Critical Response to The Traditionalist Statement: Part 11 (Article 10)

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

This article is the eleventh in a series designed to carefully consider the theological position against Calvinism taken by those who have signed what is called A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation (released in 2012). In short form, this document is commonly known as the Traditionalist Statement (TS) among Southern Baptists. Presently, comments will be made in response to Article 10 of the TS:

Article Ten: The Great Commission

We affirm that the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned His church to preach the good news of salvation to all people to the ends of the earth. We affirm that the proclamation of the Gospel is God’s means of bringing any person to salvation.

We deny that salvation is possible outside of a faith response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 51:13; Proverbs 11:30; Isaiah 52:7; Matthew 28:19-20; John 14:6; Acts 1:8; 4:12; 10:42- 43; Romans 1:16, 10:13-15; 1 Corinthians 1:17-21; Ephesians 3:7-9; 6:19-20; Philippians 1:12- 14; 1 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Timothy 2:5; 2 Timothy

Among all of the articles presented in TS, this article should almost certainly find support among the vast majority of Bible-believing Southern Baptists. Essentially, it affirms the Church’s God-given task to enact the Great Commission. Following Paul’s example, it calls upon the Church to be salt and light in this world of darkness. Finally, it affirms the exclusivity of Christ as the only way to salvation and rightly points out that a person must come to faith in Him alone if they are to be heirs of salvation.