What Happened to Christian Colleges?

It is a fact of history that schools, like societies, tend to go from conservative to liberal and not the other way around. They begin with firm beliefs and strict standards. They are passionate about them. They fight to preserve them because they fought and sacrificed to acquire them. But in time, as generations pass, the battles that created the need for these schools are forgotten.

It’s the same thing we read in Judges 2. “So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which He had done for Israel…When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (Judges 2:7, 10).

This is what has happened with many schools that were established to teach the Bible. It’s the same thing that happens in nations. We are well aware of the fact that this nation is not what it used to be. This country began as a God-fearing, hard-working, moral people. But as we grew more prosperous and became prideful, independent and complacent, we felt like we could get along fine without God. Now look at us. We are still a powerful, wealthy country, but our moral and spiritual foundation is crumbling because we have forgotten God and the Bible. Christian colleges are merely following the same path as the majority of society.

Harvard and other universities were founded to train ministers who in turn would educate communities in the Bible. Here are some of the rules of Harvard College when it was founded in 1636: “…Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God, and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound, knowledge and learning… everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein…” Students were to shun “all profanation of God's name, attributes, word, ordinance, and times of worship…” Today Harvard promotes homosexuality and blasphemes God, Christ, and the Bible. The same thing happened at Yale, Princeton and other other colleges established on the premise that the Bible should be the foundation of moral education.

Universities established by churches of Christ are not exempt. Abilene Christian University published a commentary called The Transforming Word in 2009 which says that Isaiah didn’t write most of Isaiah and prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament are not really clear-cut prophecies. David Lipscomb University and others train young women to be preachers in violation of I Corinthians 14:34-35 and I Timothy 2:11-14. Pepperdine University promotes open fellowship with all who just believe in Jesus. These schools did not begin this way. Concerned brethren sounded the warning about a generation ago but those warnings were scorned. Now look at the situation. It is way past time to get back to solid Bible preaching and teaching.

Kerry

West End church of Christ • August 31, 2025