The Ohio Independent Baptist, December 1955

a e 1\ nty,______ _ _ THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST December 1955 CEDARVILLE COLLEGE (A Baptist College of Liberal Arts ) CEDARVILLE, A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, BY THE GRACE OF GOD Tlll't'C are more tha n three hun– dred eh ure h re la tcd liberal art l'Ollen·e ' in the United tatc . 'L'ltouo·h they ,rer c c ' ta blished by Uod-fraring people mo t of them han strayed a long cli ·tance from the Plll'l10 ' l' of their founder . Chri'lianily out of th e (J 11 estion 'l'o ' ho\\· J10 \\' far the e college haYe departed from t heir original ' tand for the faith, we hall make t,rn quotation which tand out in direct contrast. Read the history of IIarYard and yo u ,rill di cover that it ,ra ·'founded in Ch?-isti (}loriam and later dedicated Chris– to ct Eccl esiae. H er pr e idents and tu tors in i tcd that ther e co uld be 110 trn e kno\\·ledge or wisdom with– out Chri t. Iler founders dreaded · to leave an illiterate ministry to the chu rche ; ' and but fo r the pas- ioua tely incer e r eligion of these Puritan , there \\'Ould have been no llanard. '' 1 Thi statement re– minds u of many sound Christian colleges today. H ar vard, and most other great schools in our Jand too, wer e founded to provide the chur ches with a trained ministry. ~ow listen to this quotation from the Ilanarcl r eport of 19-!3 on gen– eral education: '' The convi ction that Chri tianity gives meaning and ultimate unity to all parts of the curriculum, indeed to the whole life of the college .. . is out of the que tion in publicly upported col– lege and is practically, if not le– ga lly, impossible in most others . . . Religion i not now for most college a practicable source of in– tellectual unity.' '" Other quota– tions could be given to how the original purpose of the great in– stitution of higher learning in our country. 1\Io t of our reader are well aware of the piritual con– dition in many of the e institutions. .Four Yonng Jl en 'l.'estify :\Iany of our modern educators ar e pleading for the right of "aca– demic fr eedom '' which gives t hem the priYilege to teach anything in the clas:room which meets t heir fancy. They ,rant liberty to de– stroy the Faith of our young peo– ple in the Bible a the Word of < ;od and at the same time they ,vill oppose anyone who would be old fashioned enough to believe in the supernatural. In other words, ·'academic freedom'' i freedom to oppo ·e the Bible but not a liberty to propagate it. Yomw p eople who ar c placed under this influ nee ar e, a · a r e ult, lacking in purpose, vision and conviction when they leave these iu titntions. 'l' he fol– lowing qu otation describes the in– tellect ual a well a spiritual con– fusion ,,·hich r es ults from such ed– ucation. Four young men who grad– uated from eastern colleges testify . . . '' 'l'hat what their education had clone ha · been to break down their belief in any po itive values, and to weaken their faith in their co untry, in it history, in its tra– ditions, and in the futur e; to put them, t hemselves, into intellectual and psychological confusion, and into an inn er de pair out of which they had so ught r efuge in various ways and at differ ent times. On e thought of casting his lot, tempo– rar ily, in with th e young commu– n ists, because ' they alone seemed to be perfectly clear in their minds wher e they wer e goi ng ; ' another, for a period, into 'complete skepti– cism and cynicism ;' another into ' modern Jiberalisrn, r e olu tion– signi ng, peace-parade sort of thing;' another into the 'only thing that seemed so lid , my own eo·ot ism and self inter est'." J Dr. l{obert 1\1. H utchin s, former P r esident of Ch icago niver sity, brings a fur– t her indictmen t against the modern Bible denying schools which turn out students without a positive aim in life, though he may not have in tended th e following statement to give that irn pression. '"r he higher learning in America has de– veloped a broad urbanit,v, an all engulfi ng tolerance, which find . i t easy to be hospitable to every– thing except conviction-genuine conviction, which mu st not be con– f used with toler a nce i · one of the cr ying n eeds of our age." ·• Costly Education In spite of t he conditions which prevail in the field of education today there are many Bible believ– ing Christians wh o are either ig– norant of the facts or deliberately sendin g their young· p eople to col– leges and univer sitie of unbelief in order t hat they may save a f ew dollars in tuition and fee . Parents, how much have you gained if you saved a few hundred dollars and old your young people clown the road to infidelity 1 You have lost more than money can buy. Youn g people, what worthwhi le thing in li fe have yo n obtain ed when you hav turned your back on a C.:hrist– ·enter ed colle 0 ·e for an institution with a nation-wide r eputation , ex- traordinary facilities for tudy, and at the same time you have lost yonr peace of soul an·d purpose of life g iven to you only by J esus Christ? l t is a price and a lo s that cannot be computed in : ilver and gold. As we have observed what has happened to many other in titu– tions, Cedarville College, by the grace of God, has deter mined to be on its guard again t that evil which has meant the r uin of so many young people. From our current colleo·e catalog, we quote the purpose of our chool, '' It is the de ir e of Cedarville College to g:raduate stnclent from its ha lls of learning with definite convictions relative to the gTeat Bible truth: that have been accepted by funda– mental Bible believer3 from the l:e– ~inning of th e Christia,1 era. Th is livino· faith in the li vino· Lord should be carri ed over int~ what– ever fi eld of end eavor the graduate of Cedarville College may under– take.'' • Many Christia n schools in day go ne by have fallen prey to t he subtle attacks of Satan because of a n ambition for prestige arrd wealth. Ever y ·chool with a vi– sion want to be r ecogn ized . No school can accompli h mu ch with– out large sum of money . 'l'her e i always a danger of compromi e wh en money and accreditation b~– come things to be desired at all spi ritu al cost 'l'hi will n ever happen as long as we look to the Lord for the f inan cial support and academic r ecognition of onr i n– stitutions. This is om r eason for a ppealing to our Baptist churche for their prayer · and gifts. For this r eason Ceclarville College wonld rathe1· haue 6000 fri ends giving , ·1. per month than one per– son giuing $6,000 per r,wnth. 1. Samuel C. Morrison, T he Founding of Harvard College, 1935, page 8, quoted by Dr . Roger J . Voskuyl. 2. A ssociation of American College Bulletin, Volume 41, Number 3, "The Church Rela ted Liberal Arts College," page 369. 3. Emile Cailliet, Th e Life of the Mind, Macrnillian 1942, page 22, quoted by Dr . Voskuyl. 4. A ssociation of American College Bu lletin, page 370. 5. Cedarville College Ca talog, 1955- 1957, page 10.