New booklet explores conservative movement

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–A new booklet from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson provides an insider's look at the conservative resurgence within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Anatomy of a Reformation: The Southern Baptist Convention, 1978-2004 describes how conservative leaders formulated a plan to return the convention to its biblical roots, beginning with the election of Memphis pastor Adrian Rogers as SBC president in 1979.

“In the final analysis, we did not attempt a reformation movement because we thought it would succeed, but because we sincerely believed we were right about the inerrancy of the Bible, and because we did not want to tell our children and grandchildren that we had no courage to stand for our convictions. Above all, the conviction that the continued drift of the Southern Baptist Convention could spell eternal doom for hundreds of thousands of people was the principal compelling motivation,” Patterson writes.

In the end, Patterson writes, the election of conservative leaders was a result of “the intervention of God,” making the SBC the only denomination to ever return from a leftward drift to a conservative stance without fracturing.

Patterson also discusses the results of the conservatives’ initiative. He credits the leadership of conservatives and their commitment to the inerrancy and authority of Scripture for swelling the ranks of the missionary enterprise and for increasing the number of students in the SBC’s six theological seminaries.

Another lasting effect was the revision of the Baptist Faith and Message, the SBC statement of beliefs, which Patterson describes as having been infected with neo-orthodox theology in 1963. Messengers to the 2000 convention adopted language in the BF&M that reiterated Scripture’s authority over human conscience.

The conservative revival in the SBC was not without repercussions, however, Patterson admitted.

“There are regrets,” Patterson writes, with both conservatives and moderates having “suffered hurt, sorrow, and job displacement.”

Still, if another effort at conservative revival were needed someday, Patterson said he would join it “before you can say Mephibosheth!”

“I have children and grandchildren. They deserve a chance to be exposed to orthodox theology, to read a Bible they can trust, and to know Jesus who can save them,” Patterson said. “Furthermore, I cannot relieve my own mind of the vision of men and women filing hopelessly across the precipice of eternity and into the chasm of hell. I cannot support, or ultimately leave unchallenged, any doctrine or approach that engenders doubt rather than faith,” Patterson writes.

Copies of Anatomy of a Reformation: The Southern Baptist Convention, 1978-2004 are available for $5 each by writing to Office of Public Relations, 2001 West Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, 76115, or calling (817) 923-1921, ext. 7220.