Knox Seminary and Dr. Warren Gage: What Happened?

Posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 10:20 am

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“Don’t blame your brother for the color of his skin
Don’t blame your neighbor for the house he lives in
From the same cloth we are made of,
We are just the same,
You gotta hold up the mirror and share in the blame”

Caedmon’s Call

The one or two of you who happen to read this blog may have been wondering why I have not posted anything in a couple of weeks.  Then again, if you know me, you may already know why.  I am going to take this post and try to explain what I understand, from an insider’s position as a faculty member, to have happened at Knox Theological Seminary over the past two weeks.  Before that explanation there are a couple of things that I should make very clear:

1. No one has reviewed or “ok’ed” this article.  It is composed of my own thoughts, observations and reflections.
2. This blog is owned and operated by me individually.  It is not a part of Knox Theological Seminary or of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.  Any opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
3. I will not descend into the details nor the personalities involved in this conflict.  I will only attempt to lay out the cause, result and ultimate end of this event.

On September 11 Knox Theological Seminary held a board meeting with the purpose of discussing certain charges which had been brought against faculty member Dr. Warren Gage.  These charges had come about as a result of a student, after graduating, going to the dean of faculty and expressing concerns about some of the material in Dr. Gage’s Christianity & Culture classes.

After hearing this complaint, the dean of faculty listened to over 100 hours of taped lecture by Dr. Gage and extracted out certain comments that were thought to be very seriously problematic by the dean.  The dean then showed these extracts to one faculty member for comments and verification as to the seriousness of the difficulties caused by the statements made by Dr. Gage.  That faculty member amended the dean’s comments with footnotes.  Both the original extracts from the dean and the footnoted version were given to the board.

At the September 11 hearing, Dr. Gage was confronted with this material.  He was aware of, and had seen the extracts that the dean had compiled, but had not seen the footnoted version.  After a great deal of discussion and hearing of witnesses from Dr. Gage, the board decided that Dr. Gage did not meet confessional standards.

The board believed that Dr. Gage’s teaching of typology was in violation of the Westminster Confession section 1.9 cited here:

WCF 1:9 WCF 1.9 The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.(1)

(1) 2 Pet. 1:20,21; Acts 15:15,16.

The most important part of the statement, from the board’s standpoint, was the portion in parenthesis.  The board felt that Dr. Gage was allowing for more that one meaning of the Scripture, which violated the confession.

After discussion, the board voted to suspend Dr. Gage (with two votes against) with pay for the rest of the semester until he satisfied several conditions, including agreeing with the one meaning of Scripture.

Dr. Gage had been teaching Sunday School and Preaching on Sunday nights at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.  In an effort to not create more problems than those that were already looming, Dr. Gage voluntarily stepped down from his duties at the church pending a resolution of these matters by the Coral Ridge session.

Knox Theological Seminary is different from most seminaries across the country in that it is under the governance of the session of a local church, and thus eventually, under the governance of the denomination.  The session can oversee and overturn board decisions, which can then be appealed to Presbytery, and eventually General Assembly.

On September 25 a session meeting was called by Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church to examine the charges against Dr. Gage.  In the first hour the board was allowed to make its case in favor of Dr. Gage’s conta-confessionalism. The board argued that Dr. Gage, through his typological approach, was seeing more than one meaning in Scripture, and was seeing things in Scripture that just were not there. This was followed by thirty minutes of questioning.  Next Dr. Gage in one hour presented his defense both by admitting that he had, at times spoken not as clearly as he had liked, but at other times arguing that if the entire lecture had been heard, rather than just a small sound bite, the point would not have been seen as controversial. Dr. Gage apologized for anything that he had said which was seen as being cutting toward any other faculty member (his humor had apparently not translated well to tape) as well as for not being as careful as he might have been when he as explaining certain issues.  Most importantly he stated that he did believe in the one meaning of Scripture when it is properly understood, and said “I could have written Westminster Confession 1.9.” He called several witnesses to his defense.  This was followed by a half hour of questioning for Dr. Gage.

Following this, several members of the board wanted their time extended for a rebuttal.  This question was put to the session, and not wanting rebuttals to go on and on the body decided to stay with the format that was agreed upon from the beginning (one hour each with half and hour for questions each).

Discussion followed and two motions were voted upon by the session:

Unfortunately my e-mail is down right now so I cannot give you the exact wording of the motions but this is the essence:

1. Dr. Warren Gage’s teaching and hermeneutic is within the bounds of the Westminster confession.  –Unanimous, no negative votes
2. Dr. Warren Gage should be reinstated immediately to the classroom. –One negative vote

There were other things that were said and done, many details that I have left out, but I think that I have fairly captured the essentials.  If the board so desired they could refer this matter to Presbytery of South Florida, but I am almost certain that this will not happen.  I believe that the matter is over. 

What then do we learn from this?

1. Satan is alive and well.  There is no question in my mind but that this matter was a satanic work.  Please don’t misunderstand me to be saying that either side was doing the work of Satan, I am not saying that.  I am saying that Satan loves division in the church and he found a method for it here.
2. We should be thankful that we have a board that cares about doctrinal purity enough to put themselves through this kind of action.
3. We should be thankful that we have a professor who submitted to the board and waited for the higher church court to rule in his favor.
4. We should be thankful for Presbyterian church government.  I spent the first 35 years of my life as a Baptist and the reason that I became a Presbyterian is because I believe that it is the government that God has ordained.  I saw that government in action and I was proud to be Presbyterian.
5. We should be thankful to our Lord, who reminds us that all things work together for the good of those who love him.  Let all of us seek to go forward in peace and unity with love for our brothers and sisters, but most of all for Christ and His Church.

For the Lamb,

DrSamLam