June 3, 2002
Two more missionaries explain why they won't sign
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___Two more Southern Baptist Convention missionaries have made public declarations of their unwillingness to sign an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___The administrative mandate to missionaries was issued in January by IMB President Jerry Rankin. Even though the doctrine of all missionaries was thoroughly examined upon their appointment, Rankin said the new affirmation is necessary to silence unnamed critics who have questioned the doctrinal integrity of the missionary force.
___New public statements of protest have been issued by Eniko Jordan, who is resigning from IMB service in Hungary, and Steven Armstrong, who has not resigned from his service in Africa.
___Jordan said signing the required affirmation is not possible because the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message uses "wrong words," signing would be done with the "wrong motivations" and for the "wrong reasons."
___"The 2000 Baptist Faith & Message is a creed, and therefore it is an act against my conscience to sign it," Jordan said. The statement is a creed "because the document itself says so."
___Jordan acknowledged a point made by IMB administrators that missionaries have not been asked to sign the Baptist Faith & Message itself but only an affirmation of the Baptist Faith & Message.
___"Here I must respectfully disagree and quote an axiom used in geometry: Things that are equal to the same thing are also equal to each other. In my opinion, signing something that affirms a creed is, in essence, the same thing as saying it is OK to sign a creed. ...
___"But is not OK to sign a creed or an affirmation of a creed. It goes against all I know of Scripture and the tenets our Baptist forbears fought and died for."
HERE are the full texts of the statements released by Steven Armstrong and Eniko Jordan on their refusal to sign the revised Baptist Faith & Message Statement.:
Steven Armstrong
___Jordan also disagrees with those who suggest missionaries should sign the affirmation, even if they don't' believe all of it, in order to keep their jobs.
___"Who in the world would want a missionary who would perform such an act against their conscience for the sole motivation of keeping their paycheck?" Jordan asked. "Would the supporters at home really want such a missionary ...?"
___Finally, asking missionaries to sign the affirmation in order to prevent division and controversy is "illogical," Jordan said. "The very mandate to sign is itself the cause of further division and strife."
___Jordan will move to Dallas in late June and will receive assistance from the Baptist General Convention of Texas missionary transition fund.
___Meanwhile, Armstrong is not resigning from the IMB but has protested equally strongly that he cannot sign an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, which he calls a creed.
___"This I will not be able to do, not just because I disagree with some of its content. I couldn't even sign the Apostles' Creed; not because I disagree with its content but because both are secondary, man-made documents that do not represent the full revelation of Scripture nor carry its divine authority."
___Armstrong added: "It was for religious liberty and in opposition to the authority of church and state rulers over their faith that my Anabaptist forefathers gave their lives to implement believers' baptism and secure for me a free church. I will not dishonor their lives by pledging allegiance to any document other than the Scriptures nor to any lord other than my Lord Jesus Christ."
___Armstrong identifies himself as a "conservative Southern Baptist biblical inerrantist" who has "no reservation in referring to the Scriptures as 'infallible' and 'inerrant.'"
___The doctrinal examination he and his wife underwent at the time of their appointment in 1982 should be sufficient, he argued.
___At that time, they were asked to write their own statement of beliefs, he said, explaining that the form clearly stated: "There are no specific words for which the Foreign Mission Board is looking."
___In 1982, they were asked if they were familiar with the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message and if they were in agreement with it, he acknowledged.
___"How is that different from what is being asked of us now? Now the Baptist Faith & Message has been made an 'instrument of doctrinal accountability.' We are no longer allowed to express our faith in our own words. We are asked to agree to the specific wording of the current Baptist Faith & Message."
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