Why I am a Baptist (part 9 of 10)

The freedom and challenge of objective authority

The effect of this latter distinctive on modern Baptist beliefs and practices has been threefold. First, it maintains a fundamental Baptist commitment to the apostolic teaching and apostolic gospel as recorded in the scriptures. This affirmation of objective truth in relation to the knowledge of God and the means of salvation is at the core of what it means to be an evangelical Christian.

But the Bible has more to offer than a 'fire escape from hell'; it is a manual for living. As Rowland Croucher notes, "Baptists are encouraged to be keen 'Bible people,' seeking with an open and reverent mind to understand what God is saying to us today. Sometimes we won't find specific answers to all our modern problems there, but we'll always find God's guiding principles." Thus the Bible is especially relevant in contemporary Western culture where an objective moral framework has been dismantled with nothing offered to take its place.

Second, it provides a rule or measure against which all theories, doctrines and practices may be tested. Although this may be perceived as irrelevant or counter-productive from a postmodern point of view, it is an essential requirement if we are to defend and pass on "the faith that was once entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3).

Third, it defines the broad purposes of the church as worship, evangelism, fellowship/integration, discipleship and service to others, while allowing for freedom of individual and corporate expression of these purposes within a unified faith community.

Three cautionary points should also be noted. First, adherence to 'sola scriptura' as the defining characteristic of a denomination's identity necessitates a reliance upon certain interpretive principles, and both the choice of an interpretive framework and the degree to which interpretation is forced to comply with theological preconceptions and practical expedience are open to dispute.

While scripture itself emphasises its inspiration and authority, many Baptists that I know take this to imply inerrancy, and many more approach scripture with a view that Tony Campolo describes as 'virtual inerrancy,' reading and applying scripture as though it was inerrant. Caution and humility rather than brashness and dogmatism should be the rule here.

Second, a dogmatic emphasis on biblical literalism may result in the emergence of some negative aspects of religious fundamentalism within a denomination. Baptist church history is peppered with instances where individuals or groups have vehemently disagreed on the basis of a literal interpretation of scripture, and this has often proved significantly damaging to both Christian fellowship and the growth of God's kingdom. Unfortunately, those days are not over.

Third, if scripture is authoritative and normative, then extrabiblical influences on the practices and teaching of a denomination should be identified and counteracted. Such influences may arise, for example, from popular culture, partisan political forces, or the media. Emphasis should be placed not only on the spiritual and eternal implications of the gospel, but on its social and temporal ramifications.

In the past Baptists have defended and lived out a gospel derived from the literal teaching of scripture and which has spoken to the full spectrum of human need; it is to be hoped that this remains so in the future.

More in the next post....

Rod Benson is a NSW Baptist minister and ethicist. He attends Dural Baptist Church.