Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal

David S. Dockery

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780805447408
• eBook ISBN: 9780805464597
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

An alternative to the controversial New Baptist Covenant, Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal calls Southern Baptists to boldly unite and renew their commitment to the gospel, biblical authority, and their confessional heritage.

Endorsements

"Finally, Southern Baptists of the twenty-first century are shown the way back home. David Dockery, in the convincing and studied manner so typical of all his writings, calls for a fresh return to our theological, educational, and missiological roots... (providing) a compass by which to steer us out of our doldrums and onto the high seas of effectiveness."

—Tom Eliff, senior vice president, International Mission Board, and former president, Southern Baptist Convention.

"A comprehensive and challenging mandate... It calls our denomination to nothing less than a Great Commission resurgence rooted in the great biblical and theological truths that we hold in common. It is my prayer that this book will not only be read, but that its vision will be embraced."

—Daniel L. Akin, president, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

"Southern Baptists stand at a crossroads today... David Dockery, one of our finest scholar-statesmen, points the way toward a more constructive future for a denomination called to reclaim its founding purpose of 'eliciting, combining, and directing' its energies in sharing the message of Jesus Christ with all the world."

—Timothy George, founding dean, Beeson Divinity School

"These are turbulent days in the Southern Baptist Convention... Our churches are struggling to reach people in a postmodern culture. Dockery reminds us that we cannot yield the gains the Convention has made in its commitment to truth and doctrinal fidelity. Yet, he offers a plan for renewal and consensus within our confessional heritage."

—Thom S. Rainer, president, Lifeway Christian Resources; coauthor of Simple Church

"A skillful analysis of the forces and factors which have made us who we are; a masterful discussion of theological issues that should pull us together and point us toward unity."

—Frank S. Page, president, Southern Baptist Convention

1

Renewing Markers of Southern Baptist Identity: Scripture, Global Missions, and Cooperation

. . . . . . . . . .

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19–20

“Since its inception in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention has always had one mission—the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19–20).

The Southern Baptist Convention Web site

“That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

John 17:21 (NIV)

OVERVIEW

The Primacy of Scripture

The Divine Inspiration of Canonical Scripture

An Inspired Bible and Human Authors

Models of Biblical Inspiration

Toward a Model of Biblical Inspiration for Southern Baptist Life

Reclaiming a Faithful Heritage

The Place of Primary Doctrines

Standing Where Scripture Speaks

Global Missions

The Beginning of Baptist Missions

The Beginning of the Southern Baptist Convention

The Foreign Mission Board

Contemporary Global Missions

Cooperation

The Prayer for Unity

A Time for Conviction

Exemplifying Love and Truth

Moving Forward Together

. . . . . . . . . .

Southern Baptists are “a people of the Book.” The heartbeat of Southern Baptists is the Great Commission. That which enables Southern Baptists to carry out their missions mandate together is the Cooperative Program. Let's think together about how these three characteristic markers of Southern Baptist identity can be renewed.

THE PRIMACY OF SCRIPTURE

Southern Baptists have historically viewed Scripture as a special form of revelation, a unique mode of divine disclosure. For some it might seem redundant in a volume like this one to define a Baptist doctrine of Scripture, for the Bible has been at the heart of, the very formative principle of Southern Baptist life for more than 160 years. Yet, the doctrine of Scripture is in many ways the hallmark of faithful Southern Baptist identity. Without question, this commitment to Scripture has shaped the Southern Baptist tradition; thus the popular description of Baptists as “a people of the Book.”

Yet, some Convention leaders have questioned whether a new generation of Southern Baptists can maintain such traditional commitments. The question might be raised: Why a presentation on this subject in a book like this? The obvious answer has to do with the fact that the doctrine of Scripture has been so central in the history of Baptist life and so crucial to the denominational conflict over the past 30 years. But a better answer would be: so that truth may be proclaimed and passed on to the next generation. No new consensus can be forged other than one built on the foundation of a commitment to a totally truthful Bible. And why do we need to do this? Hasn't this issue already been decided? Isn't the “Battle for the Bible” settled? Well, yes…and no.

We now find ourselves at a defining moment in Southern Baptist life. Contemporary culture in the twenty-first century is being overtaken and submerged by a new spirit, often described as postmodernism. Postmodernism began as a self-conscious reaction against the modernism of the Enlightenment, and especially against its unbounded confidence in reason, science, and progress. The postmodern mind rightly rejects this na?ve optimism. But it then goes further and questions the very validity of objective truth; suggesting that all so-called “truth” is purely subjective, being culturally conditioned; and therefore we all have our own truth, which has as much right to be respected as anybody else's.¹

Scriptural authority has been challenged throughout the history of the church, and particularly since the rise of the Enlightenment. Fresh challenges, shaped by postmodern thinkers, in their postliberal and postconservative forms, now abound.² Current struggles in Baptist circles are not dissimilar to parallel debates taking place in Christianity at large. Such ongoing controversies demonstrate the crisis of biblical authority. In various branches of Christianity, questions dealing with wide-ranging issues such as abortion, homosexuality, “goddess” theology, inclusive language for God, and the debates surrounding “open theism” point ultimately to issues of biblical authority and interpretation.

Today the mainline denominations are characterized by liberal experientialists who make human moral experience the primary basis for the church's message and theological understanding. On the other hand, fundamentalists have tended to equate cultural norms and forms of philosophical rationalism with the truth of Scripture. I believe that a renewed Southern Baptist life must avoid both extremes in offering an understanding of the inspiration, interpretation, and authority of Scripture. Such a position unapologetically affirms the complete truthfulness and absolute authority of God's Word. General agreement now exists in Southern Baptist circles regarding this affirmation, at least at the national level of leadership and involvement. Yet, the current questions have raised anew the relationship of the divine and human aspects of Scripture, the understanding of truth, the place of the reader or community in interpretation, and the meaning of authority. What must be reaffirmed in our Convention is an understanding of Scripture that equally affirms the unity of Word and Spirit in line with the great heritage of the church. Likewise we need to stress the divine and human aspects of Holy Scripture, while affirming that the Bible is the Word of God written, in which we find God's Word to His people for all times.³

The criticism of traditional Southern Baptist views of the Bible by progressives includes underlying rationalistic presuppositions, an overemphasis on propositionalism, and forced harmonizations. They contend that the traditionalist Baptist view of Scripture over the years has become more rationalistic in its attempt to respond to modern and Enlightenment concerns. Progressives often convey the impression that this analysis comes from a philosophically neutral basis. It seems to me, however, that the criticism, though valid to some extent, is influenced more by the existentialist and postmodern philosophical presuppositions than the progressives are often willing to admit, presuppositions going beyond Karl Barth and Neoorthodoxy.

As Millard Erickson argues:

There is another dimension to this matter of philosophical presuppositions. The effect of the argument [from the evangelical left] is a two-edged sword, however, for, if applied to their view, it would have similar effects. They must be prepared to argue that either their view does not suffer from this type of historical conditioning or that the historical setting that has contributed the presuppositions with which they are working is somehow preferable to that from which the competing theology issued.⁴

D. A. Carson has observed that many progressives reject the importance given to “propositionalism” in a traditional approach to Scripture. Yet, Carson claims that the progressives do not fairly assess the traditional affirmation of the Bible's truthfulness, which has been characteristic of believers throughout church history until the modern and postmodern periods. Nor do they seem to recognize that traditionalists want to uphold the propositional truthfulness of Scripture where propositions are offered us, while still recognizing other dimensions of truth. The Bible's appeal to truth, says Carson, “is rich and complex. It cannot be reduced to, but certainly includes propositional truth.” Erickson similarly observes that the approach to harmonizing some apparent discrepancies in Scripture used by Harold Lindsell, which was seemingly framed entirely in terms of rational presuppositions and modern views of historiography, is a “faulty evangelical methodology.”⁵

Obviously the positions put forward by some traditionalists on one side and by the various voices of progressives on the other help us see the need to beware of our own blinders. We are often victims of our own approaches, presuppositions, and traditions. While we can pinpoint strengths and insights found in both the traditional and the newer progressive approaches, we need to be aware of blinders narrowing our own vision from things that those outside our tradition can see.

While taking seriously these observations, nuances, and warnings, it would be a grievous thing indeed if twenty-first century Southern Baptists were to go the way of most mainline denominations in their view of the Bible. The efforts of the postconservatives (and the postliberals moving from the other direction) to bridge the gap between the liberals and conservatives may involve trying to combine two fundamentally opposed systems and methodologies. While inerrancy itself is never a single issue, it does represent something far larger in scope as well as significance. The foundational issue is, and ever will be, the nature of truth, the understanding of divine revelation.

Rather than choosing to focus entirely on either the theological center as proposed by postconservatives or on the circumference, I believe Southern Baptists must balance both the material principle of the Gospel and the formal principle of inspired Scripture. As R. Albert Mohler Jr., has recognized, “The material and formal principles constitute not only a center, but rightly understood they also establish boundaries.”⁶ Though I have elsewhere argued against an ad hoc “domino theory” in defending a traditional doctrine of Scripture, we must recognize that views of Scripture held by progressives have also influenced their doctrines of God and salvation.⁷ This shift indicates that we cannot focus on the center alone and ignore the circumference, for one influences the other. Some progressives have gone so far as to suggest that a whole generation is ready to declare obsolete the doctrines of biblical inerrancy, substitutionary atonement, forensic justification, imputed righteousness, the exclusivity of the Gospel, the doctrine of hell, and the classic doctrine of God. Such conclusions underscore Millard Erickson's contention that there surely comes some point where the line has been crossed and at least a hybrid orthodoxy has developed.⁸ D. A. Carson likewise suggests that there comes a time to “draw lines” even when “drawing lines is rude.” He offers four reasons why this must be done:

1. because truth demands it;
2. because distinctions between orthodoxy and heresy must be maintained;
3. because a plurality of errors calls for it; and
4. because entailments of the Gospel confront our culture and must be lived out.⁹

Granted that the center takes priority over the circumference, that the material principle rather than the formal principle is at the heart of Southern Baptist theology, it is nevertheless, impossible to define or even describe orthodoxy apart from a fullorbed doctrine of Scripture. That is because the formal principle, often summarized in the phrase sola scriptura affirms that only those beliefs and practices that rest firmly on scriptural foundations can be regarded as binding on Christians. Southern Baptist theology and spirituality rest on Scripture as the central legitimating source of Christian faith and theo...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction Southern Baptists: Past, Present, and Future
• Chapter 1: Renewing Markers of Southern Baptist Identity
• Chapter 2: Focusing on the Gospel
• Chapter 3: Giving Glory to God
• Chapter 4: Serving Church and Society
• Chapter 5: Rediscovering Our Theological Heritage
• Chapter 6: Praying for Church and Convention Leaders
• Glossary
• Name Index
• Scripture Index