The one thing you won't hear much, at least not in the affirmative, about inerrancy. But one thing you will hear continuously is "soul competency". The SBC has inerrancy as its litmus test, and the BGCT has soul competency.
So what is soul competency? Is it biblical?
Here is a definition from Wikipedia. (if you know of a better one, let me know I'll change it out)
Soul competency is a Christian theological perspective on the accountability of each person before God. According to this view, neither one's family relationships, church membership, or ecclesiastical or religious authorities can affect salvation of one's soul from damnation. Instead, under this view, each person is responsible to God for his or her own personal faith in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.
What has seemed to have taken place in the BGCT is that soul competency has morphed into this definition and then some. Not only can no one else affect the salvation of one's soul, but they can't tell you what is proper to believe. Because we each have the Holy Spirit, we can look to scripture and come to our own interpretation in light of Jesus.
But this is not what historical Baptist belief has held. Even if, IF, it were, is it biblical?
No.
Is the definition that I posted from Wikipedia right? Yes. Just not the mutation that no one can tell us how to interpret the scripture. What does the Bible say?
2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound1 teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.(emphasis mine, ESV)
Now here is the thought. If one is completely free to believe and interpret the scripture as they see it, without anyone being able to tell them that they are wrong, then why does scripture tell us that we (especially pastors) are to reprove, rebuke, and exhort?
It just seems to me that this view of soul competency, is dangerous on several levels.
- Preaching- Looking at the first phrase of verse 2, Paul tells Timothy to preach the word. But with this view of soul competency, preaching becomes relative to what the person sitting in the pew. The power doesn't lie with the Spirit filled preacher, prepared, prayed up, rather it is up to the person in the pew to interpret what the preacher says. Preaching is what God has chosen to be the instrument to call men to salvation, be it on the street, home, or pew. The preacher no longer becomes the mouthpiece of God, because the individual in the pew is the final authority. Not Scripture.
- Discipleship- How many Baptist churches can you name where the majority of members have at some point in time in the last year has shared their faith? The general ability of the typical Southern Baptist church member in Texas, and elsewhere to be sure, to be able to defend their faith and be "ready in season and out of season." If soul competency, as is understood among BGCT-ers, is that the individual is the final interpretive authority, then discipleship is unnecessary other than to create those who hold your views, till they read for themselves and come up with their own.
- Church discipline- Excuse me? In soul competency morphology, forget it. Might as well disregard it. One can't get into one another's lives and tell when there is a sin, known, or unknown, that needs to be dealt with in a loving, patient, instructive call to repentance. Then exhorting them to continue in the faith toward holiness. If we are unable to exercise Matthew 18, due to one shouting, "Soul competency! Soul competency!" we devalue, not just the scripture, but we devalue each other and our relationships. Why? Because discipline among the body is the most loving thing that can be done. It involves someone going to another and telling them that they are wrong (be it sin, or doctrine, in this context), tell them to stop or change, then exhort them. How is this done? With patience, teaching them WHY it is sin, or WHY it is wrong to believe that way, or WHY it is not right to interpret scripture that way. To not do this is dangerous.
- Tickled ears- The next dangerous result of this morphed view of soul competency is that people will look for a church that makes them feel comfortable with what they believe, rather than reproved; how they are living, rather than rebuked; feeling curious for the newest fad, rather than exhorted with the power of the Word preached. Is it any wonder that part of the reason so many move from one church to another when they look for what makes them feel good, because ultimately that is what drives morphed soul competency. The theme song is Barbara Streisand Feeling. The very notion for many that the preacher would stand in the pulpit and say, "Thus says the Lord…" is pretentious on the preacher's part, in the morphed eyes of soul competency.
Soul competency is a cherished Protestant, as well as Baptist, doctrine. However, when allowed to morph into individualism, and their feelings, over and above authority of the community of faith to disciple and discipline the individual members, we lose.
Soli Deo Gloria
