By Editor Bob Terry
According to an article in The Christian Post, Southern Baptists may be on the front end of throwing stones at one another because of the decline in baptisms.
That baptisms are down has been widely reported. For the last year of record, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches reported 295,212 baptisms, a drop of 19 percent in five years and a decline in eight of the last 10 years.
According to the article some are pointing a finger of blame at the growing influence of Calvinism in SBC life. Christian Post said it tried to get comments from “strict Calvinists within the SBC such as Albert Mohler Jr. (president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), Russell Moore (president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission), Mark Dever (pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington) and David Platt (president of the International Mission Board)” but they were “either traveling or otherwise unable to respond by press time.”
‘A silly myth’
The news service wanted to ask, “Are critics correct who say 5-point Calvinist theology produces a ‘frozen chosen’ mindset and that stricter Calvinist views yield less outreach and altar calls? Or is that, as others assert, a silly myth?”
Recent SBC presidential contender J.D. Greear did respond, however. He answered, “In my experience, it’s too simplistic to blame one group of people for our collective failure to evangelize.” Greear, pastor of Summit Church, Durham, North Carolina, added, “Jesus gave every one of us the Great Commission and if we’re not carrying it out, that’s just plain unfaithful.”
Sharing one’s faith
Greear is exactly right. One reliable survey of 2,500 people who regularly attended evangelical churches found that 57 percent did not share how to become a Christian with anyone during a six-month period. Only 29 percent shared how to become a Christian more than twice.
Obviously the problem of not sharing Christ is with all of us, not just some of us. Trying to place blame on others rather than accepting our own responsibility for the decline in baptisms is misguided.
Still there is no denying that life is changing in Baptist Zion. Not only has the Baptist identity dropped from many church names, a growing number of churches have abandoned public invitations for people to make first-time commitments to Jesus Christ.
In part the decline in invitations reflects a new evangelism strategy. Fewer nonbelievers attended worship services, the reasoning goes, so why give invitations. Most decisions for Christ are made outside the walls of the church building. Those decisions can be reported to the congregation.
Over-emotional invitations
Another part of the explanation is reaction to what some judge to be manipulative and over-emotional invitations. If a preacher can talk someone into accepting Christ then someone else can talk that person into rejecting Christ, some say.
The Church needs to rely more on the Holy Spirit drawing people to Jesus, they argue, and not on psychological pressure and manipulation.
Still another factor may be the theological position of Calvinism that God’s grace is irresistible so everyone that God calls must come to Him with or without human agency. The belief that invitations are not essential to evangelism may be playing a part in the decline of public invitations.
Who is lost?
Perhaps more important questions about evangelism (or the lack of it) are about who is lost and who can be saved.
Most Baptists agree with what Calvinism calls “total depravity,” meaning that all are lost.
In the Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) 2000 that belief is expressed in these words: “Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation” (Article III).
The apostle Paul expressed this teaching more succinctly when he wrote, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
Most Baptists also agree that “There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord” (BF&M, Article IV). The teaching is expanded in Article II B with the statement that Jesus “in His substitutionary death on the cross … made provision for the redemption of men from sin.”
‘Redemption of the whole man’
If Baptists believe all are lost and that Jesus provides the only way of salvation, then who can be saved?
Again, BF&M 2000 states: “Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour” (Article IV). Later in the same article one reads, “Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ.”
In 1925 when the first BF&M was adopted, the position of Baptists was clear. The original BF&M had a section titled “The Freeness of Salvation,” which read, “The blessings of salvation are made free to all by the gospel. It is the duty of all to accept them by penitent and obedient faith. Nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner except his own voluntary refusal to accept Jesus Christ as Teacher, Savior and Lord.”
‘Limited atonement’
A century ago Southern Baptists believed and preached “whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). That is what I grew up believing and what I still preach.
Strict Calvinists believe in what is often described as “limited atonement.” Jesus died only for the elect, the teaching holds, and only the elect can be saved.
The difference between “whosoever will” theology and “limited atonement” theology is obvious. In the past that difference has created tensions between believers.
That is why it is important to hear Greear’s second sentence, “Jesus gave every one of us the Great Commission and if we’re not carrying it out, that’s just plain unfaithful.”
If we believe in sharing the good news of Jesus with everyone to the ends of the earth then we can encourage one another, celebrate one another’s victories and not deteriorate into throwing stones of accusations and guilt at one another.
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