Point of View

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of commentaries examining and explaining the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention's confession of faith.

In 1703, Rev. Richard King wrote a letter requesting advice from British philosopher John Locke. He asked, "What is the shortest and surest way, for a young gentleman, to attain a true knowledge of the Christian religion, in the full and just extent of it?" The philosopher wisely advised the young minister to study the Scripture! Locke's description of the Bible is beautiful. "It has God for its author; salvation for its end; and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter." Locke's words resonated with Baptists and the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith (1833) and all editions of the Baptist Faith and Message incorporated Locke's words as a summation of Baptist beliefs about the Bible.

The Baptist Faith and Message highlights the source, nature, purpose, and sufficiency of Scripture.

First, the Bible is a divine-human book. The BF&M states, "The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man." The BF&M highlights the divine nature of the Bible in the phrases "divinely inspired" and "God's revelation." The BF&M emphasizes the human aspect of the Bible in the phrase "written by men."

The Bible is the inspired revelation of God. Inspiration is a biblical concept; the term occurs once in the Bible: "All Scripture is inspired by God" (2 Tim. 3:16). The term "Scripture" comes from the Greek term graphe and means "writing." The Greek term translated as "inspired" in our English Bibles is theopneustos, a compound term comprised of "God" (theos) and "breath (pneo). The term describes the Scriptures as "breathed-out by God." The Bible is more than a mere record of God's revelation as the 1963 BF&M affirmed; the Writings themselves are "breathed-out" by God and are God's revelation.

The BF&M also affirms the human nature of Scripture. According to 2 Peter 1:19-21, the Holy Spirit operated on men to direct them towards a goal. Peter focused on three ideas in relation to the Bible. First, Scripture did not originate in the will of the human author. Second, the human authors spoke for God. Third, the Spirit "moved" upon the human agents. The word "moved" indicates that the power of the mover (the Spirit) carried the human agent to a goal. The Spirit acted upon humans; God, therefore, conveyed His message through human personality.

Second, the BF&M affirms the Bible is a purposive book. According to the BF&M, the Bible has "salvation for its end." Salvation functions as a comprehensive biblical term to describe a human's relationship with God. The Bible conveys the message detailing the entrance into the way of salvation, provides the nourishment for growth into salvation, and portrays the culmination of salvation in God's paradise.

Because the Bible purposes to bring humans into a salvation relationship with God, the Bible testifies to Jesus Christ, the agent of salvation. To establish Jesus as the "criterion for interpreting the Bible," as the 1963 version of the Baptist Faith and Message argued, unnaturally results in a bifurcation: Jesus vs. the Scriptures.

Third, the Bible is a truthful book. The BF&M affirms, "All Scripture is totally true and trustworthy." Every direct affirmation of the Bible is truthful. The truth of the Bible is not limited to the religious sphere. While neither a textbook of science nor history, all biblical affirmations related to science and history are true. Two major arguments support the truthfulness of Scripture: the nature of God and Jesus' understanding of Scripture. First, God is not a god of error. Second, Jesus treated the Scripture as trustworthy. A follower of Christ should adopt the same attitude toward Scripture as Jesus. Jesus affirmed as true portions of Scripture many believers accept as mythological, for example, a literal Adam, the Noahic flood, Sodom, and Jonah.

Fourth, the Bible is an authoritative book. The BF&M affirms, "It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore, is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried." Many believers deny the authority and sufficiency of Scripture by elevating other religious authorities above the Bible. Liberal "Christians" elevate human reason to a place of authority and judgment over the Bible. Catholics deny the sufficiency of Scripture by placing ecclesiastical authority over Scripture. According to Catholic teachings, the church gave birth to the Scriptures and correctly interprets the Word of God. Some Quakers, Pentecostals, charismatics, and even Baptists exalt subjective experience to a position of supreme authority over the Bible.

Baptists historically described the Bible in strong language that affirmed the inspiration and total trustworthiness of the Bible. James Frost, the first president of the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay), wrote in 1900, "We accept the Scriptures as an all-sufficient and infallible rule of faith and practice, and insist upon the absolute inerrancy and sole authority of the Word of God. We recognize at this point no room for division either, of practice or belief, or sentiment." Amen, Rev. Frost!

Mark Rathel is associate professor of theology at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.