No one has the authority to say it is permissible to willingly violate the Lordship of Christ as expressed in His Word. So ultimately, this issue is about the authority of the Word of God and the authority of Christ Himself. I will not make a biblical case for complementarianism in this article. But I must reiterate that the failure to pass the Law Amendment was a massive failure on the part of the SBC to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The SBC has a biblical authority problem.

At the end of his life, Charles Spurgeon faced a great controversy in the Baptist Union, which he called the “downgrade.” The Baptist Union would even censure him for his outspoken warnings against it in his magazine, The Sword and the Trowel. The Baptist Union would go on to adopt a compromised doctrinal statement on biblical inerrancy by a vote of 2000 to 7.
Evidence of Downgrade
By God’s grace, the Southern Baptist Convention is nowhere close to that type of compromise. However, the evidence of theological downgrade within the Convention is present. How can I utter such a statement when nearly everyone within the SBC affirms biblical inerrancy? The downgrade in the twenty-first century evangelical church is not primarily over inerrancy but on biblical authority—specifically on the issues related to human sexuality. It is at this point that Satan is attacking. At this year’s Convention in Indianapolis, a super-majority of 66% was needed to pass the so-called “Law Amendment,” which delineates that partnering churches should only have qualified men serving in the office of “pastor” or with the title of “pastor.” Specifically, the amendment proposed adding this clause to the SBC Constitution:
Affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.
Unfortunately, the amendment did not pass, receiving a solid 61% of the vote but failing to reach the super-majority of 66%, which was needed. The bright side is that there is a broad majority within the SBC, which stands as thoroughly complementarian and affirming biblical authority in the area of men’s and women’s roles. The bad news is that nearly 39% of the Convention voted against the amendment. Arguments were made that there are better ways to convince churches to comply with the SBC’s doctrinal commitments. Or there is just a problem with nomenclature and not theology (I am not sure how you can legitimately argue that a title in a church is not theological). My friend, David Schrock, does a very helpful job of summarizing all the more egalitarian-leaning arguments against the amendment here.
However, these arguments fail to consider what the Bible plainly states about the issue. The question is really about biblical authority and Christ’s Lordship over His church, or in this case, a denomination.
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Successfully navigating the challenges of exile flows from faith in God’s sovereignty, confidence in our identity as his people, and a determination to remain loyal to him. Outwardly we might look identical to the world, as Daniel and his friends looked identical to the other young men taken into the king’s service, but inwardly we are set apart. Subsequent challenges will expose the uncompromised ultimate loyalty to God that has been there all along.

The Book of Daniel is a handbook for the people of God in exile. It covers the long service of Daniel to Babylonian and Persian rulers from Nebuchadnezzar to Cyrus. He and his compatriots face severe trials and threats, and yet stand firm in their faith and loyalty to the God of Israel. They witness to him and commend him to their pagan masters. The result is that Israel is ultimately able to return from exile to their land, finally cured of their addiction to idolatry and syncretism. They have learned that the LORD is the sovereign God who holds history and human kingdoms in his hands.
The foundations for this lifetime of faithfulness, service and witness are laid in Daniel 1, where the themes that dominate the book emerge. Chapter 1 shows that God is sovereign, that his people must remain loyal to him and that he will bless them if they do so.
The book begins with Nebuchadnezzar besieging Jerusalem at the time of King Jehoiakim, plundering some of the articles from the temple & deporting some of the young men from the royal family and aristocracy.
It is hard to fully grasp what this must have meant for Daniel and his friends. Their God had seemingly failed them. They were effectively enslaved by the Babylonian king. They were likely made eunuchs to serve in his administration.
However, right at the beginning of the book it is made clear that the LORD was sovereign over this defeat and deportation (1v2). It was the LORD who gave Nebuchadnezzar his victory over Jehoiakim. Nothing happens that is outside of his sovereign purpose. Despite appearances, Nebuchadnezzar is not the one who is in control. His gods are not triumphing over the God of Israel. This is the fundamental theological truth that runs through the book. It is its primary message, from which everything else flows.
Having brought Daniel and his friends into his service, Nebuchadnezzar demands that they be assimilated into Babylonian culture.
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No time spent serving Him will be wasted. Don’t waste your energy. While there is time, redeem it. Make the most of it. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.

Breaking news: We are all going to die. But prior to death, we lose our strength and energy. Old age comes with waning strength. Memory starts to slip; instability and immobility become a norm of life.
Young, healthy people don’t think about the later years as difficult days (Eccl 12:1). They focus on the here and now. But we have all seen the debilitating effects of old age and disease, and so we have to reckon with the reality that as life rolls on, it tends to get harder.
As we consider the imminent reality of death, Solomon charges us in Ecclesiastes 12 to remember our Creator in the days of our youth (v. 1). That is, we should remember who He is, what He has done, and who we are in relation to Him. We should maximize our effort while we still have life. While we have strength, we should serve God now.
Serve God Before Life Gets Harder, vv. 1-2
Most of us as children were unable to comprehend the pain of tragic events. Our innocence and naiveté tended to make tragedies a distant reality. But as we move toward middle age, we start to understand what these tragedies mean. We build deep relationships with people only to experience betrayal. We develop an abiding love for another person only to lose that person to death. And while those losses hurt, we still have much to do. We fill up our time with activity and work, and anticipate living for another forty years. Consequently, the noise of tragedy, while still painful, is somewhat muted by our busyness.
But eventually we get old, and our body breaks down, and our friends and family die. We start to go to more and more funerals of people younger than us—a rare occurrence when we were younger. In our youth, we went to funerals of older people and we understood that all older will eventually die. Now we are older ourselves. Our stamina has faded away. We have little ability to constructively contribute. Fewer and fewer people depend on us. And we know that it is only a matter of time until our own lives come to an end.
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