Baptist Faith and Message Revised

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                     Vol. XIII, No. 6, June/July 2000


On Wednesday, 14 June, at 9:15 a.m. in the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, debate began on what will undoubtedly be the most enduring action of the 143^rd Southern Baptist Convention session. Elections, budgets, resolutions, and motions are essential and important, but the great majority of them deal with current operations and issues and are, consequently, forgotten in a few years. Not so with the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM).

While Southern Baptists first came into existence in 1845 over the question whether a slave owner could be a missionary, we did not adopt a statement of faith until 1925. At that time "Modernism", the questioning of biblical accuracy due to "higher criticism" ("dire criticism" would be a more accurate term) and the march of evolution theory was infecting most denominations. The 1925 BFM was adopted to state Baptist beliefs clearly. That statement was not revised until 1963, thirty-eight years later.

During that intervening period liberal theology "crept in unawares" infiltrating SBC seminaries and officialdom without the folks in the pews or even most pastors being aware of it. But progressing it was. One of the central figures in the 1961-63 furor has enlightened us on some of the behind the scenes events. Ralph Elliott was a faculty member of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY, in the late 1950s. In his 1992 book, The Genesis Controversy, he writes,

"A short time before I was elected to the faculty of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary [He was the first faculty member chosen.], Dr. William J. Falls, editor for Broadman Press, the book-publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, visited with the faculty of Southern Seminary in Louisville. He indicated that after due consideration, the editors had decided that it was time for Broadman to publish something that took into account the use of the critical tools in biblical study. Falls said they were looking for authors and manuscripts. ... The book was published on July 1, 1961." [The Genesis Controversy, Mercer University Press, 1992, p. 7-8]

Elliott's 1961 book, The Message of Genesis, threatened to start a firestorm in the SBC between conservatives and liberals. So it was that at the 1962 SBC meeting as a means of preventing a battle, the motion was made and approved that a committee be formed to review the BFM and report to the 1963 convention with proposed changes. From the start the effort was intended to produce a statement everyone could live with, a compromise, and it successfully postponed the battle while the infection of liberalism continued to spread.

Finally in 1979, Adrian Rogers was elected SBC president as the first of a still-continuing series of theological inerrantists committed to returning the SBC to the full authority of God's written Word. In prior years of the conservative resurgence the plate was full to overflowing with the practical necessities of winning elections, achieving majorities on boards, revising policies, and restructuring Convention entities to reduce the bureaucracy that had flowered under liberal leadership. It wasn't until 1999 that the time seemed right to propose studying the BFM with a report to this June's meeting, 37 years after the 1963 revision.

The Baptist Faith and Message has eighteen articles. Most news reports have focussed on one sentence added to Article VI which states, "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture." But this is not the heart of the matter and was not questioned on the convention floor. [Note: Midwestern Seminary is conducting a study of women filling the role of senior pastor. Preliminary results show only 35 women serving in the more than 41,000 SBC churches. Most of these were in NC & VA with 4 in GA, 2 each in TX & MD, and 1 each in KY, HI, & SC.] At the convention attention centered on Article I, The Scriptures.

The 1963 BFM diluted the authority of the Bible by describing the Scriptures as "the record of God's revelation of Himself to Man." The force of that new language was to downgrade the Bible to something written by men recording their understandings of God. The 2000 revision deletes "the record of" which leaves the statement saying "The Holy Bible ... is God's revelation of Himself to man.",

The second major change in Article I concerns the sentence added in 1963 to the end of the article, "The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ." The 2000 version replaces that sentence with, "All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation." Note that the 1963 sentence sounds good but is meaningless, or better, can be made to justify any hermeneutic one wishes. What do we know about Jesus other than what the Bible tells us? The only other possible source would be experience, ours or someone else's. Moreover, that sentence creates a false dichotomy between Christ and the Bible; but God's Son is perfect and God's written Word is perfect as Jesus testified Himself. Jesus Christ cannot be divided from the biblical revelation that is testimony to Him. As Adrian Rogers said at Orlando, "We must not claim a knowledge of Christ that is independent of Scripture or in any way in opposition to Scripture."

Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and a former member of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Coordinating Council, was the first messenger to voice opposition to the revised preamble, making a motion to reinsert some of 1963 BFM preamble into the proposed revision. Wade, a messenger from the First Baptist Church of Arlington, Texas, noted that one issue was whether to "adopt creeds that have mandatory authority."

In answer to debate coming from the floor, members of the study committee defended the preamble and the entire document, as a statement of belief and not a document binding or governing Southern Baptist churches and their members.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, and study committee member, answered Wade's concerns by noting a late addition to the statement that was not a part of the study committee's original version. "We have sought to add adequate clarity by bringing the addition to the preamble that you see before you in the daily bulletin," Mohler said. The addition included statements saying, "Baptists cherish and defend religious liberty ... honor the principles of soul competency and the priesthood of believers, affirming both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other under the Word of God."

Bruce Prescott of First Baptist Church in Norman, OK, spoke for Wade's motion by saying there are differences in the soul competency of the 1963 statement and the soul competency mentioned in the addition to the committee's 2000 statement. Prescott asserted, "He [Jesus Christ] is the criterion by which the Bible is interpreted."

Charles Kelly, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, responded, "We remain accountable to God through the revelation of his Word" and said there is a "new stream" of theology that "has attacked historic Baptist theology related to this position." "Baptists have always believed that the Bible is the judge of our experience and determines the limit of our priesthood," said Kelly. "Baptists have always believed it is the Word of God that filters what I believe, not my personal experience."

Moments later, and while speaking to a defense of Wade's motion that was similar to Prescott's, Richard Land said, "I fully believe that a demonic spirit could come and sit on the foot of my bed tonight and say to me: 'Richard, I am Jesus. And I want to tell you that everybody's going to heaven; you don't have to worry about it anymore.'

"That could be a real experience, but it would be a wrong experience. Why?" asked Land. "Because my experience is judged by Scripture. My experience doesn't stand in judgment of Scripture."

Breaking into the sustained applause from the messengers, Land reiterated his own Southern Baptist seminary experience, saying he was taught a "red letter theology," which was a reference to copies of the Bible that have the words attributed to Jesus Christ printed in red ink. Land said his professors taught that the red lettered words were more important than all other words in the Bible and were "put in opposition" to the writings of the apostles Paul and Peter, "when Jesus Christ, himself, said to the two on the road to Emmaus, 'O, fools and slow of heart not to believe all that prophets have written.' How dare we have a different view of Scripture than Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior?" Land concluded.

Wayne Ward, a messenger from the Crescent Hill Baptist Church, Louisville, KY, and a former professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary when Roy Honeycutt was president there, noted his support for Wade's amendment and his concern by characterizing the study committee as "a hand-picked committee, appointed by the president [Patterson]" and as a "small group, trying to impose its will on rank and file Southern Baptists."

"Rank and file Southern Baptists" voted in their annual meeting last year in Atlanta to give SBC President Paige Patterson the authority to assemble the study committee. Rogers observed in a later interview that, as such, the study committee is a committee of all Southern Baptists, not simply a hand-picked one. The committee was racially, professionally and ecclesiastically diverse, as it consisted of an African, an Asian, a Hispanic-American, as well as pastors, professors, and both genders.

Cky Carrigan of Wake Crossroads Baptist Church in Wake Forest, NC, moved to cease discussion on Wade's amendment. Messengers voted by a margin "far more than two-thirds," said SBC President Paige Patterson, to cease debate and then voted on Wade's motion to amend. Wade's motion failed "overwhelmingly," Patterson said.

A motion was then defeated that would have relaxed the language relating to participation in the Lord's Supper, found in Article 8 of the statement.

Time allotted for discussion of the revised Baptist Faith and Message statement had to be extended first by 10 minutes, and then later by five more.

The most substantive ensuing discussion came in a motion offered by Anthony Sizemore of First Baptist Church of Floydada, TX, who wanted to reinstate a near-exact version of the 1963 preamble. In defending his motion, he said that while the Bible is "true and trustworthy ... the Bible is still just a book."

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is what it all comes down to," Mohler responded. "The issue is whether or not the Bible is the Word of God or whether it is merely a record of God's word," he said over applause. "The Bible is not merely a record, it is the revelation of God.

"It is always a triumphant moment when this convention states clearly its belief that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God. It would be a tremendous tragedy for in this moment Southern Baptists to step back and say something inadequate about Scripture and send a very mixed signal about our most basic belief," continued Mohler.

"Jesus Christ said, himself, of the Scripture: 'These are they that testify of me.' Pray tell, what do we know about Jesus apart from the Scriptures?" Mohler asked. "The Scriptures testify of Christ."

Among concluding discussions in favor of Sizemore's amendment, David Currie, a member of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Coordinating Council and messenger from Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo, TX, noted a passage in the Book of Galatians wherein the author, the apostle Paul, said that he received the gospel by "'revelation from Jesus Christ.' [I am] Glad this committee was not around when Paul received his revelation from Jesus Christ." Currie then noted that some of the committee members' problems were not with Jesus Christ but the apostle Paul.

"Brother Currie, I'm going to, as gently as I can, make a distinction," Land replied. "The apostle Paul was an apostle. He got his revelation by the Holy Spirit of God, and it was inerrant. The illumination and inspiration that we get from the Holy Spirit in our personal experience with Jesus Christ must be guided by holy Scripture because you and I are not apostles, sir."

After a motion to suspend the order of business so the time for discussion could be extended for a third time failed (total time for this item was 55 minutes), the revised Baptist Faith and Message statement was approved. Lee Porter, the SBC's registration secretary, confirmed for journalists working in the press room that about 90 percent of the messengers in the hall at the time of the vote voted in favor of adopting the statement.

 [Note: As a member of the committee I was sitting on the platform. My estimate is that the favorable vote was well over 95%. Second, the entire debate on the BFM is available on either video or audio tape and may be ordered by calling 817-656-1258. Audio tapes cost $7.00 including shipping. The two-video tape package includes the entire BFM 55 minute session plus President Patterson's address, Bailey Smith's convention sermon, all five theme interpretation addresses, and highlights from the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board presentations. The videos bring you six hours of convention activities for $47.50 shipping included. TCP]

Later at the Southern Seminary luncheon president Al Mohler said, "For most of us in this room, this will be the defining revision of the Baptist Faith and Message for our lifetimes. What took place today was a generation of Southern Baptists ... saying these are the definite doctrines that we believe. Virtually every American denomination has been moving progressively to the left. Most denominations in America that have touched their confessions or articles of faith have reduced biblical content, accommodated to the culture, diluted the gospel, and abandoned the total truthfulness of God's Word. At the end of the 20^th century, we understand challenges our forefathers ... could not even have imagined. In light of those challenges we are not going to accommodate to the culture. We are not going to surrender the high ground of biblical authority. We are going to seize it by God's grace. And we are going to say before the world, 'This is what we believe. This is where we stand. And we shall not be moved.'"

Approximately the last two-thirds of the above is from a BP release written by Norm Miller, Communications Coordinator for the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia.