Posted by deangonzales on February 24, 2010
Sometimes Biblical commentary seems more indebted to Sunday school flannelgraphs than to actual exegesis. This phenomenon is especially prevalent when studying the Old Testament historical narratives. Sections of Scripture which fall into the “Bible story” category are too often treated as just that- simple Bible stories. Deprived of Pauline intricacy or Davidic poeticism with which to interact, even some serious commentators tend to fall back onto a simplistic analysis that either misses or mishandles the implications of the text.
Those frustrated by this phenomenon will find Where Sin Abounds by Robert R. Gonzales Jr. to be refreshingly different. Gonzales offers an analysis of the book of Genesis, seeking especially to trace the spread of sin from the Fall through the patriarchal narratives. This brings him to a field of study which has been historically ripe for the sort of mishandling criticized above. A prime example of this shallow commentary is the tendency to minimize or excuse the sins of the patriarchs. Those episodes from Genesis which didn’t tend to make it onto the flannelgraph (the persistent “wife ruses” in Genesis 12:10-20, 20:1-18, 26:1-11; the Dinah episode in Genesis 34) often seem to receive only brief notice, and the justifications offered up to absolve the Patriarchs and their families of some truly despicable acts are often untenable to even the most generous reader. Gonzales appropriately labels this error “the plaster saint syndrome” (p. 4), and his extensive cataloging of the commentaries, papers, and monographs which tend toward this error provides ample proof of the necessity of this project.
Complicit in this exegetical whitewashing of Patriarchal sin is an artificial thematic construct imposed by most exegetes on the text; namely the division of Primeval history with sin as its major theme, and Patriarchal history with grace as its major theme. Gonzales’s purpose is therefore twofold. He seeks both to show that the spread of human sin remains a central theme throughout the entirety of Genesis, and that it is this very truth which emphasizes the depths of God’s grace. This insight into the relation of sin to grace is the same insight offered by Paul in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Gonzales’s main theme is therefore well summarized on page 57, wherein he writes “As surely as mankind multiplies and fills the earth, so human sin advances in stride. This sad story of human depravity in turn provides the foil against which divine justice and mercy are gloriously displayed.”
The introduction presents the rational for the study and lays out the relevant boundaries. Where Sin Abounds is not an exhaustive commentary (and therein lays my only major criticism- the sections of general commentary were quite well done, leaving this reviewer wishing that Gonzales had written an exhaustive commentary). Rather, Gonzales seeks to use the best tools of Exegetical, Systematic, Historic, and especially Biblical Theology to specifically and exhaustively interact with sin and its spread in the book of Genesis. The remaining chapters are organized into three major parts dealing with sin and the curse in the Fall narrative, the Primeval narratives, and the Patriarchal narratives.
One feature of Gonzales’s analysis which is consistently helpful throughout the book is his willingness to interact with historical critical approaches to the text while retaining a firm stance in conservative orthodoxy. Some conservative exegetes are wary of using this modern scholarship; for fear that it will undermine inerrancy and lead to a liberal view of Scripture. Gonzales is able to use the best elements of this field, all the while upholding inerrancy. For example, in pages 75-77 Gonzales deals with the identity of the “sons of Elohim” and “Giants” of Genesis 6. He presents and evaluates three popular interpretations, and then prescribes the third view: the subjects of these titles were “ancient suzerains who engage in unrestrained polygamy (or even rape!?, 6:2b), build royal harems, and exercise despotic tyranny. Their offspring… perpetuate their evil, filling the earth with corruption and violence (6:11, 13), and thus earn the epithet, “men if fame [infamy!]”… (6:4).” This conclusion is arrived at by utilizing modern scholarship of “divine-kingship ideology of the ancient Near East,” yet without sacrificing Biblical inerrancy. If Gonzales were to write a full Genesis commentary, it would be intriguing to see how he would use this method in other sections of the book, such as the Creation and Flood accounts.
An area of special value is the analysis of the Fall and its aftermath. Intriguing questions are raised, and fresh insights are offered into a familiar account. Readers may find their current understandings of the garden environment, the identity of the serpent, and Yahweh’s post-Fall theophany/inquest called into question by Gonzales’s exegesis of the text. Another section of note is chapter three, titled The Spread of Sin among Pagan Societies. Although it is not a major feature of the book, Gonzales shows in this chapter that the presence of slavery and polygamy (among other sins) in the covenant community is not proof of God condoning these activities, rather it serves to show how pervasive and systemic the spread of sin had become throughout all mankind. God no more approved of Patriarchal polygamy and slave keeping than he did of Patriarchal murder.
Gonzales is especially concerned with the sins of the Patriarchs, and these chapters make up more than half of the book. As the initial generations of God’s chosen people live and die, theirs sins not only accumulate, but at times even overshadow the sins of their pagan neighbors. Neither Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, nor any other of the classic characters emerge untainted by persistent and grievous transgression against God and His Law. What are we to think of the great bulk of sin laid at the feet of these familiar heroes of the faith? It is of course unacceptable that any Christian would respond by smugly looking down on them, unless he is prepared to claim to be without sins of his own. Even if he did make such a claim, 1 John 1:8 would tell us that he is a liar (and therefore a sinner!). While reading Where Sin Abounds may indeed cause many of the “plaster saints” to lose some of their luster, there is one hero who actually emerges all the more righteous and all the more glorious. That “character” is the LORD God Himself. The more sin and human frailty we see in men, the more our understanding of God’s grace grows and expands. There is a sense in which the greatness of a Redeemer is measured by the depravity of those he chooses to redeem. Or, as Paul put it- where sin abounded, grace abounded much more (Romans 5:20b).
Where Sin Abounds is a book which has a specific and limited goal, and it accomplishes that goal well. Sin does indeed remain a central theme in Genesis, from chapter three all the way to chapter fifty. God did not deal with Abraham and his descendents in a special way because of their lack of sin, he dealt with them in a special way in spite of their sin and because of His grace alone. We who are Abraham’s children according to Galatians 3:29 can take great comfort in this- For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8)!
Where to purchase Where Sin Abounds?
Westminster Bookstore
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Wipf & Stock (the publisher)
Posted by deangonzales on January 11, 2010
What should Christians think about human culture? Should they be for it or against it? Before we can answer these questions, we have to define the term. The word “culture” doesn’t appear in most English Bibles. The English noun is related to the verb “to cultivate,” which in turn derives from the Latin verb colere. It was initially used in contexts primarily referring to farming or “agriculture.” Over time the term “culture” acquired a broader usage, referring not just to farming but also to all sorts of human endeavor. The first entry in the American Heritage Dictionary (2009) defines “culture” as “the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.” So culture is everything human societies think, feel, and make. The question is whether this concept is found in the Bible. I believe it is. In fact, the Bible not only describes human culture but it also provides us with ethical guidelines by which to assess it.
Human Culture Is Good
In Genesis 1:26-28, we find the origin of human culture.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Not surprisingly, this passage has been called “the cultural mandate.” God not only creates human beings, but he assigns them a task. They’re not to live in isolation from one another. Men are to marry women and produce children. Those families are to become clans. Those clans are to become cities and nations and societies. And those societies are to work together in order to “subdue the earth.” That is, humans are assigned the task of taking earth’s natural resources and developing or cultivating those resources for the good of man and the glory of God.
Note carefully that it’s not the will of God that man leave the world in its natural state, as some radical environmentalists would call us to do. We’re not to go out into the wheat fields and graze like cattle or walk up to a pine tree and chew on its bark, like Euell Gibbons might have encouraged us to do. On the contrary, we’re to grow the wheat, harvest the wheat with the sickle, separate the grain from the chaff, grind the grain into flour, put it into the oven, and consume it in the form of bread. Likewise, man is to domesticate animals so that the animals serve the needs of society. Man is to mine the earth order to extract various metals to make tools and machinery and coinage. Man is to fell trees and cut stones in order to make homes and buildings and cities. Moreover, the cultural mandate includes learning about the world. God commanded man to learn about the animals and name them according to their characteristics. And we can assume that God also wanted man to learn and classify details about the soil, and the water, and the air, and the trees, and the mountains, and the oceans, and the stars. And God intended this knowledge to be passed on from one generation to another, from one society to another. Furthermore, God endowed man with aesthetic capacity so that he could not only enjoy God’s creation but that man might imitate his Creator’s creativity. So men would not merely extract metal and stone from the earth but he would distinguish some as precious metal and stone. Men would not only build places to live but he would design and adorn the buildings so that they looked attractive. And some would refine the art of communication and others painting and others music. We should also note that God expected man to subdue and rule over the earth in a responsible way. On the one hand, man was not to leave creation in its natural state. On the other hand, man was not to exploit or misuse earth’s resources. So while Christians should reject the agenda of radical environmentalists, they should also reject an anti-environmentalist posture. We are to be concerned about the responsible use and maintenance of earth’s resources.
Now if we stopped reading our Bibles at this point, what would we have to conclude about culture? We’d have to assess human culture in precisely the same way God assessed it: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Of course, God’s primarily assessing his work not man’s work in this verse. Nevertheless, God’s assessment in this verse embraces or includes the mandate he gave to humanity. In other words, God views human culture as a good thing.
Human Culture Is Bad
But we all know that history doesn’t end at Genesis 1:31. When we come to Genesis 3, we read of man’s rebellion against God and his fall into sin. When we come to Genesis 4, we see that human sin spreads from the first generation to the second, and Cain murders his brother Abel. Perhaps Cain took the very sickle he had made to harvest the field and employed it as the first weapon of violence. By the time we reach Genesis 6, we find that the whole earth is corrupt and filled with violence. We read that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Men are no longer satisfied with God’s norm of monogamous marriage but they give in to sexual lust and begin building harems. They can’t work together in harmony, so they hate and fight and war against each other. Things get so bad that God has to send a worldwide flood to destroy the whole human race with the exception of one family. But the flood didn’t wash away sin. Not long after Noah’s new beginning, we read of humans employing the tool of human language to unite together to build a city with a tower that would reach to heaven. Was their goal to bring glory to God? No, they say in Genesis 11:4, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” This is human rebellion on an international scale! And things haven’t improved much since Babel.
Now, in light of mankind’s fall into sin and his subsequent history, how should we evaluate human culture? At this point, the “counter-cultural” Christians may smile and say, “See, we told you. Culture is bad. We must not accommodate to culture; we must avoid it. We must keep it out of the church. Because of human sin, it’s ‘Christ against culture,’ plain and simple.” If that describes your position, you’re partly in the right. There definitely are aspects and dimensions of human culture that we must reject because they’ve been corrupted by human sin. And when we reject those aspects and dimensions of sinful culture, then we’re being “counter cultural” in the right and biblical sense.
Human Culture Is Both Good and Bad
However, I don’t believe the “counter-cultural only” position is a good position. In the first place, it’s not possible. There’s no way for us to completely escape human culture. Certain sects like the Amish have attempted to do this. But in reality, they’re only exchanging one form of human culture for another. They simply reject the American culture of 2009 and try to revert back to the American culture of the late 1800s. More importantly, if we’re only “counter-cultural,” then we’re only partly biblical. And if we’re only partly biblical, then we’re not fully or truly biblical. In point of fact, to be “partly” biblical is often to be “unbiblical.” Certainly, none of us wants to be unbiblical. Therefore, we need to consider more biblical data in order to have a fuller and more accurate view of human culture.
What biblical reality do we need to add to creation and the fall in order to cultivate a more balanced view of human culture? What part of the biblical picture do the “counter-cultural” only Christians often miss? The simple answer is “grace.” According to the Scriptures, God did not completely abandon mankind in his sinful state, but he showed kindness or favor or grace. To be more specific, he bestowed two kinds of grace: common grace to all fallen sinners and special or saving grace to those God chose to save. I think we’re all pretty familiar with God’s special grace, which enabled us to turn from our sin and trust in Jesus Christ—the grace by which God has endowed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ and has secured for us an eternal inheritance. But sometimes we lose sight of God’s common grace. What’s “common grace” from a biblical point of view?
Like the word “culture,” the phrase “common grace” doesn’t appear in the Bible. But the concept of common grace does. Common grace refers to God’s blessings on the human race that fall short of salvation from sin. Theologians usually classify them as follows:
1. God restrains human sin.
When God confused human speech at Babel (Gen. 11:6-9), he was restraining the extent to which that societal sin would develop. Similarly, God doesn’t allow every human being to develop into an Adoph Hitler or a Charles Manson or a Jeffrey Dahmer. Every human being is totally depraved and has the moral capacity to develop into cruel dictators or serial killers. But God doesn’t allow every human being to become as evil as he could potentially become. Jesus recognizes this when he says to Pilate, “He who delivered me over to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11). Pilate was guilty. But Pilate’s sin was not as grievous or blameworthy as the Jewish leaders who delivered Jesus to Pilate.
In light of this reality, we don’t have to view every unconverted workmate, classmate, next-door neighbor, grocery clerk, or baseball coach in the worst possible light. We don’t have to live in the wilderness of Montana for fear that our next-door neighbors might kill us and eat us. We don’t have to ban our child from Little League baseball team because we’re afraid he’ll be kidnapped and sent to a concentration camp. In fact, here in America there’s been such a high degree of common grace that very few Christians have had to endure serious hostility or persecution from unbelievers. And because of God’s common grace, we have many opportunities to develop relationships with unbelievers in the hopes of winning them to Jesus Christ.
2. God bestows some temporal blessings on human beings indiscriminately.
Jesus alludes to this when he instructs his disciples to love their enemies on the basis of God’s indiscriminate love to mankind. “For,” says Jesus, “[God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). God doesn’t just do nice things for Christians and bad things for unbelievers. In this life, God is often kind to both. And Jesus wants us to imitate our heavenly father. He doesn’t want us to form little Christian colonies that are separate from unbelievers. On the contrary, he says to us,
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden…. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:14, 16).
And the people before whom we’re to shine are not just fellow Christians. Jesus wants us to be engaged with unbelievers. “Father,” he prays in John 17, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (17:15). Jesus wants us to remain separate from sin. He doesn’t want us to succumb to the wiles of the devil. But Jesus does want us to engage sinners. He wants us be proactive in our gospel outreach. Remember the words of Paul, “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them” (1 Cor. 9:19).
3. God endows unbelievers with knowledge and skills that benefit society as a whole.
Cain was a murderer. And his descendants turned out to be an ungodly lot. Nevertheless, as we read the Genesis account we discover that God was pleased to endow some of them with a great deal of knowledge and skill. In Genesis 4:20-22 we read that Cain’s descendant Jabal, “He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. [And] Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.” Commenting on this text, John Calvin remarks,
[Moses] expressly celebrates the remaining benediction on that race, which otherwise would have been deemed void and barren of all good. Let us then know, that the sons of Cain, though deprived of the Spirit of regeneration, were yet endued with gifts of no despicable kind; just as the experience of all ages teaches us how widely the rays of divine light have shone on unbelieving nations, for the benefit of the present life.
So Christians are not the only ones who can selectively breed livestock, or make good music, or develop metallurgy. God has endowed many unbelievers with knowledge and skill to provide services, create art, and invent technologies that benefit everybody. In 1 Kings 5:6, we read that Solomon employed the Sidonians to provide him with the timber because no one in the ancient world possessed the same degree of skill as they possessed in cutting timber. And when Solomon began work on the Temple, he sent word to King Hiram of Tyre and asked Hiram to send him a skilled craftsman to oversee the project. So Hiram responded,
Now I have sent a skilled man, who has understanding, Huram-abi …. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your craftsmen, the craftsmen of my lord, David your father.
So he didn’t place a fellow Israelite over the project. He chose a man from Tyre. The men of Sidon were better lumberjacks and the men of Tyre were better builders. And Solomon doesn’t limit the use of their products to secular buildings. He employs their technology in the Temple of God even though the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon were some of the most notorious sinners in the Bible!
All of us are greatly indebted to the inventions of Thomas Edison. He developed the carbon microphone that would later be used in telephones. He invented the light bulb and then patented a system for electricity distribution in 1880. Later he invented the phonograph and an early motion picture camera called “the Kinetograph.” Think of what life would be like without electricity, light bulbs, audio and video recording. If you’re Amish, you’d probably say, “Better.” But if you’re like the rest of us, you’re grateful for all the technology that came out of Thomas Edison’s inventions. But it’s highly unlikely Edison was a believer. When asked whether he believed in God, Edison responded, “What you call God I call Nature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter.” And he goes on to assert, “It is doubtful in my opinion if our intelligence or soul or whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or disperses back again from whence it came, scattered amongst the cells of which we are made.”
What’s my point? Not everything produced by an unbelieving world is bad in-and-of-itself. True, unbelievers cannot fill and subdue the earth for the glory of God. So in terms of their motives, unbelievers are unable to do good. Moreover, unbelievers often transgress God’s laws. They take another man’s life or another man’s wife. They steal and lie in order to make money. They use God’s world in ways that God’s word prohibits. Nevertheless, thanks to God’s common grace unbelievers are able to write good books. They’re able to create beautiful music. They’re able to invent surgical techniques and medication that save lives. They’re even able to be kind, fair, generous, loving, and honest.
Concluding Applications
I’d like to conclude this brief study with three practical exhortations in light of our brief theology of human culture.
(1) Let’s thank God for his common grace.
Our freedom to worship God today is largely due to God’s common grace. And think of the ways in which modern technology is making it possible to get the gospel to every tribe and every tongue.
(2) Let’s learn to make distinctions between what is good and what is not good in human culture.
It’s not enough to adopt en toto the “Christ against culture” position. Nor would it be biblical adopt absolutely a “Christ pro-culture” position. In reality, Jesus is opposed to some aspects of human cultures—particularly in relation to evil motives and transgressions of God’s law. On the other hand, there are aspects and dimensions of human culture that can be viewed and enjoyed as gifts from God. Moreover, there are some aspects of human culture to which we may accommodate in order to communicate the gospel more effectively (1 Cor. 9:19-22; 10:31-11:1).
(3) Let’s work towards redeeming culture for the glory of God.
Redeeming or transforming human culture doesn’t necessarily mean starting from scratch. It doesn’t mean that as Christians we have to “reinvent the wheel” just because an unbeliever originally came up with the patent. As we’ve seen, God has endowed many unbelievers with knowledge and skill. As a result, at a certain level they can do a fine job at subduing the earth. If you and I were to watch a video of two expert tire repairmen at work—the one a Christian and the other an unbeliever—what difference would we see? Probably none! The main difference between the two would be a matter of the heart. One would be putting that new tire on the car for the glory of God; the other merely for his paycheck.
That’s the part of human culture we need to change. We also need to change aspects of human culture that are clearly violating Scripture: abortion, euthanasia, divorce, adultery, homosexuality, theft, fraud, perjury, crass materialism, etc. And the best way to transform culture is to preach the gospel so that it can transform the people who make culture. “If any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation; old things have passed away and all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).
Bob Gonzales, Dean
Reformed Baptist Seminary
Posted by deangonzales on November 7, 2009
It’s finally available! Wipf & Stock has published my theology of Genesis entitled Where Sin Abounds: The Spread of Sin and the Curse in Genesis With Special Focus on the Patriarchal Narratives. Here’s what three Old Testament scholars say about the book:
Although my library shelf holds many commentaries on Genesis, I eagerly anticipate turning again and again to Where Sin Abounds by Robert R. Gonzales Jr. In a fresh, comprehensive, and detailed theological exegesis, Gonzales empowers the patriarchal narrative, as well as the so-called primeval history, to express the spread of sin, its varied nature, and the divinely imposed consequences. Here is a monograph that the contemporary evangelical church, corrupted by the Marcionite heresy, needs desperately to hear.
—Bruce Waltke
Professor of Old Testament
Reformed Theological Seminary
The habit of all too many Old Testament scholars is to limit the discussion of sin and the Fall to the first three chapters of Genesis, with perhaps a nod to the Flood narrative. In this thoughtful and persuasive work on the subject, Gonzales has brought to bear the best in exegetical and theological method to make an arresting case for the ongoing permeation of sin and its after-effects into the human experience, evidence for which is exhibited in the patriarchal narratives that tell the rest of the Genesis story. An important implication of his thesis is that it launches a trajectory into the New Testament and beyond, demolishing at once the idea of human perfectionism and putting in bold relief the need for a Savior.
—Eugene H. Merrill
Distinguished Professor of Old Testament Studies
Dallas Theological Seminary
This thoroughly researched and documented study explores the theme of sin in Genesis, especially in the Patriarchal narratives. Thus Bob Gonzalas has provided students of Scripture the theological background to appreciate even more the grace of God in His dealings with His people. In reading this book you will learn how little Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob deserved God’s favor. The reader will also gain significant insights into the doctrine of sanctification. This study, therefore, is both scholarly and practical. The author’s research, moreover, has revealed how often orthodox interpreters have attempted to justify the sins of the Patriarchs. Careful exegesis of the Hebrew text (much of it in the footnotes) and insightful theological reflection characterize the pages of this monograph. The appendix contains a four-page chart of tabulating the instances of sin and its consequences in Genesis. There are rewards for those who carefully study this book.
—Robert Bell
Professor of Old Testament
Bob Jones University
What’s the main thesis of the book? Nearly all scholars divide Genesis into primeval and patriarchal history, though they debate the precise point of division. One reason advanced to justify the division is a thematic shift. In primeval history, the narrator focuses on the origin and spread of sin, as well as God’s consequent curse and judgment on humanity. In patriarchal history, however, the spread of sin theme falls off the radar of most scholars. But these analyses of the primeval and patriarchal narratives are simplistic and inaccurate. In fact, the theme of human sin and the divine curse not only serve as the main themes of the Fall narrative, but they also continue to function as major themes in both the primeval and patriarchal narratives that follow. More particularly, human sin appears to increase at both individual and societal levels. Moreover, just as the primordial sin threatened to derail the advance of God’s kingdom and fulfillment of the creation mandate, so the spread of human sin in postlapsarian history threatens to thwart God’s redemptive plan, which consists in the restoration of his original creational intentions for divine and human eschatological fullness. This proves true even in the patriarchal narratives where the sins of God’s chosen often threaten the very promise intended for their ultimate good. These facts, which the author attempts to demonstrate in the monograph, not only have important ramifications for the unity of the Genesis corpus, but they also have important implications for the doctrines of sin, justification, and sanctification.
If you’re interested in getting a copy right away, you can order through Wipf & Stock here and get a 20% discount. The book will eventually be available through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and other major distributors. For those willing to wait a little while, I can order author’s copies at a 50% discount. Since I’m not really concerned about making money off the book royalties, I’m happy to sell the books to my readers at my cost plus postage. So if you want a copy at a 50% discount (around $17), let me know by November 28th. Simply indicate so in the comments box below and be sure to include your address. Or you can send me an email (rgonz985@gmail.com). Once I get all the requests, I’ll make the order and forward the books to you. If you can wait till January 1st, the book will be available through Barnes and Noble at a 32% discount.
Your servant,
Bob Gonzales, Dean
Reformed Baptist Seminary
