The Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary of Forthworth, TX have voted to include a doctrinal statement effectively banning any faculty member or trustee from speaking in tongues even as a private prayer language (see BP News). The actual wording is that professors cannot "promote" practices such as speaking in tongues. That might sound ambiguous, but "promote" here has the obvious meaning of "admit to doing it", i.e. no member of SWBTS can admit to having a private prayer language. This is in response to a sermon preached by Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington where he admitted to speaking in tongues and took issue with the IMB for refusing to hire missionaries who did have a private prayer language.
HT: Denny Burk
Before I make an extended tirade on this point let me preface my thoughts with two points:
One: I'm not a Charsimatic, I don't speak in tongues and I'm not sure what to make of all that untie-my-bowtie-who-stole-my-honda stuff. Yet I'm not a cessationist either, so I'm open to what the Spirit will do in the life of other believers.
Two: I'm mad. I'm raging mad that an evangelicalesque institution would turn "private" prayer language, not tongues in public worship, but private prayer language into a make-or-break issue, an issue about what separates the good guys from the bad guys, an issue about who is wearing the white hats and who is wearing the black hats, an issue about who is of the Jedi and who is the Sith, and issue about what defies the bonds of fellowship and partnership.
On second thoughts, I won't go into my tirade, less I write in anger. But Joel Willitts and I are about to publish an essay (or perhaps manifesto might be a better description) called Solum Evangelium which is a call to make one's understanding and expression of the gospel the basis of fellowship and ministry partnership: it commeth! In the mean time if you're in a SBC church and if you're preaching this Sunday (sadly I'm not) this is what I BEG you to do: preach Galatians, the epistle of liberty and life in the Spirit. To those who would shackle and fetter us with the tyranny and bondage of neo-Fundamentalism I say let them hear the word that they fear to hear: Freedom. As Jesus said, "He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives"; as Paul says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!" As John says: "if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"; Or even as Ernst Kasemann put it, "Jesus means Freedom"! So preach freedom, the freedom of Christ Jesus, the freedom of the Spirit over the letter, the freedom to differentiate between areas of conviction and areas of command. The freedom to major on the majors and to minor on the minors. The freedom to agree to disagree. The freedom to walk hand-in-hand with those whom you don't always see eye-to-eye with on every controversial topic. If you preach freedom in the face of the prayer-police they will accuse you of being a liberal-clauset-charismatic-democrat-voting-pseudo-evangelical-compromiser. In response, preach Galatians some more, preach it until they cover their ears and call down curses on you. Then preach Galatians again and again. And if they preach back at you with a gospel of Jesus + cessationism or Jesus + anything else, then you must out-preach them! Let the gospel of grace and liberty fall from your lips like in did in the days of John Owen, of John Knox and Jonathan Edwards. Make it clear that we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with ALL of our brothers and sisters in Christ no matter what ecstatic utterances they pray in. At the end of the day, if one prays in tongues, he does so unto the Lord. If one does not pray in tongues, he still prays unto the Lord. But tongues or no tongues, we all pray to the same Lord, yours and mine, theirs and ours!
Update: see the post by Wade Burleson on the issue.
Soli Deo Gloria
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6 comments:
Dear Michael,
I am saddened to hear that a SBC College is ruling out tongues as a private prayer language. They are fighting against the Holy Spirit who gives gifts to whomever He chooses. No one fights against God and win! But I must humbly say that I spoke in tongues three weeks after my conversion and still speak in tongues as a private prayer language as the Spirit moves me to. I would not think Christians who don't speak in tongues any less spiritual than me as not all speak in tongues, so says Paul.
I did not seek to speak in tongues after my conversion. I did not even know what tongues were then (1982) but during a prayer meeting, I felt a power descending on me and I started speaking in tongues later that evening. It is a blessed gift and certainly helps my prayer life especially when I run out of words to say to the Lord or when I feel spiritually dry. Maybe to these 'neo-fundamentalist' Baptists I say "You err for you know not the Scriptures nor the power of God' (Mat 22:29). Mike, if you feel what I have written is too offensive please feel free to delete my comments. Thank you for bringing this matter to attention in your post.
Mike,
Very well said.
It deeply offends and saddens me that we as Christians feel the need to sanction something as ludicrous as glossalia in private prayer time.
Maybe it is high time for a bit of introspection when these issues take precedence over such things as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and giving the weary a place to rest their heads.
I'm quite sure that these miniscule issues bring no glory to God!
Thanks for this, Mike. This kind of thing is why I, though still a Baptist, am no longer a Southern Baptist.
I am a (reluctant) charismatic. What is disheartening is that people who should know better, like Jim West, are siding with SWBTS and attempting to override biblical and Baptist freedom.
In my mind, this is a very clear and very potent statement that said Seminary is not educating its students or helping them to think through things on their own--it's goal is one of control and programming. I can see no better reason to drop out or tear up one's application for admission--no matter how I feel about tongues itself.
slaveofone, you have just described the entire mindset of the fundamentalist (post-1992) Southern Baptist Convention and all 6 of its seminaries--mind control. It's why so many of us had to leave for American Baptist, Alliance of Baptists, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship or non-Baptist circles. The SBC has broken from the Baptist World Alliance. It is now just a giant cult and mindcontrol unit masquerading as a Baptist denomination.
The stance taken by SWBTS is biblically ignorant. I am not very proud of the institution where I studied. I would never be allowed to teach at Southwestern because of my views on women in ministry, tongues and perhaps creation. Very sad...
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