Journal: Chafer Theological Seminary Journal
Volume: CTSJ 01:3 (Winter 1995)
Article: The High Road
Author: George E. Meisinger

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CTSJ 1:3 (Winter 1995) p. 2

The High Road

George E. Meisinger

One cannot become an expository preacher apart from a firm grounding in the original languages of Scripture. He must also add to that grounding a comprehensive working knowledge of the Old and New Testaments and Systematic Theology. Only the student who has a complete introduction to the Bible and a thorough schooling in hermeneutics (the laws of biblical interpretation) will succeed. He must furthermore have the attitude that God calls him to give the rest of his life to diligent study of the text itself. The responsibility to prepare is very high and the most thorough preparation — which the potential preacher and teacher may only acquire over a lifetime of study and ministry — can possibly equip a man to be a worthy expositor of the riches of Scripture.

Chafer Theological Seminary commits itself to the noble goal of preparing men to be such expositors.

It is true that some men by untiring research and study have become extraordinary teachers and theologians without the original languages of Scripture (Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic). Even they, however, would have been better with the languages. Clear-sighted and godly men of the past have stated that five years of Greek and four of Hebrew help provide the necessary foundation.1

Along with that indispensable training, the student requires a thorough grounding in Systematic Theology — not any Systematic Theology, but a theology permeated by grace. We are to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. These things are necessary if the student, then pastor and teacher, is to invest his professional life profitably and independently without being enslaved to commentaries. This basic grounding is also necessary if the pastor is to analyze and synthesize the Word accurately for its instruction and spiritual values. We assume, of course, that the student himself walks in the Spirit and in the light.

CTSJ 1:3 (Winter 1995) p. 3

We live in a day and age when many Christian circles frown upon academics. Experience shows that the darker the frown, the greater the inability to teach and preach the Word itself. The tragic consequences are untaught sheep, unstable believers, and dreadful inner vacuums of the soul that absorb every Christian fad regardless of its deviations from sound doctrine. Christians cannot have it two ways: They will either (1) lack discipline in the pursuit of biblical academic excellence, or (2) grow strong and stable displaying a walk that remains fruitful to the end. “Two” will only happen when a person reverses “one.”

Acknowledging this inescapable fact of ministry, CTS gives it...

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