Southern Baptist adding Nicene Creed to Baptist Faith and Message

Offline4Better. · Jun 21, 2024

RileyG said:
Amen.

May God bless the Southern Baptist Church, the American Baptist Church, and all Independent Baptist Churches.

Amen, and may God bless all Christian churches, and protect these places of worship and people from the worldly agenda.

9Rock9 · Jun 23, 2024

AlexB23 said:
Guys, the only non-woke mainline churches in the US are basically Baptists (for now). UMC, Presbyterian, some Lutherans, some Anglicans and the UCC have gone into supporting strange movements over the past few years in the 2020s.

Well, the American Baptists, on paper, are still fairly conservative and non-woke, but in practice, it's debatable. They don't enforce their confession, so you still get woke churches in the denomination.

St. Helens · Jun 23, 2024

Years ago my husband and I attended an American Baptist Church. Back then the denomination was pretty sound, but we got saddled with a pastor that wasn't so sound. He kept hammering on accepting things that the Bible flat out said was wrong.

Offline4Better. · Jun 23, 2024

9Rock9 said:
Well, the American Baptists, on paper, are still fairly conservative and non-woke, but in practice, it's debatable. They don't enforce their confession, so you still get woke churches in the denomination.

Interesting

9Rock9 · Jun 23, 2024

To address OP, it's not that Baptists disagree with anything in the Nicene Creed per se, we just don't accept any binding authorities outside of Scripture. The Creed is seen as a TL;DR summary of what the Bible teaches.

Our aversion to creeds is more that they can be, and have been, used as a way to bludgeon believers into submission over non-essential points like eschatology or predestination.

As far as we're concerned, if someone affirms the Trinity, the necessity of baptism and the need to share gospel, we don't see why it matters whether they're a Calvinist or thinks the Millennium is a literal 1,000 years.

Armchair Apologist · Sep 15, 2024

The Nicene Creed is an important and historic document of the Church. I certainly hope they wouldn't reject it but why do they need to add it to the Baptist Faith and Message? Does not the Baptist Faith and Message affirm most if not all that the Nicene Creed states?

Following this line of logic, why don't they add the Athanasian Creed to the Nicene Creed or better yet, why didn't they?

jas3 · Sep 15, 2024

Armchair Apologist said:
Following this line of logic, why don't they add the Athanasian Creed to the Nicene Creed or better yet, why didn't they?

How is that following the same line of logic? The question is whether a later statement of faith should incorporate an earlier one, not whether an earlier one should be revised to incorporate a later one.

RileyG · Sep 15, 2024

St. Helens said:
Years ago my husband and I attended an American Baptist Church. Back then the denomination was pretty sound, but we got saddled with a pastor that wasn't so sound. He kept hammering on accepting things that the Bible flat out said was wrong.

I think they were always considered mainline? I think SBC is much larger in number than them.

Armchair Apologist · Sep 15, 2024

jas3 said:
How is that following the same line of logic? The question is whether a later statement of faith should incorporate an earlier one, not whether an earlier one should be revised to incorporate a later one.

My point are that they (Nicene and Athanasian Creeds) are both good, historic documents where each stands upon its own merit. You can say that the Athanasian Creed builds upon the Nicene Creed but you do not need to combine the two. Same goes with the Baptist Faith and Message. I think you can add language that affirms the historic creeds without actually adding them to the BFM itself. To me, this makes good common sense. Does the Belgic Confession or Westminster Confession of Faith include these creeds?

Armchair Apologist · Sep 15, 2024

AV1611VET said:
If you promise me I won't get moderated, I'll tell you who I think wrote it.

9Rock9 · Oct 6, 2024

Armchair Apologist said:
The Nicene Creed is an important and historic document of the Church. I certainly hope they wouldn't reject it but why do they need to add it to the Baptist Faith and Message? Does not the Baptist Faith and Message affirm most if not all that the Nicene Creed states?

Following this line of logic, why don't they add the Athanasian Creed to the Nicene Creed or better yet, why didn't they?

An argument I have heard is that most lay Christians don't really understand the Trinity, and think adding the Nicene Creed would help alleviate that.

Some would also say we don't believe the Nicene Creed because of that part about "one baptism for the remission of sins."

Armchair Apologist · Oct 8, 2024

9Rock9 said:
An argument I have heard is that most lay Christians don't really understand the Trinity, and think adding the Nicene Creed would help alleviate that.

Some would also say we don't believe the Nicene Creed because of that part about "one baptism for the remission of sins."

I see absolutely nothing wrong with language in the BFM stating that they affirm the Nicene Creed and I would take serious issue with anyone who did not!

Regarding the "one baptism for the remission of sins" line, they really need to look at the whole of scripture (beginning with Eph 4:5) and not worry about the willful ignorance of a few.

I am afraid that there are far too many Baptists congregations that are biblically illiterate! Affirming certain historic creeds, confessions, or statements of faith will not change any of this though. Preachers need to stop being ignorant themselves and start teaching their people the Word of God!

BPPLEE · Mar 23, 2025

FenderTL5 said:
Was/is the Creed in the responsive reading portion of the Baptist Hymnal? (I can't recall).
My wife's family were Methodists and I do recall it being in their hymnal.

I haven't been to a Church that used a hymnal since 1980

actionsub · Mar 26, 2025

FenderTL5 said:
Was/is the Creed in the responsive reading portion of the Baptist Hymnal? (I can't recall).
My wife's family were Methodists and I do recall it being in their hymnal.

Nope. I can't count how many times I heard sermons as a young man declaring how "Baptists are not creedal".

actionsub · Mar 26, 2025

RileyG said:
Are you thinking of the American Baptist Church? NOT the same as the Southern Baptist Convention.

Regardless, they do not have an official hierarchy (as a Catholic or Orthodox would understand it), so I wouldn't be surprised if some congregations are LGBT affirming.

True. The SB's have been diligent about weeding out LGBT friendly churches. Most that would be sympathetic left for the splinter Cooperative Baptist Fellowship years ago.

RileyG · Mar 27, 2025

actionsub said:
True. The SB's have been diligent about weeding out LGBT friendly churches. Most that would be sympathetic left for the splinter Cooperative Baptist Fellowship years ago.

[posting in fellowship]

It's my understanding SOME SBC congregations are more liberal and ordain women. They have no hierarchy, and their structure is more congregational. I know some congregations are being excommunicated for not following traditional teaching.

Any Southern Baptist can comment if I understand correctly.

actionsub · Mar 27, 2025

RileyG said:
[posting in fellowship]

It's my understanding SOME SBC congregations are more liberal and ordain women. They have no hierarchy, and their structure is more congregational. I know some congregations are being excommunicated for not following traditional teaching.

Any Southern Baptist can comment if I understand correctly.

"Some" would be correct, but they tend to fly under the radar to avoid sanction. With the whole Rick Warren thing a couple of years ago, women's ordination has become the big target again as they were in the 80s.

YeshuaFan · Jun 17, 2025

FenderTL5 said:
It has been proposed that the Nicene Creed be added to the Baptist Faith and Message.
Do you have an opinion either way?

As a former Independent Baptist (I grew up there) turned Southern Baptist (30+ years before becoming Orthodox), Just curious.

[Quoting the article, sic]
Andrew Brown, Stephen Lorance, Steve McKinion and Malcolm Yarnell broke the news on X (formerly Twitter) May 29 with a teaser and a link to their proposed amendment to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.

Quite simply, they propose adding the full text of the Nicene Creed as Article XIX to the 2000 statement of faith.

In case you are not familiar with the Nicene Creed, it reads as follows:

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father. By him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he descended from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again, in accordance with the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again, in glory, to judge the living and the dead, and his Kingdom shall have no end.... (continues)

Think that might be acceptable to say reformed baptist who would hold to a Confession and also at times Creeds, but not to rank and file Baptists

Southern Baptist adding Nicene Creed to Baptist Faith and Message

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