What I Like about Liberals                                                                                      

by   T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                                            Vol. IX, No. 4, April 1996

     As long-term Banner readers will have recognized, there are a number of points where I disagree with liberals, primarily their penchant for playing fast and loose with the Word of God and the notable tendency of a sizable number of them to use words as weapons -- often redefining them as they go along. However, one of their more endearing traits is that in writing to each other they so frequently confirm what conservatives have said for years. Here is a case in point.

     On page two of the January/February [Cooperative Baptist] Fellowship News, Dr. Cecil Sherman, CBF national Executive Director, presents his views on "How Should Baptists Do Theological Education?" Here is his second paragraph:

           Suppose it is 1970. No “controversy” has yet come to the Southern Baptist family. We

        are living at peace and going about our work. Then your pastor resigns. You are asked

        to serve on the search committee. It is an awesome task. Along the way, you turn to one

        of our six seminaries. If your church is very conservative, you might look to

        New Orleans Seminary. If it is a little conservative, you look to Southwestern. If your

        church is a little left of Southern Baptists, you turn to Southern. If it is a little

        further left, try Southeastern.  The other two schools -- Midwestern and Golden Gate --

        are influenced by place. This is an oversimplification, but it illustrates a point: In 1970

        there was a broad range of opinion among churches and a broad range of offerings

        from Southern Baptist seminaries.

     Now let's go back and examine several things Dr. Sherman said. First, Dr. Sherman is wrong to maintain that in 1970 "No 'controversy,' has yet come to the Southern Baptist family." Ralph Elliott was a professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary when in 1961 he published his book, The Message of Genesis. Liberal views in the book raised such a storm of controversy that the Baptist Faith and Message was revised with the new version being approved at the June 1963 convention. And Elliott was forced out of Southern Baptist academia. In fact, in 1992 Elliott published another book titled The Genesis Controversy in which he recounts his experiences during these events. Now while Sherman is correct to the degree that the current controversy is usually dated to 1979, that year actually marked the first outstanding conservative victory after 18 years of spluttering controversy.

     Second, in his evaluations of the six seminaries notice that Dr. Sherman confirms long-standing conservative assertions that Southern was at least "a little left of Southern Baptists" and Southeastern even further left. Bible believing Southern Baptists have pointed out the rampant liberalism at Southern and especially Southeastern for years. It is gratifying now to have Dr. Sherman’s concurrence in kind if not in exact degree.

     Finally, carefully consider the assumption/implication inherent in his last sentence: “In 1970 there was a broad range of opinion among churches and a broad range of offerings from Southern Baptist seminaries." Clearly in context Sherman approves of the way it used to be. This is typical of the liberal mind set. Because they reject the inerrancy and complete authority of the Bible; because they believe it contains errors and contradictions; because they point out (1) it was written by men, (2) all men are fallible, and therefore (3) anything written by men must be in error; and because (4) they deny implicitly if not explicitly that God can so inspire men as to write exactly what He wishes ... for these reasons liberals have no firm foundation, no body of unquestioned truth to which they can turn and to which they can submit their fallible human judgment. And if there is no uniquely certain body of Truth, then a spectrum of "opinion" does make sense.

     BUT, if the Bible is what it claims to be, Jesus said it is, a spectrum of opinion in our seminaries can only represent "doctrinal deviation," which is simply a euphemism for heresy.

     And that is one thing I like about liberals. If you wait long enough and listen carefully enough to what they say to each other, they verify everything we conservatives have been saying was wrong with the “old” SBC. Thank you, Dr. Sherman.