It was a retreat setting. The judicatory heads of most of the Christian denominations in the state gathered together for two days of sharing. I was privileged to participate as one of two Baptist representatives even though I was not the administrative head of the state Baptist convention.
During one of the breaks, a leader of one of the denominations shared with me how his faith group made decisions. A major part of the process focused on the Bible. Much effort was placed on understanding what the Bible said about a topic. This meant studying the text and using all the tools of scholarship to determine the meaning and applications of Bible teachings.
To that point, what my friend shared sounded very much like what Baptists do. But then he added something that made the process quite different.
Once agreement is reached on the meaning and application of the text, he explained, guidance from the Bible could be rejected because it differed with historical positions of the denomination. The teaching could also be rejected if it were at odds with findings of other scholastic disciplines or the thoughts of modern man.
For this denomination, the Bible was one source among many. It was an important source, to be sure, but biblical teachings stood alongside other disciplines in providing guidance for one’s faith and practice.
Baptists take a different road. The New Hampshire Confession of Faith, the model for the various Baptist Faith and Message Statements of Faith, declared in 1833 that the Bible is our “sole authority for faith and practice.” That statement has been repeated through the years. Most recently, Alabama Baptists declared in a resolution on Doctrinal Heritage and Confessions of Faith that “we reaffirm our historic commitment to the Bible, God’s totally true and trustworthy Word, as our sole authority for faith and practice and that we reaffirm our basic belief in the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”
The difference between the two approaches to the Bible are poles apart. One holds the Bible is important. The other contends the Bible is authoritative.
Personally, the difference in approaches accounted for many survey findings indicating people consider the Bible as one source among many. With a kind of smugness, my reaction to the polls usually was “that may be true of some people but that is not true of Baptists.”
Now I am not so smug. Information increasingly shows Baptists are becoming like many other groups. The Bible is considered an important source of guidance but it is not considered authoritative. In fact, polls find and pastors confirm that a growing number of Baptists consider little outside themselves as authoritative. That is hard to comprehend in light of Baptists teaching that the Bible “has God for its author, salvation for its end and truth, without mixture of error, for its matter” (New Hampshire Confession of Faith).
Historically, Baptists have responded to the Bible as proceeding from God for the instruction of His people. Baptists believe the Bible is unlike any other book ever written. It did not originate in the mind of man but in the mind of God.
Since the Bible comes from God, then the Bible judges and controls one’s thoughts and actions. It is not man’s knowledge that judges the Bible. It is not man’s desires that control his actions. The Bible, God’s Word, is the judge.
The inescapable conclusion is that if the Bible is the Word of God given for the instruction of His people, and if the Bible is the judge for one’s actions and thoughts, then the Bible is to be believed and obeyed in what it sets forth.
That is where Baptists have camped for centuries. Our forefathers valiantly resisted efforts by kings and creeds to control their faith. “We have no creed but the Bible” has echoed through the centuries from Baptist lips. Since the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice, then it must be believed and obeyed in all it sets forth.
What the Bible “sets forth” or teaches is, and will likely remain, a matter of disagreement between some parties. That is why it is important to understand the Bible in a harmonious way. That is why it is important to bring all the tools of modern scholarship to bear in determining what the Bible teaches. Bible teachings are so important they demand nothing less.
Despite man’s best efforts, we will always “see through a glass darkly,” as the apostle Paul stated. We will always “see in part” and “know in part.” That is one reason conservative, evangelical scholars disagree about topics ranging from predestination to circumstances of our Lord’s return to the charismatic movement to the role of women in church life to creationism.
Conservative, evangelical scholars may disagree about an interpretation of the Bible but all have in common a commitment to the authority of the Bible, God’s Holy Word. Baptists in the pulpit and pew may disagree about interpretations of the Bible, as well. But there should be no disagreement over the Bible as the sole authority for our faith and practice.
Authority of the Bible has been a defining doctrine of who Baptists are. We pray it will remain so.
Perhaps it is time to reemphasize the role of the Bible as proceeding from God for the instruction of His people; as the Bible as judge of our thoughts and actions; as setting forth what is to be believed and obeyed; as understood in a harmonious fashion calling for the best of scholarship.
Perhaps that is one way to counter the relativism of living without any authority at all.
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