Winter 2007 | Volume 65, No. 2

The Baptist Renaissance at Southwestern

by Malcolm Yarnell III

According to the Martyrs’ Mirror, in the late 16th century, a fugitive Anabaptist, Dirk Willems, “ran before over the ice, getting across with considerable peril. The thief-catcher following him broke through. Dirk Willems, perceiving that the former was in danger of his life, quickly returned and aided him in getting out, and thus saved his life.”

Why was Willems a fugitive? He committed no crime by any biblical or modern standard. His offense against European society was to hold tenaciously to every command of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This included, of course, the biblical mandate of baptizing believers upon their profession of faith. The story does not end with the thief-catcher’s rescue. “The thief-catcher wanted to let him go, but the burgomaster, very sternly called to him to consider his oath, and thus he was again seized by the thief-catcher…. After severe imprisonment and great trials proceeding from the deceitful papists, [he was] put to death at a lingering fire by these bloodthirsty, ravening wolves.”

Willems’ bravery in following Christ into believers’ baptism, and then returning to extend a saving hand to his very persecutor despite his own certain death, is a startling image of the priorities of biblical discipleship. Brother Willems’ heroic witness and the etching which so aptly portrays that story tell us three things about historic Baptists: their Bible, their baptism, and their missionary mandate.

First, Willems was arrested because he held to a biblical standard that the rest of society, whether Catholic or Reformed, denied. Willems affirmed his belief in the inerrancy, authority, and sole relevancy of the Bible, not only in word, but in deed. He did not follow society, but challenged it with God’s Word.

Second, Willems’ particular crime, according to his captors, was practicing believers-only baptism, thereby denying the historic error of infant baptism. Third, Willems was more concerned about saving his captor’s life than about preserving his own, a vivid illustration of the priority of evangelism. At his execution, Willems confirmed “the genuine faith of the truth with his death and blood, as an instructive example to all pious Christians.”

“Renaissance,” “revival,” “renewal,” “ressourcement,” “reawakening,” “ad fontes”: these terms describe Southwestern Seminary’s multifaceted efforts in the crucial discipline of Baptist studies. The genius of the historical movement of those churches called Baptist or Anabaptist rests not so much in a denomination but in a unique fidelity to reading, preaching, and living out the message of the Bible. According to Robert A. Baker, Baptists stem from the basic truth that “the New Testament is the pattern and authority for a New Testament Christian.” Or, as a Southwestern alumnus shared two decades ago, “I am not a Baptist because of tradition. I am a Baptist because Baptists, especially Southern Baptists, are the most biblical in doctrine. If I did not believe that, I would be something else.” More recently, Dr. Emir Caner proclaimed it this way, “If you give a Christian an open Bible, you will get a Baptist every time!” Southwestern’s leading theologians do not promote Baptist theology simply because of history. We are convinced by God’s Word that Baptist doctrine is the best doctrine.

The Lord Jesus Christ established only one institution, the local church, and seminaries have no other purpose than serving His local churches. This seminary began as an institution intended to serve Baptist churches. Benajah Harvey Carroll was so convinced that Baptist theology was the only biblical option that he spent his early ministry defending Baptist principles against detractors, his mid-career pastoring a leading Baptist church, and his final years founding Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. On the façade of the Rotunda, the central point of the campus, every figure represents a Southern Baptist father: Richard Furman, W.B. Johnson, E.Y. Mullins, and B.H. Carroll, among others. The list of the seminary’s historic leaders who were and are passionate about being Baptist is prestigious: L.R. Scarborough, George W. Truett, W.W. Barnes, Robert A. Baker, W.R. Estep, James Leo Garrett, Jr., and Paige Patterson, among others. Those who now lead, teach, and study at Southwestern consider themselves blessed and responsible to be faithful recipients and transmitters of the most biblical tradition in Christian history.

Yet Baptist identity has fallen on hard times. Southern Baptists have been shocked by detractors within their own ranks. Some have considered dismissing believers-only baptism as a requirement for church membership. Others have apparently begun breaking down the biblical walls between Baptists and Presbyterians. Some question the need to inculcate only biblical (and thus Baptist) principles in the churches missionaries are sent to establish. Some have adopted postmodern ways of thought, talking about being “baptistic” rather than “Baptist.” It has become common to hear people refer to “the church,” not in its primary biblical sense of a local body, but in the secondary and eschatological sense of a universal body.

There are two fundamental theological reasons for these distressing trends: first, there is the errant assumption that “Baptists” are simply one among many equally viable options in the broader Christian tradition. Second, there is little awareness that calling oneself “Baptist” is really just another way of saying “thoroughly biblical disciple of Jesus Christ.”

Recognizing the truthfulness of their Baptist heritage, and the inadequacies of alternative Christian traditions, Southwestern has reinvigorated its curriculum and instituted multiple efforts to remind others outside the seminary of Baptists’ faith and message. These efforts, discussed below and in subsequent articles, include a web site, conferences, library archives, overseas programs, academic requirements, and study centers.

BaptistTheology.org
In 2005, the Center for Theological Research approached the president of Southwestern Seminary with a proposal to establish a web site. The web site’s “White Papers” would be theological in content and intended for local Baptist church leaders, both ministerial and lay. They would be strategic papers of a high quality, written at a popular but educated level, which address critical issues facing the churches and which seek to equip the churches to think biblically and theologically as they fulfill their divine mission in a temporal context. The “White Papers” would be published as small pamphlets or treatises on the web as attractive Adobe files. Dr. Patterson subsequently established www.BaptistTheology.org.

A separate section of the web site is devoted to the dissemination of historic Baptist works. These include Baptist confessions, such as the General Baptists’ Orthodox Creed. Utilizing the original 17th-century publication, the transcriber, Madison Grace, not only discovered errors in the confession’s transmission but also made available the theological preface and postscript for the first time. Other historic sources include writings by major historical figures, many of whom faced the same issues cropping up today. For instance, both J.A. Broadus and B.H. Carroll wrote popular works showing the faithfulness of Baptist churches to the New Testament, and their works are available on the web site.

The “White Papers” and the historic Baptist sources, intended for popular use, are joined on the web site by examples of the academic scholarship of Southwestern’s faculty. The Southwestern Journal of Theology, edited by Douglas Blount, makes some cutting-edge scholarly articles freely available. Blount also published the tables of contents of past issues and ordering information. Please visit www.BaptistTheology.org for more information regarding Baptists of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Baptist Distinctives Conferences
In 2004, Thomas White, a Baptist and Free Church Studies professor, met with Jason Duesing, a PhD student, and me to discuss the possibility of promoting the Baptist heritage through annual conferences. Out of that meeting came the annual Baptist Distinctives Conferences. In September 2005, a number of leading Baptist scholars and practitioners gathered for “The First Freedom: A Conference on Religious Liberty.” Richard Land, Barrett Duke, and Paul Pressler compellingly argued for universal religious freedom as an important Baptist distinctive. The papers from the conference have been edited and will be published in early 2007 by Broadman & Holman under the title, “The First Freedom.”

In September 2006, church leaders and students convened for the second Baptist Distinctives Conference at the Smith Center for Leadership Development. They heard prophetic calls by Mark Dever, Gregory Wills, and Danny Akin for local churches to return to Scripture. The conference, titled, “Maintaining the Integrity of a Local Church in a Seeker-Sensitive World: The Baptist Perspective on Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Church Discipline,” will have its papers published in late 2007 by Kregel Publications. The third Baptist Distinctives Conference, tentatively scheduled for September 2007, will focus on the Baptist doctrine of the family.

The Oxford Studies Program
Every July, Southwestern Seminary professors, students, alumni, and friends join together to fly to England for three weeks of exploring the British Isles and the Baptist heritage. In England, Scotland, and Wales, they discover the inspiring roots of Baptists. Students, alumni, and friends are convinced after hearing Roy Fish or Michael Dean preach the necessity of missions and evangelism from the pulpit of the founder of the modern missions movement at William Carey Baptist Church in Moulton. Established and budding preachers listen to David Allen speak movingly on expository preaching from the pulpit of the great Charles Haddon Spurgeon in London. Baptists stand in the ancient hall in Gainsborough where both the earliest Baptists and the Pilgrim Fathers had their beginnings and recite the covenant that began the modern Baptist movement. They contemplate the subtle positions in the Calvinist-Armininian debate and an evangelistic way forward from the pulpit of Andrew Fuller in Kettering. Although the Oxford Studies Program also teaches other subjects, Baptist heritage is its major continuing offering.

The Academics of Baptist Heritage
From the numeric perspective, Southwestern Seminary requires nearly every student to take a three-credit-hour course in Baptist heritage. From the quality perspective, an academic “think tank” met in October 2004 to evaluate the teaching of Baptist heritage. After hearing presentations by leading Baptist theologians and historians, participants issued, “A Common Statement.” This statement, available at www.BaptistTheology.org, reflects renewed focus upon Baptist ecclesiology and the Southern Baptist Convention. Students are taken through the inspiring history of Baptists while learning their distinctive biblical basis. In these classes, the most critical questions regarding the churches are asked and answers given.

In 2005, the Theological Studies Division of the School of Theology, which is responsible for the seminary’s Baptist heritage courses, formed the “Department of Baptist and Free Church Studies” and reworked nearly its entire curriculum. Baptist heritage is offered at the college, master’s, and doctoral levels. Moreover, at the doctoral level, PhD candidates may now declare a major or minor in Baptist and Free Church Studies. Both reading and research seminars are available to future Baptist leaders, allowing them to discover the deepest aspects of Baptist history and theology.

The professors who teach in Baptist and Free Church Studies are highly qualified and compelling. For instance, Paige Patterson, whose passion for Baptists and Anabaptists is legendary, teaches “Ecclesiology and The Theology of the Radical Reformers” at the master’s and doctoral levels. Thomas White, who wrote extensively on Landmarkism, teaches “Baptist Heritage” and the reading seminars. Other professors in the discipline include the world-renowned Emir Caner, a specialist in Balthasar Hübmaier; Paul Gritz, an expert in Anabaptists and English Baptists; and Jason Lee, Aberdonian author of a masterful introduction to the theology of John Smyth.

The Ongoing Renaissance
Two other leading professors in Baptist studies are developing further opportunities for the Baptist renaissance. First, Caner, the Dean of the College at Southwestern, has been tasked with “The Center for Free Church and Anabaptist Studies.” This center, created by the board of trustees, is intended to foster the historical study of those often persecuted groups who are identifiably Baptist from a biblical perspective. Second, John Mark Yeats, assistant professor of church history, in his new role as the director of “The Traveling Scholars Program,” is developing a study tour to continental Europe that will focus on the Continental Reformation. This tour will visit important Anabaptist sites in Germany, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.

In multifaceted pedagogical, literary, and programmatic ways, the theologians and historians of Southwestern Seminary are fostering a renaissance in Baptist studies. You are invited to join them in this exciting and necessary task through your prayers, your gifts, and your own teaching of the Baptist way. Send us your students and we will return you Bible-believing Baptists.

Dr. Malcolm Yarnell III is Assistant Dean for Theological Studies, Director of the Center for Theological Research, and Director of the Oxford Study Program, Associate professor of Systematic Theology.