500 years later, theological debate still simmers, splitting Southern Baptists

Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 9:49pm

Is God's saving grace free to anyone who accepts Jesus, or did God predestine certain people for heaven and hell before the beginning of the world? That's a 500-year-old question, but it is creating real divisions in 2013 in the nation's largest Protestant denomination.



In January, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Louisiana College, Joe Aguillard, wrote in his "President's Pen" column, "My love for all Baptists including Calvinists, does not constitute our approval of its being advocated at Louisiana College."



More fuel was added to the fire when the SBC's Campbellsville University declined to renew a professor's contract this spring. Although there was little evidence, observers speculated online that it was because the professor espoused Calvinist views.

Scott McConnell, vice-president of research for the Southern Baptist's Lifeway Research group, said one of the reasons that such a theological debate can seem divisive to an outsider is because Southern Baptists are used to being very united on doctrinal issues.




"Once you have this ironclad doctrine of inerrancy, it's not going to be long before some people feel the need for theological inerrancy."

Or, as faith and culture writer Jonathan Merritt puts it: "Most Southern Baptists believe the Bible is infallible and inerrant and now some Southern Baptists act as if they are infallible and inerrant."


"That's a lot of folks on the other side of the fence," McConnell said.






"People involved will always say, 'If you believe in Calvinism, you don't believe in evangelism. If you believe everything is predetermined, why even bother to preach the gospel?" Kidd said. "But as it turns out, Calvinists have never acted that way in the Southern Baptist Convention."


The statement comes just ahead of the SBC's annual meeting in Houston on June 11 and 12. Among other things, it seeks to reassure non-Calvinists on the issue of evangelism, stating, "We affirm the church's duty to obey Christ by preaching the Gospel to all the nations and by making disciples who obey all that Christ has commanded."


"There's going to be less consensus in the future, so people are going to have to get really comfortable with disagreeing about these issues," said Collin Garbarino, an assistant history professor at Houston Baptist University. "The latest document tries to do that, to say it's OK not to have that 95 percent consensus."

But he added, "On both sides there are going to be certain individuals who are not satisfied and who want to draw lines in the sand about what it means to be a Baptist and what it doesn't mean. And they tend to be noisy and tend to have blogs that get a lot of traffic."

11 Comments on this post:

By: pswindle on 6/8/13 at 10:04

It is what one wants to believe. Can it be proven one way or the other? The Bible is a big contradiction.

By: govskeptic on 6/9/13 at 7:46

A leap of faith is too much for the smallest of brains as well as many of the largest.

By: daytonsdarwin on 6/9/13 at 10:30

As someone else said in summing up Christian beliefs:

God said, "I'm going to create man and woman with original sin. Then I'm going to impregnate a woman with myself as her child, so that I can be born. Once alive, I will kill myself as a sacrifice to myself. To save you from the sin I originally condemned you to. Ta dah!!!"

Arguing over Calvinism verses evangelism is like arguing whether Humpty Dumpty was pushed or accidentally fell. When you're discussing imaginary characters like Jehovah, Allah, Yahweh, Elmer Fudd or Humpty Dumpty, it doesn't matter.

It's time to give up religious superstitions.

By: global_citizen on 6/10/13 at 7:17

Considering how petty theological differences of opinion escalate into major rifts that divide and alienate close friends and family, I feel sorry for anyone who takes this mythological nonsense seriously.

By: TITAN1 on 6/10/13 at 8:45

I feel sorry for anyone who mocks God. Pswindle, where does the Bible contradict itself? Before you answer, please tell me you know the difference between Old Testament customs and laws.

By: Blanketnazi2 on 6/10/13 at 8:50



By: Blanketnazi2 on 6/10/13 at 8:52



By: Blanketnazi2 on 6/10/13 at 8:56

"And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." (2KI 2:11)

"No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, ... the Son of Man." (JOH 3:13)

By: global_citizen on 6/10/13 at 11:42

Well, Titan, you issued a challenge that is pretty easy to address (but will surely be ignored and dismissed by you). The biblical apologetics business strains credulity, but nonetheless continues to be very popular among true believers. Gee, where to begin.

First of all, how did God make plants grow before he created the sun? Oh, right, he's omnipotent.

Next, where did Jesus, Mary, and Joseph go right after Jesus was born? Was it Egypt as it says in Matthew (to flee Herod), or was it Nazareth as it says in Luke? Oh, sure, some will say it could be both, that neither writer included ALL of Jesus' life in their account, by why would either overlook these important details when they cover so many other things in agreement?

Did the temple veil tear before Jesus breathed his last breath, or before? The gospels differ on this and it's not of trivial importance to those who believe strictly in an inerrant bible.

What did the women who discovered the empty tomb (who, by the way, differ according to each gospel) do once they found Jesus wasn't there? Did they run away and tell no one because they were afraid, as it says in Matthew, or were they overcome with joy and then ran to tell the good news to the apostles, as it says in the gospel of John?

Please tell us your take on why these are not contradictions.

By: Blanketnazi2 on 6/10/13 at 2:33

I guess Titan has taken a sabbatical.

By: daytonsdarwin on 6/10/13 at 4:08

Titan has been ruptured — I mean raptured.

For an interesting look at the Bible, try http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/