Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 24:1 (Spring 2020)
Article: Editorial: Christ Is Better!
Author: Stephen J. Wellum

SBJT 24:1 (Spring 2020) p. 3

Editorial: Christ Is Better!

Stephen J. Wellum

Stephen J. Wellum is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and editor of Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. He received his PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and he is the author of numerous essays and articles and the co-author with Peter Gentry of Kingdom through Covenant, 2nd edition (Crossway, 2012, 2018) and God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (Crossway, 2015); the co-editor of Progressive Covenantalism (B&H, 2016); the author of God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of the Person of Christ (Crossway, 2016) and Christ Alone—The Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior (Zondervan, 2017); and the co-author of Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ (Zondervan, 2018).

Years ago, Francis Schaeffer characterized the difference between a living and dead orthodoxy and liberalism in the following way. A living orthodoxy is reflected by people who are truly regenerated by the Holy Spirit, who gladly embrace the doctrinal truths of the gospel, and who find their central identity in Christ and his people. From this center in Christ, a lifestyle results that aims to please God in their daily lives and which impacts the culture for Christ. A dead orthodoxy, on the other hand, is characterized by people who affirm the truths of the gospel, but their central identity is more in terms of its moral and social entailments. Their first concern is not to glory in the triune God, but instead to transform the culture as a witness for Christ. What the apostle John criticized the Ephesian church for is true of them: they are sound in doctrine and life but they have lost their first love (Rev 2:1–7). From a dead orthodoxy, a liberalism soon follows. Liberalism either denies the truth of Christian theology or more often, re-interprets it through some extratextual grid foreign to Scripture. For liberalism, all that remains of historic Christianity is its social entailments—a “social gospel”—that desires to transform society by political revolution and not by the truth and power of the gospel.

SBJT 24:1 (Spring 2020) p. 4

If we apply Schaeffer’s analysis to our current state of evangelicalism, I am worried that “dead orthodoxy” describes much of it. Most evangelicals affirm the historic confessions and doctrinal commitments of the church. Yet, if we probe deeper, and analyze, for example, our social media by such questions as: What consumes our attention? What is the primary focus of our lives and churches? I am afraid that what consumes us most is not sound theology c...