FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

Excerpts from the inaugural address of R. Albert Mohler, Jr., as president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 15 October 1993.

... Our age is reflexively a-theological. But the Christian faith is founded upon the Christian truth claim. Christianity is a faith based upon a distinct and unapologetic claim to revealed truth - to truth revealed by the Sovereign Lord God of the universe through His Son, the Christ, and through His written Word, the Holy Scripture. That is inherently and inescapably theological, and that theology must not be mere knowledge about God, but knowledge of God. The truly theological is inevitably doxological [having the character of praise] as well, giving honor and glory to God.

That claim to knowledge of God and knowledge about God and His truth has been swept aside in some circles by the acids of modernity and in others by the allure of pragmatism. Whichever the cause, the result is an eventual abdication of the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

...This is, as I have often described the Seminary, a precommitted institution. We do not teach and operate in a value-neutral environment. The eternal truths of the Christian faith are not up for question or deconstruction.

We are precommitted to the truths revealed in Holy Scripture. We are precommitted to the churches we serve. We are precommitted to the confession we sign and pledge and honor. With confidence and honesty, we will investigate all relevant disciplines and make our students aware of those who stand where we cannot stand. Our students must be fully and honestly armed for the battle they will face.

As E. Y. Mullins, this institution's fourth president, stated in his own inaugural address, Southern Seminary "stands for certain fixed and definite teachings. In an age of doctrinal unrest, it is fortunate that the school is anchored to the great and eternal realities and triumphant certainties of doctrine." ...

In reality, all institutions are precommitted - committed in one manner or another. The question is to what convictional claim and world view is the institution committed? The secular academy is not uncommitted. Many institutions are fervently and evangelistically committed to anti-supernaturalism and a host of competing ideologies. We will not apologize for our own theological and moral precommitments.

Nor will we apologize for the primacy within our curriculum and structure given to the study of Holy Scripture. Our purpose, is to ensure that all students are equipped as servants of the Word, capable and faithful teachers and preachers of the Bible. This institution was the first graduate seminary in the nation to offer instruction in the English Bible, though it was soon joined by virtually all others. Southern Seminary remains committed to a curriculum and a course of learning directed toward the study of Scripture in the original languages, and in English, that graduates might know the Word of God, and be equipped to teach and preach that Word.

Upon his return to Southern Seminary in 1879, Basil Manly, Jr., stated that "Every school and department of the Seminary is mainly valuable as it promotes the elucidation of the Word of God, and the practical application of its teachings. Nor do we fear being charged with bibliolatry in giving the Bible this central, dominant place in our system and in our affections."

Furthermore, said Manly:

If we were required to specify the one central object which should be aimed at by ail concerned with a Theological Seminary, it must be stated, I think, as a practical knowledge of Scripture. Without obtaining that, we might do much and yet do nothing. We might gather numbers, form a wealthy corporation, and yet spread only a deathly, withering influence among the churches....

As we look to develop and pioneer a new model of excellence for true Christian scholarship at the end of the twentieth century, we should look back to the defining marks E. Y. Mullins listed as the last century passed into memory. True Christian scholarship, Mullins stipulated, "will ever seek to be reverent, humble, teachable, accurate, patient, laborious, candid, believing, fearless, judicial, constructive, evangelical." Those marks are worthy of our commitments in this generation as well."...

The full picture is not yet clear, but this much is certain and it is our public pledge: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will be aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention in partnership, identity, and purpose.

We will work together toward denominational renewal and progress, and we will work in concerted strategy with our fellow denominational agencies and institutions in a spirit of cooperation rather than competition.