Dockery: Inerrancy is Historic SBC Position

by Norman O. Miller                                                                                           Vol. VII, No. 3, April 1994

"Thelogians must remember that they are never superior to the revelation they explore," said David Dockery, guest lecturer at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary's annual Page lecture series in Wake Forest, NC. Dockery, vice president for academic administration and dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, traced the Southern Baptist Convention's historical position on the authority and inspiration of the Bible from the SBC's establishment in 1845 to the current Southern Baptist view of Scripture.

"Some have asserted that the issue of inerrancy is a recent innovation, but that is just not the case," Dockery said. "The historic Southern Baptist position was the commonly held conviction that the Bible is the inspired, written, and authoritative Word of God." Dockery noted the "theological and political struggles" in the SBC during the last 14 years, saying, "The focal point of the struggle has been the affirmation or denial of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, and the Southern Baptist convention of the '90s has clearly decided that inerrancy cannot be ignored, de-emphasized, or eliminated from the discussion. ... Theology is the bottom-line issue, and the core of that is the issue of the doctrine of Scripture."

Invoking the insight of the founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas, B. H. Carroll, Dockery told his audience of more than 600 people, "Much of the motivation for change in the SBC over the past two decades reflects Carroll's belief that churches and schools rise or fall according to their understanding of inspiration. I think we need to recognize, however, that our Baptist heritage has more than one stream to it, but there is one overriding stream – a stream which is strongly confessional, strongly evangelical, and it needs to be re-examined and reclaimed," Dockery said. "There is a major consensus reasserting itself now at the end of the 20th century, and the center of that consensus is built upon a strong affirmation of Scripture."