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The Baptist Faith & Message
2000 Preamble Report
of the Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee to the Southern
Baptist Convention
Adopted, June 14th, 2000
The 1999 session of the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in
Atlanta, Georgia, adopted the following motion addressed to the
President of the Convention:
"I move that in your capacity as Southern Baptist
Convention chairman, you appoint a blue ribbon committee to
review the Baptist Faith and Message statement with the
responsibility to report and bring any recommendations to this
meeting next June in Orlando."
President Paige Patterson appointed the committee as follows:
Max Barnett (OK), Steve Gaines (AL), Susie Hawkins (TX), Rudy A.
Hernandez (TX), Charles S. Kelley, Jr. (LA), Heather King (IN),
Richard D. Land (TN), Fred Luter (LA), R. Albert Mohler, Jr. (KY),
T. C. Pinckney (VA), Nelson Price (GA), Adrian Rogers (TN), Roger
Spradlin (CA), Simon Tsoi (AZ), Jerry Vines (FL). Adrian Rogers
(TN) was appointed chairman.
Your committee thus constituted begs leave to present its
report as follows:
Baptists are a people of deep beliefs and cherished doctrines.
Throughout our history we have been a confessional people,
adopting statements of faith as a witness to our beliefs and a
pledge of our faithfulness to the doctrines revealed in Holy
Scripture.
Our confessions of faith are rooted in historical precedent, as
the church in every age has been called upon to define and defend
its beliefs. Each generation of Christians bears the
responsibility of guarding the treasury of truth that has been
entrusted to us [2 Timothy 1:14]. Facing a new century, Southern
Baptists must meet the demands and duties of the present hour.
New challenges to faith appear in every age. A pervasive
anti-supernaturalism in the culture was answered by Southern
Baptists in 1925, when the Baptist Faith and Message was first
adopted by this Convention. In 1963, Southern Baptists responded
to assaults upon the authority and truthfulness of the Bible by
adopting revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message. The
Convention added an article on "The Family" in 1998, thus
answering cultural confusion with the clear teachings of
Scripture. Now, faced with a culture hostile to the very notion of
truth, this generation of Baptists must claim anew the eternal
truths of the Christian faith.
Your committee respects and celebrates the heritage of the
Baptist Faith and Message, and affirms the decision of the
Convention in 1925 to adopt the New Hampshire Confession of Faith,
"revised at certain points and with some additional articles
growing out of certain needs . . . ." We also respect the
important contributions of the 1925 and 1963 editions of the
Baptist Faith and Message.
With the 1963 committee, we have been guided in our work by the
1925 "statement of the historic Baptist conception of the nature
and function of confessions of faith in our religious and
denominational life . . . ." It is, therefore, quoted in full as a
part of this report to the Convention:
(1) That they constitute a consensus of
opinion of some Baptist body, large or small, for the general
instruction and guidance of our own people and others concerning
those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held
among us. They are not intended to add anything to the simple
conditions of salvation revealed in the New Testament, viz.,
repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and
Lord.
(2) That we do not regard them as
complete statements of our faith, having any quality of finality
or infallibility. As in the past so in the future, Baptists
should hold themselves free to revise their statements of faith
as may seem to them wise and expedient at any time.
(3) That any group of Baptists, large or
small, have the inherent right to draw up for themselves and
publish to the world a confession of their faith whenever they
may think it advisable to do so.
(4) That the sole authority for faith
and practice among Baptists is the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments. Confessions are only guides in interpretation,
having no authority over the conscience.
(5) That they are statements of
religious convictions, drawn from the Scriptures, and are not to
be used to hamper freedom of thought or investigation in other
realms of life.
Baptists cherish and defend religious liberty, and deny the
right of any secular or religious authority to impose a confession
of faith upon a church or body of churches. We honor the
principles of soul competency and the priesthood of believers,
affirming together both our liberty in Christ and our
accountability to each other under the Word of God.
Baptist churches, associations, and general bodies have adopted
confessions of faith as a witness to the world, and as instruments
of doctrinal accountability. We are not embarrassed to state
before the world that these are doctrines we hold precious and as
essential to the Baptist tradition of faith and practice.
As a committee, we have been charged to address the "certain
needs" of our own generation. In an age increasingly hostile to
Christian truth, our challenge is to express the truth as revealed
in Scripture, and to bear witness to Jesus Christ, who is "the
Way, the Truth, and the Life."
The 1963 committee rightly sought to identify and affirm
"certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and
with which they have been and are now closely identified." Our
living faith is established upon eternal truths. "Thus this
generation of Southern Baptists is in historic succession of
intent and purpose as it endeavors to state for its time and
theological climate those articles of the Christian faith which
are most surely held among us."
It is the purpose of this statement of faith and message to set
forth certain teachings which we believe.
Respectfully Submitted,
The Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee
Adrian Rogers, Chairman
Committee Members:
Adrian Rogers, Chairman
Max Barnett
Steve Gaines
Susie Hawkins
Rudy A. Hernandez
Charles S. Kelley, Jr.
Heather King
Richard D. Land
Fred Luter
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
T. C. Pinckney
Nelson Price
Roger Spradlin
Simon Tsoi
Jerry Vines
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