Conference of Biblical Training Centers

The Association conference Bible-training centers e. V. (KBA) based in Bergneustadt was founded in 2000 and is an amalgamation of evangelical Bible schools , theological seminars and universities , mainly from German-speaking countries.

In 2003, KBA had 31 theological training centers with around 1,700 full-time students, and in 2018, 35 study centers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and France. These aim to promote training in evangelical theology .

Annual meetings are held which are organized by one of the member organizations and which serve the thematic work.

Belief base

The member institutions share a common belief. This confession emphasizes the divine inspiration and infallibility of the entire Bible , the unity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the "utter sinfulness of human nature" as well as "the eternal loss of unsaved man" and the personal acceptance of faith (conversion). Further positions include the deity of Jesus Christ, his virgin birth and death on the cross, his bodily resurrection, ascension and present exaltation to the right hand of God as well as his second coming - old church or Reformation dogmas, such as those expressed in the Apostles' Creed .

The KBA sees the congregation as an assembly of believers and makes the missionary order one of its key messages.

Historical development

The conference was founded in 1963 on the initiative of Heinrich Jochums , director of the Evangelical Society for Germany . Ten leaders and teachers from three Bible schools (Brake, Hagen and Wuppertal) attended the first meeting.

The reason for this meeting, however, was the assessment of those involved "that the theological faculties of the German universities were in a desolate situation with their theology that was critical of the Bible". At this first meeting it was decided to hold an annual meeting to which all Bible schools professing the beliefs set out above would be invited.

Pastor Jochum, who founded the Bibelseminar Wuppertal in 1960 and was the organizer of so-called "preachers' ranks", took the "lack of employees in the work of the Lord and the ever growing doubts about the authority of the Holy Scriptures" as an opportunity to look for like-minded people. The idea of ​​having a regular meeting grew over the next three years.

The first conference took place on November 11, 1964 at the Bibelseminar in Wuppertal. Since then, this conference has been held every November. The host is always a different training facility.

Conference of seminaries and teachers who believe in the Bible

In 1965 the name “Conference of Bible-believing Seminars and Teachers” was given, and the name said it all. In addition to training centers, individual lecturers could also become members. Anyone who did not want to become a member could attend the conference as a guest. Trans World Radio adopted the creed as the basis of belief . They deliberately did not want to formulate their own basis of faith in order to express the bond with the worldwide Christianity, which represents the same creed. 15 training centers took part in the 1965 conference.

Today's name and structure

In 1975 it was decided to change the name to "Conference on Biblical Training Centers". The conference became more and more a permanent institution. The number of members grew. In 1989 a statute was passed that gave the conference a fixed order, with a chairman and a seven-person board, elected by the member schools according to a proportional key.

The KBA has been a registered association since 2000, to which theological study institutions (theological seminars, Bible schools, theological academies, short Bible schools etc.) in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and France belong. Today, training centers can only become members of the KBA if they comply with the basic beliefs. Individual membership has been a thing of the past since the e. V. is no longer possible, but there is still guest status.

Stephan Holthaus has been the chairman since 2018 .

aims

If there were no fixed objectives for the conference at the beginning, the various letters and minutes from the beginning make it very clear which objectives the participants pursued:

1. "the preparation for awakening missionary preaching"
2. "the formation on the basis of the whole of Holy Scripture as the reliable and infallible Word of God"
3. "the rejection of any kind of biblical criticism"

Discussion of objectives

The last point in particular has led to controversy recently. The focus of the discussion are two lecturers from the theological seminar of the Liebenzeller Mission, the director Heinzpeter Hempelmann and the Old Testament scholar Erich Scheurer. According to the criticism, it is not recognizable that Scheurer differs from the literary-critical majority opinion of the state theological universities, complains and others. a. Walter Hilbrands , lecturer at the Free Theological University (FTH) Gießen . The Breckerfeld Biblical Center criticizes the fact that doubts about the authorship of a biblical book are the beginning of a movement that leads away from the message of the Bible. Breckerfeld separated from the KBA as a result of the ongoing dispute, but has since returned as an observer.

In addition, the recognition of the Chicago Declaration was a point of contention: Hempelmann attacked the Chicago Declaration on the inerrancy of the Bible, passed by Evangelicals in 1978. In doing so, he reacted to previous public attacks by various theologians (Gassmann, R. Möller) who had questioned the theological straightforwardness of the Liebenzell school.

Web links

• Official website

See also

• List of organizations related to the German Evangelical Alliance

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 31 evangelical training centers in Germany and Switzerland agree ( Memento of December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 924 kB), Idea Spectrum No. 49, 2003
2. ↑ Current list of the associated training centers , kbaonline.de
3. ↑ 50 years KBA: Evangelical theologian training a success story , idea.de, news from November 25, 2014.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Evangelical training centers: pastor's office is in a crisis , idea.de, article from November 30, 2018.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} KBA eV belief base, kbaonline.de, accessed on September 18, 2019.
6. ↑ ^{a b} History of the EGfD ( Memento from February 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Evangelical Society for Germany) and Pastor Heinrich Jochum
7. ↑ ^{a b} Article by Wilhelm Faix: Development of the KBA ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ ^{a b} Article by Wilhelm Faix: Fundamentals and goals of the KBA ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
9. ^ Website of Trans-World-Radio ( Memento of January 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) / Historical development of the station.
10. ↑ Summary of the discussion in one page no longer available , search in web archives: paper (PDF; 69 kB) of the Protestant Church Congress 2007
11. ↑ ^{a b c} from: Idea Spectrum No. 10 ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.3 MB) 2003 (article by Macus Mockler)