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Truth
and Liberty
- Recently Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Louisville, gave the opening address at a conference titled, "Southern Baptists in the New Millennium: Identity, Orthodoxy, and Cooperation" (Baptist Press, March 22, 2001). "The SBC controversy is rooted in an argument over Baptist history and what role that history should play in the modern church ... The differing parties could be divided into two camps: the truth party and the liberty party. The truth party emphasizes the authority of Scripture and its inerrancy, while the liberty party focuses on personal autonomy," Mohler claimed. I feel troubled by the statement because it does not seem consistent with things I have read repeatedly in Holy Scripture. As I wrote in another article (see pages 2-3) when one is looking for answers, one should turn to God's written word. I could not find support in the Bible for Mohler's statement. My Bible, as I interpret it, said that truth and liberty were not opposites, but partners. Biblically, both Jesus and Paul said that truth led to liberty. The scriptures speak of Jesus being the truth. John 1:14 says, "and the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Jesus said he was the truth in John 14:6, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life." Then Jesus said in John 16:13, "Howbeit, when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." Then Jesus equated truth and liberty in John 8:31-32 saying, "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jesus seemed to say repeatedly that he and the Holy Spirit are ultimate truth. Our relationship with the living truth will in turn lead us into truth and liberty. Truth and liberty seemed to go hand-in-hand in Jesus' mind. Paul seemed to believe like Jesus and did not see a problem with truth and liberty. Paul cautioned the Galatians in very strong terms, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ." (Gal.1:6-7) Paul said the Christ led to freedom and liberty, writing in Galatians 5:1, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." Paul encouraged the Galatian Christians to disregard people that were so convinced they knew the truth and therefore were "distorting the Gospel." Following them would lead to slavery, not liberty. Scripture is clear that Jesus faced this accusation, being for liberty and not truth. Matthew 12:1-2, says, "At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grainfields, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." In essence, the Pharisees were accusing Jesus of ignoring truth and "doing whatever he wanted." This happened more than once. Matthew 15: 1-3 says, "Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." And He answered and said to them, "And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" Again, Jesus was accused of valuing liberty over truth. Ultimately, the Scriptures say, "they began to plot against him." Ultimately, they killed him for his love of truth and liberty. Church history also is full of true stories of those who paid a price for challenging the accepted truth and standing for real truth and liberty. Roman Catholic authorities accusing Michael Sattler of wanting too much freedom and not valuing truth burned him at the stake in Rottenburg on May 20, 1527. They charged Sattler with "acting contrary to the decree of the emperor, of teaching and believing that the body and blood of Christ were not present in his sacrament and that infant-baptism was not promotive of salvation." Does anyone reading this disagree with Sattler? I doubt it. The Inquisition was about protecting the truth from those who valued liberty and treasured the freedom to interpret Scripture contrary to the powers that are. Thank God Martin Luther challenged the guardians of the truth and proclaimed that "the just shall live by faith" as he read in Romans 1. I could go on and on citing Scripture and church history, but I hope I have made my point. Real truth and liberty go hand and hand. We discover truth when we allow liberty to flourish. We must allow people to think for themselves and interpret Scripture under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Baptists exist because of those who used their liberty to find new (but eternal) truth in the Scripture contrary to the popular truth of the day. Truth leads to liberty, not slavery. It means freedom in Christ, which in turn means being obedient to Scriptural truth instead of statements of faith made up by people convinced they know the truth and others do not. Truth without liberty is static, cold and mean. Liberty without truth is license and therefore wild and undisciplined. Nat Tracy, my wonderful professor at Howard Payne, said, "True freedom is glad obedience to authority." I believe he was right. True freedom is obedience to the living Christ and his written word. I will not be "subject again to a yoke of slavery" to a creed written by Mohler or anyone else.
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