Alva J. McClain (1888-1968) was the co-founder and first president of Grace Theological Seminary and Grace College. He served in that capacity from 1937 until his retirement in 1962, when he was named president emeritus. He was part of the Brethren church. [1]
McClain was born in Aurelia Iowa to Walter Scott McClain and Mary Ellen Gnagey; [2] he was one of eight children.
He attended the University of Washington; a keen sports player, a baseball injury led to him dropping out of college at the age of 20 and working for his father. [3] [4] Two years later he attended a conference led by Louis S. Bauman where he committed his life to Christ and enrolled at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.
He served as professor of Christian theology at GTS. He previously taught at the Philadelphia School of the Bible, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Ashland College, and Ashland Theological Seminary. He and fellow Ashland lecturer Herman A. Hoyt opened the Grace Theological Seminary in 1937. [5]
A widely known lecturer and writer, he was a charter member of the Evangelical Theological Society, served on the Scofield Reference Bible Revision Committee, [6] and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
McClain wrote a number of books [8] including;
Dispensationalism is a theological framework for interpreting the Bible which maintains that history is divided into multiple ages called "dispensations" in which God interacts with his chosen people in different ways. It is often distinguished from covenant theology. These are two competing frameworks of Biblical theology that attempt to explain overall continuity in the Bible. Coining of the term "dispensationalism" has been attributed to Philip Mauro, a critic of the system's teachings, in his 1928 book The Gospel of the Kingdom.
Reformed Baptists, Particular Baptists and Calvinistic Baptists, are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology. Depending on the denomination, Calvinistic Baptists adhere to varying degrees of Reformed theology, ranging from simply embracing the Five Points of Calvinism, to accepting a modified form of federalism; all Calvinistic Baptists reject the classical Reformed teaching on infant baptism. While the Reformed Baptist confessions affirm views of the nature of baptism similar to those of the classical Reformed, they reject infants as the proper subjects of baptism. The first Calvinistic Baptist church was formed in the 1630s. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith is a significant summary of the beliefs of Reformed Baptists. The name "Reformed Baptist" dates from the latter part of the 20th century to denote Baptists who retained Baptist ecclesiology, and reaffirmed Reformed biblical theology, such as Covenant theology.
Charis Alliance is a Christian denomination in the Schwarzenau Brethren tradition of Anabaptism. The word charis is Greek in origin, meaning "grace."
John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. is an American pastor and author who hosts the national Christian radio and television program Grace to You. He has been the pastor of Grace Community Church, a non-denominational church in Sun Valley, California since February 9, 1969. He is currently the chancellor emeritus of The Master's University in Santa Clarita and The Master's Seminary.
IFCA International, formerly the Independent Fundamental Churches of America, is an association of independent Protestant congregations and other church bodies, as well as individual members. It was formed in 1930 in Cicero, Illinois as a successor to the American Conference of Undenominational Churches. The association's name was adopted in 1996.
Malcom Ollie "Mal" Couch, Jr. was the founder and first president of the Tyndale Theological Seminary. He was a pastor, an author of many books, and writer of 40 documentaries on Bible prophecies and biblical issues. While president of Tyndale Theological Seminary Couch recruited some very well known scholars and Bible teachers to teach the student body. Dr. Norman Geisler, Dr. Paige Patterson, Dr. Robert Lightner, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, and Paul Enns were used in the educational endeavors at Tyndale Seminary. After Dr. Couch retired from Tyndale Seminary he became a Vice President of the Scofield Graduate School and Seminary located in Modesto, California.
Geerhardus Johannes Vos was a Dutch-American Calvinist theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical theology.
Daniel Baird Wallace is an American professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, the purpose of which is digitizing all known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament via digital photographs.
Grace Theological Seminary (GTS) is a conservative evangelical Christian seminary located in Winona Lake, Indiana. GTS is now part of Grace College & Seminary and is associated with Charis Fellowship, before 2018 known as the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches. Alva J. McClain, the first president, and Herman A. Hoyt, the second president, founded the seminary in 1937. Its mission statement is: "Grace Theological Seminary is a learning community dedicated to teaching, training, and transforming the whole person for local church and global ministry." The seminary received school accreditation by the North Central Association and has been awarded accreditation by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.
Ben Witherington III is an American Wesleyan-Arminian New Testament scholar. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, a Wesleyan-Holiness seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church.
Bryan Chapell is an American pastor and theologian who currently serves as the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America. He was previously the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois. Prior to that he was president and chancellor of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri for twenty years. Chapell is also an author, lecturer, and conference speaker specializing in homiletics. He served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America in 2014.
Lewis Sperry Chafer was an American theologian. He co-founded Dallas Theological Seminary with his older brother Rollin Thomas Chafer (1868-1940), served as its first president, and was an influential proponent of Christian Dispensationalism in the early 20th century. John Hannah described Chafer as a visionary Bible teacher, a minister of the gospel, a man of prayer with strong piety. One of his students, Charles Caldwell Ryrie, who went on to become a theologian and scholar, stated that Chafer was an evangelist who was also "an eminent theologian."
Robert Laird Harris was a Presbyterian minister, church leader, and Old Testament scholar.
Free grace theology is a Christian soteriological view which holds that the only condition of salvation is faith, excluding good works and perseverance, holding to eternal security. Free grace advocates believe that good works are not necessary to merit, to maintain or to prove salvation, but rather are part of discipleship and the basis for receiving eternal rewards. This soteriological view distinguishes between salvation and discipleship – the call to believe in Christ as Savior and to receive the gift of eternal life, and the call to follow Christ and become an obedient disciple, respectively. Free grace theologians emphasize the absolute freeness of salvation and the possibility of full assurance that is not grounded upon personal performance. Thus, Free Grace theology allows for the salvation of an individual despite moral failings, although the disobedient Christian will face divine discipline. Norman Geisler has divided this view into a moderate form and a more radical form. The moderate form being associated with Charles Ryrie and the strong form with Zane Hodges.
Louis Sylvester Bauman was a Brethren minister, writer, and Bible conference speaker, holding influential leadership in the Brethren Church and the "Grace Brethren" movement which evenly divided the denomination in 1939. He served in several pastorates, in particular the First Brethren Church of Long Beach, California where he was pastor for thirty-four years (1913–1947).
Homer Austin Kent, Jr. taught from 1949 to 1999 at Grace Theological Seminary and Grace College in Winona Lake, IN. While there he taught New Testament and Greek and was Dean of the Seminary from 1962 to 1976 when he became President of Grace College and Seminary until 1986. He has also taught around the world in Israel, France, Central African Republic, Hungary and around the U.S. Not only is he an educator, but he is also authored many books and Bible commentaries.
Grace College & Grace Theological Seminary is a private evangelical Christian college in Winona Lake, Indiana.
Herman A. Hoyt was an American biblical scholar. He was one of the founding professors at Grace Theological Seminary in 1937. In 1962, he became president of Grace College and Seminary, a position he held until his retirement in 1976. His area of specialty was New Testament and Greek, but over the years he taught Hebrew, Old Testament, theology, and homiletics. A prolific writer, his work included major expositions of the books of Romans, Hebrews, and Revelation, along with Brethren ordinances and beliefs and eschatology.
Andrew T. Lincoln is a British New Testament scholar who serves as Emeritus Professor of New Testament at the University of Gloucestershire.