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Report of the Baptist Faith and Message
Study Committee to the Southern Baptist Convention
Adopted, June 14th, 2000
The 1999 session of the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in
Atlanta, Georgia, adopted the following motion addressed to the
President of the Convention:
"I move that in your capacity as Southern Baptist Convention
chairman, you appoint a blue ribbon committee to review the Baptist
Faith and Message statement with the responsibility to report
and bring any recommendations to this meeting next June in Orlando."
President Paige Patterson appointed the committee as follows:
Max Barnett (OK), Steve Gaines (AL), Susie Hawkins (TX), Rudy A.
Hernandez (TX), Charles S. Kelley, Jr. (LA), Heather King (IN),
Richard D. Land (TN), Fred Luter (LA), R. Albert Mohler, Jr. (KY),
T. C. Pinckney (VA), Nelson Price (GA), Adrian Rogers (TN), Roger
Spradlin (CA), Simon Tsoi (AZ), Jerry Vines (FL). Adrian Rogers
(TN) was appointed chairman.
Your committee thus constituted begs leave to present its report
as follows:
Baptists are a people of deep beliefs and cherished doctrines.
Throughout our history we have been a confessional people, adopting
statements of faith as a witness to our beliefs and a pledge of
our faithfulness to the doctrines revealed in Holy Scripture.
Our confessions of faith are rooted in historical precedent, as
the church in every age has been called upon to define and defend
its beliefs. Each generation of Christians bears the responsibility
of guarding the treasury of truth that has been entrusted to us
[2 Timothy 1:14]. Facing a new century, Southern Baptists must meet
the demands and duties of the present hour.
New challenges to faith appear in every age. A pervasive anti-supernaturalism
in the culture was answered by Southern Baptists in 1925, when the
Baptist Faith and Message was first adopted by this Convention.
In 1963, Southern Baptists responded to assaults upon the authority
and truthfulness of the Bible by adopting revisions to the Baptist
Faith and Message. The Convention added an article on "The
Family" in 1998, thus answering cultural confusion with the
clear teachings of Scripture. Now, faced with a culture hostile
to the very notion of truth, this generation of Baptists must claim
anew the eternal truths of the Christian faith.
Your committee respects and celebrates the heritage of the Baptist
Faith and Message, and affirms the decision of the Convention in
1925 to adopt the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, "revised
at certain points and with some additional articles growing out
of certain needs . . . ." We also respect the important contributions
of the 1925 and 1963 editions of the Baptist Faith and Message.
With the 1963 committee, we have been guided in our work by the
1925 "statement of the historic Baptist conception of the nature
and function of confessions of faith in our religious and denominational
life . . . ." It is, therefore, quoted in full as a part of
this report to the Convention:
(1) That they constitute 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. They
are not intended to add anything to the simple conditions of salvation
revealed in the New Testament, viz., repentance toward God and
faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
(2) That we do not regard them as complete
statements of our faith, having any quality of finality or infallibility.
As in the past so in the future, Baptists should hold themselves
free to revise their statements of faith as may seem to them wise
and expedient at any time.
(3) That any group of Baptists, large or small,
have the inherent right to draw up for themselves and publish
to the world a confession of their faith whenever they may think
it advisable to do so.
(4) That the sole authority for faith and
practice among Baptists is the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
Confessions are only guides in interpretation, having no authority
over the conscience.
(5) That 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.
Baptists cherish and defend religious liberty, and deny the right
of any secular or religious authority to impose a confession of
faith upon a church or body of churches. We honor the principles
of soul competency and the priesthood of believers, affirming together
both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other
under the Word of God.
Baptist churches, associations, and general bodies have adopted
confessions of faith as a witness to the world, and as instruments
of doctrinal accountability. We are not embarrassed to state before
the world that these are doctrines we hold precious and as essential
to the Baptist tradition of faith and practice.
As a committee, we have been charged to address the "certain
needs" of our own generation. In an age increasingly hostile
to Christian truth, our challenge is to express the truth as revealed
in Scripture, and to bear witness to Jesus Christ, who is "the
Way, the Truth, and the Life."
The 1963 committee rightly sought to identify and affirm "certain
definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and with which
they have been and are now closely identified." Our living
faith is established upon eternal truths. "Thus this generation
of Southern Baptists is in historic succession of intent and purpose
as it endeavors to state for its time and theological climate those
articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among
us."
It is the purpose of this statement of faith and message to set
forth certain teachings which we believe.
Respectfully Submitted,
The Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee
Adrian Rogers, Chairman
Committee Members:
Adrian Rogers, Chairman
Max Barnett
Steve Gaines
Susie Hawkins
Rudy A. Hernandez
Charles S. Kelley, Jr.
Heather King
Richard D. Land
Fred Luter
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
T. C. Pinckney
Nelson Price
Roger Spradlin
Simon Tsoi
Jerry Vines
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