Some people try to put God in a box. In this episode, I try to put him in a bucket. Listen all the way through, and you'll figure out what I mean.

I’m sharing this episode, not just because I’m not a young earth creationist and want to explain why. It’s really more than that. I think this issue has become needlessly divisive among certain Christian tribes in the United States—my tribe included.

NOTES:

I highly recommend John Lennox's book Seven Days That Divide the World.

In 2006, Calvinism was making a comeback. Evangelicalism was buzzing, and Christianity Today gave the moment a name: “Young, Restless, and Reformed.” Southern Seminary was given the label “ground zero.”

I was there—fresh PhD, junior faculty member, associate dean, newly minted Vice President for Communications. I had a book contract, expanding opportunities, and a front-row seat to the resurgence.

But over time, Calvinism lost its appeal. I found it increasingly difficult to use in making sense of the Bible. Like when a restaurant turns down the lights and turns up the ambient music, it became a struggle to read the text and hear the over-arching message. This episode is why I left T.U.L.I.P. in the dust.

SHOW NOTES:

Christianity Today article "Young, Resltess, and Reformed": https://www.christianitytoday.com/magazine/2006/september/

Book "Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists": https://www.amazon.com/Young-Restless-Reformed-Collin-Hansen/dp/1581349408

New York Times Article (though late - still analyzes the same movement): https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/us/a-calvinist-revival-for-evangelicals.html

Did you know one of the most influential figures in American fundamentalism was a con artist who ditched his family, did time in jail, and then got rich selling a study Bible?

In this episode, I get personal—sharing about my own years in Bible college and how I was shaped by a system built on shaky foundations. I expose the scandal behind the Scofield Study Bible, a book that quietly molded the curriculum of countless Christian colleges through its connection to C. I. Scofield. And I lay out five reasons why I’m deliberately trying not to be a fundamentalist anymore.

Show Notes:

Kansas gov website with reference to Scofield: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ks/history

Article with overview of Scofield: https://www.acton.org/religion-liberty/volume-35-number-2/ci-scofield-gods-self-made-man

Overview of influence of the Scofield Reference Bible: https://textandcanon.org/the-bestselling-reference-bible-that-remade-american-evangelicalism/

Academic thesis on Scofield: https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2571&context=etd

From the conclusion of the thesis: "This thesis reveals that C. I. Scofield’s claim to be a decorated Confederate hero, a successful lawyer, and a Bible scholar merely reflected a reputation he sought after his political and personal ruin in Atchison, Kansas in 1873. C. I. Scofield used opportunity, confidence, and the good will of others to disguise an unrepentant ambition for recognition as a professional minister. Reverend Scofield’s claim of being a decorated veteran, successful lawyer, or Bible scholar each seem less than compelling individually, but considered together as part of his life story reveals the complex nature of the man and his theology."

https://pcusa.org/news-storytelling/blogs/historical-society-blog/beginnings-fundamentalism

Lyman Stewart and gift to Scofield's Bible project and he and his brother's funding of The Fundamentals of the Faith. This connection doesn't demonstrate anything sinister or unethical, but rather shows the close connection between Scofiled's views and the coining of the term "fundamentalist." Scofield is one of sixty-four authors of the articles in The Fundamentals of the Faith.