SBFM2005

Here is a brief commentary in the Southern Baptist Faith and Message 2000.

The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men [and women] divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God [and man] for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter [depending on what you consider its “matter” to be].

God
There is one and only one living and true God. …The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes [This is incorrect: The Scriptures nowhere speak of God having three distinct personalities. God is only One person and we know Him by Father, Son and Spirit which are ALL one person. Jesus Christ, the Son, is the full revelation of God in His person. There are not two persons in Father and Son but one person. The Spirit and the Son are the Word and Breath of God the Father. They are breathed out by Him simultaneously. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. The error in believing God as three persons had developed in the change in language over the centuries. The Latin word, persona, which we get our word “person,” did not mean “personality” with which we now associate the word. God is One personality.], but without division of nature, essence, or being.

God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. …God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. …He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin [Oddly enough, there is nothing in this confession that addresses a particular view of the atonement. While it is generally true that conservative evangelicals hold to the penal substitutionary theory of atonement, there is nothing here that explicitly confesses that belief. This is one of the inclusive features of the 1924 and 1963 BFMs that made it such a wonderful document.].

God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. …He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. …He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Man
Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation [All this is true and does not necessitate the abandonment of the scientific theory of evolution]. …By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race [This is interesting. The use of “man” instead of “Adam” leaves possible the inclusion of a non-Augustine understanding of Original Sin.]. … The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood [not just by his blood (i.e. his death); the atoning work of Christ involved both His life and death.] obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.

God's Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. …All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace [This is incorrect: sanctification is an on-going process in the life of the believer. There are believers not eternally elected who are sanctified to some degree but then “fall away” and stop believing.], but shall persevere to the end.

The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body [not just a local body, as you will see further down; the Church is also understood as the entire body of believers at any point in time. This limited understanding of the church is a remnant of the SBC’s early Landmark influence.] of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel…and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth [The “gospel” is mentioned 3 times in this confession but is never once define. What do Southern Baptists consider the Gospel to be?]. …This church is an autonomous body. …The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.

Baptism & the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water [not just immersion]. …It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members … memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming [I prefer the term “communion” over the term “Lord’s Supper.” It is during Communion that we remember what Christ did to reconcile us to God. It is during Communion that we remember what Christ did to reconcile us to our neighbor. It is during communion that we remember that Christ will return and we shall be fully reconciled with God and Man in Jesus Christ. During Communion we who are in Christ commune with God in Christ and commune with our neighbors in the Church (the body of Christ) who are in Christ. While such communion with others in Christ is administered on the local level in the local church, the spiritual reality is that we commune with all believers at all times who have ever or will ever be in Christ. This communion anticipates the final state of when Christ returns and all believers will eternally commune with other believers and God in Christ. … Also, Communion should not be restricted to just “members of the local church”; it should be offered to all believers who profess relation to God through Christ. This “member” idea is another remnant of SBC Landmark influence.].

The Lord's Day
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day [Sunday is the traditional “day of rest” Baptists. The Sabbath was instituted by God for man to rest from the weariness of this world. It is an element of God’s grace for those who bear his image. Jesus’ example was that when He wanted to work on the Sabbath He did so. When Jesus wanted to rest and it wasn’t the Sabbath He did so. Jesus often worked on the Sabbath and withdrew to a quiet place to rest when He needed the rest. Leonard Sweet refers to these as “instant Sabbaths.” For those who wish to serve the Church in SBC churches, Sunday is rarely a “day of rest.” We receive our ultimate “rest” both physically and spiritually in God.]. …It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead [and foreshadows and anticipates the ultimate “rest” that we shall receive at the consummation of all things in Christ.] and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion.

Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. …Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly [and physically] …the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell [“Hell” refers to the place of punishment both temporal and eternal. Temporal punishment is the physical and spiritual conscious punishment for sins against God and Man. Eternal punishment is described in the Scriptures as “destruction” and “the second death.” The unbeliever will be annihilated and punished with non-existence for all eternity.] and …The righteous… will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven [not just heaven, but also Earth] with the Lord.

Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations … to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort.

Education
The cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence … there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. …The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists [and not by the shifting wills and beliefs of the school trustees, the school president, the local body of believers and the majority’s consensus].

Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions.

Cooperation
Christ's people should … organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. …Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations [Yes, and if we can cooperate with Roman Catholics on moral goals we can surely cooperate with other Baptists on soteriological goals.].

The Christian & the Social Order
Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and in human society. ... The Christian should oppose in the spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness, and vice [Yes, however, there are both kingdom goals (“the will of Christ”) and kingdom methods (also “the will of Christ”). I take the term “in the Spirit of Christ” as referring to the Christ-like manner in which Christ proclaimed the gospel (i.e. the kingdom of God) in both word and deed. The kingdom of God can only be realized by the methods of the kingdom. No other method is granted by God. Therefore, no matter how good are the intentions of those who pursue the goals of the kingdom of heaven must do so by the methods of the kingdom of heaven or their striving is in vain.].

Religious Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. …A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal [this obviously needs further explanation].

Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society [I am somewhat skeptical about this assertion; I do not see such a statement proclaimed in Scripture.]. …Marriage is the unity of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime [Therefore, even if gay couples think they are married they are not God does not recognize their marriage.] …The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image [Good.]. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. …Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.