What I have to say will not take long. In this brief article I want to offer some comments concerning Florida College in regards to its Bible curriculum. There are some brethren among us who would close down the school tomorrow if they could have their way, simply because they do not think it has the right to teach the Bible. Some of these brethren are young preachers who went to F.C., reaped all the benefits the school had to offer, and now they are "kicking it in the teeth" after having gotten out.

The Bible Department at F.C. is most desirable and advantageous. It provides students with the opportunity to study the Bible. What could be more profitable than to study about God and the Lord Jesus Christ? Solomon said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7). Furthermore, it offers Bible related topics, such as Greek, Textual Criticism, Evidences, Hermeneutics, Religious Dogmas, etc. My mother and dad did not know much about these things, so they needed some help from those who did. Hence, they shipped me off to F.C. Where I grew up, in the hills of eastern Kentucky, if . someone had mentioned hermeneutics, all of us would probably have thought that he was talking about some kind of rare crop blight.

These brethren who are bemoaning the Bible being taught at F.C. because it is a human institution need to throw away all of their religious books, including their Bibles. Their books and Bibles were published by such companies as Erdman, Baker, Zondervan, Nelson, Oxford, etc., which are human organizations. If F.C. cannot sell services, neither may these other institutions. What is the difference between attending F.C. and studying the prophets under Homer Hailey, than buying his book on the minor prophets from Baker Book House and studying at home? Either way you go at it you are buying the services of a human institution.

Consider the number of churches that are depending upon publishing companies for their class literature. I do not hear these brethren that are harping about the Bible college saying anything against the publishing firms. If taking advantage of the Bible courses offered at F.C. is self-admission that the local church is inadequate, as some say, then what does dependence on human organizations for class material show? Individuals studying the Bible at F.C. no more nullifies the all-sufficiency of the church than does a congregation using literature from human institutions.

If the Bible may not be taught at F.C., what are the science teachers to say about evolution in regards to the belief of Christians? They cannot quote Gen. 1:1 because that is Scripture, and F.C. cannot teach the Scriptures. The library at F.C. cannot stock religious books because that makes it furnishing Bible teaching. The more one thinks about the matter the more preposterous the whole idea becomes that F.C. may not teach the word of God. I think some of this opposition to the college is that someone has a "burr in his craw" and he must constantly be "burping" about the school.

We might also add that the anti-Bible college brethren do not hesitate to use the religious journals to vent their feelings against the school. It is rather strange that they can use a human arrangement or corporation to teach that F.C., which is a human corporation, cannot do what they, themselves, do. They use a human corporation to teach the Bible on various topics, but they condemn F.C. for using a similar set-up to teach the Bible. Some consistency! And, I might further say, that the church, nor the home, is dependent for its existence upon the religious journal or the Bible school, but both paper and school have a right to operate.

Brethren, Florida College should have a thousand students enrolled, despite the "bad-mouthing" it is receiving from the disenchanted. It is time more of us got behind the school and give it the moral and financial support it deserves.

Truth Magazine, XVIII:4, p. 13-14
November 22, 1973