Baptist Faith and Message - Article 5a: Gods purpose of Grace, Election - Rebuttal

Point-of-View

Feb 11, 2003
JOHN P. FAIRLESS
First Baptist Church, Gainesville

Editor's note: In order to take account of differing interpretations of this article of the Baptist Faith and Message, the following essay, written as a letter to the editor in response to last week's commentary by Thomas Nettles, is offered here.

The Witness published, as part of its continuing series featuring the Baptist Faith and Message, an eloquent interpretation of Article 5a, "God's Purpose of Grace, Election" written by Professor Thomas Nettles of Southern Seminary (February 6, 2003, p. 3.) Thank you for your continuing effort to highlight the BF&M, our primary means of evaluating "doctrinal accountability" in our Southern Baptist employees-particularly those who represent us on the mission fields and in the classrooms of our institutions.

I wish to question Dr. Nettles' representation of the "doctrines of grace" as an understanding that "nearly all Baptists believe" (quoting F.H. Kerfoot.) Dr. Nettles argues for this strict interpretation of the Calvinist doctrine of predestination as a satisfactory understanding of the language of our Baptist Faith and Message. I do not believe that this is so.

Dr. Nettles states: "God's particular love rests on certain ones to bring them to salvation." While this interpretation is certainly reflective of one stream of historic Baptist belief, it by no means can be taken to represent all of Baptist belief. Baptists have never agreed to an exclusive interpretation of God's electing purpose; some have seen it as more "particular" while others have understood it to be more "general" in nature. In other words, some Baptists have believed that God's saving grace is intended for some, but not all of humanity; and other Baptists have believed that God's grace is available to all. (2 Peter 3:9 and John 3:16-18 would seem to support the latter idea.)

Interestingly, F.H. Kerfoot, in the same document quoted by Dr. Nettles, states the following: "We believe, in common with all evangelical Christians, in the offer of eternal life in the Gospel to all, and the aggravated guilt of those who reject it."

Dr. Nettles states that God "administers His decree [of election] all the way to the glorification of sinners and to the glory of his beloved Son." This language is reflective of some other confessions in Baptist life, but not of the Baptist Faith and Message. For example, the Second London Confession of 1689 says, "By the decree of God...some men...are predestinated to eternal life...and their number so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished." (Baptists who desired a more Calvinistic understanding had "corrected" this version from its original 1677 form.)

This view was eventually moderated in Baptist experience and theology and, by the time of the 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith, language that was reflective of a broader majority of Baptist churches and leaders was adopted: "We believe that the blessings of salvation are made free to all by the gospel...and that nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth but his own...voluntary rejection of the gospel." The original version of the Baptist Faith and Message, drafted in 1925, was much more closely aligned with the sentiment of the New Hampshire Confession. The language concerning God's purpose in election has remained largely unchanged since it was originally approved by the Southern Baptist Convention at that time.

Finally, Dr. Nettles writes that "such a display of sovereign goodness...excludes any synergy in this salvation," which I take to mean that God makes no allowance for human participation in the process. I am reminded of my days in Baptist Training Union as a young person, as we studied Dr. Herschel Hobbs' explanation of this same article:

God's purpose of grace runs throughout the Bible. Indeed, the Scriptures teach that this redemptive purpose is from eternity. Before creation an omniscient God knew that man would sin and would need to be saved. However, God's foreknowledge of the event did not cause it. It came through the exercise of man's free will....
In eternity, God proposed to redeem men. Thus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Forgiveness was in the heart of God before sin was in the heart of man....John 6:44 says, 'No man can come unto me except the Father draw him.' 'Draw' is God's initiative; 'Come' is man's response. (Baptist Faith and Message Study Course Manual, 1971, pp. 65-66.)

Dr. Adrian Rogers, chairman of the Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee, in his report to the 2000 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention wrote that his committee stood in solidarity with their predecessors from 1925 and 1963, who "rightly sought to identify and affirm 'certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and with which they have been and are now closely identified.'"

In my opinion, Dr. Nettles' analysis fails to pass this most basic test. His viewpoint may well be a doctrine with which some Baptists have been associated, but it is not an interpretation that the majority of Southern Baptists "believe, cherish, and with which they... are now closely identified."

John P. Fairless is pastor of First Baptist Church in Gainesville.

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