May 29, 2000
Wade warns revisions elevate Bible
above Christ, hamper autonomy
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___The revised Baptist Faith & Message that the Southern Baptist Convention will vote on next month elevates the Bible above Christ, fails to explicitly safeguard soul competency and the priesthood of all believers, and violates local church autonomy, said Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___In its statement on the family, the document also fails to take into account the biblical concept of mutual submission by a husband and wife, Wade added.
___Wade expressed concerns specifically about the statements on Scripture and the church, along with the introduction. He emphasized these are his personal opinions and are not an official statement of the BGCT.
___"I applaud the wisdom of the committee in not including in the statement of faith the word 'inerrancy,' which is so divisive and politically charged," Wade said. "However, I am deeply concerned about serious changes to the first and last sentences in the article on Scripture."
___The first sentence of the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message, reaffirmed by the BGCT at its annual meeting in El Paso last year, says, "The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God's revelation of himself to man." The proposed statement deletes the words "the record of."
___The deletion is a crucial distinction, Wade said. "Jesus is the revelation of God. The Bible is the divine and inspired record of that revelation."
___The proposed document adds as the final sentence to the article on Scripture, "All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is himself the focus of divine revelation." Wade said he "would not quibble" about that addition, but he took exception to the deletion of the final sentence from the 1963 statement, "The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ."
___Every system of biblical interpretation must have a guiding principle, and the Baptist statement of faith should make it clear that Christ is that guiding principle, Wade said.
___Wade affirmed the study committee for including in the introduction to the Baptist Faith & Message five guiding principles included in both the 1925 and 1963 statements of faith. Those statements include the principle that "the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament."
___However, Wade said, he regrets the omission of the last four paragraphs from the preamble to the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message. That passage contained the document's only explicit references to soul competency and the priesthood of the believer: "Baptists emphasize the soul's competency before God, freedom in religion and the priesthood of the believer."
___"I hope that somebody at the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando will move that the final four paragraphs of the 1963 preamble will be replaced in the document to be adopted," Wade said.
___Wade also took issue with the article on the church in the revised Baptist Faith & Message. The proposed statement adds a sentence, "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."
___He acknowledged that few Southern Baptist churches, in Texas or elsewhere, have female senior pastors. However, the committee's proposed language violates the right of an individual congregation to make that decision for itself, he added.
___"Even among those who personally do not support women serving as pastor, there are many who would not presume to tell another church whom that congregation could or could not call," Wade said.
___"The right of a church to determine who should be pastor is severely limited by this statement. It is a violation of local church autonomy that many Baptists would find offensive."
___Wade also noted with regret that the committee failed to make significant changes in the statement on the family. At the BGCT annual meeting in El Paso last year, Texas Baptists affirmed the 1963 statement of faith but declined to affirm the family amendment.
___"Although the committee did amend one sentence in the article on the family, they declined to respond to our appeal that they recognize the implications of Ephesians 5:21 and add the idea of mutual submission to the document," Wade said.
___While underscoring that he cannot speak for Texas Baptists, Wade added, "I do hope that all Southern Baptists will study carefully and consider prayerfully the revisions made in the Baptist Faith & Message.
___"If this document is adopted, even though it is not binding on individual Baptists or churches, it will be used by SBC-appointed trustees to test the doctrinal positions of seminary professors and missionaries."
___The Baptist Standard solicited reactions to the Baptist Faith & Message revisions from 10 other representative state Baptist convention executive directors. As of press time, none had offered any comment.
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