[1]ST. LOUIS (BP)–Southern Baptists must hold their seminaries accountable to teach the orthodox gospel of Jesus Christ, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr said during the school’s presentation to Southern Baptist Convention June 12.
“Hold your seminaries accountable to these truths,” he said. “Hold us accountable to our confessions of faith. … Make certain that we are producing not only those who have the right answers theologically, but that we are producing those who are ready to take the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the furthest parts of the world.
“Make certain we are producing preachers who will preach without apology and without compromise.”
Mohler, president of Southern Seminary since 1993, said preaching the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ alone provides the ultimate answer to society’s fundamental problem — sin.
Messengers watched a short video showcasing the seminary’s biblical stance on such controversial issues as human cloning, biblical translations and open theism (the belief that God’s knowledge of the future is limited).
The video introduced the new dean of Boyce College, Jerry Johnson. Boyce College is Southern Seminary’s undergraduate school. The video also highlighted the seminary’s student evangelism efforts and showed a clip of Mohler thanking Southern Baptists for their support through the Cooperative Program.
[2]Touching on the World Trade Center attacks, Mohler told messengers that Southern Seminary is on the forefront of providing people with biblical answers to life’s ultimate questions.
Churches led by ministers who are faithfully preaching the gospel hold the key to answering such questions. It is critical that Southern Baptist seminaries remain grounded upon biblical truth, he said.
“In the aftermath of Sept. 11 we are told that everything has changed, that America is a fundamentally different nation and that the world must be seen as a different place,” Mohler said. “There is, of course, some truth in that. Perceptions have changed, strategies have changed, foreign policies and military policies have changed. But we must ever be reminded that the most fundamental issues have not changed.
“The problem of human sin has not changed. The gospel of Jesus Christ has not changed and the Word of God has not changed. We can put it this way: The problem has not changed, the answer has not changed and our authority has not changed.”
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