Mohler Emphasizes Seminary Doctrinal Statement

by Pat Cole                                                                                                                                                  Vol. VI, No. 8, October 1993

During a convocation address opening fall semester classes at Southern Seminary, Louisville, KY, seminary President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. said Southern is a "precommitted institution" on matters of doctrine. "Teachers here should expose students to the full array of modern variants of thought related to their course of study," he said. "But these options are not value neutral. The standard of judgment is found within the parameters of the Abstract."

In the Abstract, Mohler added, "is found the standard for confessional fidelity to the churches and the denomination, for these fields of study and research are conducted by those who have established their own confessional commitments and who make these plain and evident to those who come here to study and to learn."

The Abstract was written by the seminary's founders in 1858, one year before the school was established as Southern Baptists' first institution. All faculty members at the school must agree "to teach in accordance with and not contrary to" the document. Every tenured faculty member in the history of Southern has signed the original copy of the Abstract.

In his address Mohler, who became Southern's ninth president 1 August, identified four "operative convictions" which are revealed in the Abstract and in "the testimony of those who framed the confession":

– “Truth is always confronted with error, and the doctrinal depository of the church is always in danger of compromise."

– "A confession of faith is a necessary and instrumental safeguard against theological atrophy or error."

– "A theological institution bears a unique responsibility to protect the integrity of the gospel..."

– "Those who teach the ministry bear the greatest burden of accountability to the churches and to the denomination."

Seminary founder James Boyce believed that a professor espousing false teachings in a seminary could have ruinous implications for the denomination, Mohler said. Therefore, Boyce attempted to safeguard the institution against heresy, Mohler observed. "The faculty at Southern seminary would be held to a standard higher than that required of the churches, higher than that required of students, higher than that required of those who would teach at many sister institutions..." Mohler noted that his call to focus on the historic doctrines expressed in the Abstract comes at a time when Southern Baptists are putting less emphasis on theological matters. "As Southern Baptists, we are in danger of becoming God's most unembarrassed pragmatists – much more enamored with statistics than invested in theological substance," he said.

The Abstract of Principles is a reminder to the seminary of its responsibility to Southern Baptists, said Mohler. "We bear the collective responsibility to call this denomination back to itself and its doctrinal inheritance. This is a true reformation and revival that only the sovereign God can accomplish, but we must strive to be acceptable and useable instruments of that renewal."