How Harvard Went from Calvinism to Liberalism

The Jan.24, 2011 “Church History Timeline” at Christianity.com asks and answers this important and revealing question:

How did America’s great Christian colleges come to abandon their faith and become the secular institutions they are today?

When Harvard College was founded by the Puritans in 1636, they knew well what they wanted from their school. “Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, John 17:3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all found knowledge and Learning…” The great school was intended to produce a godly clergy.

In less than a hundred years, that high ideal faltered. Liberals won control of the school. On this day, January 24, 1722, they appointed Edward Wigglesworth to fill the newly created Thomas Hollis chair at Harvard College. This made Mr. Wigglesworth the first divinity professor commissioned in the American colonies, but what should have been cause for rejoicing was actually reason to mourn.

Read the rest at the link below. It is a valuable lesson for all Christian educational institutions. May we be thankful for Christian schools at all levels that continue to maintain their heritage in faithfulness to God’s Word and to that only foundation of all knowledge.

Harvard Chair Went to Doubting Wigglesworth – Church History and Timeline – Christianity.com.