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A large part of Christian leadership consists in exposition and application of the Scriptures. For that reason, Christian leaders must become skilled at handling and communicating the Word of God. Christian leadership includes teaching.
Christian leadership also includes more. In addition to teaching and preaching, a Christian leader must model a transformed life. Therefore, everyone who graduates from Central Seminary should be a changed person. Our job is to transform students so that they will become effective spiritual leaders for Christ-exalting, biblical ministry. If we succeed, our graduates will exhibit transformation in at least three ways.
First, we want them to love rightly. “Loving rightly” means loving the right things. It means loving those things with a love that reflects God’s own valuation of those things. It means loving those things with the right kind of love. Most of all, loving rightly means loving God with the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. To fail to love God, or to love something else more than God, or to entertain a rival for the love that God alone deserves, or to love God with unworthy loves, is the essence of idolatry. This is no incidental matter. Indeed, it is the first and greatest commandment.
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Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism
To be an evangelical is to be centered upon the gospel. To be a Fundamentalist is, first, to believe that fundamental doctrines are definitive for Christian fellowship, second, to refuse Christian fellowship with all who deny fundamental doctrines (e.g., doctrines that are essential to the gospel), and third, to reject the leadership of Christians who form bonds of cooperation and fellowship with those who deny essential doctrines. We are both evangelicals and Fundamentalists according to these definitions.
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Hermeneutics and Eschatology
All faculty at Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneapolis affirm a hermeneutical system that interprets all Scripture with a consistently literal or normal method. We also affirm the paradigm of grammatical, contextual, theological, historical exegesis with a view to discerning authorial intent.
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Salvation
The faculty of Central Baptist Theological Seminary affirms that salvation is found only in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by virtue of His unique personhood, sacrificial death, and subsequent resurrection is the only one who possesses authority to save. The salvation of any soul is an assertion of Christ’s authority or lordship over sin and death. Therefore, we hold that the acceptance of Jesus as Savior implies the acceptance of His authority as Lord. No person can turn to Jesus as Savior while denying Him as Lord. The rejection of Christ as either Lord or Savior is wholly incommensurate with saving faith.
At the same time, we recognize that implicit truth is not always explicitly recognized. Sinners who turn to Christ for salvation do vary in the extent to which they overtly and explicitly recognize His lordship. Certainly no believers immediately understand all the implications of their acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord. As believers advance in this understanding, the lordship of Christ must be increasingly worked out in their individual lives.
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