June 26, 2000
SBC headed toward creedalism,
Wade says, and Texas won't go
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___Contrary to recent developments in the Southern Baptist Convention, no confession of faith will become a creed for Texas Baptists, pledged Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Wade discussed the nature of confessions and creeds in remarks to employees of thestate convention's Executive Board June 21 in Dallas.
Baptists have debated creeds & confessions for centuries
___Wade's remarks followed by exactly a week the SBC's adoption of a new version of the Baptist Faith & Message statement, which he said has become a creed for the national convention. Last fall, the BGCT reaffirmed the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message, which he said is used confessionally.
___"Confessions are brief distillations of what is believed to be most significant and helpful," he explained. "They have been used to be a witness and a guide for teaching."
___Creeds, on the other hand, are statements that become binding upon Christians and replace the Bible as the authoritative guide for religious faith and practice, he said.
___"Baptists have always been reluctant regarding confessions of faith," he conceded. The first such statement for Baptists, the First London Confession, was drafted in the 17th century, "as Baptists tried to give a witness to a state church that all too quickly called them heretics."
___Baptists have adopted confessions of faith, particularly to define and explain their distinctive doctrines and principles, such as believer's baptism by immersion and religious liberty, Wade said.
___"But Baptists also have been very wary of them, because they can be so easily mistaken for creeds," he added.
___"There are always people who would like to volunteer to be the approved interpreter of Scripture for your conscience," he warned. "And Baptists have been so reluctant to do that because they have feared what creeds have been used to do--to manipulate conformity--and they have feared ecclesiastical control."
___Baptists' historic proclamation is "No creed but the Bible," he said.
___"We have been confident that truth is always God's truth and that it will win out," he explained. "And if men and women will faithfully live the Scripture, proclaim the truth of the Bible, proclaim the truth the Bible presents, then all will be well.
___"We need no creed to define what the Bible says, and we need no confession of faith if it is going to be used as a creed. That's been the Baptist position since we've been Baptists."
___Although Texas Baptists specifically affirmed the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message, neither it nor the 2000 statement will be imposed upon Texas Baptists, Wade promised.
___"I'm not trying in reverse to say you've got to ascribe to the 1963 statement," he told the Baptist Building audience. "And if any of you love the 2000 statement after you've studied it, then I honor that; I'm OK with that.
___"We didn't ask you to sign (a statement of faith) when you started working here. We just want you to love Jesus, believe the Bible, be faithful in church, try to win people to faith in Jesus. We just want you to be what Baptists have always been."
___Such freedom also carries responsibility, Wade acknowledged.
___"Before God, you and every other believer have the privilege and expectation of God that as you read or hear Scripture you are expected to call on the Holy Spirit to help you understand it in the deep places of your heart and soul. Others may help you, but you are responsible. That's what makes Baptists Baptist."
___This stand does not imply lack of reverence for the Bible or lack of faith in the Bible, Wade insisted. "The Bible is the norm. It's inspired and divine. It's true."
___"It's a painful thing when people try to dismiss you because you don't, quote, 'believe the Bible,'" he said. "I challenge anybody to make that charge stick against Texas Baptists. But I want you to understand we do not worship the Bible. We worship God revealed in Jesus Christ, recorded in Scripture so that we might know him."
___Live up to the Baptist heritage, Wade urged.
___"You are Baptists," he said. "That means, first of all, you are Christians. You have been given a gift to see something most Christians don't, and that is Jesus has set us free. His Holy Spirit will work on your heart, and he will help you understand Scripture.
___"People who keep telling you what you can't do have not paid attention to the way Jesus set people free, men and women, to speak up, to ask questions, to be taken seriously."
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