Mohler Southern Baptist Convention

The SBC cannot define What Is A Pastor. Will this be the legacy of the SBC’s greatest theologian of the 21st century?

A few years ago, Albert Mohler was the undisputed voice of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). However, after years of platforming and promoting younger leaders, Mohler is now isolated as former proteges take public stands against him.

The division was highlighted Tuesday at the SBC Annual Meeting over the Credentials Committee’s boneheaded plan not to expel Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church over the ordination of women pastors. The Credentials Committee wanted to create a study committee to determine what Southern Baptists mean by pastor.

The reaction was swift. Albert Mohler ran to the microphone and made an eloquent statement.

Mohler as a member of the committee that drafted the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 said that “Pastor” meant exactly what Southern Baptists always understood it to mean and that any attempt to define every word of the confessional statement would render the statement pointless.

Mohler then pointed out an originalist view of the BFM2K—that the word “pastor” should be understood to mean what the BFM2K drafters understood it to mean and what the SBC understood it to mean when adopted.

It was a great moment.

Mohler was at his best.

Yet, one wonders if we were not watching the sunset of Mohler’s influence.

A few minutes later, Adam Greenway was at the microphone taking another view—a view friendlier to the Credentials Committee.

It was what can only be described as a public split.

Yet would Adam Greenway be President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) without having worked for Al Mohler at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS)?

Of course not.  

And this is not the first time a former friend stabbed Mohler in the back.

Can anyone forget the North American Mission Board (NAMB) paid for people to attend the SBC meeting last year in Nashville to vote for Ed Litton and not for Al Mohler?

That was a betrayal.

It shifted the balance of power in the SBC.

Now Mohler’s legacy is on the line. What will the SBC look like as he moves ever closer to retirement?

The SBC is far more Woke, progressive, and godless. And Mohler was the most influential SBC theologian and voice during the time of the SBC’s slide toward error.

Will this be Mohler’s legacy? A legacy of decline and the SBC turning its back on clear biblical teachings.

It would be wrong to count Mohler out; Mohler still has time to turn things around and save his legacy. Like Winston Churchill, age and spending time in the wilderness are not impediments to performing great acts—acts that can save Western Civilization.

And yet, the hour is late. To do something great would require Mohler to make a public statement of the problems in the SBC, his contribution to those problems, and the need for conservatives to work together to save it. He might be surprised at how forgiving his former foes might be if he offered a full accounting and announced plans to fight to save orthodoxy.