Southwest Baptist University fires Theology prof.

[Dave Roberts]

"churches, associations, and general bodies have adopted confessions of faith as a witness to the world, and as instruments of doctrinal accountability." Preamble to BFM2K.

IMHO, when you remove Christ as the criterion by which scripture is to be interpreted, then you slip into the error of Seventh Day Adventists to regard all scripture as of equal value, thus making "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk," equal in value to John 3:16.

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

My point, Sandy, is not how it is used. My point is that this is the first use, to my knowledge, of the phrase "instrument of doctrinal accountability" in Baptist confessions of faith. Someone may know of something I don't, but for the ones I have read, I never recall that phrase. Also, that is precisely the language used in some of the creedal denominations as the definition of a creed. I'm sorry I don't have time today to research the references.

[Sandy]

Here's a blog post by one of the Redford professors, Dr. Zack Manis. Quite a different view presented there.

http://agenuinefaith.blogspot.com/2018/ ... llege.html

This looks like what I thought it might be originally. A professor who was popular with a particular segment of students violated university policy, was warned, continued to violate the policy because he was justified in doing so by his opinion that his theological view is correct and the other professors are wrong, and got fired. So now there's a "rally the troops" movement to try to get him his job back and the default methodology for getting things done in the SBC is to cry "liberal" and point fingers. Wow, how spiritual and godly is that?

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

Here's the whole quote in context:

The key finding of the committee is the University’s Statement of Faith has not been implemented effectively across the fabric of the University. The Statement of Faith was adopted in 1921 and recently reaffirmed by Missouri Baptist Convention messengers in 2012. For the long-term health and faithfulness of SBU, the institution must clarify its Statement of Faith to be a clear and compelling theological framework.
In addition, the committee determined, due to the lack of a clearly implemented Statement of Faith, the doctrinal position of SBU has been perceived as ambiguous. This lack of clarity has led to an erosion of trust between the University and Missouri Baptists. SBU and the Missouri Baptist Convention must work together to restore that trust.

So, the university is using a statement of faith adopted in 1921 and not the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Some definition of terms needs to happen here, like what does "clarifying" its statement of faith mean and how has it failed to be "clearly implemented"?

I was a Baptist long enough to know when I'm hearing a message communicated in English with Baptist accents. A Baptist institution was criticized because it fired a professor who spun his dismissal into "they're a bunch of liberals after a conservative." So some conservatives made a stink and threatened to do something but they can't because the school's trustees more or less supported the president and upheld the firing. But there has to be the appearance of doing something to mollify the self-appointed guardians of conservativism in the convention. So we had a "committee" release "findings" which lead to some wordsmithing in regard to the school's statement of faith and put a happy spin on it and we're all good right?

As this has all developed, it seems that the weight of the evidence of actual theological issues at SBU rests on the testimony of a small group of mostly conservative alumni and former students and there has been a broader constituency that has come forward and said that's not an accurate perspective. I have a problem trusting conservatives to be honest when it involves people that they just don't like

[William Thornton]

No dog in this fight and no inside information but this looks like an adult, Christian way of handling things rather than recorded private conversation, anonymous websites, and manipulators behind the scenes.

[Rvaughn]

I looked around to find the statement of faith of SBU, and found it at the bottom of the page :
University Charter for Southwest Baptist University
Article XVI, Section 2

The Board of Trustees adopts the following Statement of Faith and Belief:

It is hereby expressly declared that Southwest Baptist University is, and must forever remain, distinctively a Baptist institution. It must conserve, defend, and promote the fundamentals of the Baptist Faith, and in all its teachings and policies conform to and be in harmony with the established and acknowledged principles and policies of Baptist churches affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention and with the Southern Baptist Convention.

We hold the following as fundamental Baptist Doctrine:

Belief in the inspiration and all sufficient authority of the Bible in all matters of Christian faith and practice.
The absolute Deity, the Virgin birth, the vicarious death, the bodily resurrection, the visible second coming, and the supreme Lordship of Jesus Christ.
That salvation is only and wholly by grace through faith.
That the human conditions of salvation are—Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
That the individual soul is competent to deal directly with God through Christ.
That all members are entitled to equal privileges in the church.
That the true ideal of the relations between church and state is "a free church and a free state."
That a church is a body of baptized believers associated together in solemn covenant, with Christ as its head and the scriptures as its Law, to worship God, conserve and administer the ordinances of His house, and to preach the Gospel to the world.
The ordinances of the church are two, viz: Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
That baptism is immersion in water, by a scripturally authorized administrator, of a believer in Christ; that its purpose is to symbolize the death of the subject to sin and his resurrection to a newness of life.
That the Lord's Supper is memorial in nature and that the terms of admission to the supper are regeneration, baptism, and church membership.

I also noticed this article:

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

Nonsense Timothy. The bibiliolatry charge never stuck. It was a silly and fruitless excursion by the mod/libs. It did lead that one mod leader to state that the Bible is not the word of God. Fact is, SBC cons didn't take over anything, the mods fully squandered it with stuff like that. Love revisiting those days, though. The Jesus Criterion sunk the libs ship.

[Rvaughn]

I agree with William. I've never known a Southern Baptist who worshipped the Bible rather than Jesus Christ.

Further, if affirming the fact that "all Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation" is heresy, count me as a heretic.

[Sandy]

There's a wide difference between making the claim that the Bible is equal with Jesus, and making the claim that all scripture is a testimony about Jesus. The silliest argument that was made during the controversy was that Jesus was removed from the BFM. All that we know about Jesus comes from the Bible and the way the Jesus criterion statement was written more or less allowed doctrine to be built around something he didn't actually address. Replacing it with a statement declaring that all scripture is a testimony to Jesus, which it is, clarifies the whole section. Authoritative scripture points to the object of our worship, it is not an object of worship itself and it doesn't make that claim. If you want to know what Jesus said or taught about something, the scripture is the only source and is therefore, authoritative. The BFM 2000 doesn't even go so far as to require a literal, word for word, verse by verse expository interpretation of the scripture, which would be an intermediate step on the way to Bibliolatry.

SBU's statement of faith is not the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, nor would I expect it to be. I'm interpreting "clarifying its statement of faith" as offering a current explanation of the meaning of the points in the statement as the University applies them across the board, whether in classrooms, its athletic programs or its social life. No direct connection was made, at least not included in the study committee report, to the lack of clarity of its statement of faith meaning what has been taught in the Bible classrooms of certain professors. Some Baptists think that belief in the "authoritative sufficiency" of the Bible also means there is only one way to interpret it and are threatened by discussions, especially in university classrooms, that legitimately open the door to different ways of looking at scripture. That's why we have Calvinists and Wesleyans, and it is also why American Christianity, without a hierarchical authority, has fractured into hostile conflict over just about everything in the Bible.

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]