Stylos

“…so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

An occasional commentary by Pastor Jeff Riddle, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

A Pastoral Response to the Revised Baptist Faith and Message

May 2000

The committee which was formed in June 1999 to study and revise the Baptist Faith and Message (hereafter BFM) has finally released its report which will be recommended at the June 2000 meeting of the SBC. The report has been much anticipated and speculation had run high that the revision would include things like alterations to the articles on Scripture which would include the politically loaded words innerancy or infallibiblity, or that it would radically redefine the concept of the priesthood of believers. I think most will be surprised by what the committee has done.

No doubt, the issue that will raise the most interest in the popular media and in the pew will be the revisions to article VI “The Church” which includes this statement: “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture.”

Baptists and Confessions

How are we to respond to this statement? First, I would encourage every Baptist Christian to read carefully the entire doctrinal statement rather than seizing on any one line out of context or depending on someone else’s interpretation of the document. Think for yourself! Go to the SBC website (www.sbc.net) and read the official report of the committee including the preamble. The site also provides in three parallel columns the 1963 BFM with the 1998 Family amendment, the new proposed BFM, and the original 1925 BFM which was based on an even earlier Baptist Confession (the New Hampshire Confession). A comparison of the three documents provides a fascinating historical and theological reflection on how Southern Baptist Christians have responded to contemporary culture at various points in time: modernism in 1925; neo-orthodoxy in 1963; and now post-modernism (1998, 2000).

Next, we have to ask about the purpose of the statement. In their preamble, the revisers refer to the criteria established in 1925 for issuing a Baptist confession. The 1925 criteria includes the caveats that any Baptist confession constitutes “a consensus of opinion of some Baptist Body, large or small, for the general instruction and guidance of our own people and others concerning those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us.” Further, any confession is not to be regarded “as complete statements of our faith, having any quality of finality or infallibility.” Also, “That the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.” Finally, “They are statements of religious convictions, drawn from the scriptures, and are not to be used to hamper freedom of thought or investigation in other realms of life.” In other words, this confession offers a consensus of Baptist beliefs at a certain point in time. It is admittedly incomplete and is subservient to the witness of the Scriptures themselves. This is why Baptists have been fond of saying we have “no book but the Bible, no creed but Christ.”

There will be some outside of SBC circles who will completely misunderstand these limitations on the BFM. This is particularly true of those who come from traditions that have hierarchical leadership or do not have local church autonomy. They will say that the SBC has unilaterally banned the ordination of women, a thing which it has no power or authority to do. There will be those within SBC circles who will give more authority to the statement than it deserves and will use it to further their own pre-conceived political agendas of separation from the mother denomination (e.g. “This is the final straw. The SBC says women cannot be ministers and my church has women ministers, so the SBC is kicking my church out of the denomination.”).

Given the confession’s limitations, we must also admit that it is very important. It is used as the standard to evaluate denominational employees. It provides an important reference point to which congregations and individuals look to define their denominational identity. So, what it says is, indeed, important.

Postmodernism

What does it say? As stated above, the most important issue in the 2000 BFM is not the issue of women in ministry, but the response of Baptist Christians to post-modernism. Indeed, the revisers are quite self-conscious of the fact that this is at the heart of their work. Chairman Adrian Rogers states in an open letter to Southern Baptists that precedes the report: “Our generation faces the reality of a postmodern culture, complete with rampant relativism and the denial of absolute truth. A pervasive secularism has infected our society and its corrosive effects are evident throughout the life of our nation. Moral decay and assaults upon our cherished truths dominate the arena in which we must now minister, and to which we must now proclaim the Gospel.”

The revised BFM’s article IV on Salvation states unequivocally, that “There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.” In his open letter, Rogers explains: “Given the pervasive influence of a postmodern culture, we are called to proclaim Jesus Christ as the only Savior, and salvation is in His name alone. Baptists thus reject inclusivism and pluralism in salvation, for these compromise the Gospel itself.” Thus, in the face of contemporary relativism, the new BFM stresses that Jesus is not one way among many, but that he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).

The revised article I on Scripture does not include the buzz words “inerrancy” or “infallibility.” This will surely come as a surprise to many. It does replace the neo-orthodox 1963 wording that scripture is “the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man” with the affirmation that it “is God’s revelation of Himself to man.” The 1963 Neo-orthodox influenced addition, “The criterion by which the Bible is to interpreted is Jesus Christ” is changed to the more orthodox, “All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is himself the focus of divine revelation.” Thankfully, the revision preserves the 1925 wording that Scripture “has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error, for its matter.” That the Bible is without error is affirmed with the summation, “Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.” Again, relativism is addressed. Scripture is not just one source of authority alongside others. It is the source of authority, above reason, experience, and tradition.

The updated BFM also directly addresses contemporary ethical issues in article XV “The Christian and the Social Order.” For the first time, the statement registers opposition to racism, sexual immorality, adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. It also stresses concern “to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick.” It affirms the sanctity of human life and voices opposition to abortion and euthanasia: “We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.” An underlying assumption of moral absolutes undergirds the confession.

Women in Ministry

The new BFM’s statements concerning women must be read in light of its larger purpose to frame a Baptist Christian response to postmodern culture, including contemporary feminism. The role of men and women in the Christian family was addressed in the 1998 Family article which remains unchanged in the new document. The Family article defines family in Christian terms for a culture swimming in the confusion of cohabitation, same-gender unions, rampant divorce, and out of wedlock births. It states simply that “Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.” In 1998, and since then, some were upset by the article’s statement that “A wife is the submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” They seem to overlook that it also admonishes: “A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church.” Those offended by these lines are actually being offended by its paraphrase of Ephesians 5:22-33. What is more striking is that the Family article offers the egalitarian notion that men and women are equal before God: “The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image.” Men and women are of equal worth but share distinct roles within the family.

The new article III “Man” stresses maleness and femaleness as part of the goodness of God’s original design in creation: “He created them male and female as the crowning work of his creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.” Again, the statement addresses current cultural confusion over gender. Our gender or sexual orientation is not something we arbitrarily choose, but it is part of God’s original good purpose.

When we come to the controversial article VI “The Church” it helps to understand that the new BFM is written in response to the culture. It affirm that the NT church is “an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers” and that “Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic principles.” It gives only scant attention to leadership. First, it says that “the scriptural officers are pastors and deacons.” Then comes the controvery: “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture.”

On the positive side the article affirms the giftedness of women as ministers in the life of the church. It does not prohibit women from serving as church planters, counselors, teachers, missionaries, committee chairmen, staff ministers, campus ministers, etc. Surprisingly, it does not explicitly exclude women from even the diaconate. However, it does specify that the office of pastor is for men only.

How are we to take this? If, as the 1925 guidelines suggests, the purpose of a confession is to summarize the details of the faith “that are most surely held among us” then the statement is most certainly true. In nearly 40,000 Southern Baptist churches, women exercise their gifts in ministry and leadership with great skill and freedom; however, in only a handful of cases do women serve as solo or senior pastor. Women pastors of Baptist churches is a very recent and rare phenomenon.

This statement is, no doubt, based on a very plain sense reading of scripture that has guided most Baptist Christians in their understanding of the role of the pastor. Episkopos (bishop or the office of pastor) is a masculine noun. Only a man can be the husband of one wife [literally in Greek, “a one woman man,” mias gunaikos andra] (1 Timothy 3:2). Therefore, men serve as pastors.

Most importantly, however, I think this statement addresses a cultural issue. It questions contemporary feministic assumptions that there are no basic and profound differences between men and women. Our gender is no accident. It is not mere nurture that makes us male or female. God made us this way, and we have different and distinct roles to play in the family and in the church.

Interestingly, this article does not address the issue of “ordination” (of men or women) at all. It affirms the giftedness of both men and women for ministry, but, on the basis of a “plain sense” reading of scripture, limits the role of pastor to men only. The beauty of our Baptist polity protects us from any denominational infringement on the local body. Any church can still call whom they choose to serve as pastor. However, if a church chooses to call a woman to serve in that role, they do so with the knowledge that their choice is outside the mainstream confession of Baptist Christians, and their decision may have consequences in the way they relate to other congregations. If anything, the new BFM calls on us to study and carefully consider the scriptural qualifications for leadership roles with our churches.

Conclusion

The new BFM is not as strident as some might have feared. It clearly addresses the relativism and uncertainty of our postmodern culture with a sure word about absolute truth and Biblical authority. It is, perhaps, the most counter-cultural confession which Southern Baptists have ever considered. It promises to offend both those within and without the SBC. As Bill Faye, author of “Share Jesus Without Fear,” is fond of saying, “The Gospel is always offensive, but we don’t have to be.” Our task is to study the document, to embrace what we can, and to struggle with what we cannot.

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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