Teaching with a Pastoral Heart

 A Salute to Ron Youngblood

Ronald Youngblood, professor of Old Testament at Bethel Seminary San Diego, retired in 2001. He was a teacher, preacher, lecturer, interim pastor, and editor for 40 years. He was a translator and editor for the New International Version Bible, a member of the Executive Committee on Bible Translation, and executive editor of the New International Reader’s Version Bible. He edited the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and was the author and editor of numerous other books, commentaries, reference works, scholarly articles, and book reviews in the general field of biblical studies. Youngblood holds a B.A from Valparaiso University, a B.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning.

On October 27, the Chinese Bible Church of San Diego hosted a retirement banquet in Youngblood’s honor. The event included tributes from spokespersons for the 29 students from this church who have been trained and mentored by Youngblood in recent years. A number of these students have already graduated and are serving as pastors, missionaries, and scholars. The following tribute was written by Morley Su, who came to the U.S. from Taiwan 20 years ago, and is now a U.S. citizen residing in San Diego and an M.Div. student at Bethel Seminary San Diego. Su assumes all responsibility for quotations by Dr. Youngblood in this article.

by Morley Su

Someone once asked me, “Do you really want a teaching career? Look at Dr. Youngblood! A man of his caliber still teaches entry-level hermeneutics after a 40-year career. It must be routine and boring for him.” The funny thing is that it is exactly the same question I asked Dr. Youngblood when I took his class my first quarter at Bethel. He answered with his trademark big smile, “No, it is not boring at all. On the contrary, I have always looked forward to teaching new students, for they bring a fresh air of inquiries.” Dr. Youngblood teaches with a pastoral heart.

At the end of one hermeneutics class, after quoting from the Bible, Dr. Youngblood closed it, looked up at us, and with a deep passion in his eyes, said, “This is life, the Word of God. Believe me, it is real and it keeps us alive.” His witness is very encouraging. After all the text criticism, redaction criticism, form criticism, upper criticism, lower criticism, etc., it is assuring to hear firsthand that the knowledgeable professor still is firm in his faith. We learned that faith is the foundation and prerequisite of proper hermeneutics. At first, I was not comfortable with this principle, because it seems self-serving. You have to believe in order to interpret it right, but if you believe, how can you interpret objectively? Dr. Youngblood shows us how faith and objectivity can work together. He will not hesitate to admit what he does not know or where the Bible is unclear. Honesty and humility will not hurt the credibility of Scripture; on the contrary, they demonstrate its sanctifying power against corrupted human pride. Dr. Youngblood teaches with integrity.

 During his retirement address at the 2001 Bethel Seminary San Diego graduation ceremony, Dr. Youngblood told stories about lifeguards saving him from drowning as “bookends” for the first 60 years of his Christian life. He was rescued from a swimming pool when he was nine years old and was rescued again at age 69 when he was swimming in the ocean off the Caribbean island of St. Croix. He concluded that although angels may not always wear white, they might sometimes be wearing swimming trunks. He witnessed that God still works miracles today. After his recent trip to Portugal, where he heralded the publication of a contemporary Portuguese Bible, he told his students that the Portuguese are prosperous due to their charismatic nature and that he believes the Lord’s heart must be very pleased. His comments caught me by surprise—an Old Testament professor thinks being charismatic can be pleasing to our Lord? What a breeze of refreshing air and what an attitude of openness toward God’s doings! Dr. Youngblood teaches with a heart for the Lord. “Jesus has gone ahead of us into Galilee, and you will find him there.” Addressing the graduates of 2001, Dr. Youngblood assured the next generation of God’s servants with these words from Mark 16:7. He himself also has gone ahead of us into Galilee, and he has taught with a genuine life, as he best knows how. He has taught, and may his “Timothys” learn and follow his footsteps. We salute our teacher for his 40 years of role modeling, yet we cheer him on to follow Caleb’s spirit: “So here I am today, 85 years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then” (Joshua 14:11). After all, Dr. Youngblood, from Caleb’s point of view, you are still quite young-blooded!