D. T. I. Honors & Remembers Dr. Colin Smith

Praising the Lord for the Life of Dr. Colin Smith

On Sunday morning, June 22, 2008, Dr. Colin Smith entered suddenly into the presence of the Lord he served so faithfully. While his much loved family and all of us who have been privileged to minister beside him are sorrowing, he is undoubtedly joyfully meeting his Savior and exploring Heaven. As a strategic member of the Piedmont Baptist College and Graduate School Faculty, Dr. Smith powerfully touched our lives. His love for the Lord, for the church, and for excellent and innovative scholarship allowed him to multiply his ministry. Like thousands of others around the world, those of us at Piedmont who were fortunate enough to be in classrooms or conversations with him were forever influenced by Dr. Colin Smith.

Dr. Smith joined the faculty in 2006. He began as an adjunct, teaching Hebrew in a thoroughly innovative hybrid delivery system that combined traditional lectures, audio and video web conferencing, and online course support. He pushed excitedly for this "experiment,” declaring that such combinations would characterize the teaching of the future. His insights allowed the Graduate School to teach Biblical Hebrew in a semester long format that stayed true to good language learning theory while still teaching people in full-time ministry on several continents. His enthusiasm was catching, and we all found ourselves believing that truly outstanding learning could be made available at a distance. In 2007, he joined our full-time faculty and his contributions have been innumerable. He was immediately beloved by his students and respected by his colleagues. In fact, even after such a brief time at Piedmont, the senior class chose him to give the 2009 commencement address and he had agreed to do so.

Colin, as he much preferred to be called, held a BRE from Baptist Bible College of Pennsylvania, an MA from Capital Bible Seminary, and an MA and a PhD from Cornell University. His dissertation was titled: With an Iron Pen and a Diamond Tip: Linguistic Peculiarities in the Book of Jeremiah. Among Dr. Smith’s publications are the following: Old Testament Parsing Guide, The Jussive Form in Jeremiah, Old Testament Model Translation, “Toward a Biblical Market Orientation: Initiating a Scriptural Analysis of a Business Philosophy” in The Journal of Biblical Integration in Business, and “Why Preserve Ancient Words?” in Israel My Glory.

Although his scholarship was undeniable, he didn’t behave or talk like an intellectual, but instead wanted the wisdom of God, the content of the Scriptures, and a good sense of humor to guide his conversation. He had that wonderful but rare skill, found only in true communicators, of being able to take the complex and make it understandable. He loved learning, had a quick mind that made being around him a joy, and demonstrated an inspiring commitment to ministry.

That ministry was varied enough to include church planting, significant scholarly publication, frequent preaching and conference opportunities, international Bible translation work, intensive one-on-one mentoring, and an amazing classroom presentation. Dr. Smith served as an assistant pastor; senior pastor; ALC President – Campus Bible Fellowship, Baptist Mid-Missions; Language Consultant – Bible International, Baptist Mid-Missions; Speaker and Lecturer at Regular Baptist Fellowships; Editorial Assistant – ISIS – Journal of the History of Science Society; Adjunct Professor of Hebrew and Bible; Associate Professor of Bible, and Professor of Bible and Biblical Languages.

He loved his wife, Anita, and their children and grandchildren. In fact, it was difficult to have a conversation in which one of their names didn’t appear. He just recently mentioned that in their family they made it a point to stick together and support the ministries of each other even if it meant sacrifice. It was obvious that for him it was a meaningful and strong commitment. While we sorrow because of their loss and ours, his whole life has been a testimony to the reality that earthly life is simply a prelude to eternity. With that in mind, we do not sorrow as others who have no hope, but join together in thanks to God for the wonderful life and ministry of Dr. Colin Smith.

Author Undisclosed

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{Please leave some comments of memories or thoughts on Dr. Smith}

Book Review: Dispensationalism Tomorrow & Beyond

Cone, Christopher, Gen. Ed., Dispensationalism Tomorrow & Beyond: A Theological Collection in Honor of Charles C. Ryrie, Ft. Worth, TX: Tyndale Seminary Press, 2008.

This book marks the inauguration of Tyndale Theological Seminary’s new ministry of book publication. I happened to stumble across it by mere chance (or providence). Currently, it can only be purchased from Tyndale Seminary Press (click here). I was one of the first few hundreds to get my hands on this treasure. Let me say off gate that every serious Bible student/scholar needs to land this beauty. Some of the contributors consist of Charles C. Ryrie, John C. Whitcomb, Robert L. Thomas, Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Christopher Cone, Michael Stallard, Ron J. Bigalke Jr., and Paul N. Benware. Other fairly newer names or less familiar names (at least to me) whom I was very impressed by were John A. Tucker, S. Jeff Heslop, David Criswell, Charles H. Ray, and Kevin D. Zuber.[1]

Now I had high expectations for this book as I eagerly awaited to receive my copy in the mail. Part of the problem that it has, currently, is that the information about it is somewhat low. I knew that there were many prominent Dispensational contributors, but I didn’t know much about the subject material being covered. Needless to say, my expectations were met, but not in the way I planned. I was expecting to see many issues and articles on the refinement of certain Dispensational views which are being made as a result of the rise of Progressive Dispensationalism and the resurgence of Reformed/Covenant Theology. That was not always the case. So in that way, my expectations were not met.

BUT, the subject matter covered in this piece was “related directly or indirectly to that system of theology” known as Dispensationalism.[2] Articles were used even if they dealt with the remotest parts of the dispensational system. Issues like foreign politics, evangelism, Biblical languages, the emergent church, liberation theology, and the evolutionary influence in psychology are some of the issues dealt with from a Dispensational view point. Sometimes, the link in the article and the system of Dispensationalism is direct. Other times, it seems that the author would rather be known by a system of theology (such as a Dispensationalist) rather than a denomination or such, so the article was added by the mere mentioning of Dispensationalism. In either case, the spectrum of issues covered is vast.

Some of the “pros” to the book was that it was full of solid doctrinal, exegetical, and practical material. Some articles that stick out in my mind are a 2 part series on Daniel 9:24-27 (extremely deep and well exegeted), the temple in Ezekiel, a proper Dispensational view of the Law for the Church, a defense against the Post-Trib argument for “meeting” from 1 Thess. 4:17, and a good synopsis of Dispensational Israelology (by Fruchtenbaum of course, though much more concise than his amazing, larger work Israelology: The Missing Link in Systematic Theology). The content of each article was outstanding. This book will undoubtedly become a great resource for the serious Bible student or scholar seeking to research in the areas covered.

Of course, nothing is perfect. I did have a few “cons” to go with this book. One thing that I did not like about it was the fact that of the 23 articles/chapters, 7 of them were reprinted from scholarly journals like Bibliotheca Sacra, The Journal of Dispensational Theology, and The Conservative Theological Journal, as well as from published books like Evangelical Hermeneutics & Prolegomena: Introductory Notes on Bible Study & Theological Method. Now we are only talking about 30% of the book, but I would have preferred for that 30% to be fresh. I can access these other sources through their original printing.

All in all, I rate this book 5 out of 5 for the serious Bible student or scholar. It needs to be on the shelf of every resolute Dispensationalist. It is that good. Even for the non-Dispensationalists, subjects covered directly to the system of Dispensationalism is clarified and well defended, but there are other articles that are just plain good and practical no matter what system is clung to.

Timothy L. Decker
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[1] I don’t know if it is a Dispensationalist thing, but did it stand out to anyone else that most of these authors display their names with the first and last names completely and in between the initial of their middle name? I even realized I do the exact same thing when I put my name at the bottom of each article. Interesting…
[2] Renald Showers, a quote from a review on the back of the book.