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Line 29: − − ===Landmarkism=== − Wamble (1964) surveys the Landmark theology which emerged in Tennessee in the 1850s, was quite strong by 1900, and can still be found among Baptists, even though the organized Landmarker (or "Landmarkean") movement has largely disappeared. Landmarkism insists upon Baptist exclusivism because (1) only Baptist ministers are authentic gospel ministers. (2) Only baptism by immersion, authorized by an authentic minister, upon an authentic candidate (believer), as a symbol (not means) of salvation, is true baptism. (3) The church is a visible, local and independent congregation, exercising plenary authority in a democratic manner, and only Baptist churches fit this description. (4) Baptist churches –unlike all other churches—have an unbroken succession since the time of Christ.<ref>Hugh Wamble, "Landmarkism: Doctrinaire Ecclesiology among Baptists." ''Church History'' 1964 33(4): 429-447. [ http://www.jstor.org/stable/3162835 in JSTOR]</ref> Landmarkers refuse to recognize the legitimacy of other denominations, or the validity of their baptisms. By 1859 the movement failed to take control of the Southern Baptist Convention, and always remained a minority viewpoint. − − J. R. Graves, a Baptist pastor in Nashville, Tennessee, during the 1840s-1860s, became the leader of the Landmark movement among Baptists, asserting that Southern Baptists alone possessed the true version of Christianity.<ref>Chad W. Hall, “When Orphans Became Heirs: J. R. Graves and the Landmark Baptists,” ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 2002 37(1): 112-127.</ref> James Madison Pendleton (1811-1891) was one of the "Great Triumvirate" of the Landmark Movement. Not as intensely doctrinaire as James R. Graves or Amos Cooper Dayton, he accepted the concept of the universal church, never adhered to the theory of Baptist successionism, and was able and willing to work within the framework of Baptist conventions and societies in a way that many Landmarkists were unable to do. He named the movement with his book, ''An Old Landmark Reset'' (1854). His basic contribution to the Landmark movement lay in his refusal to accept non-immersionists (non-Baptists) as gospel ministers. Although born in the South, he favored the gradual emancipation of slaves, a position which finally forced him out of his pastorate in Tennessee during the Civil War. He subsequently moved to Ohio and later to Pennsylvania. He wrote numerous works, two of which have significantly influenced American Baptist practice and thought until recent days: ''Church Manual'' (1867) and ''Christian Doctrines: A Compendium of Theology'' (1878).<ref>Bob Compton, "J. M. Pendleton: a Nineteenth-century Baptist Statesman (1811-1891)". ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 1975 10(1): 28-35.</ref> Amos Cooper Dayton (1813-1865) was the most prolific Landmarkean writer, and indeed was the first Baptist in the South to write a religious novel, ''Theodosia Ernest'' (1857). It covered baptism and church polity. Seeking to disseminate Baptist doctrine through the medium of fiction, he defined the church in one of his novels as a "local" group, organized independently of Christian people - a definition of the church which became a major cornerstone of Landmarkism. Beginning as a Presbyterian, he became a Baptist in 1852, and launched his literary career the following year. He authored 13 volumes of fiction and theology and contributed nearly 1,000 articles to 20 different religious periodicals.<ref>James E. Taulman, "The Life and Writings of Amos Cooper Dayton (1813-1865)." ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 1975 10(1): 36-43.</ref> − − In 1898 a major controversy arose when Baptist church − historian Dr. William Heth Whitsitt challenged the Landmarkean belief that, from St. Peter to contemporary times, an unbroken chain of churches practiced immersion in the baptismal rite and thereby established themselves as part of the "one, true church." Texas Baptists, led by Benajah Harvey Carroll, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Waco, organized the Landmarkeans to reject Whitsitt's findings. − − The central idea of Landmarkism is the authority of the local congregation in Baptist ecclesiology. Landmarkism can be viewed as a doctrinal aberration from the English and early American Baptist theology and polity. Tull (1975) traces the movement from its 1851 beginning in Cotton Grove, Tennessee to its present small remnant. In its full intensity Landmarkism was sectarian in its emphasis on the role of the local church, its denial of the validity of "alien" immersion, an adherence to strict, local church communion, and a hostile response to the ecumenical movement - all of which, Tull concludes, are quite foreign to the ecclesiological traditions which had been developed by English and American Baptists in the 17th and 18th centuries. − − Patterson (1975) identifies specific historical situations in which the Landmark movement influences the Baptist church. The greatest influence was and is among Baptists of the Old Southwest, largely due to the 50 year editorial ministry of Graves in Nashville and Memphis. Seaboard Baptists were more settled, and thus less susceptible to the controversies which raged along the frontier and the newly settled lands. Landmarkism was responsible for the idea that the local church, not boards, should be responsible for the conduct and administration of missionary activity, which spawned the gospel missions concept. The Landmark theory of Baptist succession was challenged at the end of the last century, creating the Whitsitt Controversy. − − Landmarkism peaked by 1910, and has nearly faded away (to the extent it still exists it does so within the [[Independent Baptist]] ranks, which formed around the 1930's), but its long-term impact is still seen in a resistance to outside influences.<ref>W. Morgan Patterson, "The Influence of Landmarkism among Baptists." ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 1975 10(1): 44-55.</ref> Line 48:
Line 34: − ===Conservatives vs Moderates=== − For most of the 20th century, the factions that became known as "conservatives" and "moderates"<ref>These are the terms preferred by the conservative wing, which ultimately gained control of the convention; the "moderates" -- who were really theological and social gospel liberals -- preferred to be called "conservatives" while labeling their opponents as "fundamentalists" (notwithstanding that true fundamentalists -- who by then had formed other denominations or were in the [[Independent Baptist]] camp -- thought that the conservatives were apostate).</ref> were at the fringe of the SBC. That changed when the Civil Rights issue and opposition to [[Jim Crow]] (racial segregation) energized the moderate in the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1970s the conservatives had coalesced. Conservatives believe that moderates were right to support desegregation but that they went too far by accepting changes in changing national social norms, especially regarding abortion, homosexuality and women's roles in society and the ministry.<ref>See Hankins (2002).</ref> − − Beginning in the late 1960s, conservatives under the leadership of layman Paul Pressler and minister Paige Patterson claimed that the denomination's institutions had come under the influence of liberalism and that a redirection was necessary. Patterson and Pressler noted the structure of the SBC Presidency could be used to gain this redirection: the SBC President solely nominates the Committee on Committees, which in turn nominates the Committee on Nominations (previously known as the Committee on Boards), which in turn nominates the Executive Committee, heads of all SBC organizations, and other positions. A conservative-minded President would fill vacancies on the Committee on Committees with similarly conservative-minded persons, and when that faction had control it would, in turn, fill nominees for the Committee on Nominations (again with similarly conservative-minded persons), and thereafter fill all other positions similarly. − − Starting in 1979 they mobilized delegates to attend the annual convention and to elect strong conservative candidates. Usually winning by ratios of about 55%-45% they elected a series of strong conservative presidents. In turn the presidents appointed strong conservative committees and trustees, and systematically transformed the mindset of the SBC's six seminaries, its publishing house, its mission boards, and its numerous agencies to a conservative view. Theologically the issue has focused on the inerrancy of Scripture. − − Some Baptist colleges and universities not officially owned by the SBC but historically tied to it resisted the trend and broke their ties with the SBC ([[Baylor University]] being one example). The moderates protested that the fundamentalists had downplayed the historic emphasis on evangelism to impose a particular reading of Scripture, thereby breaking with the denomination's historic unwillingness to impose creeds. Ultimately, in 1991 the moderates formed a splinter group (the [[Cooperative Baptist Fellowship]], or CBF), convincing two state associations (the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist General Association of Virginia) to dually align with it and the SBC (this, in turn, resulted in two new conservative-minded state associations, solely aligned with the SBC, to form: the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia). − − A revised collection of common principles held by Baptists was set forth by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000.<ref>see [http://www.sbc.net/bfm/ text]</ref> − − In 2004, conservatives at the SBC introduced a resolution calling on all parents to pull their children out of public schools due to the [[liberal indoctrination]] there. The resolution was defeated, not because Baptists disagreed with the motivation, but because the SBC did not want to usurp parental authority over how to educate their children.<ref>see [http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38986 news]</ref> Line 126:
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Southern Baptist Convention (view source)
Revision as of 23:41, March 14, 2018
, 23:41, March 14, 2018add new section on significant theological controversies in its history
Calvinist themes of predestination faded away as revivalism pushed Baptists in an [[Arminian]] direction. Anti-Catholicism—a powerful force in the 1920s—faded away after the election of [[John F. Kennedy]] in 1960 ended fears of a Vatican takeover of the U.S., and the emergence of the abortion issue in the 1970s saw prominent Baptists form an informal political alliance with the Catholic bishops. There have also been changes in the theology of such topics as the Bible, predestination, the atonement, perseverance and apostasy, the Christian life, the church, church leaders, the priesthood of all believers, the millennium, philosophy of religion, Christian ethics, and religious liberty. On the other hand, there had been little or no change regarding God, the Trinity, Jesus Christ, sin, and the ordinances.<ref>Paul Basden, ''Has Our Theology Changed? Southern Baptist Thought since 1845.'' (1994)</ref>
Calvinist themes of predestination faded away as revivalism pushed Baptists in an [[Arminian]] direction. Anti-Catholicism—a powerful force in the 1920s—faded away after the election of [[John F. Kennedy]] in 1960 ended fears of a Vatican takeover of the U.S., and the emergence of the abortion issue in the 1970s saw prominent Baptists form an informal political alliance with the Catholic bishops. There have also been changes in the theology of such topics as the Bible, predestination, the atonement, perseverance and apostasy, the Christian life, the church, church leaders, the priesthood of all believers, the millennium, philosophy of religion, Christian ethics, and religious liberty. On the other hand, there had been little or no change regarding God, the Trinity, Jesus Christ, sin, and the ordinances.<ref>Paul Basden, ''Has Our Theology Changed? Southern Baptist Thought since 1845.'' (1994)</ref>
===20th century===
===20th century===
The [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s was a hard blow for most churches, for they were based in impoverished rural areas and money was very scarce. Prosperity returned with World War II, especially with heavy migration to Southern cities (and some western cities like Los Angeles as well), where high paying jobs were plentiful. Affluence came in the 1960s, but meanwhile careful stewards rebuilt the financial base. For example, Avery Hamilton Reid, executive secretary of the Alabama Baptist State Convention during 1944-62, resolved the convention's financial crisis. He led fund-raising drives, established the Advance Programs to improve Howard and Judson colleges, built handsome, modern new churches, and increase membership. Reid oversaw the building of a new headquarters for the convention and removed from the convention's budget hospitals taking federal grant money for construction.<ref>George E. Bagley, "Avery Hamilton Reid," ''Alabama Baptist Historian'' 1996 32(1): 9-29. 0002-4147</ref>
The [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s was a hard blow for most churches, for they were based in impoverished rural areas and money was very scarce. Prosperity returned with World War II, especially with heavy migration to Southern cities (and some western cities like Los Angeles as well), where high paying jobs were plentiful. Affluence came in the 1960s, but meanwhile careful stewards rebuilt the financial base. For example, Avery Hamilton Reid, executive secretary of the Alabama Baptist State Convention during 1944-62, resolved the convention's financial crisis. He led fund-raising drives, established the Advance Programs to improve Howard and Judson colleges, built handsome, modern new churches, and increase membership. Reid oversaw the building of a new headquarters for the convention and removed from the convention's budget hospitals taking federal grant money for construction.<ref>George E. Bagley, "Avery Hamilton Reid," ''Alabama Baptist Historian'' 1996 32(1): 9-29. 0002-4147</ref>
===Fighting Sin===
===Fighting Sin===
In 2017, the SBC called for the defunding of [[Planned Parenthood]].<ref>Berry, Susan (June 19, 2017). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/06/19/southern-baptist-convention-funding-planned-parenthood-is-subsidizing-piracy-of-defenseless-infants/ Southern Baptist Convention: Funding Planned Parenthood Is ‘Subsidizing Piracy of Defenseless Infants’]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved June 19, 2017.</ref>
In 2017, the SBC called for the defunding of [[Planned Parenthood]].<ref>Berry, Susan (June 19, 2017). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/06/19/southern-baptist-convention-funding-planned-parenthood-is-subsidizing-piracy-of-defenseless-infants/ Southern Baptist Convention: Funding Planned Parenthood Is ‘Subsidizing Piracy of Defenseless Infants’]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved June 19, 2017.</ref>
==Theological Controversies==
During its tenure the SBC was greatly impacted, and shaped, by three major theological controversies: the Landmark controversy of the 1850's and continuing in some form until around 1910, the Modernist controversy of the 1920's-1930's, and the "Conservative-Moderate" controversy beginning in 1979 and continuing for approximately two decades.
===Landmark Controversy===
Wamble (1964) surveys the Landmark theology which emerged in Tennessee in the 1850s, was quite strong by 1900, and can still be found among Baptists, even though the organized Landmarker (or "Landmarkean") movement has largely disappeared. Landmarkism insists upon Baptist exclusivism because (1) only Baptist ministers are authentic gospel ministers. (2) Only baptism by immersion, authorized by an authentic minister, upon an authentic candidate (believer), as a symbol (not means) of salvation, is true baptism. (3) The church is a visible, local and independent congregation, exercising plenary authority in a democratic manner, and only Baptist churches fit this description. (4) Baptist churches –unlike all other churches—have an unbroken succession since the time of Christ.<ref>Hugh Wamble, "Landmarkism: Doctrinaire Ecclesiology among Baptists." ''Church History'' 1964 33(4): 429-447. [ http://www.jstor.org/stable/3162835 in JSTOR]</ref> Landmarkers refuse to recognize the legitimacy of other denominations, or the validity of their baptisms. By 1859 the movement failed to take control of the Southern Baptist Convention, and always remained a minority viewpoint.
J. R. Graves, a Baptist pastor in Nashville, Tennessee, during the 1840s-1860s, became the leader of the Landmark movement among Baptists, asserting that Southern Baptists alone possessed the true version of Christianity.<ref>Chad W. Hall, “When Orphans Became Heirs: J. R. Graves and the Landmark Baptists,” ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 2002 37(1): 112-127.</ref> James Madison Pendleton (1811-1891) was one of the "Great Triumvirate" of the Landmark Movement. Not as intensely doctrinaire as James R. Graves or Amos Cooper Dayton, he accepted the concept of the universal church, never adhered to the theory of Baptist successionism, and was able and willing to work within the framework of Baptist conventions and societies in a way that many Landmarkists were unable to do. He named the movement with his book, ''An Old Landmark Reset'' (1854). His basic contribution to the Landmark movement lay in his refusal to accept non-immersionists (non-Baptists) as gospel ministers. Although born in the South, he favored the gradual emancipation of slaves, a position which finally forced him out of his pastorate in Tennessee during the Civil War. He subsequently moved to Ohio and later to Pennsylvania. He wrote numerous works, two of which have significantly influenced American Baptist practice and thought until recent days: ''Church Manual'' (1867) and ''Christian Doctrines: A Compendium of Theology'' (1878).<ref>Bob Compton, "J. M. Pendleton: a Nineteenth-century Baptist Statesman (1811-1891)". ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 1975 10(1): 28-35.</ref> Amos Cooper Dayton (1813-1865) was the most prolific Landmarkean writer, and indeed was the first Baptist in the South to write a religious novel, ''Theodosia Ernest'' (1857). It covered baptism and church polity. Seeking to disseminate Baptist doctrine through the medium of fiction, he defined the church in one of his novels as a "local" group, organized independently of Christian people - a definition of the church which became a major cornerstone of Landmarkism. Beginning as a Presbyterian, he became a Baptist in 1852, and launched his literary career the following year. He authored 13 volumes of fiction and theology and contributed nearly 1,000 articles to 20 different religious periodicals.<ref>James E. Taulman, "The Life and Writings of Amos Cooper Dayton (1813-1865)." ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 1975 10(1): 36-43.</ref>
In 1898 a major controversy arose when Baptist church
historian Dr. William Heth Whitsitt challenged the Landmarkean belief that, from St. Peter to contemporary times, an unbroken chain of churches practiced immersion in the baptismal rite and thereby established themselves as part of the "one, true church." Texas Baptists, led by Benajah Harvey Carroll, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Waco, organized the Landmarkeans to reject Whitsitt's findings.
The central idea of Landmarkism is the authority of the local congregation in Baptist ecclesiology. Landmarkism can be viewed as a doctrinal aberration from the English and early American Baptist theology and polity. Tull (1975) traces the movement from its 1851 beginning in Cotton Grove, Tennessee to its present small remnant. In its full intensity Landmarkism was sectarian in its emphasis on the role of the local church, its denial of the validity of "alien" immersion, an adherence to strict, local church communion, and a hostile response to the ecumenical movement - all of which, Tull concludes, are quite foreign to the ecclesiological traditions which had been developed by English and American Baptists in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Patterson (1975) identifies specific historical situations in which the Landmark movement influences the Baptist church. The greatest influence was and is among Baptists of the Old Southwest, largely due to the 50 year editorial ministry of Graves in Nashville and Memphis. Seaboard Baptists were more settled, and thus less susceptible to the controversies which raged along the frontier and the newly settled lands. Landmarkism was responsible for the idea that the local church, not boards, should be responsible for the conduct and administration of missionary activity, which spawned the gospel missions concept. The Landmark theory of Baptist succession was challenged at the end of the last century, creating the Whitsitt Controversy.
In the late 1890's, William H. Whitsitt (a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of six SBC-operated seminaries) contended that (contrary to Landmarkism), English Baptists (then called Anabaptists) did not begin to practice baptism by immersion until 1641, as opposed to the Landmark view that this practice could be traced to the earliest Baptists.
Landmarkism peaked by 1910, and has nearly faded away (to the extent it still exists it does so within the [[Independent Baptist]] ranks, which formed around the 1930's), but its long-term impact is still seen in a resistance to outside influences.<ref>W. Morgan Patterson, "The Influence of Landmarkism among Baptists." ''Baptist History and Heritage'' 1975 10(1): 44-55.</ref>
===Modernist Controversy===
This controversy originated initially in the Presbyterian denomination, but spilled over into the Southern Baptist ranks. Pastors such as [[J. Frank Norris]] contended that Baptist universities (such as [[Baylor]]) were teaching "Modernism" (a form of liberal Christianity which argued that "antiquated beliefs" needed to be discarded). The ensuing result is that many churches (or large segments of churches) left the SBC. Although some minor denominations were formed (such as the Texarkana, Texas based [[American Baptist Association]]), the movement greatly spawned the modern-day [[Independent Baptist]] movement.
===Conservatives vs Moderates===
For most of the 20th century, the factions that became known as "conservatives" and "moderates"<ref>These are the terms preferred by the conservative wing, which ultimately gained control of the convention; the "moderates" -- who were really theological and social gospel liberals -- preferred to be called "conservatives" while labeling their opponents as "fundamentalists" (notwithstanding that true fundamentalists -- who by then had formed other denominations or were in the [[Independent Baptist]] camp -- thought that the conservatives were apostate).</ref> were at the fringe of the SBC. That changed when the Civil Rights issue and opposition to [[Jim Crow]] (racial segregation) energized the moderate in the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1970s the conservatives had coalesced. Conservatives believe that moderates were right to support desegregation but that they went too far by accepting changes in changing national social norms, especially regarding abortion, homosexuality and women's roles in society and the ministry.<ref>See Hankins (2002).</ref>
Beginning in the late 1960s, conservatives under the leadership of layman Paul Pressler and minister Paige Patterson claimed that the denomination's institutions had come under the influence of liberalism and that a redirection was necessary. Patterson and Pressler noted the structure of the SBC Presidency could be used to gain this redirection: the SBC President solely nominates the Committee on Committees, which in turn nominates the Committee on Nominations (previously known as the Committee on Boards), which in turn nominates the Executive Committee, heads of all SBC organizations, and other positions. A conservative-minded President would fill vacancies on the Committee on Committees with similarly conservative-minded persons, and when that faction had control it would, in turn, fill nominees for the Committee on Nominations (again with similarly conservative-minded persons), and thereafter fill all other positions similarly.
Starting in 1979 they mobilized delegates to attend the annual convention and to elect strong conservative candidates. Usually winning by ratios of about 55%-45% they elected a series of strong conservative presidents. In turn the presidents appointed strong conservative committees and trustees, and systematically transformed the mindset of the SBC's six seminaries, its publishing house, its mission boards, and its numerous agencies to a conservative view. Theologically the issue has focused on the inerrancy of Scripture.
Some Baptist colleges and universities not officially owned by the SBC but historically tied to it resisted the trend and broke their ties with the SBC ([[Baylor University]] being one example). The moderates protested that the fundamentalists had downplayed the historic emphasis on evangelism to impose a particular reading of Scripture, thereby breaking with the denomination's historic unwillingness to impose creeds. Ultimately, in 1991 the moderates formed a splinter group (the [[Cooperative Baptist Fellowship]], or CBF), convincing two state associations (the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist General Association of Virginia) to dually align with it and the SBC (this, in turn, resulted in two new conservative-minded state associations, solely aligned with the SBC, to form: the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia).
A revised collection of common principles held by Baptists was set forth by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000.<ref>see [http://www.sbc.net/bfm/ text]</ref>
In 2004, conservatives at the SBC introduced a resolution calling on all parents to pull their children out of public schools due to the [[liberal indoctrination]] there. The resolution was defeated, not because Baptists disagreed with the motivation, but because the SBC did not want to usurp parental authority over how to educate their children.<ref>see [http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38986 news]</ref>
==Doctrine==
==Doctrine==