From: Bill Mounce (billm@teknia.com)
Date: Mon Oct 09 1995 - 23:25:00 EDT
A few comments from a grateful student of I. Howard Marshall.
>Only when he
>sought to gain a doctorate degree from Aberdeen Scotland, Dr. Thomas told him
>not to go, they'll mess you up. But if you have to go, don't go in the
>gospels or you'll really get messed up. At least just go in the epistles.
> He did just that. He was a student of I. Howard Marshall. And he came
>back finding angels all over in every nuance of the epistles, including in
>Colossians 2:8. This is all from an emphasis on extra-biblical research to
>the sacrifice of context.
Howard never told one student what to believe in the 3 1/2 years that I was
there. A student believes what he wants to believe. Howard may give some
guidance, some direction, but it is assumed that you are mature enough to
come to your own conclusions.
> I was included in a small closed conference with Dr. I. Howard Marshall.
> For one and a half hours the 30-40 people there asked him any question they
>wanted. And up to the very end, not one Bible verse was quoted and not one
>verse reference was given. It was all philosophy, psychology, sociology,
>experience, etc. I asked the first and only question that was asked which
>referenced a Bible verse. Everybody else asked about where he thought the
>world or church was moving today.
In the 3 1/2 years I studied with Howard, he quoted lots of Scripture. Much
of an answer depends on the question, but I don't know what the questions
were so I can't comment. I would hasten to point out that Howard is
Scottish, pure Scottish, and there is a world of culture that separates us.
You would be completely wrong if you think you value Scripture more highly
than he, but how you express yourself and how Howard expresses himself are
going to be significantly different because of the culture.
For example, Howard would never make such a gross over-generalization as you
just did, finding angels "all over in every nuance of the epistles."
Obviously your statement is wrong, no one would do this, and perhaps it
would be more helpful to control your maligning of one of the most
significant conservative world scholars today. If you knew who his students
were, the tremendous impact they are having for Christ and his Word
throughout the world, and if you knew how incredibly gracious Howard is and
that he would never consider entering into this discussion as I have, I
think you would wish that you had expressed yourself somewhat differently.
Bill Mounce
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Bill Mounce
Teknia Software
1306 W. Bellwood Drive
Spokane, Wa 99218
AOL: Mounce
CIS: 71540,2140
"It may be Greek to you, but it is life to me."
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