Study Group Targets Theological Revisionism

by  Al Tolson                                                                                                                                               Vol. VI, No. 8, October 1993

The Baptist Faith and Message is "the normative expression of Southern Baptist belief," an SBC theological study committee has declared in an initial draft of its report.

But: The committee cited "several issues of contemporary urgency," such as everyone-will-be-saved universalism, feminist theologies, and the New Age Movement, that require a fresh assertion of Southern Baptist conviction,

The theological study committee is one of nine groups created by SBC Presidet H, Edwin Young last fall to do a sweeping study of the convention. The study groups are still working. The theological study committee's co-chairmen, Timothy George, dean of Samford University's Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, AL, and Roy L. Honeycutt, just retired president of Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY, in releasing an initial report June 4, wrote in a cover letter to Young:

"...we acknowledge the fallible character of our best efforts and earnestly seek constructive critique and additional counsel concerning the report. We shall consider carefully all input received during this process of reception and submit a final draft of our report to you prior to the 1994 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando."

The committee in its report said it "affirms and honors The Baptist Faith and Message, as overwhelmingly adopted by the 1963 Convention, embraced by millions of faithful Southern Baptists and their churches, affirmed by successive Convention sessions, and adopted by SBC agencies, as the normative expression of Southern Baptist belief,"

But the committee, in a section on "Holy Scripture," also:

– stated: "Southern Baptists have affirmed repeatedly and decisively an unswerving commitment to the divine inspiration and truthfulness of Holy Scripture, the Word of God revealed in written form. We believe that what the Bible says, God says. What the Bible says happened, really happened. Every miracle, every event, in every one of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments is true and trustworthy."

– stated: "We commend to all Baptist educational institutions and agencies, the (SBC) Report of the Peace committee (1987), the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978), and the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics (1982) as biblically grounded and sound guides worthy of respect in setting forth a high view of Scripture."

– reiterated the Peace Committee's listing of such central Southern Baptist beliefs as Adam and Eve as real people; authorship of biblical writings by the authors stated in Scripture; biblical miracles as factual events; and the historical accuracy of the Bible's various narratives.

– quoted James M, Frost, the first president of the SBC's Sunday School board, as saying in 1900: "We accept the Scriptures as an all-sufficient and infallible rule of faith and practice, and insist upon the absolute inerrancy and sole authority of the Word of God. We recognize at this point no room for division, either of practice or belief, or even sentiment."

Elsewhere in the report the committee:

– affirmed "The priesthood of all believers," but said: "Being Baptist means faith as well as freedom. Christian liberty should not become a "license for the masking of unbelief." The committee said "doctrinal minimalism and theological revision must not be "left unchecked." In another section of the report the committee said “... the priesthood of all believers is exercised within a committed community of fellow believers-priests who share a like precious faith." That priesthood "should not be reduced to modern individualism nor used as a cover for theological revisionism."

– targeted feminist-oriented theology, stating: "Baptists affirm that God has revealed Himself as the Father of the redeemed. Jesus characteristically addressed God as His Fa-ther, and instructed His disciples to do the same. We have no right to reject God's own name for Himself, nor to employ impersonal or feminine names in order to placate modern sensitivities."

– targeted "process theology" and its view of God as limited by history and space. "We reject any effort to redefine God as a limited deity," the committee said.

– squarely reminded: "All human beingsin all places and of all ages – are lost but for salvation through Jesus Christ. He is the only hope of salvation and the only Savior.... Baptists must reject any and all forms of universalism ... and reject calls – ancient and modern – for redefining Christ's reconciling work as merely subjective illustrative ."

On eternal matters the committee added: ".,.the redeemed shall be forever with the Lord in heaven, a place of light and glory beyond description, and the lost shall be forever with the devil in hell, a place of utter darkness and inexpressible anguish."