For those who desire to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God” (Micah 6:8), yes, the Bible is the answer. The God who commands us to do these things is the One who defines what they are and the One who provides instructions for us in His Word and power through His Spirit. 

A recent Christianity Today article describes the efforts to promote racial diversity in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The article is informative and worth reading in its entirety. But one quote in it jumped off the page (I know that phrase dates me but “leapt out of its pixels” just falls flat). The quote is attributed to Marshal Ausberry, who recently completed terms as vice president of the SBC as well as president of its National African American Fellowship.

The author, Kate Shellnutt, writes, “Ausberry said there are places where critical race theory goes too far and that it cannot be a Christian’s worldview or ideology, but it can still be helpful.” Then she quotes him as saying,

“Some will tout that the Bible is the only answer we need. If that were completely true, we would not have had slavery and racism in America! If that were true, we would not have sexual abuse in America or in churches! Because many of the perpetrators of slavery, racism, and sexual abuse have the Bible,” he said. “Therefore, we need tools that give us insight to identify systems of racism, prejudice, and sexual abuse. Yes, we know ultimately it is sin, but we need tools that help us to identify those detrimental and systemic behaviors that the Bible does not directly address.”

This is an excellent example of one perspective on the role of the Bible in addressing many of the challenges that Christians are facing in the world today. It is a perspective that I find dangerous, untenable, and ultimately undermining to the Christian faith itself. But, it is a view that has gained a strong foothold not only in the Southern Baptist Convention, but in the broader evangelical community.

Ausberry evidently was correctly quoted since he highlighted these very words when promoting the article on Twitter.

This statement betrays a lack of confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture by denying that the Bible is the “only answer we need” when it comes to complex problems like racism and sex abuse. As such, Ausberry’s comments provide an opportunity to identify a great divide that exists among both Southern Baptists and evangelicals more generally considered.

That divide centers on the sufficiency of Scripture. On one side you have those who agree with the historic, orthodox, and Protestant view as expressed in the time-tested Second London Baptist Confession, which says, “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture” (1.6).

Of course, this is precisely what Paul teaches in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Unless we are prepared to say that dealing with sins like racism and sexual abuse are excluded from the good work to which the Lord calls men of God like Timothy, we must conclude that the Bible is sufficient for dealing with them.

Let me state that another way. If dealing with racism and sexual abuse are included in the good works to which pastors and churches are called, then the Bible is “the only answer we need.” At least, that is what the inerrant Word that we all profess to believe says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Read More