Prof says BF&M needed for Trinity view_111003

Posted: 11/07/03

Prof says BF&M needed for Trinity view

FORT WORTH (BP)--One word can make all the difference between voicing an incorrect view of God and confessing the God of the Bible, said Malcolm Yarnell, assistant dean of theological studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

That is precisely why changes to the Baptist Faith & Message, the Southern Baptist Convention's statement of beliefs, were necessary, Yarnell said in chapel Oct. 30.

"For a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I wondered whether a number of evangelicals were actually trinitarian," he said. "The Trinity was notably absent from many evangelical pulpits for much of the 20th century ... even among Baptists. The 1963 Baptist Faith & Message could easily have been affirmed by modalists."

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Posted: 11/07/03

Prof says BF&M needed for Trinity view

FORT WORTH (BP)–One word can make all the difference between voicing an incorrect view of God and confessing the God of the Bible, said Malcolm Yarnell, assistant dean of theological studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

That is precisely why changes to the Baptist Faith & Message, the Southern Baptist Convention's statement of beliefs, were necessary, Yarnell said in chapel Oct. 30.

“For a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I wondered whether a number of evangelicals were actually trinitarian,” he said. “The Trinity was notably absent from many evangelical pulpits for much of the 20th century … even among Baptists. The 1963 Baptist Faith & Message could easily have been affirmed by modalists.”

Modalism is the belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are “modes” of God's existence rather than true and coeternal persons capable of interacting with one another.

Early church councils, Yarnell said, rejected this heresy, but it still lives on today in numerous places–even among some Southern Baptists in the last century.

The 1963 Baptist Faith & Message noted that, “The eternal God reveals himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.”

“Fortunately, those who revised the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message stuck in one word that would make it impossible for a heretic to affirm it,” Yarnell said. “If you left it as it was, you only have the economic trinity but no essential Trinity. But the committee added one word, the word 'triune.'”

The Baptist Faith & Message now reads, “The eternal triune God reveals himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.”

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