The Unacknowledged Controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention

By Ken Silva

Apprising Ministries

Controversy In The SBC

As I originally pointed out on Christian Research Net, The Christian Post (CP) is reporting, “Amid increasing clashes in the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, the head of the SBC opened a conference on Thursday [February 15] to discuss the Baptist identity and the controversy within.” [1] By the way this “head” of the SBC mentioned in that CP article is Dr. Frank Page [2] who happens to be the current president of what is ostensibly the largest Protestant denomination in the country despite its openly embracing the anti-Protestant Emergent Church. [3]

Among this “controversy” there is mention of one leader who is just “‘heartbroken’ about disagreements over [unspecified] theology and worship style among Baptists” and another controversy would be over the funding of missions. One interim pastor is quoted as saying, “I would cut my salary before I would cut missions. ... God was on a mission when He sent Christ.” [4] As an SBC pastor myself for many years this all sounds very SBC to me. And president Page agrees because he says, “Don’t short-change God. When you short-circuit the Great Commission, you’re cutting off the favor of God.” [5]

But Dr. Page wasn’t through as he turns the rhetoric up a notch. The CP report then goes on to say, “Page, according to The Jackson Sun…[said] “This convention does not belong to me or to you. It is a Jesus convention.” [6] Really now Dr. Page? Then why is it when I personally informed you over a month ago that Ed Young, Jr. [7] is bringing Oneness Pentecostal heretic T.D. Jakes [8] into an SBC church next week you make no public stand? By the way, Jakes was there last year as well. [9] Oneness Pentecostals [10] do not believe in the Jesus of the Bible Who is God the Son – second Person of the Holy Trinity – and Who has existed with (see– John 1:1) God the Father from all eternity.

Another Jesus Is No Controversy For The “Jesus Convention”

Instead Oneness Pentecostal theology asserts that Jesus is Himself the Father and the Holy Spirit. Also Oneness Pentecostals such as Word faith mogul T.D. Jakes believe that the Word (Greek: Logos) is not a Person in John chapter 1 but rather the concept, idea or plan in God’s mind of what would later become the man Jesus of Nazareth. And as my friend Steve Camp has correctly pointed out about T.D. Jakes:

in spite of his vast array of successful books, TV show, the Potter's House church, etc. there is a problem – T.D. Jakes is a heretic. Strong words, but here is why. He categorically denies the essential and foundational doctrine of the Trinity. He does not believe in three persons of the God-head: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit co-existing, co-eternal, and co-equal from all eternity. He is what is known as a Modalist; a Sabellianist; a Oneness Pentecostal. IOW, he worships and serves a different god than the One Triune God of the Bible. [11]

Further in the Oneness Pentecostal theology of T.D. Jakes the Son is not eternal; only the Father is, and therefore the Son had a beginning. Here is perhaps the most prolific Oneness Pentecostal theologian and writer Dr. David Bernard:

The Word was not a separate person or a separate god any more than a man’s word is a separate person from him. Rather the Word was the thought, plan, or mind of God... When the fulness (sic) of time was come, God put that plan in action. He put flesh on that plan in the form of the man Jesus Christ... If there is only one God and that God is the Father (Malachi 2:10), and if Jesus is God, then it logically follows that Jesus is the Father. [12]

Dr. Page, clearly this is not the Jesus of the Bible, and it isn’t even the Jesus of the SBC according to our own doctrinal benchmark The Baptist Faith and Message – “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…” [13] And if modalistic monarchianism [14] has been considered heresy for 1800 years by the historic orthodox Christian Church then why Dr. Page is it not considered heresy, or even so much as a controversy, within this SBC “Jesus convention”? Also if we don’t stand up for the true nature of Who God is then aren’t we “cutting off the favor of God”?

And so I ask you Dr. Page, if the SBC really is “a Jesus convention” then tell us which Jesus does it belong to?  

By Ken Silva Click here for bio and archived articles