March 11, 2002
TOGETHER:
Texas Baptists follow Jesus & Bible
___On our best days, Baptists are both "people of the book" and Jesus kind of people. The written word of God guides our lives and points us to the living Word of God, whom we worship and seek to follow.
___Let no one doubt the joyful gratitude we express to God for his written word. It is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path(Psalm 119:105). "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8). As the Baptist Faith & Message states, it is "the record of God's revelation of himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction."
CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
___Let no one doubt our adoration and praise to the Son of God, our Savior, who is the living Word of God (John 1:1, 14). We open the inspired word of God and handle with our trembling hands the Holy Bible that it might speak God's truth and the way of salvation to our hearts and minds. We listen to the Holy Spirit as he guides us into all truth. And we rejoice that the Holy Spirit teaches us through Jesus the Christ, who becomes the hermeneutical standard, the norm for our faith, the criterion by which we know how God wants us to understand and interpret the Bible.
___The Scriptures instruct us: "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience" (1 Peter 3:15-16a).
___Texas Baptists have tried to be kind in our defense of the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message statement regarding the Bible, in comparison with the statement adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000. But it is simply wrong not to acknowledge what the Bible clearly shows. Jesus is the revelation of God. The Bible is the inspired and written record of God's revelation of himself to man.
___It is about Jesus that the Scriptures say: "... in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven" (Hebrews 1:2-3).
___We celebrate with reverence the gift of God to us in the inspired Scriptures. We believe the book that is in our hands. We believe it so much that we need no man-made summaries to take its place.
___If you want a creed, it is perfectly right for you to write one. Review it with trusted Christian teachers. Refine it. Test it by Scripture. Live with it. Teach it. But don't put it down before another Christian brother or sister and insist that they say their faith exactly the way you say yours.
___Learn from one another. Challenge one another. Most of all, really listen to one another. In prayer, God will teach us in Scripture more than we knew. And he will show us enough to help one another know Christ and grow up into his likeness.
___Pray for this harvest.
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