December 1, 1999
Wade responds to BGCT critics
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___DALLAS--Accusations that the Baptist General Convention of Texas does not believe the Bible and is captive to American "culture" because of its reaffirmation of the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message cause concern for Charles Wade.
___Wade, executive director-elect of the 2.7-million-member BGCT, has released a statement which is being mailed to all churches and pastors after leaders of the Southern Baptist
CHARLES WADE
Convention and Southern Baptists of Texas Convention made recent accusations about the BGCT's position.
___ The complete text of Charles Wade's letter to Texas Baptist pastors and churches is posted here.
___ Last month, messengers to the BGCT annual session in El Paso affirmed the 1963 version of the Baptist Faith & Message without including a controversial article on family adopted by the SBC in 1998.
___That article says, in part, that husbands should be the heads of their families and wives should graciously submit to the servant leadership of their husbands.
___Failure to affirm this statement on family indicates the BGCT has an argument with the Apostle Paul and wants to accommodate culture more than abide by the Bible, leaders of both the SBC and the SBTC said afterward.
___In responding to those criticisms, Wade said he is not speaking for the Baptists of Texas, but is seeking to "express what I understand to be the meaning of our decision" in El Paso to reaffirm the 1963 statement unamended.
___Wade expressed concern about how the Baptist Faith & Message "is now being used in Baptist life.
___"Contrary to the clear disclaimer in the preamble, the Baptist Faith & Message is now being used as a convenient vehicle to take away Baptist freedom of conscience and the God-given right to an uncoerced faith," he said.
___The discussion among the various groups of Baptists, he said, "is not about whether one believes the Bible or not. The discussion has been about how Baptists interpret the Bible."
___"Baptists acknowledge no creed or confession of faith to have coercive power over the conscience of the believer. We have no creed but the Bible itself," Wade asserted.
___"Confessions of faith have value in giving a concise and comprehensive overview of those truths deemed most crucial for believers and in seeking to make clear what is unique or distinctive about the doctrines of a particular church or gathering of churches."
___But, Wade emphasized, "the traditional Baptist understanding is those statements must not be used to insist on a spiritual and intellectual conformity."
___He acknowledged Baptists have the right to "revise, amend, add to or subtract from their confessions of faith, but we do not have the right to do that to Scripture. The Bible stands above all confessions or creeds that seek to explain it."
___Wade quoted from the preamble to the Baptist Faith & Message and noted that it affirms "that the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is the Scriptures ... . Confessions are only guides in interpretation, having no authority over the conscience. (They) are statements of religious convictions, drawn from the Scriptures and are not to be used to hamper freedom of thought or investigation in other realms of life."
___The current discussion, Wade said, "is a powerful reminder of what happens when God's truth becomes captive to religious power. People are put into the position of having to agree with a teaching that they may be able to affirm in its essence but have serious reservations about when stated in certain ways or when important truths are overlooked or de-emphasized."
___A "perfect example" of the problem is the SBC's newly added article on family, he said.
___"The article is not wrong in what it says, but is limited because it does not fully say what the Bible says."
___"The Bible says we are to submit to one another out of reverence to Christ (Ephesians 5:21). The problem many Baptists have with Article 18 is not that it calls for women to submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22) but that it says nothing about the husband's responsibility to follow the admonition of Ephesians 5:21 and submit to his wife," Wade said.
___"Some insist that the Ephesian text specifically says that the wife should submit to her husband but does not specifically say a husband should submit to his wife. However, using this line of reasoning, one would have to say that since the wife is not specifically asked to love her husband, it is not important to her to do so."
___Jesus "asked all of us to put the other first, to serve one another and to love one another," Wade said. "Christians, both men and women, are called to do both: to submit and to love." He cited Matthew 20:25-28 and John 13:34-35 as examples.
___Noting that those who disagree with the article adopted by the SBC are said not to believe the Bible and are captive to culture, Wade said it seems to him the view of mutual submission "expresses a fuller and more profound biblical position and is a genuine reflection of Christ's attitude toward women."
___Wade said the Baptists he knows "gladly bring their doctrine, their preaching, their lives under the authority of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, which are everywhere true and trustworthy."
___"The discussion going on among Baptists just now provides an opportunity for Baptists to ask themselves, 'Do we want to be faithful to Scripture ... all of Scripture ... or do we wish to be coerced into doctrinal positions about which we have another insight?"
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