Baptist Faith and Message

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Baptist theology London Confession, 1689 New Hampshire Confession, 1833 Baptist Faith & Message
Doctrinal distinctives Biblical inerrancy Autonomy of the local church Priesthood of believers Two ordinances Individual soul liberty Separation of church and state Two offices
People John Smyth John Spilsbury Lottie Moon B. H. Carroll W.A. Criswell Billy Graham Adrian Rogers Paige Patterson Albert Mohler Rick Warren Erwin McManus
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The Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) is the Southern Baptist Convention confession of faith.

It summarizes key Southern Baptist thought in the areas of the Scriptures (Bible) and their authority, the nature of God as expressed by the Trinity, the spiritual condition of man, God's plan of grace and salvation, the purpose of the local church, ordinances, evangelism, Christian education, interaction with society, religious liberty, and the family.

It is not a creed (along the lines of the Nicene Creed), whereby members and churches must adhere to it, but more of a rough consensus of SBC doctrine. However, SBC appointees, seminary professors and missionaries must affirm its tenets as a condition of employment as of 2002.^[1]

1 History
2 Revisions
- 2.1 Women's limitations in marriage and ministry
- 2.2 Exegetical standard
3 Role in Baptist life
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] History

Although the Southern Baptist Convention was organized in 1845, no formal confession of faith was adopted until 1925, when the SBC formulated the Baptist Faith and Message. The BF&M closely parallels the New Hampshire Confession of Faith of 1833.

[edit] Revisions

The BF&M was revised in 1963, amended in 1998, and again revised in 2000. The 1998 amendment and the 2000 revision are nearly identical.^[2] Both were controversial in the following two respects:

[edit] Women's limitations in marriage and ministry

For the first time, provisions were added concerning unique roles for husbands and wives and restrictions on women in ministry. The BFM 1998 and 2000 revisions stated that a wife should "graciously submit to the servant leadership of her husband," a provision which caused considerable discussion and dissent both within and outside of the convention's member churches.^[3]

Women are now restricted from becoming pastors: "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

[edit] Exegetical standard

Second, the 2000 revision of the BF&M removed the assertion that the person of Jesus Christ was to be the exegetical standard by which the Bible was to be interpreted, over concerns that some groups were elevating the recorded words of Jesus in Scripture (or, more often, what Jesus did not say) over other Scriptural passages (the traditional SBC view is that all Scripture is equally inspired by God).

The latter in particular led the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the largest state convention, to break with the national convention.

[edit] Role in Baptist life

Keeping with the Baptist principle of soul competency—the belief that God's message is defined by God alone, the Baptist Faith & Message is not a creed or prescription of doctrine, but a rough consensus of the convention's member churches. Since individual Baptist churches are considered to be "an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers," the BFM does not have the force of authority over any except employees of institutions owned by the SBC. Nevertheless, many Southern Baptist churches have adopted the Message as their "Statement of Faith" (though with the controversy over the 2000 revision, the church usually specifies whether it holds to the 1963 or 2000 version).