By Philip LaFountain
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
John 14:6
In Joshua 4:1-8 God commands the Israelites to cross the Jordon River which He has stopped miraculously to occupy the Promised Land which he had given to them. The 12 tribes of Israel gather boulders from the riverbed and erect them as “memorial” to the great deed of Yahweh. They were to be a reminder to Israel of God’s great love and assistance. Yet, they were not to be a witness to that generation alone, but also for future generations! So that when their children ask, “What do these stones mean?”, Israel can retell the great story of God’s deliverance and gift of land and home. Today, God still calls us to set up memorials and to remind our children of His great blessings. These “memorials” remind future generations of a God who delivers and saves, a God who does miraculous things in our midst, so that faith in God may be renewed.
There are memorials also at Eastern Nazarene College. Two bronze plaques can be found attached to the brick pilasters at the main entrance gate on Elm Ave. They are a clear historical testament to this college’s vision and mission. These inscriptions provide both the foundational intent and a generational vision for the Institution to follow. In the early days of ENC, plaques like these were a wonderful gift of remembrance, testimony, and rededication given by the Class of 1938. The lamp with a flame placed in the forefront of the plaque speaks to the richness of our Pentecostal Holiness tradition. The flame supplied by the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit provides light. This illumination shines forth a vision of a sanctified pathway for all of life. The lamp resting on the Bible, the Eternal Truth of God’s Word, offers knowledge, and to knowledge, understanding. Both the lamp and the Eternal Word are at the forefront of what appears to be the globe.
This powerful memorial captures the missional aspect of our college: an Institution set apart to provide life to a dying world; life which is found in the truth of Holy Scripture, revealed and illuminated by the Spirit of Holiness. These symbols of the biblical truth declare that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” ENC will thrive only when Jesus and His Gospel is central to everything we do. Too often Jesus is forgotten, or only an addendum to what we do at ENC. This often plays out in the classroom as we engage our “secular” disciplines and see the Gospel as a supplement to our “rational” approach to education, rather than a critical critique of those disciplines.
“Reclaiming Our Heritage” is a call to embody Jesus the Christ as the ONLY “Way, Truth, and Life” in every classroom, office, dorm room, and boardroom at ENC. Thus, ‘Christian’ in Christian Education means to submit all human thinking, all human knowledge, to be judged by the Gospel of Truth. We believe that only on this basis can ENC succeed in its vision to provide “transformational education”.