04.11.2019. — Nashville Statement and LGBT issues, Series

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary adopts the Nashville Statement as a confessional standard.

by Denny Burk

The Baptist Press reports that the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has adopted The Nashville Statement as a confessional standard. We will have more to say about this in the near future, but for now here’s an excerpt from the report:

MBTS President Jason Allen announced to the board a need for the school to adopt the Nashville Statement, which was published in 2017 by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in partnership with the Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. The document is a statement of faith relating to human sexuality and gender roles. The statement expresses support for biblical definition of marriage, for faithfulness within marriage, for chastity outside marriage, and for a link between biological sex and self-conception as male and female. To read the Nashville Statement in its entirety, visit https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement.

“In light of ever-changing cultural norms and expectations toward marriage, gender, and sexuality, and in recognition that Southern Baptists are a confessional people, expecting their entities to maintain faithfulness to Holy Scripture and a clear witness to the world, Midwestern Seminary will strengthen its doctrinal clarity, witness, and legal standing by formally adopting the Nashville Statement,” Allen said.

In a recommendation originating in the seminary’s executive committee and brought before the full board, the motion to adopt the statement passed unanimously.

This is good news out of Kansas City, and it is exactly why the Nashville Statement was created in the first place–to assist churches and Christian ministries to articulate a biblically faithful confession of the Bible’s teaching about sexuality.

Thanks to President Jason Allen for his leadership in making this happen at Midwestern Seminary. The trustees have made a strong statement of conviction to serve as a guideline for their entire ministry. That can only bear good fruit in the days ahead.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Denny Burk

Denny Burk is the President of the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood. He joined the faculty of Boyce College in 2008, where he currently serves as Professor of Biblical Studies. He also serves as one of the preaching pastors at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He has written extensively about the Bible's teaching on sexuality and gender, including Male and Female He Created Them (Christian Focus, 2023), Transforming Homosexuality (P&R, 2015), and What Is the Meaning of Sex? (Crossway, 2013). He has also authored a commentary on the pastoral epistles (Crossway, 2017) and has written articles that have appeared in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Tyndale Bulletin, Bulletin for Biblical Research, and the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. He is married and has four children.
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