CTSJ 1:1 (Spring 1995)

The High Road

Dr. George E. Meisinger*
Chafer Theological Seminary
[*Editors note: George E. Meisinger is dean of Chafer Theological
Seminary, as well as teaching in the Old and New Testament departments.
He received his B.A. from Biola University, a Th.M. in Old Testament
Literature and Exegesis from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a D.Min.
in Biblical Studies from Western Seminary, and presently pursues a Ph.D.
in Systematic Theology. He also pastors Grace Church in Orange,
California.]
One cannot become an expository preacher apart from a firm grounding in the
original languages of Scripture. He must also add to that grounding a comprehensive
working knowledge of the Old and New Testaments and Systematic Theology. Only the
student who has a complete introduction to the Bible and a thorough schooling in
hermeneutics (the laws of biblical interpretation) will succeed. He must furthermore have
the attitude that God calls him to give the rest of his life to diligent study of the text itself.
The responsibility to prepare is very high and the most thorough preparationwhich the
potential preacher and teacher may only acquire over a lifetime of study and ministry
can possible equip a man to be a worthy expositor of the riches of Scripture.
Chafer Theological Seminary commits itself to the noble goal of preparing men to be
such expositors.
It is true that some men by untiring research and study have become extraordinary
teachers and theologians without the original languages of Scripture (Greek, Hebrew, and
Aramaic). Even they, however, would have been better with the languages. Clear-sighted
and godly men of the past have stated that five years of Greek and four of Hebrew help
provide the necessary foundation.
1
Along with that indispensable training, the student requires a thorough grounding in
Systematic Theologynot any Systematic Theology, but a theology permeated by grace.
We are to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. These things are
necessary if the student, then pastor and teacher is to invest his professional life
profitably and independently without being enslaved to commentaries. This basic
grounding is also necessary if the pastor is to analyze and synthesize the Word accurately

1
The Dallas Theological Seminary Bulletin, Volume 21, January-March 1945, Number 1, The Highest
Standard, by Lewis Sperry Chafer.
for its instruction and spiritual values. We assume, of course, that the student himself
walks in the Spirit and in the light.
We live in a day and age when many Christian circles frown upon academics.
Experience shows that the darker the frown, the greater the inability to teach and preach
the Word itself. The tragic consequences are untaught sheep, unstable believers, and
dreadful inner vacuums of the soul that absorb every Christian fad regardless of its
deviations from sound doctrine. Christians cannot have it two ways: The will either (1)
lack discipline in the pursuit of biblical academic excellence, or (2) grow strong and
stable displaying a walk that remains fruitful to the end. Two will only happen when a
person reverses one.
Acknowledging this inescapable fact of ministry, CTS gives itself to train men. We
seek for men of Cod called to the ministry, willing to suffer the hardships of academic
life. Men who will sacrifice and give up material possessions, pleasure, and comfort if
that is what it takes to be what God wants them to be. Men who do not waffle in the face
of put-downs for swimming against the stream to prepare in the languages and grace
theology. And men who stick to their knitting of studying and teaching from the original
texts. They do so even though their contemporaries, who took the route of least resistance
in some seminary, pastor mega-sized churches that seem to flourish. They grow,
however, not through exposition, but through gimmicks, psychologically based
counseling, and by making themselves user friendlybeing translated that too often
means there is little, if any, doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
CTS pursues the high road. And that road requires, in our judgment, suffering
hardship, which in our context means eight combined years of Greek and Hebrew. It also
means total curriculum without soft spots. There is little glamour in the training stages.
There is much hard work, late nights, and even tears. And there is no promise that when it
is over, the student will have a church of several hundred or thousand members to pastor
and teach.
Yet there is a promise: the promise that you will graduate equipped to become the
best life-long student and teacher you can be. You will have the tools to dig in the Word
for its priceless treasures. You will have learned the attitude that you exist to study and
teach the Word and to pastor the sheep, not to be a social lion and entertain the sheep. But
along with the training and attitude CTS instills in its students, coupled with your own
application and walking in the Spirit, you can expect to hear one day, Well done, good
and faithful servant.
The high road is worth every pain, every long night, every tear, and every
inconvenience to hear those words!