What goes on with bible scholars and in bible college is the problem. Most study man's thoughts and they can be a distortion. To learn of God, all the input in learning of God has to come from God. Ever since Constantine had the council decide about God's ways and put them under the state, saying they could make decisions about God and saying those decisions came from the holy spirit instead of men, there has been a distortion.
Just since God has been working with people, since about the 40's when prophecies began to come true, there have been people who only use God to teach about God. But they included the old testament, and some went overboard in that. The bible scholars and bible schools have fought them. It is called the roots movement calling the old testament the roots and the hue and cry is intense.
Bible schools and scholars base their studies on that Christ made everything new. The Lord tells us He is eternal, all His word is truth, that God does not change. God gave rules in stone before Christ, after Christ God spoke directly to our hearts, a better way. But the rules did not change. They just come to us with more accuracy.
I suppose Scholar can be a loose term unless defined for the conversation.
Here are a few definitions I found:
Biblical scholars usually try to interpret a particular text within its original historical context and use whatever information is available to reconstruct that setting. Historical criticism aims to determine the provenance, authorship, and process by which ancient texts were composed.
Gee, that doesn't sound so bad!
Here is another:
In secular academic circles,
Biblical scholars are folks at accredited institutions who do research related to
Biblical literature and cultures, including archaeologists, linguists, historians, sociologists, and literary critics.
And another:
What is a Bible scholar?
A scholar is one who has distinguished himself in a particular field of study. So, a Bible scholar is one who has studied the Bible in some sort of advanced, presumably academic sense, doing research to better understand its deeper meanings and contexts. There are many opportunities for any person to study the Bible, and as a believer in Christ, we should all be students of the Word of God (Acts 17:11).
a Bible scholar studies for the more singular purpose of clarifying what the Bible says. Many seminaries have separate departments for each of these positions: a "Pastoral Studies" department, a "Theological Studies" department, and a "Biblical Studies" department.
Bible scholars, and all Christians, should be able to apply their biblical knowledge to life and ministry.
Dictionary:
1) a specialist in a particular branch of study, especially the humanities; a distinguished academic.
"a Hebrew scholar"
2) A student who has been awarded a scholarship
So what goes on with Bible Scholars and Bible Colleges is that they desire to study the Word and understand it in it's original context and intended meaning. Not a bad idea. As a matter of fact we should all give bible college a chance in our lives, it would clear up most of the confusion posted on CC.
People who have not gone to bible college should not comment on what goes on in bible colleges or what is wrong with them. People who have attended and completed a class have a valid opinion on what was wrong or right about that class.
I know that this is all painfully obvious but I just wanted to bring to light how immature it sounds when people accuse bible colleges of being some kind of evil attempt to indoctrinate you with false teachings or make you not believe the inspiration of the bible. Those are called LIBERAL bible colleges and you should specify such rather than malign all bible colleges or scholars as being something "other than" learning the Word of God which is what most of them are all about.
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