GCR–Dr. Vines signs With Caveats

Dr. Jerry Vines, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention and retired Senior Pastor of First Baptist Jacksonville, has allowed his name to be added to the Great Commission Resurgence Declaration. However, he has added it with caveats. I do not know that Dr. Vines will interact with you on this matter, but you can certainly go to his blog if you would like to leave a comment. He was interviewed by the Christian Index and that interview should be available soon.

I agreed to allow my name to be added to the Great Commission Resurgence document “with caveats.” I did this for two reasons.

First, I want to affirm my trust in the intentions of our president, Dr. Johnny Hunt, and Dr. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I join them in a desire that the Southern Baptist Convention have a resurgence of winning people to Christ. As a past president of the Convention, a member of the Peace Committee and the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 Committee, my motivation has always been to keep us true to the Bible and faithful to carry out the Great Commission.

Second, I added “with caveats” with a specific definition in mind. I mean “with caveats” in the dictionary sense of “with reservations” or “with explanations to prevent misunderstanding.” I want there to be no doubt as to what I understand the various articles of the document to mean. I do not sign a document carelessly, nor without a careful understanding of the meaning of its wording.

On Sunday Dr. Gerald Harris, editor of Georgia’s The Christian Index, called and requested an interview. I responded to a number of questions with the intention of clearly expressing my understanding of several articles in the GCR document. This interview is to be in next Tuesday’s edition of The Christian Index. When this interview is available, my staff will link it to this blog.

I have no plans to comment beyond what I have done in the interview. These are crucial days for Southern Baptists and all Christian groups. In these days of apostasy we must be very careful to remain biblically faithful in our doctrine and in our methodologies.