Imagine eating dinner at a restaurant that serves only one dish. Now imagine eating there again. And again. After several meals, wouldn't you begin to wonder whether there might be other good food worth eating?

Now imagine walking through a buffet with thousands of dishes from dozens of cuisines. Rows of chefs offer you everything from pizza and burgers to haute cuisine. Bewildered by the unlimited choices, you simply guess at what you think might make a good meal.

We wouldn't like a restaurant that took either of these approaches, and we should be no happier when a seminary does. Some seminaries dish out only a single perspective, steeping their students in one point of view until they have no stomach for anything else. Other seminaries serve up such a wide variety of opinions that a student can hardly be expected to sample them all, let alone to assimilate the right one.

Christian seminaries need to be Christian, and that requires doctrinal boundaries. A Christian seminary cannot advocate anti-Christian teaching. Rather, it must affirm and defend the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. It should refuse Christian recognition to anyone who denies the fundamentals. It should refuse to endorse Christian leaders who endorse apostates.

Moreover, a Christian seminary is most useful when it embodies a particular ideal or set of ideals. Given the variety of ways in which genuine Christians understand the Faith, no single school can really advocate all perspectives. Therefore, a school ought to be willing to define itself according to a particular confessional basis. For some seminaries this basis may incorporate a single perspective, such as a denominational position. For other seminaries, the confessional basis may combine several perspectives that complement each other.

Central Baptist Theological Seminary is of the second sort. We take a definitive position on several doctrinal issues. Therefore, we wear several labels. We are fundamentalists: we affirm the fundamentals and defend them against all challengers. We are separatists: we deny that Christian fellowship can include those who deny the gospel, and we believe that it must be limited among brethren who disagree seriously about the requirements of the Christian faith. We are Baptists in name and conviction; therefore, we aim to communicate the Baptist distinctives to all of our students. We are dispensationalists: we apply the distinction between Israel and the church in such a way that we recognize a premillennial return of Jesus and a pretribulational rapture of the church. While we have no label for it, our view of sanctification emphasizes progressive growth rather than instantaneous victory or repeated dedications. Also, we are convinced that biblical exposition is the kind of preaching that will lead God's people into growth.

We are so exclusively committed to all of these ideas that some outsiders must think we are like the restaurant that serves only one dish. Of course, we disagree. While we certainly are not a theological smorgasbord, we want to do more than simply to indoctrinate students in our point of view. How can a seminary as narrowly focused as Central offer education that is more than indoctrination?

First, we require mastery of the basic tools of thought. We insist that our students be able to speak and write clearly. We expect them to exhibit dexterity in the rigorous application of logic. We require them to know enough rhetoric to guard them against manipulative ideologues and to enable them to communicate effectively. We want our students to know how to think, not simply what to think.

Second, we train our students in the full range of the biblical and theological disciplines. We strongly favor practical education, but we distinguish what is practical from what is merely technical. Nothing is less practical than a pastor who knows techniques, but does not know what is worth doing. Competent ministers can wrestle with serious biblical and theological ideas, bringing their conclusions to bear upon the day-to-day work of ministry. On the one hand, we do not want to graduate shallow promoters and religious impresarios. On the other hand, we have no intention of producing pastors and missionaries who will merely shut themselves up in their studies. We want graduates who are busy in ministry, but we want it to be the right ministry done in the right way and for the right reasons.

Third, we expose our students to a broad scope of theological opinions. When they leave our institution, our students are going to have to interact with people who believe all sorts of things. We do not want them to be taken by surprise. Therefore, we require our students to read widely and to interact with what they read. We want them to know the arguments for as well as against the major views that they reject. We want students to grapple with the arguments for themselves. A pastor who is confronted with a bit of bad theology may not have time to look up the answers in his seminary notes. The solution is not for him to memorize the answers, but to understand the issues.

Fourth, a few of our students come to us from outside our own immediate circles. While we require doctrinal agreement in the most crucial areas, we do not expect them to dot every theological "i" and cross every theological "t" exactly as we do. Many of these students have never heard a credible presentation of our position. We believe that we can influence them significantly. This forces us to make the most of every opportunity. Each professor must present the best case for our position in every single class.

Fifth, we encourage healthy diversity among our professors. Genuine diversity, however, does not mean giving equal credence to all opinions. Therefore, diversity at Central is bounded by the historic convictions of Baptist fundamentalism as published in the doctrinal position of the seminary. No one will teach at Central who could not teach in one of our sister schools. Our unity is much greater than our diversity. Still, the differences are real. For example, not every teacher understands election in precisely the same way. Not every instructor holds the same theory of progressive sanctification. Not every professor articulates dispensationalism exactly like every other professor. Such differences represent the real diversity that exists now and has always existed within Baptist fundamentalism. We encourage our teachers to interact with one another publicly and privately on these and other issues. We believe that the interchange among our faculty offers a good model of how to conduct careful theological argument in an atmosphere of charity.

Sixth, we encourage a challenging, probing attitude on the part of our students. Within a climate of respect for one another and submission to God's Word, we do not expect our students to take the professors' notes as an ultimate authority. If a student does not understand something, he is expected to ask. If he sees an obvious objection to a professor's argument, he is expected to voice it. Such occasions sharpen issues, motivate professors, and stimulate learning. All of our graduate students have completed at least one college degree; therefore, we assume that they are competent to enter into the ongoing conversation that creates our fellowship of learning. Students are welcomed as younger colleagues, not dismissed as inferiors.

Seventh, we teach and model basic standards of honesty and fairness. We believe that even opponents must be treated fairly and represented truthfully. Our professors are expected to model this approach in their teaching, and our students are required to reflect it in their papers and discussions. The case for the Christian Faith is never less persuasive than when it is ill-considered or its opponents are unfairly maligned. We teach our students to understand before they criticize, to gain knowledge before they voice opinions.

Eighth, we still argue for our distinctives. We are not at all embarrassed about teaching fundamentalism, separatism, Baptist distinctives, dispensationalism, expository preaching, or a balanced view of the Christian life. We really do believe that these things are biblical and, therefore, right. More than that, we believe that the best educational environment is one in which these distinctives are vigorously advocated. A seminary that will not take a strong stand on some issues will fail to provide the iron against which students can sharpen themselves.

That is what Central is about. We are not big pitchers filling little mugs. We are not seers sitting atop a mountain up which students must struggle. But neither are we a theological smorgasbord. We are a fellowship of learning in which our students are full participants. We are iron sharpening iron.