At least one Alabama Baptist intends to voice concern over the proposed revision of the Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) that will be voted on by Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) messengers June 12-13.
Robert Paul, pastor of First Baptist, Elba, is composing two amendments to the proposed revision. The first will include Baptists’ emphasis of soul competency, freedom in religion and priesthood of the believer.
The second amendment will emphasize that the criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.
By omitting the four areas he is addressing in the amendments, Paul said the document “is a departure from historic Baptist principles.”
Revisions to the BF&M are being recommended by the BF&M Study Committee, which was authorized by messengers at the 1999 SBC annual meeting in Atlanta.
Other readers also reacted to the BF&M proposed revision by writing letters to the editor.
David Mills, pastor of Ladonia Baptist Church, Phenix City, said some “moderates” may owe an apology to AL Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, Louisville, Ky. “Some moderates worried that Al Mohler (a member of the BF&M study committee) would force the committee to adopt hyper- Calvinism. Since this did not happen, I wonder if those moderates owe him an apology?”
Whose views?
Stuart Collier of Birmingham concluded the revision seeks to impose specific doctrinal views on local congregations. He wrote that after reading the proposed revisions, he reread the 1987 Peace Committee report which stated, “We must never try to impose upon individual Southern Baptists or local congregations a specific view of how Scripture must be interpreted.”
Collier charged the revisions seek to do just that. “How else are we to understand: 1. The office of pastor limited to men; 2. Deleting the vital statement ‘The criteria by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ;’ 3. Omitting the preamble’s stern reminder ‘Baptists emphasize the soul’s competency before God, freedom in religion, and the priesthood of the believer’.”
David Rice, a member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Homewood, also expressed concerns over some of the changes.
“In Article 1, ‘The Scripture,’ the study committee chose to delete the word ‘record’ in the opening sentence, leaving in the statement to read ‘The Holy Bible is God’s revelation of Himself … .’ It was the Apostle John that told us that ‘Jesus did many other things as well’ (John 21:25, NIV). The Bible as we have it is not the entire revelation of God,” Rice said. “It is the ‘record’ of what we have been given.”
Areas of Concern
Other areas of concern Rice noted include the office of pastor being limited to men and “the duty … to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness.”
“As a man, I am incensed by the blatant arrogance of this statement (pastor being a man). We are all equal in the sight of God,” Rice said.
“[The verbal witnessing] seems to be in direct conflict with Paul’s teachings on spiritual gifts,” Rice noted. “Yes, we are all to be witnesses, but all may not be given the gift of verbal witness.”
Ginger Phelps of Montgomery was disturbed about the statement limiting the office of pastor to men.
“No one writing taken alone should be isolated above others without considering what the rest of the Bible has to say about a certain subject,” she said.
“Saying that women cannot be pastors is akin to assuming that one cannot pray without lifting up his hands based on Paul’s comment in 1Timothy 2:8 or that women cannot be saved unless they bear children (1 Timothy 2:14),” Phelps said. “Other passages in the Bible do not support these conclusions.”
Buddy Nelson, pastor of Riverchase Baptist Church, Hoover, agreed that Scripture indicates women played a vital role in the preaching and prophesying ministry of the early church. “Jesus was certainly more liberating toward women than we are today,” he said, noting Romans 16:1, Acts 16:14, Luke 2:36, John 4, and Isaiah 8:3.
But, Nelson said his concerns about the proposed revision are deeper than one issue.
“When one looks at the preamble of the 1963 statement and compares it to the 2000 revision, it becomes clear that the writers of the 2000 revision are not just rewriting the BF&M, they are rewriting Baptist history to reflect their ideology,” Nelson said, noting specifically soul competency, freedom in religion and the priesthood of the believer.
“The question that begs an answer is why we are as Baptists no longer to hold these concepts as ours?
“Historically Baptists have minimized the authority of the pastor and strengthened the role of the laity,” Nelson explained. “This is certainly not part of the philosophy of the SBC leadership today. The word we have heard over the past 20 years from SBC leaders has been ‘pastoral authority,’ … Are we losing sight of the vital role of the laity in the Kingdom’s work?
Fred Rodgers of Ashridge said, “I chose the Baptist faith some years ago because I thought it to be the one closest to what the Bible teaches. However, I have watched the SBC slowly but surely dilute the Word and its teaching to fit their own agenda of compromise and concession.”
Rodgers said the statement about “members of the church” participating in the Lord’s Supper cannot be proven in the Bible.
Losing the Lord’s day
Also, “the proposed statement, ‘Activities on the Lord’s Day should be commensurate with the Christian’s conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ’ is a dangerous and lax precedence,” Rodgers said. “Are they saying here that man may take what use he pleases on the Lord’s Day? If this is true then the moral obligation of our Sunday as we know it would soon be destroyed.”
Jim Rives of Birmingham said he also “chose” to be Baptist. “It grieves me to realize that if today’s state of the denomination had existed back then, my choice would have almost certainly been different.
“The 1962 statement that was adopted May 9, 1963, is, in my opinion, among the world’s best documents ever developed by mankind,” Rives said. “I’m sticking with it.”
Editor’s Note: This story reflects the sentiments from all letters and e-mails The Alabama Baptist received on this topic.
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