perience with Christ is just as valid as anyone else’s experience with Him. This leaves us with no norm or stand ard by which we can judge spiritual experiences. No wonder there has been confusion in some so-called Christian circles. We are told not to believe every spirit but to try the spirits.. In other words, we must gauge our experiences with the Word of God. It should be understood that we don’t worship the Bible as such. Scripture presents Jesus Christ ab solutely without error both in His person and in His work. Because of this, we can trust implicitly in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. This is the new birth whereby we become children of God. To miss see ing Him in the Old Testament is to miss the entire point of those 39 books. In the Old Testament, Christ is seen in prophecy; in the Gospels, He is seen in history; in the Epistles, He is seen in glory. The Saviour is presented in all of His beauty and fullness throughout the Word of God, beginning in Genesis with the grand consummation in the book of the Revelation. In Genesis, we find the origin of man, in Revelation, his ulti mate destiny; in Genesis, the origin of sin, in Revelation, the end of sin; in Genesis, all things began, in Rev elation, all things find their destina tion; in Genesis, the first marriage, in Revelation, the last marriage; in Genesis, Babylon the rebel city was built, in Revelation, Babylon the harlot system, will be destroyed; in Genesis, judgment was pronounced upon Satan, in Revelation, judgment will be executed upon Satan; in Genesis, man fell, in Revelation, man will be lifted up; in Genesis, we find the tree of death, in Revelation, the tree of life; in Genesis, man was ex pelled from the garden, in Revelation, man will find an abundant entrance into the city of God; in Genesis, man lost fellowship with God, in Revelation, man will find a new eter- 6
nal relationship with God; in Gene sis, man lost paradise, in Revelation, man finds the new paradise; in Genesis, man lost peace with God, in Revelation, man finds the new peace with God; in Genesis, the be ginning of the nations, in Revela tion, the end of the nations; in Gene sis, the beginning of this world, in Revelation, this world is destroyed and the new world is set up. Many other truths are presented helpfully for our admonition and spiritual nur ture. Such doctrines become our creed, of which the Latin meaning is “I believe.” These are some of the great truths which we here at Biola not only be lieve, but also teach in our class rooms. Because of the importance of these doctrinal truths, and because of the centrality of the Word of God in our thinking, we require every one of our 1,450 students to take 30 units of Bible and doctrine, regard less of the major that he has chosen. For those not familiar with a unit of college credit, this represents the fact that a student must study a particular subject one hour a week for 18 weeks (including his final examination week). To put it anoth er way, we’re so convinced of the value and centrality of the Word of God that whereas the average Chris tian liberal arts college requires 6 to 10 units of Bible in the course of a student’s four-year undergraduate program, we at Biola require each student take a minimum of 30 units of Bible. (In the case of a Bible major, the student must take 40 units of Bible.) We want our students to be experts in the Word of God. The purpose is that regardless where they go or what they do as a pro fession, they’ll be able to teach oth ers also the eternal truths of God’s Word, in which they themselves were instructed while students here. We believe it is vital that everyone have such a firm foundation. This is true not only for those who go into what
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