Dr. Bart Barber weighs in on this issue that has been our main topic this week – the nomination of Dr. Jason Allen as the president of Midwestern Seminary. He raises several important issues and the article is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the topic.
Go read it.
He asks and gives informative answers to these five questions.
- Are you sure Dr. Allen is a Calvinist?
- Are you sure that Dr. Mohler is behind Dr. Allen’s candidacy at MBTS?
- Is Dr. Allen’s performance at his seminary church really the right measure of his candidacy?
- Is Dr. Allen a member / leader / Manchurian Candidate from the “Founders movement”?
- I wonder whether all of the YRR supporters of Dr. Allen know what he believes about beverage alcohol?
This post is just meant as an advertisement for Bart’s post. It is well-worth your time.
And he makes a point I think we need to remember on both sides. Bart a point about non-Calvinists that I would like to apply to this entire debate.
And I like to speak for myself rather than to be defined by being lumped into some group.
An uninvolved onlooker might think that the SBC has two groups – Calvinists and Traditionalists. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
If you pin me to the ground and ask me to choose or reject the label, I would probably say, “Yes, I am a Calvinist.” But I am not a Calvinist like a lot of Calvinists are Calvinists. I have a great deal of respect for Tom Ascol, Dr. Nettles, and the Founders, but I am not a Founder and there is a reason for that. I do not share all their aims and goals. The Founders have a (legitimate) voice in SBC affairs, but they do not speak for me, nor for the majority of Calvinists. The majority of Calvinists in the SBC are not members of the Founders. Assuming that Ascol and his friends are pulling all the strings among Southern Baptists is just not accurate or fair.
Those of us on the Calvinist side of the aisle are anything but monolithic.
As Bart points out, the same can be said for those who do not follow the fellow from Geneva. There is a group that has taken the label Traditionalist. But as most Calvinists have chosen not to join the Founders, most non-Calvinists in the SBC have chosen not to identify themselves as Traditionalists. Those who signed the document should be identified as Traditionalists. But no one should assume that their document speaks for all non-Calvinists any more than the Founders speak for all Calvinists.
Those of us on the non-Calvinist side of the aisle are anything but monolithic.
Baptists range from modified Arminians to Traditionalists to undefined non-Calvinists (probably the majority group) to soft-Calvinists (4 pointers, Amyraldians, Antinomists – a designation some of us have used to describe our view) to 5-pointers to passionate 5-pointers, and there are even probably a few hypers hiding in the weeds somewhere.
We do not have two views, we have 20!
We would do well to avoid sweeping generalizations (an almost impossible task, I know). We should not say, “Calvinists think this” or “Non-Calvinists think that.” We should not assume that the “Reformed” all have one goal and one strategy or that all who reject the Reformed system share a common strategy.
Something to think about.
The issue is NOT what I or any others say the text says.
The single most important issue is “What does the text say?”
Discovering what the text says is an endeavor for exegesis not polemics.
When we in the SBC surrender to a irenic, gracious, systematic and accurate examination of the text via careful exegesis we will resolve many of the issues swirling about us.
I thought his article was very helpful.
The nominee must have some qualities that caused the selection committee to overlook the less stellar ones. They could have helped themselves by doing a better job of presenting him.
Most of us understand that MBTS needs some stability and success. I hope this candidate can accomplish that. If confirmed, he has my prayers.
Yep.
The Search Team threw the candidate under the bus by rolling it out the ay they did. Horrible job! Not fair to Dr. Allen at all! The problems at MWBTS are deeper than a candidate!
I do not see where the Search Team has done anything wrong.
After reading Bart Barber’s Praisegod Barebones’ blog on Dr. Allen, I must admit that I have difficulty in seeing what all the fuss is about. Allen does not sound much different from the traditionalists…certainly he does not fit the pattern of the calvinists or Sovereign Grace Southern Baptists. He might well prove to be one of them folks that can capably work with anyone and do it well. I think Rick is wasting words and digits in blogging space to get bent out of shape about it. Can it, Rick. Allen, if Bart is correct, sounds like he is more… Read more »
By the way I can appreciate as a historian, Barber’s use of the Praisegod Barebones cognomen and epithet as I used to read about that rascal in English history of the 15-1600s. (I forget the exact century as it has been awhile). Been meaning to say something about that blog’s identification ever since I hear about it (my church history research covered all two thousands years and most of the countries and a large number of personalities). You all might be interested in the fact that I came across materials where the Inquisitors pursued two Albigensians for 25 years before… Read more »