Also I pray you to forgive it me
All have I not set folk in their degree
Here in this tale as that they sholde stonde:
My wit is short, ye may well understonde.
Geoffrey Chaucer, Cantebury Tales (743-746)

---

The comment, "got a match," comes from the wisdom of one Important Personage regarding the decades of papers collected by Dr. A.A. MacRae, founding seminary president (see www.macraelib.ibri.org/AAMacRae.html). We all make flippant comments, and hope to be excused and forgiven for them, but this one I exploit for the purpose of suggesting how it (intentionally or unintentionally) communicated volumes to me of an attitude about the seminary history and its founder. I hope we can all concur that history teaches us its own importance, both biblical history and all the rest, so this is not trivial in the least.

Although I have been told by Professor Franke that “Objectivity has been greatly overrated,” I suggest that history can have objective value, and particularly in the study of the decline of Christian institutions. In reference to the liberalizing of many Christian institutions in the twentieth century, A.A. MacRae once told me that “everything human tends to go down.” Yet, he also repeatedly told me that we have to try and “light a few candles.” This Dr. MacRae did more than once in his life, and from that example we should take encouragement. Our efforts to “light a few candles,” are done in love for the riches we received from our seminary training, and for those who labored to give that gift to us.  

As someone wisely said in reference to A.A. MacRae, “you can always replace a building, but you can never replace a person.” Such a simple comment conveys right priorities. I would add that replacing a good thing (our seminary training model) with one we are told is no longer textual, but “incarnational” and “missional,” may not be the good thing some suppose. Indeed, you might replace the model, but lose the mission. Should we not be concerned that a flippant attitude towards the history of the seminary might translate in time to a flippant attitude to the history of redemption? This is no "slippery slope" argument but rather a noting of the collateral damage of bad ideas.

In light of this, I am pleased to report, all that remained (survived) of Dr. MacRae's thousands of papers is now in the hands of the PCA archivist in St. Louis, who told me he is "having the time of his life," and posting some of this on-line. Thankfully those who arranged this, and the archivist, value history, and particularly our history. Thankfully, no-one had a match that day . . . 

Dr MacRae relayed a story to me about an incident (where faculty members were gathered at a birthday celebration for Dr. MacRae) when a faculty member from another seminary was extolling the virtues (in a speech) of this other seminary while subtly ridiculing BTS. Well, MacRae, rising as always to the occasion, would not be deterred by this, so when he was given the floor, he not-so-subtly surveyed the history of those institutions he had been affiliated with, beginning with Princeton T. Seminary that had taken the name of an interesting town. After this, when he had helped form Westminster T. Seminary, they had taken the name of a great Confession of Faith, improving on the name considerably.  Following this, MacRae helped found Faith T. Seminary, which he said was another great improvement on the name and its emphasis. But, finally, in the forming of Biblical School of Theology (now Biblical T. Seminary), he said they had finally gotten it right! Biblical thus became widely known for its emphasis on learning the BIBLE. This was the legacy of the seminary, and what we alumni chiefly remember of our alma mater. To ask whether Allan MacRae would recognize the school today may be a moot question, and thus must remain unanswered. Nevertheless, for those of us still living, we might reasonably speculate whether we would recognize it. Some of us conclude in the negative.