Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some reflections on the recent annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, which was held June 14-15, 2016, in St. Louis, Missouri. Despite some tensions and contentious issues that had to be decided by the messengers, our brothers and sisters from around the nation came together in a Spirit-led unity that was on display to the world. May God receive the glory for all that was accomplished! Those issues, however, warrant further discussion, and over the next few weeks I’ll use this space to delve a little deeper into each one.
Before we do that, however, I believe it is worthwhile for us to consider the importance of our participation in denominational life, especially at the national level. It can be easy for us, here in Battle Creek, Michigan, to wonder if the expense of sending messengers is worth it. I realize that not every member of our church is a life-long Southern Baptist, like I am, and so the history of our denomination may not be as readily remembered. Southern Baptists are unique in the history of the Church in that it is a denomination which, although it was once heading precariously down the slope of theological liberalism, corrected its trajectory and returned to a solid foundation based on the inerrancy of Scripture. There was a time when pretty much all of our seminaries had abandoned Biblical inerrancy (even if some paid lip service to it). There was a time when Southern Baptists supported abortion rights, going so far to pass a resolution in 1971 (two years before Roe v. Wade was decided) stating, “We call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.” There was a time when it looked like the Southern Baptist Convention would follow in the footsteps of mainline Protestantism, abandoning the divine wisdom of God’s Word for the deadly wisdom of the world.
All that changed in 1979, when men like Paige Patterson, Adrian Rogers, and Judge Paul Pressler rallied the faithful to begin attending the Convention as messengers, resulting in what is now known as the “Conservative Resurgence.” These men understood that it would be a long, hard slog to reclaim the denomination for the glory of God, something that would be unachievable without the messengers from the churches who were alarmed at the direction our convention was taking. Today, that battle has long since been won, but the war is not over. During a 9Marks panel discussion at the Convention on the state of the SBC, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was asked what issues he foresaw the Convention facing in the coming years. Without hesitation, Dr. Mohler named a battle over the inerrancy of Scripture. We shouldn’t be surprised; after all, Satan has been attacking the truth of God’s Word since the Garden of Eden (“Did God really say…?”).
Brothers and sisters, we must continue to send faithful messengers who love the Lord and want to see His name magnified and proclaimed among the nations, because we are always one generation away from being where we were just a couple of generations ago. Just something to think about…
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