Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 14:2 (Fall 2023)
Article: The Free Church Form Of Dogmatics: Covenant And Conscience Under Christ
Author: Malcolm B. Yarnell III

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The Free Church Form Of Dogmatics: Covenant And Conscience Under Christ

Malcolm B. Yarnell III

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX

Abstract: This article explores the distinct dogmatic framework of free churches within the context of their personal and congregational commitment to the illuminated Word of God. The study draws from Acts 15 and the early Church Fathers to emphasize the church’s role in adjudicating interpretations of the Word and highlights the significance of covenant in English Baptist and evangelical Anabaptist traditions. Focusing on covenantal freedom, the article underscores the need for a recovered understanding of this concept within Baptist theology, especially regarding dogmatic construction. By referencing Paul Fiddes’s conceptualization of the “vertical” and “horizontal” dimensions of covenant, the study traces the development of covenant theology and ecclesiology in Baptist thought. Emphasizing the harmonization of personal justification and communal Christian life, the article demonstrates how covenant theology informs various aspects of Baptist doctrine. The analysis also addresses the anthropological challenges faced by free churches and advocates for the integration of intellectual doctrine and moral practice through the lens of progressive revelation and the work of the Holy Spirit within the covenanted community of faith.

Key Words: Anabaptist, Baptist theology, covenant, covenantalism, dogmatics, English Baptist, free church theology

For the free churches of Jesus Christ, dogma is formally established only in the context of covenant life in, with, and under the Lord Jesus. In the free church context, which today includes Baptists, Churches of Christ, Mennonites, Methodists, and other communions which historically championed religious liberty in their early days, the practice of church dogma is intricately bound with the problems of church authority and freedom of conscience. The burden of this essay is to describe how the free churches have a distinct form of dogmatics which derives from their simultaneously personal and congregational commitment to be faithful to the Word of God illumined by the Spirit. The thesis of this essay is that free church dogmatics is characterized by a dynamic dialectic between communal covenant and liberty of conscience where Christ is present to his people and offers them blessings.

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A Biblical Basis For Dogma

In Acts 15, various δόγματα, “dogmas” or “decisions,” were promulgated by a local church acting as a democrat...