WHAT IS IN A NAME?
By Robison B. (Rob) James

Many groups in history have been named by others, not by themselves. Methodists got their name in this way. Something similar is happening now with the name moderate. Nevertheless, there is a difference.

Many of us are not as happy with the name moderate as most Methodists are with their name. We believe it is more accurate to call us mainstream Baptists, or even traditional Baptists.

The trouble with the term moderate is that it sounds like we are halfway between: not stand-pat conservatives, but not freewheeling liberals either. It sounds like we change traditional teachings some, but not too much. Purely from an outsider, non-Baptist point of view, there is a grain of truth in this. Maybe we have to accept the fact that moderates is one thing people are going to call us. Nevertheless, if so, we should not forget that other names are more accurate.

Most of all! We should not forget the following basic principle: It is the Baptist tradition not to be stuck with our tradition. Why? Because we must be free fully to obey God's Word, and not merely the traditions of men and women -- not even Baptist men and women.

God's written Word, the Bible, is living and active, full of the power of the Spirit. Baptists appeared when some people discovered new light breaking forth from the Word. It would be blasphemous to say God has no further light to shed upon us in this day. Even modem biblical study often opens truth in Scripture that our Baptist forebears did not see, or did not see clearly.

Of course there are basic beliefs to which we hold firmly and confess gladly. We are ever committed to follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, wherever he leads. Nevertheless, part of the point here is that he really LEADS. The point is that the very meaning (the biblical meaning!) of saying the Bible is God's Word is that the Bible is the speaking of the living God, the God who is here for us and for our salvation, Emmanuel, in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Words can trick us. Take the Baptist position as an example. How shall we describe it? It will help greatly if we speak about the Baptist identity rather than about teachings and doctrines. As important as teachings and doctrines are, you cannot describe the Baptist identity by talking only about teachings and doctrines.

This is our Baptist position, our identity. Our traditional teachings must be subject always to the overruling and updating of the new light that breaks forth from God's written word, the Bible.

This has a surprising result. The people who are changing us, the people who are diverging from the Baptist identity, may be the people who are not ready for changes --the people who let them get stuck with this or that tradition. For the Baptist who is really a Baptist, every tradition must be able nimbly to respond to the Word that, in the power of the Spirit, is always a living Word.

That is who we are. That is our identity. That is what we cannot and should not change. We are a people committed to follow Christ and the Scripture, fully confident that the written Word is in-spirited (theopneustos), filled with the Spirit of the living God.

Robison B. (Rob) James, Ph.D. is a Research Prof. of Theology, at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, VA.

September 2001