Rapture Fever

The Strange Disappearance of Dispensational Institutions 197
But this is only part of the story. President Davis then
dropped this theological bombshell on page three of his form
letter:
12. What are the mission and values of Grace Seminary?
Its mission is to: ‘Ilevelop Christian ministq leaders who can inj%unce
culture m“th an integrated biblical world and life vtiw. ”
He re-stated this mission in his newsletter, President to Pa-stor
(lst quarter 1993, p. 2). Question: When was the last time you
heard a leader of a dispensational seminary speak of the need
to influence culture? When was the last time you heard him call
for “an integrated biblical world and life view”? I’ll tell you: the
next time will be the first time.
Where is Grace Seminary heading? I don’t know. But this I
do know when a seminary president starts talking about “biblical
world and life view,” he is not talking about traditional
dispensationalism. He has moved to a new theological position, and
he is planning to take the school with him. This is what Talbot did
in the late 1980’s.
Of course, I could be wrong. President Davis is retaining the
part-time faculty and hiring new full-time members. Perhaps
members of this new faculty, including President Davis, have
quietly developed a brand-new synthesis of Scofield’s theology.
Maybe they are about to introduce the long-awaited “new dispensationalism,”
whose theology leads to Christian cultural relevance
and activism. This synthesis has never been published, of
course. The present faculty’s members have not mentioned it.
But perhaps the long-awaited dispensational paradigm shift will
be completed and presented in public in broad outline: culturally
relevant dispensationalism. If so, its details will not be published
in the Grace Theolo@”calJournal, since President Davis and
his supporters on the Board have discontinued the journal.
(Perhaps it will be resurrected during the millennium.) President
Davis announced to the seminary’s pastor-donors: