Friends, my columns often showcase words. May I ask you to indulge me in a personal story – how did I come to love Biblical Greek and Hebrew?
Graduating from college, I had a BA with a major in Psychology and a minor in English Literature. Being a pastor never entered my mind.
However, God shepherded me, giving me the faith I needed to overcome real fears of public speaking and more.
My first seminary honored Scripture – requiring a year of Hebrew and Greek. But, this Baptist Seminary did their job very well – so well, I counterintuitively realized that the weight of Scripture promoted Presbyterian government and a Presbyterian view of the sacraments. Good enough.
Transferring to Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, I found I’d need to learn a year of Greek before classes started in the fall.
Married May 29, June and July I grubstaked our getting started in St. Louis. Devoting hot/humid August to learning a year of Greek, I used three self-instructing books. Diligent labor meant I could complete ten pages/hour. Working six days a week, if I did 100 pages a day, I’d complete the books. The cost of precious Greek language understanding, steep!
Finally, I took the test. Gut-punch! I thought I’d failed. I felt so low. I assumed now Via and I would need to stay in St. Louis an extra year. On the test I took after the Greek exam – a personality test, I told people I scored zero personality!
But, friends, I got a C on the Greek test! What a sweet C!
And I had a stellar Greek prof. Likewise, my Hebrew prof taught me very well. They showed us errors in the texts – primarily spelling or copying errors. We discussed the few substantial text differences. All this gave me confidence in the trustworthiness of Scripture.
After graduating, a church in the South – Greenville, SC, called this Westerner! Ordained in 1978, here is my first ordination vow: “Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as originally given” (that is, in Hebrew and Greek, without copying errors) “to be the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice?”
Forty-five years later, after intense examination of Scripture, I am in awe of this sturdy, trustworthy, inspiring gift given to us by the Holy Spirit.
From time to time, critics ask: “Why study ancient languages, ancient books?” Defining such relics as useless in their “modern” or “deconstructed” world, they insinuate studying antiquities wastes time. Instead, they may substitute devotion to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Tasting from the fount of alleged evolution, nearly everyone assumes what is new must be better than the old.
Thus, by chronological snobbery, we cancel 93% of people – those who have lived before us. More devastatingly, we set aside Jesus’ high view of Scripture and the unique leadership the Holy Spirit gave the authors.
Now, let’s switch our object of attention to hear from Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933). When Via and I honeymooned in 1976, we read his classic: “The Other Wise Man” (1895). At our 1984 SC church Christmas dinner, I read from another rollicking classic, “The First Christmas Tree” (1924). Friend, please add his books to your reading list.
In 1918, during the throes of WW1, Van Dyke wrote “The Valley of Vision.” Listen in on the debate between Hardman, modernity’s proponent, and Devries, a classics professor.
Hardman: “I don’t profess to admire or defend German thought. But nobody can deny its utility for the things that it teaches. You can learn more science from half a dozen recent German books than from a whole library of Latin and Greek.”
DeVries: “Germany has been living for fifty years with a closed mind. Oh, it was an active mind, scientific, laborious. Sure of its own superiority, it took no counsel with antiquity and scorned its neighbors. Intent on producing something entirely new and all its own—a purely German Kultur – it fell into bad habits and brought infinite trouble upon the world.”
Hardman: “And do you claim that this would have been prevented by reading the classics? Would that have been the efficient cure for Germany’s disease? The classics are luxuries, not necessities. They have nothing to tell us about the things we most need to know.”
DeVries: “I regard the intelligent reading of the Bible and the vital apprehension of the real spirit of Christianity as the best of all cures for mental and moral ills. Regarding Greek and Roman classics, George Meredith says: ‘Before you can civilize a man, you must first de-barbarize him.’ German leaders and masters have never gotten rid of their fundamental barbarism, the idolatry of might above right. And so, the German Empire became a predatory state, scornful of the rights of smaller peoples, oppressing them when subjugated.”
Now, friends, change gears and add another character, Dick. Hearing the arguments above, and more, Dick chose to fight in the Great War and paid the ultimate cost.
Van Dyke’s conclusion is powerful.
“DeVries talked quietly and naturally about Dick’s death with Hardman. ‘Yes,’ DeVries said. ‘I am going to be lonely, but I am not forsaken, always proud of my boy. Would you like to see his last letter? At the end Dick wrote: ‘Uncle, I know that we are fighting for a good cause: justice, freedom, and a world made clean from beastly German militarism. I certainly would give up my life to defend life according to the will of God. Sleep well. Your loving nephew and son, Dick.’”
Friends, these deep thoughts are worthy thoughts. Although from a bygone era, like Scripture, Van Dyke challenges us to deeper loyalty.
In your war with the world, the flesh and the devil, embrace your greatest Ally, the Word made flesh, Jesus. His sacrificial love defines ultimate reality. Now, he welcomes from all eras many sons and daughters – those eager to do God’s will. May he be your born-again birthright and they your multi-generational stalwart companions!
