Rock Creek Baptist Church
From Prologue to Passion: The Baptist Faith and Message
Locations & Times
Rock Creek Baptist
1238 Rock Creek Dr, Nashville, NC 27856, USA
Wednesday 10:30 AM
Have you ever seen a sign with a weird rule and thought "What happened to make this specific rule?"
Baptist have tended to shy away from "Creeds" or statements of belief because we believe in every believers being able to interpret the Scripture for themselves. But some extreme circumstances called for a change. Baptists had to address what it means to be Baptist and what set of beliefs can be called Baptist as opposed to some other denomination.
1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith. Becomes a standard for Baptists all over
1859 Darwin publishes theory of evolution. People start becoming naturalists (believe in only the natural, not the supernatural, don't believe in miracles anymore)
1925 New Hampshire documents with some tweaks and modern issues added becomes the first Baptist Faith and Message
1961 Ralph Elliot writes a book on Genesis saying the first 11 chapters didn't happen, Adam isn't real. It's taught in Baptists seminaries and published by Broadman Press. People aren't happy... Owen White publishes paper against it in all the state Baptist newspapers.
"If the appeal is made for “academic freedom,” let it be said that we gladly grant any man the right to believe what he wants to—but, we do not grant him the right to believe and express views in conflict with our historic position concerning the Bible as the Word of God while he is teaching in one of our schools, built and supported by Baptist funds."
1963 Convention is about to meet led by Hershell Hobbs as president. Gets together with Routh and McClellan to keep things from blowing up. Routh says:
“Some people feel that Southern Baptists are becoming more liberal in theology. If so, we should know it. It seems that the best way to determine that would be to have a committee study the 1925 statement of ‘The Baptist Faith and Message.’”
They determine the convention is NOT turning liberal, stop publishing the book, and make some changes to the Baptist Faith and Message to make sure it's neither liberal nor pre-destination based. Hall puts it best:
“We must conclude that God has made in Christ’s atonement adequate provision for salvation of all men. But the acceptance of that salvation—the fearful responsibility of it—rests with each individual. Jesus knocks at the door. He never breaks in.”
Changes are so in line with typical Baptist thought that it passes without controversy
In 2000 there are changes again. Some are merely semantics and some are more controversial
1) "The Bible has truth in it." People were saying the Bible wasn't true just had a mixture of true and false in it. Obviously taking the 1963 document out of context, but they tightened up the language to stop that
2) "Christ is our criterion for Scripture." Some said that if Jesus doesn't speak to an issue you can believe whatever you want regardless of the rest of Scripture teaching. Again, this is misreading the 1963 statement but they tightened up the language here too to say "all Scripture is true and trustworthy."
3) Spoke out against euthanasia and pornography, issues more prevalent in their time than they would have been in 1963
4) More controversial was speaking against abortion and practice of homosexuality. Defined marriage as one man with one woman. Controversial but still okay with you probably if you are conservative.
5) Controversy came in form of roles of men and women.
Egalitarian: men and women are the same
Complimentarian: men and women are created differently but equal and those differences should be celebrated. God made man the spiritual leader of the household. Not better or more important just tasked differently. Men and women submit to each other.
Not everyone agreed with the more complimentarian approach
6) The most controversial part was the role of women in ministry. The updated document said that pastors should be exclusively men but men and women are equal before God and gifted for ministry. Women could be any other church staff or lay leader, but not a pastor. Some people took this statement further and said that women shouldn't be on staff at all, some said they shouldn't teach Sunday school, others said they shouldn't even make an announcement in church. These are not the position of RCBC, we support the many contributions that women make in the church in so many ways! We also find precedent in Scripture for women to be involved in the work of the church
Baptist have tended to shy away from "Creeds" or statements of belief because we believe in every believers being able to interpret the Scripture for themselves. But some extreme circumstances called for a change. Baptists had to address what it means to be Baptist and what set of beliefs can be called Baptist as opposed to some other denomination.
1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith. Becomes a standard for Baptists all over
1859 Darwin publishes theory of evolution. People start becoming naturalists (believe in only the natural, not the supernatural, don't believe in miracles anymore)
1925 New Hampshire documents with some tweaks and modern issues added becomes the first Baptist Faith and Message
1961 Ralph Elliot writes a book on Genesis saying the first 11 chapters didn't happen, Adam isn't real. It's taught in Baptists seminaries and published by Broadman Press. People aren't happy... Owen White publishes paper against it in all the state Baptist newspapers.
"If the appeal is made for “academic freedom,” let it be said that we gladly grant any man the right to believe what he wants to—but, we do not grant him the right to believe and express views in conflict with our historic position concerning the Bible as the Word of God while he is teaching in one of our schools, built and supported by Baptist funds."
1963 Convention is about to meet led by Hershell Hobbs as president. Gets together with Routh and McClellan to keep things from blowing up. Routh says:
“Some people feel that Southern Baptists are becoming more liberal in theology. If so, we should know it. It seems that the best way to determine that would be to have a committee study the 1925 statement of ‘The Baptist Faith and Message.’”
They determine the convention is NOT turning liberal, stop publishing the book, and make some changes to the Baptist Faith and Message to make sure it's neither liberal nor pre-destination based. Hall puts it best:
“We must conclude that God has made in Christ’s atonement adequate provision for salvation of all men. But the acceptance of that salvation—the fearful responsibility of it—rests with each individual. Jesus knocks at the door. He never breaks in.”
Changes are so in line with typical Baptist thought that it passes without controversy
In 2000 there are changes again. Some are merely semantics and some are more controversial
1) "The Bible has truth in it." People were saying the Bible wasn't true just had a mixture of true and false in it. Obviously taking the 1963 document out of context, but they tightened up the language to stop that
2) "Christ is our criterion for Scripture." Some said that if Jesus doesn't speak to an issue you can believe whatever you want regardless of the rest of Scripture teaching. Again, this is misreading the 1963 statement but they tightened up the language here too to say "all Scripture is true and trustworthy."
3) Spoke out against euthanasia and pornography, issues more prevalent in their time than they would have been in 1963
4) More controversial was speaking against abortion and practice of homosexuality. Defined marriage as one man with one woman. Controversial but still okay with you probably if you are conservative.
5) Controversy came in form of roles of men and women.
Egalitarian: men and women are the same
Complimentarian: men and women are created differently but equal and those differences should be celebrated. God made man the spiritual leader of the household. Not better or more important just tasked differently. Men and women submit to each other.
Not everyone agreed with the more complimentarian approach
6) The most controversial part was the role of women in ministry. The updated document said that pastors should be exclusively men but men and women are equal before God and gifted for ministry. Women could be any other church staff or lay leader, but not a pastor. Some people took this statement further and said that women shouldn't be on staff at all, some said they shouldn't teach Sunday school, others said they shouldn't even make an announcement in church. These are not the position of RCBC, we support the many contributions that women make in the church in so many ways! We also find precedent in Scripture for women to be involved in the work of the church
1990s Cooperative Baptist Fellowship formed over the issue of innerancy of Scripture and women in ministry
It is a broad spectrum, from conservative who simply support women deacons to liberals who don't believe Jesus is the Son of God
My experience with CBF
You don't have to be CBF to support women as deacons or other roles in the church, there are plenty SBC churches who support women in varying roles in the church
We are a Southern Baptist Church, following the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. We would agree with much of what the 2000 document teaches but we support women in ministry. While there ARE some churches who live in the past of conflicts and controversies, that is NOT our experience here. We are keeping with Scripture to reject foolish controversies and to press forward in the more important kingdom work to which we are called in Christ Jesus. We acknowledge our rich Baptist history. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But most of all we praise God who is bigger than it all.
It is a broad spectrum, from conservative who simply support women deacons to liberals who don't believe Jesus is the Son of God
My experience with CBF
You don't have to be CBF to support women as deacons or other roles in the church, there are plenty SBC churches who support women in varying roles in the church
We are a Southern Baptist Church, following the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. We would agree with much of what the 2000 document teaches but we support women in ministry. While there ARE some churches who live in the past of conflicts and controversies, that is NOT our experience here. We are keeping with Scripture to reject foolish controversies and to press forward in the more important kingdom work to which we are called in Christ Jesus. We acknowledge our rich Baptist history. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But most of all we praise God who is bigger than it all.