The firing of Dr. Russell Fuller brought additional scrutiny to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary due to his field leading expertise in ancient Hebrew and stance against Social Justice. Fuller along with other terminated professors would be required to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to receive severance. But earlier this week, it was made apparent that Dr. Russel Fuller and one other colleague would forego the severance. This news was followed by the first of three installments of Dr. Fuller blowing the whistle on what he believes is heterodoxy within the Southern Baptist Convention’s most influential seminary.
The first of the three installments focused on Dr. Dominic Hernandez and his dissertation. The nature of Fuller’s claims are at the crossroads of theology and academia. The dissertation articulates a view of Job and its relation with ancient near eastern mythologies. Fuller claims that the dissertation articulates that the Book of Job is viewed by Hernandez as contradicting the rest of Scripture. Al Mohler and SBTS responded to this by with a scripted interview where Dr. Hernandez affirms orthodoxy. But the accusation by Fuller is not he said he said. Instead it is a question of whether Dr. Hernandez contradict orthodox beliefs in his dissertation. The chart below created by Jon Harris indicates that he did. Pastor Sam Jones of Shining Light Ministries and the American Conservative Movement has also written a response to the dissertation stating as much in greater detail. Read the dissertation for yourself here.
In part two of three in a series of interviews where Dr. Russell Fuller discusses the heterodoxy within Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the focus was on postmodernism and its most notorious proponent of postmodernism: Dr. Jonathan Pennington. Watch the video below.
There are two major bombshells worth discussing in this video. The first is the shady endorsements. Staff at SBTS, most prominently Al Mohler, endorsed Pennington’s book despite knowing how theologically problematic it was in its promotion of a postmodern view of the Old Testament whereby authorial intent is denied and in this instance, the Messianic presence in the Old Testament is seen as a New Testament invention. Dr. Fuller explains that Jewish scholars are more convinced of the Messiah in the Old Testament than seminary professors.
The second major takeaway was the division in SBTS described. Fuller discusses a nearly even split within the SBTS faculty to make Jonathan Pennington a full time professor, but since that divide, enough of those who opposed Pennington have been removed, that Fuller predicts when Pennington is up for promotion, he will receive near unanimous support. This would be because of the removal of the more orthodox professors would silence oppositions.
Jonathan Pennington is a more notorious professor when it comes to the rise of theological liberalism within the Southern Baptist Convention seminaries. What’s a stinging coincidence is that the Babylon Bee wrote an article titled Man Bravely Abandons Unpopular Christian Belief To Affirm Extremely Popular Cultural Belief where the fictional character satirized was named Jonathan Pennington.
So the contribution of Dr. Fuller is not the exposing of the postmodernism but the behind the scenes support for postmodernism at SBTS as well as a thorough explanation of how postmodernism undermines the gospel.
7 Responses
I haven’t had a chance to read the article yet. I’m on my way out to see if I can either be infected or infect others by simply shopping so my family can eat.
But, we need an answer to “How did Mohler and the SBTS go from conservative to postmodern?”
Chuck Colson in his book, “Justice That Restores”, says an even MORE important question is:
Why did, in this instance Dr. Fuller”, NOT move from conservative to postmodern?
If that is unclear, Colson’s original question was: Why did all those (black) men NOT commit crimes and end up as justice system involved persons? (I did a little (OK, a LOT) of paraphrasing to be sarcastic.)
“When Mr. Mohler took over Southern, the oldest of six seminaries in the SBC, his ascension cemented a sharp rightward shift as conservatives took control of a seminary where moderates once flourished. It also reflected a larger realignment within the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/sep/19/20030919-105616-9435r/
Hmm. I still can’t find my original research about how Mohler came to be President of the SBTS.
I did the research I believe in 2011 when the Erskine Seminary was having issues with some of its faculty not abiding by the doctrinal statement they had signed.
I’m still looking, but at least this confirms that I’m not imagining that Mohler WAS conservative not that long ago.
Erskine Seminary: What Went Wrong?
By Dr. Paul M. Elliott, March 5, 2010
http://www.teachingtheword.org/apps/articles/?articleid=66744&blogid=5445
There is nothing new under the sun…
THE GREAT DIVIDE : In the Fight for the Soul of the Southern …www.latimes.com › la-xpm-1991-11-17-tm-489-story
Nov 17, 1991
I’m using an ad blocker and didn’t want to turn it off to read this article, but this looks like it is reporting on the condition of the SBC just BEFORE Mohler was appointed as president of the SBTS.
I scanned the first couple of paragraphs and along with the headline can see that this is definitely a left-wing view of the SBC.
I’m getting warm…
Dean’s Dismissal Draws Faculty, Student Protests
JOE MAXWELL
MAY 15, 1995 Christianity Today.
https://www.reformation21.org/blogs/a-most-surprising-arp-synod-me.php
More nothing new under the sun…
More on Erskine.
https://www.reformation21.org/articles/whither-or-wither.php
Same problems, different denominations.
What do they have in common?
All humans are “evil” and sinners, and rebelling against God.