to enhance private and public worship, including “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Katie became the industrious housewife as well as a constant comfort to her busy, often perplexed, Luther. Not all was bliss, however. Luther experienced great pain when he held his twelveyear-old daughter, Magdelena, in his arms as she died. Luther

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asked her if she was ready to meet her heavenly father and she answered affirmatively. Luther later said, “Why am I so sad when she now shines as the stars of heaven?” He was a man of remarkable compassion, and his home became a model of the grace of God as well as the blessings and sanctity of marriage and children.

A LESSON THROUGH IMPERFECTION While Luther is an imposing colossus who singularly shaped the Protestant tradition in many commendable ways, he is also a witness that strengths come with weaknesses. Assuredly, he was a man of courage and conviction, willing to endanger life and health to bring about a revitalization of both church and society.

However, his weaknesses became far too evident when Martin Bucer of Strasbourg sought to bring unity to the Protestant movement in 1529 by merging the reform movement in northern Germany with the German-speaking Swiss of Zurich. Though national animosities did exist, they became evident in a clash over theology, specifically the last controverted point that, had they agreed, would have brought unity instead of fracturing to the nascent movement. Sadly, the issue was the Lord’s Table, but the deeper issue was a clash of perspectives between Luther and Zwingli. Luther showed himself to be obstinate, provincial, calloused, and blind to the enormous implications of the moment.

What can we learn from the failure of the Marburg Colloquy? Is there something to ingest, not so much about Luther, but about us? While the man had truly remarkable qualities, he reminds us that we all have a dark side. We can be thankful that God does not require spotlessness of character to truly love him and serve him.

The downside, however, is that our destructive traits can do great damage to the churches of God. Through the long centuries of Christian witness, there have been a few that not only impacted their world throughout their lives (the choices they made, the words they wrote and spoke, the immediate influence they exerted), but have continued to do so, shaping our understanding of the faith, promoting the Christian virtues, and inspiring self-sacrifice. Certainly, this veritable “Hall of Fame” contains Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, John Wesley, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, and Karl Barth. The influence of these men, and many more, continues to shape and encourage us.

Among these many, Martin Luther is a luminary.

JOHN D. HANNAH (THM, 1971; THD, 1974) is a frequent and popular speaker at home and abroad.

His teaching interests include the general history of the Christian church, with particular interest in the works of Jonathan Edwards and John Owen. Among his published works are a history of DTS and a general history of the Christian church.

DTS is committed to training students in every professional degree using all sixty-six books of the Bible as our central textbook.

Apply by October 2017 and enter promo code “Reformation� and DTS will waive the $50 application fee.

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Anabaptists:

“Forgotten” voices of the Reformation

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Editor’s Note: Additional notes and a complete bibliography of the works mentioned in this article are available online.

pset over the sale of indulgences, among other things, Luther posted a set of ninety-five theses for public discussion on October 31, 1517. In Zurich, Switzerland, within a few years, Huldrych (or Ulrich) Zwingli led a reformation in his church. A couple of decades later, John Calvin’s influence in Geneva, Switzerland, brought reformation there. The church in England experienced reformation largely due to the pope’s refusal to grant King Henry VIII the divorce he requested. These were not organized attempts to change the church but organic and disconnected reform movements that occurred in various places in Europe at about the same time.

As influential and significant as these figures were, other voices called for reformation in this era. Often overlooked, even forgotten, for a variety of reasons, the numbers of their followers were, and still are, much smaller than the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican communities. Seen as dangerous by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant magisterial reformers because of their rejection of infant baptism and their support of the separation of church and state, many of them were martyred.

Among them were some radicals, and disdain for these extremists sometimes is applied to everyone outside of the magisterial Reformation.

RADICAL REFORMERS In his book, The Radical Reformation, George H. Williams identified three major groups within what he called the “Radical Reformation”—Anabaptists, Spiritualists, and Evangelical Rationalists.

The significance of the Anabaptists, Williams explains, is that they “organized disciplined communities of believers, stressing at once individual faith and witness (adult baptism) and corporate discipline (the ban); and they adhered pacifistically to the authority of Holy Scripture, pre-eminently the New Testament.” These Christians attempted to put into practice their understanding of the teachings of Jesus, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. In short, the strength of this movement was its attempt to apply the Bible’s teaching to life in this world, no matter the cost.

The term “Anabaptist” has been used broadly to designate any of the groups that practice believers’ baptism. They rejected the Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed practice of baptizing infants based upon a covenant or state church model. The Anabaptists understood the New Testament to teach that baptism follows

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conversion; thus only believers should be baptized. Since these believers had already been baptized as infants, they were called “Anabaptists,” a pejorative label emphasizing their “rebaptism.”

In response, these Christians insisted that they were not rebaptized, since their “baptism” as infants was not Christian baptism.

C. Arnold Snyder writes (in Anabaptist History and Theology: An Introduction), “The direct descendants of the Anabaptists are the present day Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and some groups of ‘Brethren’; the indirect descendants of the Anabaptists are above all the Baptists, the largest Believers’ Church denomination today.” The followers of these forgotten voices are found in Baptist, Bible, and other churches that practice believers’ baptism.

COMMON ELEMENTS Generalization beyond the view of baptism is difficult since the movement was seen as pluralistic. Yet there are some general tendencies within these movements. Alister McGrath summarizes these common elements in Christian Theology: An Introduction: “A general distrust of external authority; the rejection of infant baptism in favor of the baptism of adult believers, the common ownership of property; and an emphasis on pacifism and nonresistance.” Not all groups identified as Anabaptists were pacifists, but many were.

Rejection of the authority of the state, which was an implication of the denunciation of infant baptism, resulted in the charge of anarchy. Throughout Europe, the state and the state church saw the Anabaptists as dangerous. As a result, thousands were killed.

In The Anabaptist Story: An Introduction to Sixteenth-Century Anabaptism, William Estep puts it well: “Martydom became an Anabaptist hallmark. Among those who died at the hands of the

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authorities for their faith were countless worthy, often unknown, unforgettable witnesses.”

The roots of Anabaptism sprouted in Switzerland. After multiple attempts to get Zwingli to accept their proposal to endorse believers’ baptism, several of Zwingli’s disciples in Zurich decided to baptize themselves. On January 21, 1525, the first rebaptism of believers in the era of the Reformation took place in the home of Felix Mantz; this group included Conrad Grebel, George Blaurock, and others. Grebel baptized Blaurock who then baptized the rest.

Estep writes, “This was clearly the most revolutionary act of the Reformation. No other event so completely symbolized the break with Rome.

Here, for the first time in the course of the Reformation, a group of Christians dared to form a church after what was conceived to be the New Testament pattern.” Within a decade everyone in this group had been martyred.

The martyrdom of these Swiss Anabaptists did not stop the spread of Anabaptists though. Even the threat of imprisonment and death had little effect. Many of the leaders in the movement were converted Catholic monks or priests and many of them paid for their adoption of Anabaptist convictions with their lives. One of these influential leaders was Michael Sattler, a former Benedictine monk.

MICHAEL SATTLER Although the details of a meeting of Anabaptist leaders at Schleitheim, Switzerland (early in 1597), are unclear, what came out of it was a confession of faith that summarized the convictions of many of the Swiss Anabaptists. Written

by Sattler, the “Seven Articles of the Schleitheim Confession” affirm that baptism is only for believers, unrepentant baptized believers should be banned from the table, the table is only for the baptized, believers should separate from the evil and wickedness in the world, pastors should be selected from and supported by the church, the sword is “outside the perfection of Christ,” and Christians should not swear oaths.

In “Cover Letter,” Sattler warns his followers: “Watch out for all who do not walk in simplicity of divine truth, which has been stated by us in this letter in our meeting, so that everyone might be governed among us by the rule of the ban, and that henceforth the entry of false brothers

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and sisters among us might be prevented.” The intent seems clear; to preserve and protect the purity of the community of faith.

Soon after the meeting at Schleitheim, Sattler was arrested and charged with multiple infractions. For these charges he was executed as the verdict commanded: “In the matter of the prosecutor of the imperial majesty versus Michael Sattler, it has been found that Michael Sattler should be given into the hands of the hangman, who shall lead him to the square and cut off his tongue, then chain him to a wagon, there tear his body twice with red hot tongs, and again when he is brought before the gate, five more times.”

Finally, his body was burned.

THE RIGHT TO DISCIPLINE Most of the Swiss Anabaptists were pacifists, following the “Schleitheim Confession,” but not all the Anabaptist leaders agreed on the use of the sword. Balthasar Hubmaier, a onetime colleague of Zwingli in Zurich, defended the state’s use of force. He argued from Matthew 18:15–20 that the state has the right to discipline using the sword and the church disciplines through the ban. In On the Sword, Hubmaier wrote, “These two offices and mandates of the ban and external sword are not against each other since they are both from God.” He concludes, “Thus can also the church with its ban and the government with its sword go along with each other and neither interfere in the office of the other.”

On Romans 13:1–7, Hubmaier observes that Paul instructs everyone, believers and unbelievers, to be subject to the government and asserts that the government does not bear the sword in vain.

Hubmaier continues, “He also explicitly adds that the authority is the servant of God. Where then are those who say the Christian cannot use the sword? For if a Christian could not be a servant of God, could not fulfill the mandate of God without sinning, then God would not be good. He would have made an order which a Christian could not fulfill without sin. That is blasphemy.” Estep explains Hubmaier’s position was never widely accepted by the Anabaptists.

Hubmaier, too, paid for his belief in believers’ baptism with his life. He was executed on March 10, 1528, in Vienna, less than three years after he was baptized. Estep explains he was burned to death. Three days later his wife was drowned in the Danube.

RESOLUTE ABANDONMENT FOR CHRIST Perhaps the most powerful story of pacifism and the desire to live out the ethical implications of Jesus is the story of Dirk Willems.

He was captured, tried, and convicted by the Roman Catholic Church as a heretic in the Dutch village of Asperen in 1569. He escaped from his prison castle by letting himself out of a window using a rope of knotted rags. He took off across a frozen pond. A guard saw him and chased him across the thin ice but, due to his heavier weight, the guard fell through the ice. Willems heard his pursuer’s cries for help and returned to rescue him.

The chief magistrate who watched this event from the shore demanded that Willems be re-arrested and on May 16, 1569, he was burned to death. In his article, “Why Did Dirk Willems Turn Back?,” Joseph Liechty concludes, “I am convinced that the only force strong enough to take Dirk back across the ice was an extraordinary outpouring of love. The only kind of love I know that extends to enemies is the love taught and lived by Jesus.”

Timothy George wrote (Theology of the Reformers) that Menno Simons, a Dutch priest, left the Catholic Church in 1536 to spend the rest of his life as “a hunted heretic, preaching by night to secret conventicles of brothers and sisters, baptizing new believers in country streams and out-of-the-way lakes, establishing churches and ordaining pastors from Amsterdam to Cologne to Danzig.” He was one of few early Anabaptist leaders to die of natural causes, in 1561.

Menno Simons’s biographer, Harold Stauffer Bender, summarizes his thought well: “Practical Christianity meant for Menno the resolute abandonment by the Christian of all carnal strife and war, indeed of the use of force in any manner, as well as a thoroughgoing separation from the sin of the worldly social order.

For him the church was the representative and agent of Christ on earth, and as such was to keep itself holy and pure in life and doctrine, and was to give a faithful witness for Christ until He came.”

None of the reformers intended to start a movement of followers or a denomination. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Menno Simons would hardly be pleased that, generations later, Christians identify themselves by claiming their names. Rather, as they read the Bible, they saw inconsistencies between what God’s Word declared and what they saw in practice—in the church of their day and in their own lives. So, out of submission to the authority of the Word of God, they began to put those teachings into practice.

May such a desire to be doers of the Word characterize our lives too, and may God give us the grace to stand for truth, no matter the cost.

GLENN KREIDER (THM, 1990; PHD, 2001) identifies his motivations as his passion for the triune God and his desire to help others respond to divine revelation in spirit and truth. Dr. Kreider’s research interests include Jonathan Edwards, theological method, and eschatological hope. He is married to Janice, and they have two children.

My Soul Thirsts: Holy Sonnet XVII by KELLY KRUSE. Find her work at kellykrusecreative.com.

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DTS AT HOME AND ABROAD 1

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In accordance with DTS, Dr. Ramesh Richards’s ministry, RREACH, hosted the Dallas Global Proclamation Academy (Dallas GPA) in Dallas this past June for three weeks. Dallas GPA is an annual, intensive institute designed to connect, unite, and strengthen leaders. Twenty-nine pastors from twenty-nine countries attended. Dr. Barry Corey, president of Biola University in La Mirada, California, led part of the training and also spoke in chapel.

Go to dts.edu/chapel to view his message.

7 1 Current student Jazmine Sánchez Linares proudly holds up the Texas-size taco piñata she made for a back-to-school fiesta sponsored by the DTS Hispanic Society and the DTS Book Center.

2 Dr. Alexander Gonzales (STM, 2006; PhD, 2012), Dr. George Hillman, and Dr. Rodney Orr (ThM, 1990) celebrate their time together at the Great Wall of China. All of them, along with Dr. Darrell Bock (ThM, 1979), had the privilege of teaching in Hong Kong over the summer.

3 Team DTS-Houston prepares for the new academic year at this year’s Global Leadership Summit in Illinois.

4 Dr. Stephen Bramer (PhD, 1997) and Dr. Gordon Johnston (ThM, 1985; ThD, 1992) pose with their students who explored Israel over the summer. After visiting sites and swimming in the Sea of Galilee, they took a moment to take a quick group photo overlooking the city of Jerusalem. Next year’s trip will be May 13–June 3, 2018. Email Tina Smilie (tsmilie@dts.edu) for more information.

5 Dr. Sandra Glahn (ThM, 2001), Dr. Barry Jones (ThM, 2002), and Sten-Erik Armitage (MABS, ThM, 2012) pose with students who participated in a two-week immersion class in Medieval Art and Spirituality (MW201). They traveled to Northern Italy with a three-day add-on in Rome.

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6 Dr. John Hannah (ThM, 1971; ThD, 1974) tries on a furry hat while visiting a gift shop in Hill City, South Dakota. The Hannahs took their grandkids on a little vacation to see Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands.

7 Director of media production, Ryan Holmes (MAMC, 2008), interviews current MACL student Amos Miguel who traveled from Rome, Italy, to take classes during SuperWeek.

8 Dr. Mark Yarbrough (ThM, 1996; PhD, 2008) poses with his students at The Cove, in Asheville, North Carolina, where he taught BE106NC. Students enrolled in this class came from all over the country to fellowship and study the book of Galatians.

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Meet the New Faculty and Adjuncts DR. TIMOTHY YODER Associate Professor of Theological Studies

DR. AARON COE Executive Director, Passion Global Institute (in partnership with DTS) Assistant Professor of World Missions and Intercultural Studies Dr. Coe serves as part of the leadership and executive team at Passion Global Institute in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned his PhD at Southeastern Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Dr. Coe has also served as a missionary, church planter, and vice-president for mobilization with the North American Mission Board. He and his wife, Carmen, live in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Yoder served at his alma mater, Cairn University (formerly Philadelphia Biblical University) in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, for fifteen years full-time, teaching philosophy, ethics, and apologetics. He earned his PhD in philosophy of religion from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2005 and is the author of Hume on God: Irony, Deism and Genuine Theism. He served as an adjunct professor at DTS during the last three semesters.

DR. KEVIN BRADFORD Adjunct Professor for Doctor of Ministry

DR. KELLY L. CHEATHAM Adjunct Professor of Biblical Counseling Dr. Cheatham is currently serving as director of counseling services at DTS. He earned the MABC in 2009 from DTS and his PhD in counseling in 2016 from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. He is currently working toward certification from the academy of Cognitive Therapy and the Gottman Institute.

Dr. Bradford serves as the global outreach coordinator at Wildwood Community Church in Norman, Oklahoma. He earned his ThM in 1988 (and his MACM in 1989) from DTS and the DMin in missions and Christian education at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. Dr. Bradford has over twenty years of cross-cultural ministry experience. He is married to Rebecca Ann. DR. CHRISTOPHER GRAHAM Adjunct Professor of Theological Studies Dr. Graham serves as associate professor of theology at Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. He earned his ThM in theological studies in 2004 and his PhD in 2014 from DTS. Dr. Graham has taught in the classroom since 2003. He traveled to India in 2007 to teach as a guest instructor. Dr. Graham and his wife, Jill, have three children and currently live in Dallas, Texas.

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DR. STEPHEN S. KIM Adjunct Professor of Bible Exposition Dr. Stephen Kim taught at Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and pastored a church in Nashville, Tennessee. He earned his ThM in New Testament in 1993 and his PhD in Bible exposition in 2001 from DTS. Dr. Kim wrote, The Miracles of Jesus According to John: Their Christological and Eschatological Significance (Wipf and Stock). He and his wife, Sophia, have two daughters, Rachel and Ashley.

VOICE.DTS.EDU This summer, DTS’s web and media teams worked on a new website platform to house all of DTS’s media. At voice.dts.edu you will find articles from DTS Magazine, chapel sermons, The Table podcast, and book reviews from Bibliotheca Sacra.

THE TABLE PODCASTS UPCOMING TOPICS WHAT MAKES A GOOD SERMON? Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla RELIABILITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT Dr. Daniel B. Wallace 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REFORMATION Dr. John D. Hannah, Dr. Michael J. Svigel UNDERSTANDING THE NICENE CREED Dr. Darrell L. Bock

CHAPELS

dts.edu/chapel

DTS invites speakers from across the world to minister to students, faculty, staff, and friends. Throughout the semester, chapel is held every Tuesday through Friday from 10:40 AM to 11:20 AM in Lamb Auditorium. DTS will also have two Tuesday evening chapels this fall. Recordings are available online unless restrictions apply to the speaker(s) or content.

Oct 10-13 Oct 17–20 Oct 31–Nov 3

Nov 7

MISSIONS & EVANGELISM LECTURESHIP REFORMATION WEEK ARTS CONFERENCE with Dr. Natalie Carnes and Mrs. Dawn Waters Baker EVENING CHAPEL with Paul Tripp

ON VIDEO Alumni spotlight: Kyle Sponaugle (MACL, 2017) came to know Jesus in college at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. He graduated in 2001 and joined CRU. He worked at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he met his wife, Jenn. He has served at the Naval Academy with Cru since 2008.

Dr. Bernard Fuller (MACE, 1988; ThM, 1989) was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He founded New Song Bible Fellowship Church in Bowie, Maryland, and attended Howard University where he earned his DMin in religious education. Dr. Fuller serves as president of the Barnabas Group Inc. and is senior pastor of New Song Bible Fellowship Church.

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DISPATCHES FROM THE LAND OF LUTHER: ALUMNI PROFILES Jürgen Schulz//THM, 2011 Scott Way//THM, 2006 Steve Henderson//THM, 1980

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f Martin Luther visited Germany today he could buy a pair of Hier stehe ich Converse sneakers, attend a Luther-themed musical oratorio touring the country, or drink a high-malt “Innovator” beer celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Would he find a large number of pastors in the Landeskirche—the state Protestant church—preaching the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone? Would he find them teaching Jesus’s literal resurrection from the dead?

Today, Luther would encounter a state church waning both numerically and in biblical faithfulness. According to a Pew Research Center report in April 2017, there were 1.4 million more Christian deaths than births in Germany between 2010 and 2015. Indeed, forty-two percent of Germans believe in no god at all. Even the Catholic church in Germany declares that the Protestant church is no longer faithful to the Scriptures they claim to teach. In the land of Luther, Germans need a reformation.

Thirty-four DTS graduates currently minister among the free churches and seminaries in Germany. For this article, I interviewed three DTS alums who offer their perspective on the current state of ministry in Germany. They describe the spiritual climate, the challenges of serving and teaching, and the impact of the legacy of Martin Luther.

Here are their stories.

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JÜRGEN SCHULZ “The apathy I’m encountering is the greatest challenge for ministry. It is difficult to interact and invite people to think about faith and life from a Christian perspective.”

The evangelical churches—so-called “free” churches, as distinct from the state church—are trying to counter the rapid slide of German culture toward spiritual apathy and of the German church toward complete theological liberalism. Small evangelical free churches [not to be confused with the term Evangelische, which refers to the Protestant state church, but rather “evangelical” in the sense of gospel-proclaiming] are growing around the country, but financial limitations hamper opportunities and free church pastors daily contend with negative impressions many Germans have of the “church.”

“The official Protestant national church is dying,” Jürgen clarifies.

“They ripped out their soul in embracing the liberal theological approaches [of the 19th and early 20th centuries with Schleiermacher, Hegel, Ritschl, and von Harnack]. The so-called ‘great’ theologians of the past paved the way for the church to die. The gospel is hardly preached anymore, the churches are empty, and the sermons are usually more about politics and philosophical ideas than about the gospel and Bible teaching.”

SCOTT WAY

“We need to get students to think through theology in a way that makes their hearts resonate. We need to put to death the head-heart dualism.”

Photograph courtesy of Rudi Toews (rtphotography.de)

Jürgen Schulz (ThM, 2011), a native German, was raised from childhood to have a love for God and his Word. He studied under DTS graduates in both his undergrad and seminary studies in Germany. When health issues closed the door for him to become a professional musician, Jürgen saw God clearing the way for further seminary studies. He heard that the OT department at DTS had an excellent reputation. At seminary, Jürgen was impressed

by Dr. Eugene Merrill’s emphasis on the need for both rigorous study and pious discipleship. Jürgen’s dual ministry of pastoring and teaching owes itself in part to Merrill’s influence.

Today Jürgen pastors a small church that he and his wife, Lydia, planted in Paderborn, Germany, called Paderkirche (Evangelische Freikirche Paderborn). They have four children, and he teaches at the Rhineland School of Theology. He is pursuing his doctorate at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Leuven, Belgium.

Jürgen confronts both spiritual apathy and mistrust of the institutional church. “The apathy I’m encountering is the greatest challenge for ministry,” he explains. “It is difficult to interact and invite people to think about faith and life from a Christian perspective.

People do not look to the church for answers. They are not completely areligious, but they are also not interested in Christendom anymore. For many people it is not necessarily the message of the church they reject, but they are annoyed by the institution. They do not accept a church that assumes the right to provide the moral and spiritual guidance people need. They think no one has the right to judge one’s life and lifestyle.”

Scott Way (ThM, 2006) grew up in a conservative Christian home in Canton, Ohio. During his teen years, his family packed everything up and moved to Dallas, Texas. It was at that time he felt the Lord working in his life. “I really longed for a good understanding of the faith so I could be confident of its credibility,” he recalls. After watching the Francis Schaeffer film How Should We Then Live? and reading He Is There and He Is Not Silent, Scott realized that he wanted to go into ministry. He attended Bible school in Dallas and then enrolled at DTS in the mid-80s, but left to pursue a clearer call. He spent a year in Belgium to see if Europe might be the mission field for him.

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While there, he met and married his wife, Leona, a German. Scott eventually realized that he was more a teacher than a preacher and returned to DTS where he studied under Mark Heinemann (ThM, 1978), who had served in Germany with Greater Europe Mission (GEM). With Mark’s encouragement, Scott chose to do his internship at Theologisches Seminar Rheinland (Rhineland School of Theology) in Wölmersen, Germany. During that week, he nervously asked school leaders if they could imagine him and Leona serving there. One of the leaders said, “We’ve been waiting for you for eleven years!” Today, Scott serves as a lecturer teaching systematic theology and dean of students at Rhineland. He and his wife, and their two children have lived there since 2005.

and asked them to host ninety more refugees. “We were thrilled,” Scott said. But local villagers—including some believers—opposed the idea. “They said they didn’t want to be known as a ‘refugee village,’” Scott recalls. “They didn’t want their property values to go down.”

STEVE HENDERSON

“The gospel does flourish in Germany, but not as often as you’d like in the state churches. There’s so much religious oriented works righteousness that characterizes the Lutheran church here.”

Scott believes the legacy of Luther is perceived in various ways today. The challenge is to take something that is not completely unknown but that culture describes as irrelevant—historic Christianity based on Luther’s Reformation and Bible—and persuade Germans that it is both relevant and life-giving. “I’d say Christianity is only a forgotten cultural/historical reality for most people,” he adds. “The church plays a role, but it is almost strictly a secular kind of role. Kids attend confirmation instruction and get confirmed, but the vast majority of them don’t believe what they learn. People don’t go to church except to be married or buried.”

More and more people are opting out of church membership so they don’t have to pay the 8–9% church tax. Scott sees the primary spiritual trend in Germany as one of apathy and irrelevancy.

Lack of trained pastors also limits growth. Some fifty theological institutions prepare men and women for ministry in free churches in Germany—churches not tied to the Protestant church. Scott presides as dean of students for ninety scholars at TSR, which makes it one of the larger Bible schools in Germany. Many of these students struggle with a very emotional orientation to their faith, ungrounded in strong theology. Since Scott’s thesis at DTS was “The Value of Theology for Sanctification,” he tries hard to integrate both head and heart into his teaching. “We need to get students to think through theology in a way that makes their hearts resonate,” he explains. “We need to put to death the head-heart dualism.”

While many Germans have resisted the resettlement of large numbers of Syrian refugees, Scott has seen the free churches exercise a great deal of compassion and hospitality toward them. “Evangelical churches have publicly said, ‘We need to treat refugees as our neighbor.’” Rhineland School of Theology is one arm of the Neues Leben (New Life) mission in Germany, which also operates a summer camp nearby.

Recently, German authorities asked if the camp would house thirty Syrian refugees. The camp directors agreed, and the refugees stayed four months. Scott taught them German. When he asked one man why he had left Syria, the man pointed to a map on the wall which showed his home village, then he pointed in each cardinal direction and said, “Boom!” The German government later said the camp had been the most successful location in the area

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Steve Henderson (ThM, 1980) grew up in German-influenced Cincinnati, Ohio. After committing his life to Christ as a teen he served with Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) at Vanderbilt and in local church ministry in Nashville. He later went to DTS where classmate Cleon Rogers (ThM, 1980)—who had lived in Germany—made Steve aware of missions in Europe. Steve served as a pastor in Texas and then in South Carolina where he founded a Christian school. He and his wife, Robin, moved to Germany in 1999 to pastor Munich International Community Church, a highly mobile congregation of some 150 to 200 families. The congregation represents many different cultures and ecclesial backgrounds.

Steve believes that Luther’s use of the printing press and his translation of the Bible were two of Luther’s greatest contributions.

“Just as the King James Version Bible profoundly shaped the development and stabilization of the English language, Luther’s translation of the Bible into a vernacular and common/standardized German left deep impressions. Luther’s vocabulary, idioms, figures of speech, and phrases exist in German yet today.”

“Because of Luther,” Steve adds, “the gospel does flourish in Germany, but not as often as you’d like in the state churches. There’s so much religious oriented works righteousness that characterizes the Lutheran church here. Bromides, pleasant smiles, but nothing of transforming hope that comes through electrifying, life-giving grace.”

Most Germans, Steve explains, seem to “be blissfully unaware of their spiritual condition.” Apatheism [I don’t know if there is a God and I don’t care] is rampant. While some Germans seem open to ministry from English-speakers because it is outside of their normal cultural boundaries, many others relegate religious terms and activities as part of their cultural heritage without making the connection to their own need for salvation. They are happy to wear Luther sneakers or drink Reformation-inspired beer, but for them the Reformation is a historical event, having little practical or personal significance.

The irony of religious apathy in the cradle of the Reformation is not lost on some Germans. The headline of a recent article in a Saxon newspaper read: Kirchentag im Land der Gottlosen, “Church Day in the Land of the Godless.” Steve sees the disconnect. Wittenberg—site of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses and numerous church festival days—has a population of 45,000 but “acknowledges it has few Christians,” Steve explains. “Fewer than most anywhere else in Germany.”

The spiritual climate of the state Protestant church in Germany is not many degrees warmer than the culture around it, Steve said.

“Luther would be horrified by theological trends: abandonment of biblical authority, drifting from the solas of the Reformation, blending with the world’s priorities and precepts at almost every level.” Current Lutheran church theologians are faced with a dilemma on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation: how to honor Luther the man, when the state church no longer believes or teaches what he taught.

A GLIMMER OF LIGHT Despite the challenges of ministering in Germany, Jürgen, Scott, and Steve each see signs of hope. Surprisingly, a major opportunity for Christians in Germany has arisen because of the influx of immigrants, fugitives, and refugees. Jürgen explains, “Through the massive refugee crisis in the last two years, many Germans started to think about their spiritual roots and became interested in the Christian faith again. Furthermore, the international community in Germany is a lot more open and curious about the Christian faith. The Germans often stay away while the foreigners want to know more.”

A new Reformation is needed in Germany, one led not only by sound theological scholars, but also by Christians willing to welcome the alien and stranger in the name of Christ. It would be a fitting 500th anniversary gift for Germany’s most famous former fugitive—a man once declared a heretic and secreted away to safety in Wartburg Castle—a man by the name of Martin Luther.

Wartburg Castle Photograph courtesy of Paul T. McCain

STEVE SMITH (THM, 2012) is a freelance writer and a stay-at-home parent who rejoices in the value and sanctity of small things (giftofsmallthings.com). Because of his own toxic church background, he is passionate about freeing people from spiritually abusive environments through grace and truth (libertyforcaptives.com). Steve lives with his wife, Teresa (MACM, MABS, 2012), and two sons in Columbus, Ohio.

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ALUMNI CONNECTION In Memory Howard C. Kee (ThM, 1944) died on April 2, 2017. Howard served as a professor at several schools including Drew University in Madison, New Jersey; Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; and Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. Howard authored over twenty books on religious studies. He was editor of the Cambridge University Press Annotated Study Bible and the Cambridge Companion to the Bible.

An inveterate piano player, Howard served on the advisory board of the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Connecticut.

Bryan Burtch (ThM, 1951) passed away on June 7, 2017. Bryan and his wife, Shirley, were linguists and missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Peru, Colombia, Panama, and Aruba. Bryan translated the Murui Huitoto New Testament which was published in 1978. After retiring, he continued as a translation consultant.

Russell Jones (ThM, 1954) passed away on February 25, 2017. Russ served at Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska, for over thirty-five years as a professor, registrar, and librarian. After retirement, he pastored Immanuel Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. Russ also served as an interim pastor at other churches in Nebraska and Iowa.

Richard McNeely (ThM, 1954; ThD, 1963) passed away April 20, 2017.

Richard served in the US Navy and taught at Biola University and Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He pastored Springhill Presbyterian Church in Bozeman, Montana. He served as Presbyterian campus pastor at Montana State University in Bozeman and sang in the Bozeman Symphonic Choir. He earned his PhD from the University of Southern California in 1986.

James Reapsome (ThM, 1957) died on June 26, 2017. Jim had a passion for missions and journalism. He served as editor at the Sunday School Times in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and managing editor of Christianity Today. He founded the Evangelical Missions Quarterly and served as its editor for thirty-three years. He also taught at Malone College in Canton, Ohio; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois; and Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina. Jim also pastored Congregational Bible Church in Marietta, Pennsylvania, and Western Springs Baptist Church in Western Springs, Illinois.

Robert A. Peil (ThM, 1960) passed away on May 18, 2017. Bob served in the US Navy and taught in public schools. He served as treasurer, deacon, and adult Sunday School teacher at Immanuel Baptist Church in Syracuse, New York, for many years. He was involved with Youth for Christ and Bible Club Ministries.

David Winget (ThM, 1960) died on June 11, 2017. David served the Lord as a professor of systematic theology at Temple Baptist Theological Seminary in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for forty-six years. He also planted two churches and pastored two others.

Curtis Anderson (ThM, 1961) passed away on June 15, 2017. Curtis pastored Evangelical Free churches in Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska.

After retirement, Curtis continued to serve the Lord as an interim pastor in churches in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Georgia for the next several years. His passion throughout the course of his life was to know Christ and make him known.

David Drummond (ThM, 1968) died on March 14, 2017. David pastored in Austin and Round Rock, Texas.

John Edward Davis (ThM, 1964) passed away on August 3, 2017. Ed served in the Navy during the Korean War. He pastored churches in Danville, Iowa; Billings, Montana; and Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He enjoyed reading, Bible study, woodworking, and spending time with his family.

Steve Harthan (ThM, 1974; DMin, 1990) passed away on January 10, 2017. He worked in the library at DTS as the technical services librarian for almost ten years.

With a burden to help pastors learn how to communicate God’s truth effectively, Haddon taught preaching for nineteen years at DTS. A prolific writer, he wrote more than a dozen books, including his hallmark text, Biblical Preaching, still used by seminaries and Bible colleges around the world.

Despite the great demands on his time, his family always felt he put them first. Haddon is survived by Bonnie, his devoted wife of sixty-six years; his daughter, Vicki Hitzges, a motivational speaker; his son, Torrey Robinson, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Tarrytown, New York; Torrey’s wife, Sue; two grandsons, Carey William (and his wife, Lindsay) and Carl Haddon (and his wife, Joanna).

Go to dts.edu/magazine to read more about Haddon’s life and ministry.

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Mark Smith (ThM, 1966) passed away on July 21, 2017. Mark served in the Navy during World War II. He was an agent for the Reading Railroad/Conrail in Reading, Pennsylvania, for twenty-five years until his retirement.

Vern Chovan (ThM, 1964) passed away on Wednesday, March 15, 2017.

Vern was a US Navy veteran of World War II. He was also a licensed clinical social worker and a licensed marriage family therapist. He was committed to offering Christian counseling services to families, couples, and singles in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for over twenty-five years. Vern was a member of the Fort Wayne Track Club.

Haddon W. Robinson (ThM, 1955), former president of Denver Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, beloved teacher and former professor at DTS, and champion for biblical preaching, went to be with the Lord on July 22, 2017, after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s disease.

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Gerald B. Hall (ThM, 1965) died on March 7, 2017. Gerald served as the senior pastor in the National Evangelical Free Church and associate pastor in the Deerfield Evangelical Free Church in Deerfield, Illinois.

Upon his retirement, he became the regional missions representative for the EFC mid-Atlantic region and led many mission trips to the Czech Republic and to Slovakia.

Robert C. Rabe (ThM, 1968) passed away on April 5, 2017. Bob was a member of Gideons International Skagit Camp. He was dedicated to his faith in God and his Lord Jesus Christ. In later years, Bob’s main hobby was taking pictures of his family, friends, and Israel.

Anthony Barone (ThM, 1980) died on October 27, 2016. He was a teacher, preacher, and counselor for the Lord in the US and Canada. He ministered at Buffalo City Mission in New York.

Paul Reid (ThM, 1985) passed away on Wednesday, January 11, 2017.

Paul shared his love of the Lord by becoming a missionary and spreading God’s Word. Paul was an avid Philadelphia Eagles fan. He attended Cornerstone Baptist Church in Lucas, Texas.

Thomas Umlauf (ThM, 1985) died on July 13, 2017. Thomas worked as an engineer, pastor, and a businessman with his last full-time job running Superior Diesel in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. He was outgoing, gregarious, and passionately studied the Bible. Thom cherished his time with

his grandkids during his famous doughnut breakfast trips.

Bruce Titus (ThM, 1988) died on March 11, 2017. Bruce served as a youth pastor in Dallas and Fort Worth churches and as senior pastor at Copeland Christian Church in Kansas. He loved God and his Word and talking to people about God’s plan of salvation through Jesus.

Valerie “Corky” Downs (MABS, MACE, 1990) died on April 30, 2017.

Corky visited thirty-three countries, learned French and German, and volunteered at the White House during the Reagan administration.

She treasured her decade of mission trips to Poland with her husband, Spence, and loved hosting international students from the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana.

Mark Walton Jones (MACE, 1992) died on June 28, 2017. Mark loved leading, writing, and counseling those in need. He was the music and worship pastor at Trinity Bible Church in Richardson, Texas, and Millington Baptist Church in New Jersey.

Jason Ayers (1995–99) died on June 10, 2017. Jason served as the area director for Young Life in Houston, Texas. He later relocated to Indiana and united with Bethel A.M.E Church. Jason enjoyed working at True Barbers, his brother-in-law’s business, and sharing his knowledge of sports, politics, and religion. His greatest joy was encouraging others to reach their fullest potential.

Marilyn K. Sharp (MACE, 2008) passed away April 16, 2017. Marilyn was a legal secretary, teacher’s assistant, and a librarian at St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. She was involved in many ministries and outreach programs and was an active member of AlAnon.

Updates: 1950s Elmer Towns (ThM, 1958) taped a video course called Planting Reproducing Churches, which will be part of several ministry training schools.

He also wrote a book to describe the explosive growth of churches around the world.

1960s Bob Atkins (ThM, 1960) retired two years ago and lives with his wife, Anne, in Auburn, California, near their son Rob and his family. He served as the chaplain of the Covenant Village of Turlock, California, for fifteen years. He now spends his time exploring God’s Word leisurely and seeks to know Christ better.

Allan Stensvad (ThM, 1960) retired from pastoring First Baptist Church, Philomath, Oregon. He is returning to Brazil and will attend the 70th anniversary celebration of the denomination that grew out of the ministry of the Aliança das Igrejas Cristãs Evangélicas do Brasil (AICEB). In addition, the Lord opened the door for ministry in ten churches, in the São Luís area, Conceição do Araguaia, and São Félix do Xingu.

Winebrenner Theological Seminary announced the retirement of Dr. Gary Staats (ThM, 1967; ThD, 1971) as the Gale and Harriette Ritz Professor of Old Testament after eighteen years. Gary will continue his study of the Hebrew Scriptures through his audio Hebrew grammar from the Psalms.

Howard Eyrich (ThM, 1968) retired in May 2017 as pastor of counseling ministries at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. His career included serving as dean of men at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; church planter; senior pastor; professor of practical theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in Creve Coeur, Missouri; and president of Birmingham Theological Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama. He has authored three books and four booklets and coauthored two books.

1970s Charles Stoner (ThM,1970) and his wife, Vivian, visited Brazil for the Northern Evangelical Christian Mission of Brazil’s (MICEB) fifty-year celebration. Vivian served for thirty-eight years at MICEB. They celebrated with former missionary colleagues for God’s blessings.

In his church planting ministry in North India, Varughese Thankachen (STM, 1972; ThD, 1978) and his team oversee schools, an orphanage, and provisions such as drinking water, medicine, and clothes for the sick and needy. He rejoices for the Lord’s blessings despite severe opposition.

To help with the Hispanic residents of east Fort Worth, Craig (ThM, 1973; DMin, 1999) and Barbara Prather hold a Wednesday night Spanish Bible study with a few mothers who bring their children to the weekly dinner and family programs at their church.

At Nalja in Papua New Guinea, plans are progressing for the Lamb of Hope Christian School to start this year. Roger (ThM, 1974) and Suzanne Doriot report that high quality Christian education will make a difference for Nalja people in the future, and they will soon have reliable electricity and satellite internet in the area.

Bruce Eberline (ThM, 1974) recently retired and is enjoying living in Chicago, Illinois, close to his kids and grandkids.

Pictured above is Ron Roberts (ThM, 1975; DMin, 1985) and his wife, Inez.

They celebrated forty years of pastoral ministry at the Baldwin Hills Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California, this year. Former members of the church attended a banquet celebrating the faithfulness of God. John Hart (ThM, 1976) fully retired from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, after serving thirty-three years.

After helping strengthen tens of millions of marriages and families in over a hundred countries for more than four decades, Dennis Rainey (MABS, 1976) retired as president and CEO of FamilyLife, a ministry of Cru.

John Baab (ThM, 1977) retired from the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism after thirty-eight years of missionary work in Brazil. He and his wife, Yvonne, are settling in Calgary, Alberta.

During the summer break from teaching Spanish and Bible at Rio Grande Bible Institute, John (ThM, 1977) and Char Lotzgesell returned to Ecuador to visit and minister to the Quechuan believers.

Jeff Richards (ThM, 1978) returned to the Ukraine this year to teach classes on Christian discipleship at Kiev Regional Bible College.

Dave Fouts (ThM, 1979; ThD, 1991) published Right from the Start! Calling Evangelical Leadership to Faith in Genesis 1–2 (Courthouse Printers).

Bob (ThM, 1979) and Launa Petruccio planted Stonewater Fellowship in New Braunfels, Texas.

1980s Bill (ThM, 1980) and Bobbie Boggess rejoice in the new leadership of the Guyancourt church in France. Bill is scheduled to preach only a few more times before retirement. Two other missionary families are coming to work in the church.

Brad Brown (ThM, 1981) is currently working on a ventricular assist device within his field of medical device software engineering.

Former Alabama state senator Hank Erwin (MABS, 1981) was awarded the fifth annual Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP) Dan Ireland Salt and Light Award during their board meeting in Montgomery, Alabama.

Hank, who currently serves as a board member, was chosen for the award “for the way he has lived out Christ’s call for his followers to be salt and light in a decaying and dark world,” according to Joe Godfrey, ALCAP executive director.

Bill and Carol Frisbie of Leadersource joined Steve Smith (ThM, 1981) on the Ivory Coast to train over fifty students for two weeks using Becoming a Leader Like Jesus. The students ex-

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ALUMNI CONNECTION continued perienced God’s transforming work in and through them as they reported on their church planting internship experiences in villages.

Gary (ThM, 1982) and Terri Camlin celebrate twenty years of ministry in Portugal. During that time, they have seen over two-hundred students graduate from Portuguese Bible Institute and watched an entire generation of young people in the church grow to adulthood and continue to serve the Lord.

Gary Fredricks (ThM, 1982) was honored for his fifty years of serving with Cru at the biannual staff conference for Cru at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.

these translators to spend more time translating.

The faculty and students of NIITS were excited to receive their copies.

Imad Shehadeh (ThM, 1986; ThD, 1990) and his staff at JETS have published the book Understanding the Present Time and Preparing for the Time to Come. The book is a commentary on the book of Revelation and eschatological times. It has already witnessed a huge success of sales in several Arab countries. The second part will be published before the end of this year.

Vince Burke (MABS, 1991) and a student team from Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colorado, spent their summer in the Philippines feeding the poor, sharing the gospel through VBS, visiting children’s homes, and ministering to the lost people of Manila.

Mike (ThM, 1987) and Ann Wheeler co-taught a Crown Financial Concept course at their church in Bolivia this year. The study has been incredibly beneficial to those participating. Mike and Ann are praying for someone from the church to take over a second course since there are many requests to do it again.

Chaplain, Lt. Col. Dan Zulli (ThM, 1988) retired from the US Air Force in June 2017 after thirty years.

1990s Pictured above, Tom Doyle (MABS, 1983) his son, Tommy, visit DTS. Tom serves as vice president and Middle East director for e3 Partners. He recently spoke at “The Gospel and the Middle East: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Uttermost Parts” conference. Hosted in Dallas, Texas, this conference, featuring other DTS guest speakers, offers profound insight into the purpose and critical role Israel and her neighbors play in the unfolding of world events and global evangelism.

East-West Ministries International met with several large missions agencies and strategic churches in London to discuss how they can better collaborate to reach every nation, tribe, people, and language with the gospel. Kurt Nelson (ThM, 1984) looks forward to how God will use this time to launch an attack against the enemy in the spiritually darkest areas of the world.

Roman Hostetler (1986–88) reports the Vasui Old Testament translators received food support from their church in Papua New Guinea. Even though they do not have much money, the food offering made it possible for

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Bob Clark (MACE, 1991) completed his PhD in American Religious History in May 2017 at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.

Matthew (ThM, 1991) and Sylvie Glock are working on neighborhood outreach with the Paris City Project, a development of synergy between the assemblies to revitalize existing assemblies and plant new ones in Paris, France. They have received a positive reception and Matthew continues to seek God’s wisdom as they develop the team who will serve the people.

In partnership with Christar, Andrew Prout (ThM, 1999) plans to begin a new ministry working with refugees in Germany.

2000s

Since their many years of service at Adelaide College of Ministries, Deane (ThD, 1990) and Margaret Woods (pictured above) have spent their time ministering to the Jewish communities in Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and southeast Asia. Deane led a team of volunteers to work at Kaplan Medical Centre southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel, where the management and staff of the hospital were overjoyed for their help, opening up the door for the gospel.

During his trip to start the new academic year at the North India Institute of Theology, Sukhwant Bhatia (ThM, 1991) stopped in New Delhi to check the print-run of the second edition of the Hindi Study Bible. The first batch of 15,000 copies is being shipped to eleven locations within north India.

After seventeen years pastoring in local churches, Jonathan Alexander (ThM, 2001) was commissioned as an active duty US Navy chaplain. For the next three years, he will be serving the national capital region in the Coast Guard base in Washington, DC. As the international ministries directors of Africa, Lloyd (ThM, 2002) and Jan Chinn want to ensure that every mission that is under their care is nurtured and encouraged. They will be hosting an “All Africa Spiritual Renewal” event in Cape Town, South Africa, this year, complete with a full week of encouragement from God’s Word, childcare, fellowship, counseling, and entertainment.

All profits from the sales of Eldership Development: From Application to Affirmation (Floodlight Press) by Phil Taylor (ThM, 2002) support Derek Dominguez (MABS, 2003) who serves refugees in Europe.

Craig Thompson (ThM, 2002) is taking over as director of admissions for the International Graduate School of Leadership in Quezon City, Philippines. He will be leading their admissions team in evaluating, interviewing, and accepting approximately seventy-five new students to begin their studies in the next school year.

Amy (MACM, 2004) and David Sue lived in Indonesia for the first two years of their marriage working for Business as Mission. Now they live in Thailand and seek to help grow kingdom businesses that are strategically placed for societal transformation.

Adam Van Wart (MABC, 2004; ThM, 2006) recently completed his PhD in religious studies with an emphasis in systematic theology at SMU in Dallas, Texas. He will be joining the theology faculty at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida.

The East African Mobilization Network launched this year, connecting leaders in eastern Africa to build the mission’s capacity of individuals, ministries, and churches to the least reached in Africa and beyond. John Allert (MACE, 2005) and the Center for Mission Mobilization provided charter documents, scholarships for attendees, lodging, and venue. EAMN will seek to solve many of the issues the church in East Africa is facing.

Laci Kadar (ThM, 2007) started DMin courses at DTS this summer.

Jonathan Moorhead (PhD, 2008) published John Calvin and the Execution of Michael Servetus in the Czech language.

Kevin Nicholas (MABS, MACM, 2008) plans to publish Luke, Acts, and Matthew translations for the Notsi people of Papua New Guinea by the end of this year. This means they will have 60% of the New Testament ready for publication.

On his last trip to the mountains of Lebanon, Rob Lowe (MABS, 2009) met with his S-1group and completed their study in “The Christian Life.”

Each student had an opportunity to lead the rest of the group through a lesson topic. Most of these students have formed groups where they live,

fulfilling the goal of BEE World’s mission to train leaders so that they can train others in God’s Word.

Mandy Bagdanov (MABC, 2001), marriage coach, The Marriage Place, Richardson, Texas Nick Boeke (DMin, 2001), senior pastor, First Baptist Church of Durand, Durand, Michigan

2010s John Black (ThM, 2010) and his wife, Doro, welcomed their new baby girl, Yocheved Simcha, this year. Her name means the glory and joy of the Lord.

Candace Winslow (MACE, 2010) coauthored, Getting Me: The Secret to What Your Spouse Really Wants (BookBaby) with Gregg Medlyn. He approaches the topic of marriage from a psychological point of view while she brings a theological point of view.

Karen Katulka (MACE, 2010) served as editor.

Iglesia Cristiana Bíblica in Uruguay is now in their second year. The congregation gathers at Dirk Hinnenthal’s (ThM, 2012) house, and dozens of children from unchurched homes come each Sunday to get breakfast and learn God’s Word.

Grace Choi (CBTS, 2013) teaches piano at Greenville University in Greenville, Illinois.

Kyle Hughes (ThM, 2013) earned his PhD from Radbound University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, in June 2017 with a thesis entitled “The Trinitarian Testimony of the Spirit: Prosopological Exegesis and the Development of PreNicene Pneumatology.” He currently serves as the history department chair at Whitefield Academy outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

Luke Perkins (ThM, 2013) reports the graduation of forty-three students this year from STEP seminary in Port-auPrince, Haiti.

Peter Battaglia (ThM, 2016) has begun working toward a PhD in New Testament at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Lisa Bowe (ThM, 2016) will be teaching ancient literature, Old Testament, and theology in the upper school at Providence Classical Academy in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Pictured above, Marc Bratt (MBTS, 2016) poses next to DTS’s sign. He is an English, Bible, and Spanish teacher at Hope Mission in Canada. He was excited to visit DTS in Dallas this year after earning his degree.

Leon (ThM, 2016) and Lydia (MABC, 2016) Li welcomed their new baby boy, Ezra, this summer.

Marc-André Caron (ThM, 2017) serves as a part-time elder in formation at Église Évangélique de Chicoutimi and a part-time PhD student in New Testament studies at Université Laval in Canada.

Alias Eldhose (PhD, 2017) is excited to join the faculty of Asian Christian Academy in India to train future leaders and to serve Christ among a billion people in India who do not know Christ.

New Ministries

Mark Warrington (ThM, 2013), director, Baptist Student Ministry, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas Byron Bradshaw (ThM, 2014), senior pastor, Calvary Bible Church, Huntsville, Alabama

Joshua Kang (ThM, 2002), principal, Global Vision Christian School (Pennsylvania Campus), Scotland, Pennsylvania

Clement Woo (ThM, 2015), Cantonese pastor, Frisco Chinese Bible Church, Frisco, Texas

Dustin Yonkovich (ThM, 2005), children’s pastor, Lakeview Bible Church, Nampa, Idaho

Jon Zampatti (ThM, 2015), college pastor, Lighthouse Church, Richardson, Texas

Doug Horton (MABS, 2006), associate pastor, Harvest Bible Church, Cypress, Texas

Jeremy Adams (MACL, 2016), director of youth ministry, The Bible Chapel, McMurray, Pennsylvania

Kenny Reid (ThM, 2006), assistant professor of historical and systematic theology, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

David Willy (MACE, 2016), associate pastor, Grace Bible Church, Athens, Texas

Alyssa Highland (MABC, 2008), counselor/therapist, The Highland Practice, Dallas, Texas

Brady Blair (MABS, MACE, 2017), associate director, Baptist Student Ministry, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas

Jason Johnston (ThM, 2008), pastor, First Baptist Church of Vernal, Vernal, Utah

Chip Davidson (ThM, 2017), assistant pastor, Grace Bible Church on the Parkway, Ridgeland, Mississippi

Eric Dollyhigh (ThM, 2009), youth pastor, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Lucas, Texas

Randall Engleman (ThM, 2017), director of youth ministry, Katy Christian Community Church, Houston, Texas

Michael Hall (ThM, 1984), children’s minister, Live Oak Church, Navarre, Florida

Aaron Kraft (ThM, 2010), lead pastor, CrossWay Bible Church, Blue Springs, Missouri

Eric Mounts (ThM, 1985), pastor, Calvary Baptist Church, Covington, Kentucky

Nigel Kelly (ThM, 2011), senior pastor, Community Bible Chapel, Pleasanton, Texas

Jeff Gangel (ThM, 1987; DMin, 1999), senior pastor, Trinity Church, Marble Hill, Georgia

Jarod Walston (ThM, 2011), senior pastor, Chesterfield Bible Church, Chesterfield, Illinois

Dwight Walker (MACE, 1991), family pastor, Living Hope Church, Oregon City, Oregon

Tim Bresnahan (MABS, MACE, 2012), lead pastor, First Baptist Church of Duxbury, Duxbury, Massachusetts

Bob Beaver (ThM, 1992), senior pastor, Grand Canyon Community Church, Grand Canyon, Arizona

Matt Holland (MABS, MAMC, 2013), dean of students, Coram Deo Academy, Flower Mound, Texas

Nate Ardle (ThM, 1998), national director of online strategies, Cru, Orlando, Florida

Jeff Lederer (MABC, 2013), group life pastor, Central Christian Church, Wichita, Kansas

Matthew Gray (MACE, 2017), conference manager, Allaso Ranch, Hawkins, Texas Andrew Hebel (ThM, 2017), associate pastor, Faith Community Church, O’Neill, Nebraska Steven Knight (ThM, 2017), associate pastor of care and mobilization, Fellowship Bible Church of Waco, Waco, Texas Henry Ow (ThM, 2017), English Minister, Houston Chinese Church, Houston, Texas Kelvin Shen (MACL, 2017), Cantonese pastor, Dallas Chinese Bible Church, Richardson, Texas Douglas Willey (MACL, 2017), lead pastor, Monroe Evangelical Free Church, Phillips, Nebraska

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BOOKS & RESOURCES: FROM THE DTS FAMILY Judges: A Theological Commentary for Preachers (Cascade Books) Abraham Kuruvilla (ThM, 2002)*

The Swindoll Study Bible NLT (Tyndale) Charles R. Swindoll, chancellor*

This commentary unpacks the crucial link between Scripture and application: the theology of each preaching text, i.e., what the author is doing with what he is saying. Dr. Kuruvilla also shows the reader practical application for each section of the book. In each passage, he gives two possible preaching outlines to aid in teaching. The unique approach of this work results in a theology-for-preaching commentary that promises to be useful for teaching through Judges.

New resources from traditional publishers by members of the seminary family: Complete list at dts.edu/books Visit the DTS Bookcenter website online at bookcenter.dts.edu *Faculty member

Making Your Faith Worthwhile: How to Address Critical and Long-Standing Needs in View of God’s Unfailing Love and Faithfulness (WestBow Press) Olusoga Martins Akintunde (MACL, 2015) A Critical Examination of the Doctrine of Revelation in Evangelical Theology (Pickwick Publications) Carisa Ash (ThM, 2003; PhD, 2012)* Jude: Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Lexham Press) Herbert Bateman IV (ThM, 1987; PhD, 1993) Shepherd’s Notes: Revelation (Holman Christian Standard) Edwin Blum (ThM, 1961; ThD, 1968)

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Drawing from more than fifty years of ministry and thousands of hours of study, Dr. Swindoll adds his notes to the New Living Translation Bible. In his warm, practical style, the study Bible is full of Dr. Swindoll’s stories, applications, and illustrations. Included are Bible introductions, a Holy Land tour with photos and modern maps, a “Searching the Scriptures” section, and “Prayer Moments” asking God to live out his truth in our lives.

Each Bible also includes a free Bible app with all the content of the print version.

A Theology of Luke and Acts, a Video Study: 23 Lessons on Major Theological Themes (Zondervan) Darrell Bock (ThM, 1970)*

A Kid’s Guide to the Names of God (Harvest House Publishers) Tony Evans (ThM, 1976; ThD, 1982)

Making Sense of God’s Plan for Humanity: An Easy to Understand Guide to Dispensationalism (Dispensational Pub. House) Douglas Bozung (ThM, 1987)

Experience the Power of God’s Names: A Life-Giving Devotional (Harvest House Publishers) Tony Evans (ThM, 1976; ThD, 1982)

The Perception of Christianity as a Rational Religion in Singapore: A Missiological Analysis of Christian Conversion (Pickwick Publications) Clive Chin (PhD, 2002)

Kingdom Disciples: Heaven’s Representatives on Earth (Moody Publishers) Tony Evans (ThM, 1976; ThD, 1982)

Shepherd’s Notes: Isaiah (Holman Christian Standard) Paul Enns (ThM, 1973; ThD, 1979)

Top Ten Ways to Be a Great Leader (David C Cook) Hans Finzel (ThM, 1978) Liberate Your Praying Heart (Credo House Publishers) John Frye (ThM, 1975)

How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority (Zondervan) R. Clay Scroggins Jr. (ThM, 2006; DMin, 2013)

Why I Believe: Straight Answers to Honest Questions about God, the Bible, and Christianity (Baker Books) Chip Ingram (ThM, 1984) In our post-Christian, pluralistic society, responding to the perception that Christians are prejudiced and bigoted has become a greater challenge. The result is often intimidation, withdrawal, and even doubts among God’s people about what we really believe. In Why I Believe, Ingram gives compelling answers to questions about the resurrection of Christ, the evidence of an afterlife, the accuracy and intellectual feasibility of the Bible, the debate between creation and evolution, the historicity of Jesus, and more.

One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Great leaders don’t buy it. Great leaders lead with or without authority and learn to unleash their influence wherever they are.

With practical wisdom and humor, Clay Scroggins will help you nurture your vision and cultivate influence, even when you lack authority in your organization. And he will free you to become the great leader you want to be so you can make a difference right where you are—even when you’re not in charge.

Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible (Kregel) Sandra Glahn (ThM, 2001),* editor The Bible Unfiltered: Approaching Scripture on Its Own Terms (Lexham Press) Michael Heiser (1988–90) The Gospel Under Siege: Faith and Works in Tension [reprint] (Grace Evangelical Society) Zane Hodges (ThM, 1958)

The End of America?: Bible Prophecy and a Country in Crisis (Harvest House Publishers) Jeff Kinley (ThM, 1986) The Way to Brave: Shaping a David Faith for a Goliath World (Moody Publishers) Andy McQuitty (ThM, 1985; DMin, 1997) Worn Out by Obedience (Moody Publishers) Ron Moore (ThM, 1985; DMin, 2000)

A Placed Called Heaven: 10 Surprising Truths about Your Eternal Home (Baker Books) Robert Jeffress (ThM, 1981)

End-Times Super Trends: A Political, Economic, and Cultural Forecast of the Prophetic Future (Harvest House Publishers) Ron Rhodes (ThM, 1983; ThD, 1986)

Is This the End?: Signs of God’s Providence in a Disturbing New World (Thomas Nelson) David Jeremiah (ThM, 1967)

Paul as Pastor (Bloomsbury T & T Clark) Brian Rosner (ThM, 1988), Andrew Malone, and Trevor Burke

Known by God: A Biblical Theology of Personal Identity (Zondervan) Brian Rosner (ThM, 1988) and Jonathan Lunde Resurrecting the Trinity: A Plea to Recover the Wonder and Meaning of the Triune God (Weaver Book Company) M. James Sawyer (ThM, 1978; PhD, 1987) Swindoll’s Living Insight New Testament Commentary: Insights on Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (Tyndale House Publishers) Charles Swindoll, chancellor*

Prayers for Freedom Over Worry and Anxiety (Harvest House Publishers) Bruce Wilkinson (ThM, 1974) Allegorical Spectrum of the Parables of Jesus (Wipf and Stock) Suk Kwan Wong (PhD, 2016) Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus: A Window into Early Christian Reading Practices (Fortress Press) Brian Wright (ThM, 2010)

Searching the Scriptures: Find the Nourishment Your Soul Needs (Tyndale House Publishers) Charles Swindoll, chancellor*

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Q& A The Priesthood of All Believers and Its Impact on the Church

Sometime between 1517 and 1521, Martin Luther found himself at the center of a growing conflict that led to his excommunication and definitive break with the Church of Rome. During these years, Luther set forth—what later scholars referred to as—the principles of the Reformation. These include the authority and supremacy of Scripture and justification by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.

Another debated principle during the Reformation was the priesthood of all believers. Luther argued that those who belong to Christ share in his priesthood and belong “truly to the spiritual estate.”

To understand more about Luther’s position, we spoke with research professor of theological studies, senior professor of systematic theology, Dr. J. Lanier Burns about the context in which all of this arose.

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with Dr. J. Lanier Burns DTS Magazine: What does the “priesthood of all believers” have to do with the Reformation? Why was Luther arguing this principle?

Dr. Burns: The “priesthood of all believers” was a foundational principle of the Reformation. It meant that believers had direct access to God through the Word and prayer, contrary to the sacramental mediations of Roman Catholicism.

The sacrament of “Holy Orders” permanently bestowed authority to administer the sacraments, to formulate teaching, and to govern the church.

In other words, “Holy Orders” is for ordained priests [the clergy] only in Romanism. This means laypeople must encounter God through the sacraments as mediated by the clergy. In theory the Catholic Church mediates all grace through the sacraments to believers. People could only be “justified”—made righteous in Catholicism—by the sacrament, which was manipulated by the “ordained” to include ordinances to raise money for projects like St. Peter’s Cathedral.

Dr. Burns: From church polity the principle expanded into social politics in colonial New England. The Puritans’ “democratic spirituality” was linked with religious freedom by Baptist Roger Williams, Congregationalist Thomas Hooker, and Quaker William Penn. This linkage, in turn, contributed to the separation of church and state, which was traceable as well to Luther’s doctrine of two kingdoms, secular and ecclesial.

In Martin Luther’s time, Roman Catholic leadership had become morally corrupted to the point that indulgences were sold for the remission of sins. Using Romans 1, Luther argued that all believers are under the High Priest, so individuals became responsible for their salvation and spiritual life in the community of the church.

A significant problem was that “the priesthood” mutated into a highly individualized emphasis in the nineteenth century, a view that easily slipped into private judgments about truth. Martin Luther along with other Reformers, on the contrary, advocated a “priesthood of all believers,” a shared communitarian worship of God and ministry to fellow believers. Their intent was for congregations to mutually celebrate God’s presence in worship, prayer, and fellowship.

In his “Address to the Nobility of the German Nation” (1520), Luther asserted that all believers are priests under Jesus Christ, the High Priest. He cited several passages for support. “You are royal priests, a holy nation; God’s very own possession” [1 Pet 2:9]. “With your blood you have made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God” [Rev 5:10]. “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Jesus Christ” [1 Tim 2:5].

Protestants generally believe in a “universal” body of Christ (believers), while Catholics hold that the universal church is the physical Catholic Church.

DTS Magazine: Why was this important for a believer to understand?

Dr. Burns: Luther’s point was that all believers are responsible for their relationship with Christ in the Spirit. The difference between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism on ordination is one “of essence and not only in degree.” Luther argued that as we are saved by faith in Christ, so we are free to serve him in a sort of middle-way of reduced hierarchy. By the same token, he distinguished this “priesthood” from church leadership. The Augsburg Confession (1530) explains this with the following disclaimers: Article 7: “What the Church Is: The Church is the gathering of all believers, in which the gospel is purely preached and the holy sacraments are properly administered.”

Article 14: “This is what our churches teach about church order. No one should teach publicly in the church or administer sacraments unless he has been called in a proper and normal way.”

In other words, believers were free to practice their spirituality within the guidelines of leadership. Reformed churches—namely, the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Brethren, among others—generally agreed with the principle and practiced various forms of representative polity. DTS has been a significant beneficiary of the principle with its emphasis on personal Bible study and spirituality.

DTS Magazine: How did it impact the rest of society and the church?

The Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglo-Catholic, and Lutheran traditions have maintained allegiance to the sacramental roles of the ordained clergy. The Second Vatican Council’s Lumen Gentium accepted “the priesthood of all baptized members” in terms of personal spirituality, but it retained sacramental orders for ministerial responsibilities “in apostolic succession.” The Protestants, on the other hand, generally practice open communion for all believers, which is contrary to Roman Catholicism.

DTS Magazine: Why is this important for us now? How should it change how we live?

Dr. Burns: The Protestant understanding of the “priesthood of all believers” is important for us today for two main reasons: First, the “priesthood of all believers” means we have direct access to God’s grace and mercy, power and presence, through the one Mediator, Jesus Christ.

We can “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” [Heb 4:16] and “we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus” [10:19]. We don’t have to go through an obstacle course of rites and rituals or appeal to a priest or prophet to intercede for us. Our God is just a prayer away.

Second, the “priesthood of all believers” means that we are called to be priests for one another, all of us and each of us. Every believer has a calling to minister to his or her fellow believers, praying for them, encouraging them, helping them grow in Christ. Right on the heels of the previous verse, the author of Hebrews adds, “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” [Heb 10:24–25]. Understanding of the priesthood of all believers will help us to rightly relate to God, and to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The “priesthood of all believers” has been a foundational distinctive for Protestant traditions. It was an important outgrowth of salvation by grace through faith in Christ’s accomplishment for atonement for sin. Believers with an open Bible and a prayerful heart can study God’s truth. It frees them for daily servant-leadership in the body of Christ and in our desperately needy world.

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2017–2018 DTS STUDENT COUNCIL

Left to right: Karlos Lyons (vice president of student affairs), Mary Kate Barthel (vice president of academic affairs), Duncan Perry (vice president of advancement), Jurrita Williams (president), Joshua Bitu Das (vice president of business and finance), Sucely de León (vice president of operations), Vikram Pimplekar (spiritual life board president).

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ince DTS’s early years, an organization has been in place to lead, serve, and represent the student body.

The first student organization— the Student Association of the Evangelical Theological College—held their first meeting on January 30, 1925. Three decades later, the name changed to DTS Student Council.

In 2011, the student council officer titles changed to mirror the seminary’s executive leadership team. Since then, student council members meet with their respective counterparts to dialogue on making the student experience the best it can be. Student council members also regularly meet with students to listen and pursue addressing potential issues. One of their vital roles

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is to communicate the needs of students to Student Life.

Dr. George Hillman, VP of student life and dean of students commented, “I see my relationship with DTS Student Council as a two-way street, both in hearing from students and in increasing our visibility as a division of Student Life among all students. Our council reflects the pulse of our student body. Their role is to help me learn the needs on campus among all of our vast variety of students—on and off campus, men and women, married and single, all races and nationalities, all degree plans, and so on.”

This year’s student council members have set their objectives in motion. “Our primary goal is to help every student

enjoy God to the full, in community, for the duration of their seminary tenure and assist them in experiencing a holistic journey to graduation,” Jurrita Williams, student council president, explained.

The student council’s goals include fostering community, raising student involvement in student groups, engaging others and initiating forums via student chapels that will cover topics such as racial awareness, harmony, and diversity.

Jurrita elaborated, “We hope to cultivate a multicultural community at DTS—learning to love others in our ministries— and dig into God’s Word, have fun, serve whole-heartedly, and grow spiritually together as we prepare for God’s plan

for our future. It’s our hope to unite and care for the body of students by praying for God’s strength in aiding us to actualize some of our goals.”

Throughout the semesters, student council will run events such as Kick Back Thursdays, forums, a fall festival, and a spring fling. They also help organize and run several chapels throughout the school year.

“We’re trying to build a community at DTS that is vibrant,” Hillman said. “The richness of having a diverse student council allows for us to listen to a wider voice. We need to hear from all of our students, and we need to be responsive to the needs in what we provide.”

F R O M T H E C H A N C E L LO R

Ask Dr. Swindoll DR. CHARLES R. SWINDOLL

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everal times a year, Dr. Swindoll preaches in chapel at DTS and engages in a question-and-answer time with prospective students. Here are some of the questions he answered recently.

Why did you choose DTS? I chose DTS because I had been influenced by several individuals in my early walk with Christ and to my amazement, at that time, they all studied here. There were also books I had read, written by professors and pastors who had studied here.

Cynthia and I had also attended a conference or two and the speaker who spoke and connected with us most significantly was, again, a DTS grad. They all had the same characteristic—they all had different personalities, but they all found the source of their message from Scripture. Although they could have carried the message with their personalities, they did not rely on themselves. They turned everyone’s attention to the Bible. I think that’s very important and very rare in this day in which we live.

Do you think it’s possible for a person to lead on their own? Are relationships that important for reformation and change?

Leaders need others. They need people—especially those who don’t mind working inconspicuously. Take Martin Luther for instance. Behind his massive personality, hidden from public view, was a real hero—an intellectual of the Reformation. To this day, most Christians don’t know his name, let alone know how to spell it.

Philip Melanchthon worked quietly alongside his friend Martin Luther. Melanchthon exerted the most powerful influence over Luther when the spokesman carried the torch and shook it in the face of the Pope.

Did you know Melanchthon pioneered the first Protestant edition of systematic theology? He was the genius of the educational systems of Europe and is known as “the father of modern scholarship.” During his generation, his knowledge

of the New Testament Greek was unsurpassed by any scholar in all of Europe. Luther needed such a friend! He consulted Melanchthon on difficult passages of Scripture so often, Luther’s translation was more a team effort rather than an individual achievement.

While Luther had passion, grit, and explosive strength, Melanchthon, on the other hand, had clarity of thought, tact, and gentleness. Luther empowered his quiet friend while Melanchthon calmed Luther.

Luther held on to his friend. “Master Philip,” he wrote, “comes along gently and softly, sowing and watering with joy, according to the gifts which God has abundantly bestowed upon him.”

It took Luther to entrust the Reformation to the people. But by his gracious moderation, his placid love of order, his profound and indisputable scholarship, Melanchthon won the support of the scholarly.

Melanchthon, of course, pronounced the eulogy over Luther’s tomb when he died. A few short years later, the scholar’s body was lowered alongside Luther’s grave. They now rest side by side at Wittenberg in the old Castle Church.

Leaders can’t do it alone. They need support. They need those who will quietly encourage them especially when the journey gets tough.

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Luther empowered his quiet friend while Melanchthon calmed Luther.

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