June 12, 2000

Debate over Baptist Faith & Message Statement
focused on authority of Jesus vs. the Bible
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___ORLANDO, Fla.--It was Jesus versus the Bible.
___After months of speculation about proposed changes to the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Faith & Message statement, debate on the convention floor June 14 focused on the relative authority of Jesus and the Bible.
___The recommendations of a blue-ribbon study committee appointed by SBC President Paige Patterson were overwhelmingly approved by convention messengers, who soundly defeated three attempted amendments.
___Leading Baptist moderates and conservatives alike agreed afterward that the debate clearly capsulized the tensions that have torn apart the SBC over the last 20 years. The moment was, in this sense, the culmination of the battle for the Bible launched in Houston in 1979, critics and supporters agreed.
___From one perspective, Southern Baptists have cemented their conviction that the Bible is the supreme revelation of God and Jesus Christ. From another perspective, the SBC has elevated the Bible to be more sacred and authoritative than Jesus.
___ "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what it all comes down to. The issue is whether the Bible is the word of God or merely a record of God's word," Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said from the platform at one point during the debate. Mohler was a prominent member of the SBC study committee.
___He was responding to a motion from the floor by Anthony Sizemore of First Baptist Church in Floydada, Texas, who attempted to restore the Baptist Faith & Message section on Scripture to its 1963 language rather than the language proposed by the study committee.
___The 1963 version described the Bible as "the record of God's revelation of himself to man," while the new version said the Bible "is God's revelation of himself to man." The 1963 version identified Jesus as "the criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted," while the new version said, "All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is himself the focus of divine revelation."
___ "The Bible is not merely a record," Mohler said to a standing ovation from convention messengers. "It is the revelation of God. It is always a triumphant moment when this convention states clearly its belief that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible word of God. … Pray tell, what do we know of Jesus apart from Scriptures?"
___ Sizemore and others argued that the committee's proposed changes elevated the Bible above Jesus.
___ "I believe the Bible is God's word, and I strive to obey the standards it prescribes," Sizemore said. "The Bible is a book we can trust. … That being said, the Bible is still just a book. Christians are supposed to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, not a book.
___ "I implore the messengers of this Southern Baptist Convention to look closely at a major doctrinal change" found in the committee's proposal, Sizemore added. "For one must see that the Bible is a record of what Christ has done. Christ is the revelation of God. He is not the focus of divine revelation. … We must be careful not to elevate the written word above the one to whom it points."
___ Sizemore's point was supported by David Currie, a member of Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas, and executive director of Texas Baptists Committed.
___ Currie related how he had become a Christian as a child through the work of the Holy Spirit convicting him of his sin, even though he knew little of what the Bible said.
___ "In Galatians, Paul said, 'I want you to know, brothers, this gospel I preach was not something I made up, … rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ,'" Currie said. "I'm glad this committee was not around when Paul received his revelation from Jesus Christ."
___ Currie's comment drew a sharp retort from Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and a member of the SBC study committee.
___ "The Apostle Paul was an apostle," Land said. "The illumination we get from the Holy Spirit must be guided by Scripture because you and I are not apostles, sir."
___ Sizemore's amendment was soundly rejected by messengers, as was an earlier amendment proposed by Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___ Wade had suggested restoring two paragraphs from the preamble to the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message.
___ The study committee had begun the morning by offering an additional two sentences to the preamble inserting the words "soul competency" and "priesthood of believers" but noting that these liberties should be tempered by "our accountability to each other under the word of God."
___ Wade proposed going a step further toward the 1963 preamble by reinserting these sentences: "Baptists are a people who profess a living faith. This faith is rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ who is the 'same yesterday and today and forever.' Therefore, the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is Jesus Christ, whose will is revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
___ "A living faith must experience a growing understanding of truth and must be continually interpreted and related to the needs of each new generation. Throughout their history, Baptist bodies both large and small have issued statements of faith which comprise a consensus of their beliefs. Such statements have never been regarded as complete, infallible statements of faith, nor as official creeds carrying mandatory authority."
___ The amendment is "crucial," Wade said, to affirm the supremacy of Christ. "We are indeed people of the book, but we are also people who bow only before Jesus Christ our Savior."
___ The amendment also is needed to prevent the Baptist Faith & Message from being used as a creed, Wade argued.
___ The study committee's new preamble replaced the 1963 language with this statement: "Baptist churches, associations and general bodies have adopted confessions of faith as a witness to the world and as instruments of doctrinal accountability."
___ Members of the SBC study committee strongly urged messengers to reject Wade's amendment.
___ "All of us believe in the lordship of Jesus Christ," Land explained. "But we believe the only Jesus Christ we can know is the Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture.
___ "I fully believe that a demonic spirit could come and sit on the foot of my bed tonight and say, 'Richard, I am Jesus. I want to tell you everybody is going to heaven and you don't have to worry about it any more. But that would be wrong. … Why? Because Scripture stands in judgment of my experience, not my experience in judgment of Scripture."
___ Wade's amendment was supported by Bruce Prescott, a member of First Baptist Church of Norman, Okla., and director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists.
___ "There is a difference in the way we understand soul competency in the old Baptist Faith & Message and the new version that is being proposed," he said. "Soul competency as defined by E.Y. Mullins and Herschel Hobbs was soul competency under God. That means we are responsible to Jesus Christ. Soul competency as defined by this committee … is soul competency under the church. That means we are accountable to each other's interpretations of the word of God.
___ "We really need to leave us free to be accountable to Jesus Christ," Prescott said. "He is the criterion by which the Bible is interpreted. He is the only infallible and inerrant interpreter of Scripture."
___ Also during the hourlong presentation and debate on the Baptist Faith & Message revisions, messengers rejected an amendment offered by Jim Goodroe of First Baptist Church of Sumpter, South Carolina. Goodroe wanted to amend Article 7 on baptism and the Lord's Supper.
___ He argued the language, carried over from 1963, endorsed only closed communion, the belief that those partaking in the Lord's Supper must be members of that local church. Study committee members argued that was not the case and that Goodroe's amendment would remove any requirement for believer's baptism before partaking of the Lord's Supper.
___ In interviews afterward, both Wade and study committee members characterized the floor debate over Jesus versus the Bible as illustrative of the differences between SBC moderates and conservatives.
___ Wade said he agreed with Mohler's statement that "this is what it all comes down to."
___ The question, he said, is "Can you have a high view of the Bible but have a higher view of Jesus?"
___ "It all comes down to this: The Bible, as high as we hold it as a source for doctrinal understanding--Jesus Christ is the criterion by which we interpret the Bible."
___ If Jesus is not the guiding principle for biblical interpretation, Wade asked, "then who or what is?"
___ That question was put to four members of the study committee during a news conference minutes later. Mohler spoke for the committee to explain there were "dangers" in the language identifying Jesus as the criterion for biblical interpretation.
___ "We do believe in a Christological hermeneutic" or framework for biblical interpretation, he said. However, "the danger is when Christ is set against Scripture," he added.
___ Making Jesus the criterion by which the Bible is interpreted allows anyone to assert anything and claim Jesus told them that was truth, he suggested.
___ Others opposed to the committee's recommendations refuted that notion, claiming the words of Jesus in the New Testament, for example, must be given precedence when conflicting passages are found in the Old Testament.
___ The Bible is not a "flat" document, argued Wayne Ward, emeritus professor of theology at Southern Seminary, during a speech on the convention floor.
___ "You could follow Moses and stone adulterers," he said. "It would clear out Congress and empty some pulpits," but it would not be true to the greater revelation of God found in the New Testament.
___ "The Bible is Scripture, God's written word, yes, but it does not say anywhere, 'Believe on the Bible and thou shalt be saved.' We have to decide whether we're going to stop in the Old Testament with Moses or whether we're going to go on and interpret Moses by Jesus."
___ Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of the SBC study committee, said in the news conference that this debate formed a "magnificent textbook illustration of why we had a denominational struggle."
___ "If anyone had any doubt about whether a new stream of theology began entering our denomination in the '60s," listening to the floor debate about the relative merits of Jesus versus the Bible should have dispelled those doubts, he said.
___ Mohler agreed: "There are two different visions of Baptist life and the Baptist faith."



Send this story to a friend

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!