Attention: Highland College graduates and students–

Highland College, Pasadena, CA, closed its doors in the 1970s.  Until recently its official student records were held by the president of the college, Dr. Robert Kofahl.  Since his death they were held at the Westminster Christian Academy in Glendale, CA.  Since that school will be closing, Western Reformed Seminary has offered to maintain those records and provide needed service to Highland graduates and students.

All the Highland College records now have been shipped to WRS, and they are here for custodial keeping.

If you need an official transcript sent to an institution, or an unofficial transcript for personal use, please make arrangements with the WRS registrar (registrar@wrs.edu).  Also, please inform any other Highland graduate or student that you may know about this new arrangement.

David B. Calhoun

WRS has “the spirit of the Old Princeton.”

Dr. Calhoun is the author of the definitive two-volume history of Old Princeton.  Here’s what he says after his recent lecture series here at WRS:

“It was my privilege to give lectures in April 2012 at Western Reformed Seminary on the Legacy of Old Princeton Seminary to mark Princeton’s bicentennial.  I was delighted to find an interest in the history of the oldest American Presbyterian Seminary, but even more so to discover at WRS the spirit of Old Princeton.  The faculty, students, and graduates that I met possessed a deep understanding of the theology and piety of Old Princeton and an earnest commitment to preserve the best of that history in their own ministries in the 21st century.  It greatly encouraged me to be part of Western Reformed Seminary for a few days and pray God’s blessing upon it in the years to come.”

David B. Calhoun
Emeritus Professor of Church History
Covenant Theological Seminary
St. Louis, Missouri

Daniel B. Wallace

New Testament scholar Daniel Wallace explained the discovery of a first century fragment from Mark’s Gospel in this interview.  This copy of Mark was made before A.D. 100, the earliest New Testament fragment discovered yet!

Dr. David B. Calhoun

This is the 200th Anniversary of Princeton Theological Seminary.  WRS is featuring noted church historian David B. Calhoun in its annual Dr. Ronald W. Taber Memorial Lectures.  His topic is Old Princeton Seminary (1812-1929): Its Influence through Two Centuries.  Dr. Calhoun is the author of the definitive work on Princeton’s history (see our reviews of his two volumes).

Dates: April 12-14 — Thursday and Friday nights, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., and Saturday morning, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.

WRS is an Affiliated Agency of the American Council of Christian Churches.  As such, we share and whole heartedly endorse the resolution recently adopted by the ACCC:
“THE MULTI-DENOMINATIONAL HERITAGE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM

“With his prayer for the Ephesian believers, the Apostle Paul addressed the One “of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,” the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:15). It is in this name, Holy Father, that those who have been given to Christ are to be kept as one, even as they are sanctified in the truth (John 17:11). Whereas denominational labels within the spectrum of Protestantism correctly identify important details of differing convictions, basic agreement regarding the “weightier matters of the law” has bound these traditions together as a common echo of the first century Church’s apostolic faith (Matthew 23:23).

“As a clearly identifiable movement, Biblical fundamentalism is not yet 150 years old. In its earliest phases, it gave voice to the foundational doctrines taught in the Bible and did so without reference to any particular denominational perspective. The earliest conferences, beginning in 1876 at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, focused on that which various denominational groups held in common. It was the heritage, they argued, that had come down through the generations from the ministry of the apostles of Christ. As J. Gresham Machen observed, the movement was not the latest of a series of new “isms,” but the restatement of the historic Christian faith.

“Thus, there were Presbyterians and Methodists, as well as Baptists, from various fellowships that led the call for a return to the fundamentals of the faith. The latter part of the 19th century was a time of religious upheaval. The rapid acceptance of Charles Darwin’s ideas, following the publication of his Origin of Species in 1859, together with the effects of German rationalism in theology, produced a severe challenge to those who insisted on maintaining the orthodox doctrines taught in the Word of God.

“Biblical Fundamentalism was from its inception a movement to reassert the weighty matters of Holy Scripture in the face of the tidal wave of skepticism. Thus, Biblical Fundamentalists, whatever their denominational distinctives and convictions, agreed to stand together on, among other things, the inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures, the creation of man by God’s direct act, the historicity of Adam’s fall into sin with all its theological consequences, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, His deity, the blood atonement of Jesus Christ for sinners, His bodily resurrection on the third day, His ascension bodily into Heaven, and the certainty of His second coming.

“Biblical Fundamentalists also emphasized that it was necessary for sinners to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and that those who were converted to Christ would demonstrate that transformation through an increasing holiness of life in this world. Recognizing that, on less weighty aspects of Biblical teaching, those who held to Biblical authority at times disagreed. Biblical Fundamentalists resolved that they would emphasize the weighty matters on which they all agreed, and they would not consent to using their lesser disagreements as tests of Christian fellowship within the parameters of obedient orthodoxy. In regard to these issues, they resolved to respect the ability of brethren to disagree without surrendering their own denominational convictions or experiencing the condemnation of others.

“In 1941, the American Council of Christian Churches was formed as an explicitly multi-denominational organization with a clear doctrinal statement that represented a vivid understanding of the foundations of Biblical Fundamentalism. In spite of various attacks launched against the ACCC over the last 70 years, the organization has remained true to its founding purpose. It exalts the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope for the salvation of sinners. It exposes the work of theological apostasy, such as that of the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches. It rebukes the work of those who seek accommodation with promoters of that apostasy. And it expounds the Holy Scriptures as the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

“Therefore, the delegates to the 70th annual convention of the American Council of Christian Churches, meeting October 18-20, 2011, at the Bible Evangelical Methodist Church of Lancaster, PA, resolve with gladness to value and to maintain the multi-denominational character of the Council, as the Lord enables, and to promote in every obedient way possible the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We resolve to respect each other in the highest expression of Christian love and brotherhood and to stand with each other against every devilish device as we contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3).”

Read the Bible in a year, in chronological order and with each day’s reading being about the same length (20 minutes average).  The Plan can be printed out on a single sheet of paper, front and back, and used for a bookmark.  Now in SPANISH as well as ENGLISH.

Download PLAN

Registration now open:

• Fall 2011 Semester – Residence Classes

• 2011-2012 Pastoral Mentorship Program – Distance Classes

Courses and Schedules