Working out Salvation with Fear and Trembling

Individual Soul Liberty

One of the outstanding principles and doctrines of Baptists through the centuries has been what we call individual soul liberty. By this phrase is meant the right so far as any human intervention is concerned, of every soul to approach God and interpret God for himself. It does not mean that the soul is sovereign above all other souls. If an individual makes a mistake in the exercise of his soul’s sovereignty in his approach to or interpretation of God, then he must settle with God on that score; but no other human, or combination of humans, anywhere on the face of the earth can coerce him to approach any other way or to interpret God in any other fashion than he chooses for himself. Romans 14:5­–12 is the key passage which instructs us on our individual liberty to interpret the Word of God. Also, Joshua 24:15 teaches that we have the responsibility, right, and privilege to choose to follow God or not. Acts 17:11 teaches us about the example of the Bereans who constantly on their own searched the Scriptures to determine what was correct doctrine. 

Does believing in individual soul liberty mean that we can be opposed to the historic cardinal doctrines of the faith if we so choose to read it that way?  

Baptists have always been creedal people. We have been people that have come together around a common doctrinal commitment. These doctrinal statements have stood the test of time, like the First and Second London Baptist Confession, the Philadelphia Baptist Confession, and the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith. These doctrinal statements were the central point of convergence for these churches. Their people served in churches that were committed to these teachings. Creeds are a very important part of the church of Jesus Christ. It helps to develop a systematic understanding of doctrinal teachings which we can rally around. Even our church, has a doctrinal statement which in itself is like a creed. 

We can have the freedom to interpret the Word for ourselves and yet still hold to a central confession of faith. The key here is, if one chooses based on their soul liberty to reject that confession, they have the freedom to do so and can choose to fellowship with a church that better reflects their doctrinal stands.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 2:19 am and is filed under Baptist Distinctives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.