Southern Baptists and the Bible

The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest Protestant denomination, and traditionally one of its most theologically conservative. Why, then, should there be any question over the promotion by the Southern Baptist publishing house of a book defending the integrity of Scripture—especially when that book was written by the current president of the convention?

Glen E. Braswell says in the Rocky Mountain Baptist, “I would be heartsick if I thought all Baptist professors believed a literal interpretation of the Bible undermined their work and alienated students from both the denomination and the Bible itself. If it is so, I would much rather Baptist young people attend state-supported institutions and be subjected to religious skeptics than attend Baptist schools and listen to professors hack away at the authority of the Scriptures.”

The question arose with the adoption of a resolution by the Association of Baptist Professors of Religion that deplores “the nature of promotion and publicity” given the book Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True by Dr. W. A. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, largest in the denomination. The association embraces Southern Baptist scholars in the southeastern part of the country, where Southern Baptist faculties are generally more theologically liberal.

A second resolution was adopted that declares, “Once again, in recent weeks, events in a Southern Baptist seminary raise, for all concerned persons, a spectre of harassment, biblicism, and witch hunting.” The reference was obviously to the Southern Baptist seminary at New Orleans, where the convention’s annual sessions are scheduled in June.

The following appraisal of the controversy over the Criswell book was written by Dr. Clark H. Pinnock, who has been associate professor of theology at New Orleans Seminary:

“Along with the rest of historic evangelical Christianity, the vast majority of Southern Baptists hold that Scripture is the very Word of God and constitutes the one and only source of divine truth, the sole epistemological foundation of the faith. In Baptist Faith and Message, adopted in 1925 and reiterated in 1962, the convention affirmed its faith in the unique inspiration and divine authorship of Scripture, and committed itself to biblical inerrancy (‘truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter’).

“Criswell’s book consists of twenty-one chapters in defense of the infallibility and inerrancy of the Scriptures. He makes appeal to its spiritual efficacy, its historical accuracy, and its self-attestation, and firmly rejects the charge that errors of any kind, factual, moral, or theological, exist in the Bible.

“Some of Criswell’s opponents have ridiculed his appeal to the ‘literal truth’ of the Bible, as if this required absurdities in the face of symbolic and metaphorical assertions in Scripture. It is not so. On the contrary, the criticism lacks any sound basis. The sensus literalis is the most fundamental hermeneutical principle, that Scripture be read in its historical-grammatical sense, and the plain meaning and intent of the author sought.

“Nowhere does Criswell deny legitimate use of scholarly techniques for elucidating the biblical text. He is a respected expository preacher who earned a doctorate from the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. What he does deplore are those critical hypotheses which deny the divine authorship of Scripture and detract from its complete inerrancy.

“Many of the historic evangelical denominations have been subverted by neo-Protestant theology. In each case a self-styled intellectual elite has quietly taken over the power structure, and proceeded to indoctrinate the people in their sub-biblical views. There are in operation now in the Southern Baptist Convention forces which wish to transform the denomination from being a theological-spiritual union of Bible-believing congregations, into a merely financial corporation of indifferent assemblies believing what they please.”

Silent Evangelist

During the week, the hands of Sullivan E. Chainey sand and polish furniture in his Springfield, Missouri, workshop. On Sundays they preach to people who can “hear” only with their eyes. The Assemblies of God home missionary is a twentieth-century circuit rider who conducts three or more services weekly for the deaf at outposts in southwest Missouri.

Though he is totally deaf himself, Mr. Chainey’s pastoral duties are not unlike those of a hearing minister. He performs weddings and funerals, counsels, and visits his parishioners. His services, usually held in homes, are built around Bible studies. His congregations are small but include people of all ages and, occasionally, hearing relatives of the deaf.

Two or three times a year he extends his circuit to Conway, South Carolina, where one of his six children lives. And while he’s in the area, Mr. Chainey also ministers to the deaf in Tabor, North Carolina.

The missionary traces his conversion to 1935 and the influence of a pioneer missionary to the deaf, Mrs. Elsie R. Peters. After attending Central Assemblies of God Church for the Deaf in Springfield for several years, Mr. Chainey began his ministry in sign language.

“The first car I used in southwest Missouri was a 1922 Chevrolet with a rubber top,” Mr. Chainey says. In the twenty-three years since then he has “worn out three cars and now have my fourth.” Although he is now 78 and has lived alone since the death of his wife, who was also deaf, Mr. Chainey is not thinking of retiring. He’s too busy.

Dissociating Religion And Ethics

A step has been taken toward ending formal religious education in Ontario grade schools. A legislative committee recommends replacing this instruction in public schools with teaching on ethics and morality, integrated into the school curriculum. A course on comparative religion could be optional for grades eleven and twelve.

The committee suggests that the Bible be taught within the framework of literature and history, and not read as part of the daily morning exercises. It recommends that the school morning begin with the singing of the national anthem and repeating of a universal prayer or the traditional Lord’s Prayer.

Ontario public schools have been giving two half-hour periods of religion weekly, many of them taught by visiting Protestant clergymen. But many schools have dropped the practice because of controversy during the past few years.

The committee report says that since formal religious education was introduced some twenty-five years ago, Ontario has changed from “a predominantly Anglo-Saxon Christian society to a pluralistic one.” Also, the instruction “presents Bible stories and religious ideas which may have little relation to the daily life of children … sometimes in terms that are offensive to many.”

Since the legislative committee on religious education was set up more than three years ago under the chairmanship of a former lieutenant-governor of the province, J. Keiler Mackay, briefs have been presented by interested parties with clergymen lining up on both sides. Among other things, the committee was to determine “means by which character building, ethics, social attitudes and moral values and principles may best be instilled in the young.”

Reaction to the report has been minimal. Comments by leaders of Canada’s two largest Protestant groups were cautious or resigned.

The Most Reverend Howard H. Clark, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said, “I recognize the difficulties of the old kind of religious instruction in the pluralistic society of today.”

The Rev. Dr. Ernest E. Long, secretary of the United Church of Canada’s general council, said he agreed that the present courses in religious education should go but wondered how recommendations would be put into effect.

Many evangelicals are expected to oppose the recommendations in the manner of former Ontario premier George Drew, the man credited with introducing the present religious-education program into the schools. Commenting on the report, he said children must receive formal religious instruction if civilization is to survive.

Now that the report has been presented, it could either sit idle with no action being taken or be passed into law. Hasty action is unlikely, since it has been more or less taken for granted that Ontario, the only one of Canada’s ten provinces to have formal grade-school religious education, would gradually let it slip away and become a thing of the past.

AUBREY WICE

DEATHS

HERBERT WELCH, 106, bishop of the United Methodist Church; in New York.

DAVID KERR, 55, dean of Gordon Divinity School; in Beverly, Massachusetts.

PAUL E. SCHERER, 76, retired homiletics professor at New York’s Union Theological Seminary; in Columbus, Ohio.

Personalia

Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, Editor-at-large of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, has been named visiting professor of theology at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He will be installed at the seminary’s fall convocation.

Dr. Addison H. Leitch has been appointed professor of theology at Gordon Divinity School. He begins by teaching a summer course on Christianity in the great classics.

Dr. Ralph P. Martin will join the faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary in the fall as professor of New Testament.

Dr. Charles C. Parlin, noted Methodist churchman and board chairman of the Celanese Corporation, will receive the Upper Room Citation for 1969.

Dr. Robert G. Clouse of Indiana State, Dr. Harry Rosenberg of Colorado State, and Dr. Stuart C. Hackett of Wheaton have been awarded post-doctoral research grants by the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies.

Stanley R. Bliss, a New York area director for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, is one of thirty-six campus ministers selected to receive Danforth study grants for the academic year 1969–70.

Miscellany

Bob Jones University asked the state of South Carolina for permission to arm its guards with submachine guns and automatic rifles—and was turned down.

The U. S. Supreme Court will hear a Vermont complaint that it is unconstitutional for states to give financial aid to denomination-backed colleges.

A committee of the Oregon state legislature recommends taxing church buildings at one-fourth the going rate.

They Say

“The one thing that troubles me is that social action … can be a convenient method to avoid contact with the question of truth in religion. Instead of asking if God exists, you picket a Selective Service Board or demonstrate for civil rights. While I personally am opposed to the war and in favor of protest—though not all forms of it—it has nothing to do with the question of God’s existence. This activity can be an alibi from facing the theological questions, especially for theological students, and these are questions that should be faced.”—Dr. Peter Berger, professor at the New School for Social Research and noted author.

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