THE NEXT GENERATION OF CHRISTIAN HEDONISTS  ROOTS THAT CREATED THE PRESENT AND SECURE THE FUTURE

BY JOHN PIPER

Serious Joy SPRING 2015VOL. VI, NO. 2

A Semi-annual Report to Friends of Bethlehem College & Seminary

EVENT

Bethlehem College & Seminary’s 2015 Commencement Ceremony7pm, Friday, May 15, 2015 

Bethlehem Baptist Church, Downtown Campus 

The Graduating Class, Faculty, and Bethlehem College & Seminary request the honor of your presence at the Fifth Annual Commencement Exercises. Reception to follow.

SAVE THE DATE

Bethlehem 2016 Conference for Pastors & Church Leadership in Partnership with Desiring GodMonday, January 25–Wednesday, January 27, 2016 

Minneapolis Convention Center 

For more information: www.bcsmn.org

Plenary sessions will be anchored by chancel-lor John Piper with other special speakers to be announced. Workshops will focus on pastors, el-ders, worship leaders, women’s ministry leaders, and more.

NEW COURSES

Bethlehem Institute Online

Bethlehem Institute Online is the virtual ex-tension of Bethlehem College & Seminary. We offer a variety of rigorous, God-centered, Bible and theology classes to equip men and women to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

New Online Courses God’s Global Glory and Christian Missions Introduction to Biblical Manhood and Womanhood The Kingdom has Come The Sovereignty of God and the Doctrines of Grace Introduction to Biblical Theology

For more information or to enroll in a class visit www.bcsmn.org/online

RESOURCE

Biblearc$20 off Introduction to Arcing 

June 1–29, biblearc.com/sjdeal

“Arcing … has been the methodological key to all that I have seen in the Bible …” — John Piper

Introduction to Arcing is an online, interactive course teaching you to go deep in the scriptures through the Bible study method called Arcing.

Bethlehem College & Seminary recently received initial accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education. Dr. Ralph Enlow, president of the association, traveled to Bethlehem College & Seminary in April to visit with friends of the school and to present the school’s credentials publicly. In this installment of “Woven Together,” President Tim Tomlinson chats with Dr. Enlow about his own story, his position in higher education, and the future of Christian higher education.

T: Ralph, to begin, what attracted you to the presi-dency of ABHE?

Dr. Enlow: Well, Tim, there is a long version and short version to that answer. Basically, when asked to consider the position of president for the ABHE, I had been involved in the ABHE from the standpoint of membership. My dissertation research was on ac-ademic quality of Bible colleges. I was looking into the assumption that Bible colleges are academically inferior. That is when I became involved in the larg-er dialog of biblical higher education. At first when the board approached me regarding ABHE lead-ership in 2006, I was not particularly interested as involvement in accreditation was not my core pas-sion. But as I thought about it and talked with the board, I realized that accreditation was just one of the many things that the ABHE does. Our primary business is to create and deliver value for our mem-bers and increase the credibility of our member schools. That was far closer to my core passion. The board asked me to lead the ABHE more aggressively in that direction.

T: As you look out from today toward the future, what are the most significant trends you see in bib-lical higher education?

E: Within our sector? I am very encouraged about the trend for new institutions that are being formed out of spiritual movements. The pattern of institutions like those we serve springing up around spiritual movements dates all the way back to the 19th cen-tury founding of Nyack and Moody in the 1880s and a few in the 1870s. These institutions arise out of the combination of significant movement of the spirit, people being drawn toward Christ, and the result-ing desire to study the Bible. Those in vocational

Christian occupations desire to be equipped and mobilized for it. That is what I see in Bethlehem Col-lege & Seminary under the teaching of John Piper. In the ABHE, we have a lot of institutions joining us who are very young and that is exciting. I also see a proliferation of modalities in higher ed-ucation. We have online education and adult degree completion programs. We are also seeing an expan-sion of institutions to the graduate level, and not necessarily with a traditional seminary design. At the same time there are exciting developments with many smaller entities being assimilated into larger institutions; smaller weaker institutions are merg-ing into larger institutions.

T: Given your work under the authority of the U.S. Department of Education (U.S.D.E), have you seen any challenges presented to the God-centered, Bi-ble-focused work of the ABHE?

E: Not so far. Everybody is coming under increas-ingly granular governmental demands, but for us, the U.S.D.E. has been particularly protective of us and the laws that protect our religious mission. Per-haps the most imminent threat for our institutions is in the area of sexuality. If sexual identity becomes a constitutionally protected right, our schools will have to address a host of questions.

T: Are intentionally small schools as viable as these bigger schools, which are assimilating others?

E: I say, “Let a thousand flowers bloom.” The Lord tends to sow a lot of variety. In terms of economic viability, all of our institutions are about three bad decisions away from extinction. One of the most common mistakes than an institution makes is that, instead of maintaining and marketing their distinc-tiveness, they get into a mindset of “we are just as good as x” instead of defining, honing, and market-ing to their own distinctive.

T: What do you see as some of the challenges for smaller, theological schools?

E: Small religious schools used to have an econom-ic advantage as a cheaper educational option, and that is readily disappearing as public policy drives cheaper community college education. Also, there has been an increase of the “commodification of higher education.” By that I am mean, schools are conforming to the idea that “Education is all about my employability,” which, I feel, is a sell-out of the purpose of education in terms of the church’s “per-sonal peace and affluence” ethic that the late Francis Schaffer warned about.

T: To conclude our time today, what hope do you see for Christian higher education?

E: The most hopeful thing I see is that God is going to nurture and nourish us. I am excited to be in-volved in education that is right at the heart of what God wants to do in the world.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

A Conversation with Ralph Enlow

Tim Tomlinson, President, Bethlehem College & Seminary

Worshipers at the 2015 Conference for Pastors

NEWS & EVENTS

I am excited to be involved in education that is right at the heart of what God wants to do in the world.

BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY2

WOVEN TOGETHER: BY TIM TOMLINSON

Students come from far and wide to receive their education in the context of the life and community of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

•

Daniel Simmons, Sophomore in CollegeWorship Leader, Junior & Senior High

Kenzie Abell, Sophomore in CollegeChildren & Family Discipleship, Small Group Leader

34,884 +HOURS OF STUDENT SERVICE

AT BETHLEHEM PER SCHOOL YEAR

Jesse Albrecht, Fourth Year, SeminaryMinistry Assistant, Senior High

198STUDENTS

(2014–2015)

12FACULTY

(FULL-TIME)

Hannah Leake, Sophomore in CollegeKitchen Ministry

Nate Steller, Degree Completion ProgramSenior High, Small Group Leader

Ryan Eagy, Second Year, SeminaryMinistry Assistant to Dan Holst, Campus Pastor

“The interwoven relationship between Bethlehem College & Seminary and Bethlehem Baptist Church may be my favorite distinctive. What a gift to be at a seminary in a church-based context where God stretches my heart and hands as deeply as my mind!”

JOHN SUPICA, THIRD YEAR SEMINARY STUDENT

NEIGHBORHOOD OUTREACH

20+ Ministry Areas: Wednesday Night Connection, Small

Groups, Worship Team, Adult Discipleship, Bethlehem Urban

Initiatives, Bookstore, Nursery, Career Adult Ministry, Children

& Family Discipleship, Barnabas Group, Choir, Communion

Server, Junior & Senior High Ministry, Kitchen Ministry,

Pastoral Assistants, Neighborhood Outreach, Security Team,

Media Ministry, Adult Education, Welcome Ministry

NEWS & EVENTS

SERIOUS JOYSPRING 2015 3

IN ONE ACCORD: CHURCH-BASED

As I look back over the decades of ministry that gave rise to

Bethlehem College & Seminary, there are three ways to de-

scribe how it came to be. Each of these roots will also define the

school’s future.

First, there is the decisive decree of God. He willed this school, and it came to be. The apostle Paul was very jealous that this be clear in his own ministry. So he said to Corinthians: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7). And he said to the Romans, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me” (Romans 15:18). Could it be clearer? God is the decisive reason this school exists. Second, there were persons in God’s hands. I used to say that my main role in the engine of Bethlehem Baptist Church was to be the sparkplug that exploded in the piston chamber once a week. Tom Steller built the transmission, the drive train, the axles, and the wheels. He converted the van (picture as a 1960’s vw with Christian Hedonist decals) into a little school house on wheels. As we drove along he pulled hundreds of lay people into his ltttr classes (Leadership Training Through Theological Reflection), and dozens of young men into his apprenticeship vision. That grew into tbi (The Bethlehem Institute), And tbi grew into Bethlehem College & Seminary. Third, the persons in God’s hands had convictions about how to read the Bible, what kind of God dominated the Bible, and what kind of life flowed out of this Bible-saturated vision of God. Let’s call these convictions: Sacred Book, Sover-eign God, Serious Joy. There would be no Bethlehem College & Seminary without these three convictions. They define who we are.

SACRED BOOK

Tom Steller and I learned together that the Bible is not a string of lovely pearls, but a chain of linked truths. There is a way to read God’s Book that reveals not just the brightness of the links, and the firmness of the linkage, but also the unbreak-able beauty of the entire chain “from him and through him and to him” (Romans 11:36). Bethlehem College & Seminary is designed to teach students how to read like this—read the world, and read the word.

SOVEREIGN GOD

We are not content to read the Bible for the sake of new thoughts, not even the strongest chain of thoughts. We read to know God. “The Lord revealed himself to

THE NEXT GENERATION OF CHRISTIAN HEDONISTSROOTS THAT CREATED THE PRESENT AND SECURE THE FUTURE

BY JOHN  PIPER

Courtney Friesen, PhDThe Bethlehem Institute, Class of 2004

Instructor of Greek, University of Oxford 

Faculty of Theology and Religion

In his research and teaching, Courtney aims at the discovery of a conversation between scripture and the Greco-Roman world in order to gain fresh perspectives on its endur-ing meaning and significance.

Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:21). He revealed himself. By the word of the Lord. God has spoken in his word that we might know his worth. He inspired a book that we might see his beauty. And what we have seen is that he is sovereign. Abso-lutely sovereign. This is the most comprehensive, comforting, and catalytic truth in the world.

SERIOUS JOY

Since God is sovereign, he is never frustrated by limits imposed from outside. He is an invincibly happy God. He knows wrath. And his Spirit can be grieved. But these are purple strokes that make even more beautiful the bright canvass of bril-liant yellows and oranges and reds. Joy is part of who God is, not just what he gives. Eternally, the Father has de-lighted in the glory of his Son, and the Son in the glory of his Father. And now the Son has come into the world that his joy might be in us and ours might be full. This is why the world was made. Because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Joy is a very serious business.

FUTURE

Those three roots of Bethlehem College & Seminary (God, persons, convictions) and those three convictions (Sacred Book, Sovereign God, Serious Joy) define the school’s future. God is alive. We have no reason to think his decree has been rescinded. We believe he wills for us to be, and to be strong. He is raising up persons year after year like those you see in this edition of Serious Joy. And these persons share the convictions that make this school what it is. Tom Steller’s faithfulness for 35 years “entrusting [the truth] to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2), is bearing far-reaching fruit. From where I stand, as chancellor and professor and former spark-plug, the legacy of what we cherish looks sacred and solid. According to the Sacred Book we have every reason in Christ for Serious Joy in our Sovereign God.

John Piper, D.Theol., is Chancellor & Professor of Biblical Exegesis at Bethlehem College & Seminary

Every time we open our mouth we have an opportunity to do what we were created to do. The gift of speaking exists to exalt Him by expressing our enjoyment in Him. Sermon on 2 Corinthians 10:12–18; Bethlehem Baptist Church; March 21, 2015.

Jason Meyer, PhDThe Bethlehem Institute, Class of 2001

Pastor for Preaching and Vision 

Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, MN

BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY4

Stephen Witmer, PhD The Bethlehem Institute, Class of 2000

Pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship 

Pepperell, MA

Steven LeeMaster of Divinity, Bethlehem College & 

Seminary, Class of 2012

Pastor of Small Groups & Community 

Outreach, College Church, Wheaton, IL

“Jesus’ call of discipleship is not a hard, bur-densome calling, but in fact it is an act of love by our Savior. Jesus calls us to give our lives for the gospel so that we can gain the world, and to die to the frivolous pleasures of the world so we can take joy in the most satisfying person in all the universe.” Sermon on John 21:15–25; College Church; February 2015

W.A.The Bethlehem Institute,  

Class of 2003

Gospel Teacher and House  

Church Multiplier, South Asia

Hand Pump Project Manager

“My years at Bethlehem helped shape a vision of ministry where we value the proclamation of the gospel and repentance rooted in joy in God.”

Justin TaylorThe Bethlehem Institute, Class of 2000 

Senior Vice President and Publisher for Books  

at Crossway in Wheaton, IL

The central joy of the new creation is not God’s gifts; it is God himself. Yes, of course we’ll enjoy all the good things, but mostly we’ll enjoy the One who actually makes those good things good.

The goal of biblical spirituality is the goal of the Christian life itself: to glorify God by enjoying fellowship with God, growing in the knowledge of God, and seeking godly conformity to his image and character.Chapel Message, Bethlehem College & Seminary, February 2015.

From Eternity Changes Everything: How to Live Now in the Light of Your Future. London: Good Book Company, 2014

SERIOUS JOYSPRING 2015 5

What Jesus Demands from the World:

Bible Study Book

BRIAN J. TABB

Knowing the Bible Series Daniel:

A 12-week study

TODD WILSON

Killjoys: The Seven Deadly Sins

MARSHALL SEGAL, ED.

Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian

WESLEY HILL

The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses

CHRIS BRUNO

Perspectives on the Extent of the Atonement: 3 Views

ANDREW DAVID NASELLI & MARK SNOEBERGER, ED.

NEW BY FACULTY & ALUMNI AUTHORS

TO STUDY PRACTICE & TEACH: FACULTY & ALUMNI

Remember to select Bethlehem College & Seminary as your charitable organization on AmazonSmile.

A portion of your purchases on Amazon Smile, books or otherwise, will help provide students with 

affordable tuition that lets them launch immediately into ministry without student loan debt.

John Beckman’s JourneyWhen John and his wife Olivia

moved to Minnesota in 1997 with

his freshly minted Stanford Ph.D.

in engineering, their goal was to

get Biblical and cross-cultural

training and then head over-

seas, using their professional

training to reach people whose

governments prohibit them from

hearing the Gospel. So when Beth-lehem Baptist Church started The Bethlehem Institute in 1998, they both joined the inaugural cohort of track 3, which was an M.A. program in mis-sions offered in partnership with the U.S. Center for World Missions. That year, Bethlehem also began track 2, the vocational elder training program that was the precursor to Bethlehem College & Seminary’s M.Div. program.

“As I got to know the track 2 interns,” John said, “I was amazed at them and said to myself, ‘I’ve just got to study Bible with guys like that!’” So after learning the pre-requisite Greek through The Bethlehem Insti-tute’s Tuesday evening Greek class, John matriculated as part of the third

cohort of track 2. In that program he studied Biblical exegesis, preaching, and theology under John Piper, Tom Steller, and Tom Schreiner. “Pastor John and Pastor Tom trained me to study the Bible in Greek using the arcing and sentence-diagramming techniques that had been so fruitful in their own studies. I was hooked! I felt ‘where has this been all my life?’ It was like a fish being released from a fishbowl into the ocean, I had found what I was made for!”

In addition to the classwork, Dr. Beckman also taught Greek and Theological Foundations at The Beth-lehem Institute, writing extensive curriculum materials for both classes as he taught them. Encouraged by his joy in teaching and feedback from his students and pastors, John and Olivia decided that he should pursue a career as a full-time Bible professor rather than as an overseas missionary engi-neering professor. Since Bethlehem College & Seminary did not yet exist, the Beckmans moved to Boston in 2004 in order for John to attend Gor-don-Conwell Theological Seminary before enrolling in a second Ph.D. program, this time in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Har-vard University. Seven years later, he received a sur-prising call from his former pastor and teacher, Tom Steller, now Academic Dean at Bethlehem College & Sem-inary, asking if he would consider teaching at Bethlehem. “It was perfect timing, because I had just completed all of my on-campus obligations at

Harvard,” he noted. So he returned to Bethlehem in the summer of 2011, this time as a faculty member teaching Hebrew language and Old Testament exegesis while working on his doctor-al research on the Hebrew language. As he teaches Hebrew, Dr. Beck-man continually asks himself, “How do I explain the language and drill students in such a way to make it as easy as possible to learn and to re-tain long term?” In pursuit of this, he has switched his first-year Hebrew

course to a flipped educational model in which students watch his lectures before coming to class. This allows him to spend the class time drilling students, constantly asking them to explain not only what the Biblical text means, but also how they know that. Former student, Chris Powers explains that in Beckman’s classroom,

“the progress in Hebrew is natural and the knowledge is lasting.” Students have seen the Hebrew language com-ing to life under Beckman’s teaching because he powerfully combines se-rious academic study with heartfelt worship of God in the classroom. Bethlehem College and Seminary exists to spread a passion for the su-premacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. As part of that mission, Dr. Beckman designs his courses and makes all of his materials freely available so that anyone who knows Hebrew will have all that they need in order to teach Hebrew. His recorded lectures and materials are already being used by professors at several other seminaries,

including seminaries overseas that have translated his materials into Chinese and Russian. And his own students, after being called on to ex-plain the principles of Hebrew and Biblical exegesis to him in class after class, are equipped to teach others all that they have learned from him. “The students we have at Bethlehem are amazing,” John remarks. “When I came to Bethlehem, the reason I start-ed the track 2 internship was because I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to study the Bible with guys like that.’ Now, al-though I am on the opposite side of the desk, it is a dream come true that I still get to study Bible with guys like that.’”

This May, Dr. John Beckman will graduate with his second Ph.D., this time from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. His dissertation, titled “Toward the Meaning of the Biblical Hebrew Piel Stem,” applies linguistic theory and cross-linguistic evidence to the Hebrew verbal system and ex-amines every Piel verb and corresponding Qal in the Old Testament to challenge several cur-rent explanations for the meaning of the Piel stem and to adapt to Hebrew a recent theory re-garding the D stem in Akkadian.

Dr. John Beckman, Ph.D. Professor of Hebrew, Bethlehem College & Seminary

Students have seen the Hebrew language coming to life under Beckman’s teaching because he powerfully combines serious academic study with heartfelt worship of God in the classroom.

BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY6

WE WANT YOU TO KNOW: ADVANCEMENT

$33,000AVG U.S. UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT DEBT

$57,500AVG U.S. GRADUATE STUDENT DEBT 21

YEARS

43AGE

2036YEAR OF LOAN RETIREMENT FOR

AVG 2015 U.S. GRAD

72+28+L

AVERAGE YEARS TO STUDENT LOAN

DEBT RETIREMENT

We provide a high-value, intellectually-rigorous, Christian education in a lean, no-frills environment.

Every resident student receives a Serious Joy Scholarship funded by generous givers.

SEMINARY COLLEGE

Tuition $16,100 $10,700

Serious Joy Scholarship $11,400 $4,940

Net Student Tuition $4,700 $5,760

Percentage of U.S. students graduating with debt

41 million Americans now owe $1.2 trillion in student loan debts.

Student loan debt alone is 36% of an average U.S. graduate’s household’s income.

Pulpits are being filled, ministries staffed, the nations reached, theological scholars established, and various

vocations populated with men and women who know that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

2000

2014

28%

70%

FACT:

Student loan debt creates financial entanglement that constrains ministry.

FACT:

Bethlehem College & Seminary promises debt freedom.

FACT:

We cannot keep this promise of debt freedom without your help.

72 .5% Student Instruction & Facilities

27.5% Administration

0% Institutional Debt Service

SUPPORT MULTIPLE STUDENTS

or a single student’s four-year degree program

$45,600 / $19,760 Seminary / College

SUPPORT ONE STUDENT

for one year of study

$11,400 / $4,940 Seminary / College

JOIN WITH OTHERS

to fund Serious Joy Scholarships

$1,000 / $500 / $250 / $100 Every gift avails much

250 Serious Joy Scholarships are needed each year.

Bethlehem College & Seminary receives no funds from the federal or state governments, no denominational support, a modest amount of cash support from Bethlehem Baptist Church, and no

funding from Desiring God Ministries. The school depends entirely on God and the generosity he stirs in the hearts of his people.

ONLINE CONTRIBUTIONS MAY BE MADE VIA WWW.BCSMN.ORG/DONATE

 / 

SERIOUS JOYSPRING 2015 7

BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY720 13TH AVENUE SOUTHMINNEAPOLIS, MN 55415

Nonprofit OrgU.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 3844Twin Cities, MN

We Thank God for YouIt would be impossible to express my deep thankfulness for all that God did in my life through Bethlehem College & Seminary. I love being a pastor of a small, growing church in Albert Lea, MN. I love the preparation and proc-lamation of preaching God’s word. I love walking through life with God’s people. I’m so grateful to have a congregation to call home and be a gospel outpost to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ in our neighborhoods and the nations. I can do this because of those at Bethlehem College & Seminary. I am standing on the shoulders of professors who pour their lives into students’ academic and spiritual development. I am standing on the shoulders of a mentor in Jason Meyer who would not settle for less than a life- ‐changing relation-ship that remains to this day. I am standing on the shoulders of a group of donors who allow men like me to be trained and immediately sent out without any school debt, even while raising a family. In a few months, Nick Roen (a 4th year seminary student) will graduate and join me in Albert Lea as our worship pastor and is able to do so for similar reasons. God is raising up a band of brothers ready academically, spiritually, and financially to be heralds of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ through Bethlehem College & Seminary. To him be all the glory!

Dave Zulegar, MDiv ‘14Pastor for Preaching, Sojourners Church, Albert Lea, MN

From the President

A Conversation with Ralph Enlow

The Next Generation of Christian Hedonists

by Chancellor John Piper

In One Accord

Grounded in the Local Church

The Journey of John Beckman

IN THIS ISSUE

Serious Joy