In 1636 17,000 puritans migrated to New England. While there were some pastors, many people realized a college was needed to train the next generation of pastors. A college was started in 1636 and several years later a pastor donated half of his estate and 400 of his books to help the college as it was beginning. The college was then named after that pastor and continued training ministers. Its early motto was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae, Latin which meant “Truth for Christ and the Church.” In those early years half of the graduates became ministers. Ten of the first twelve presidents of the university were ministers. The college trained pastors, was ran by pastors, and placed pastors into local churches to preach the gospel.
But in 1701 one of those pastor presidents ended his service, and it marked the start of a long struggle between orthodox Christianity and liberalism. Throughout the 1700s ideas from the enlightenment, the power of reason, free will, and other liberal theologies began to clash with the traditional Calvinistic groups.
One of their presidents, in 1869, “eliminated the favored position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. . . he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, but by transcendentalist Unitarian convictions. . . these convictions were focused on the dignity and worth of human nature, the right and ability of each person to perceive truth and the indwelling of God in each person” (Wikipedia).
That college which I’ve described for you is Harvard University. A college once created to train pastors for ministry now no longer resembles that desire. In fact, it still has a so-called “Divinity” school, but the people that go there to study are not Christians.
There are similar stories of Yale and other colleges that started with an intention to train people for ministry, but over time they drifted away from the truth of God’s Word.
Most of us are just a decision or two away from departing from the truth of the Gospel. And Paul tells us about some people that drifted away from the truth in his letter to the people living in the region of Galatia. The Galatians once were Paul’s friends, but now they are foes, “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Gal 4:16, NASB). People had come into the Galatian church teaching false doctrine and shielding the Galatians from Paul. Paul describes them this way, “They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you” (Gal 4:17-18).
But Paul has a plan to get the Galatian believers back on the right track. The Galatians have gone backwards and need to be discipled again, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). Paul wishes to be present with them again so he could work with them, “but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you” (Gal 4:20).
We as believers need to make sure we don’t drift from the truth like the Galatian believers did. To keep from drifting from the truth we need to distinguish false teachers from truth tellers. And we need to disciple the people that we evangelize.
That story I shared with you about Harvard breaks my heart. There motto was “Truth for Christ and the Church.” But they drifted away from that truth. The Galatians, too, drifted away from the truth. I pray that we don’t drift away from the truth either.