Southern Seminary Magazine (Vol 91.1) Recovering Faithfulness: Celebrating R. Albert Mohler, Jr.'s 30 Years as President

Since Dr. Albert Mohler began as the 9th President of 

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on August 1, 1993, 

there have been 13,648 graduates trained, educated, and prepared 

for faithful gospel service. 

THIS EDITION OF THE SOUTHERN SEMINARY MAGAZINE HONORS AND 

CELEBRATES ALL THAT THE LORD HAS USED DR. MOHLER TO DO IN HIS THIRTY YEARS 

OF FAITHFULNESS AS PRESIDENT OF SOUTHERN SEMINARY. 

spring 2023 

1

from the editor 

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 

JACOB PERCY 

Spring 2023. vol. 91, no. 1. 

Copyright ©2023 

The Southern Baptist 

Theological Seminary 

“Blessed is the man who walks not 

in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands 

in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat 

of scoffers, but his delight is on the law 

of the LORD, and on his law he meditates 

day and night. He is like a tree 

planted by streams of water that yields 

its fruit in its season, and its leaf does 

not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” 

Psalm 1:1-3 (ESV) 

Reflecting on the thirty years (and 

counting) of Dr. Mohler’s leadership 

as President of The Southern Baptist 

Theological Seminary brings the 

psalmist’s picture to mind: a tree 

standing strong, continuing the yearly 

cycle of fruitfulness. 

Thirty years is a long time. [The children 

of students who attended Southern 

Seminary are now attending themselves.] 

Countless members of the faculty 

have served entire careers only under 

Dr. Mohler’s leadership. The world 

has changed dramatically. Through it 

all, the Lord has providentially sustained 

him and used him to recover 

faithfulness at this institution. 

To see Dr. Mohler only as a leader 

would be to overlook how the Lord used 

him to recover faithfulness at Southern 

Seminary. Indeed, he is a leader with 

conviction, vision, and passion, but he 

is fundamentally more than that: he is 

a man who delights in the Law of the 

Lord. Dr. Mohler’s tenure as President 

has been marked by a commitment 

to Scripture and its profitability 

for training in righteousness. He has 

returned Southern Seminary to faithfulness, 

not only to the Abstract of Principles, 

but also to the very Word of God 

so that all who might come can delight 

in God’s Word too. 

As we dedicate this edition of the 

Southern Seminary Magazine to celebrating 

and honoring Dr. Mohler’s 

thirty years of faithful service as President, 

we have selected the theme: “Recovering 

Faithfulness.” God has certainly 

used Dr. Mohler to recover faithfulness 

to his Word, faithfulness to the church, 

and faithfulness to the Great Commission 

as he has led this institution to a 

wholehearted devotion of training, educating, 

and preparing ministers of the 

gospel for more faithful service. With 

this theme we also hope to capture that 

the work God has done here at Southern 

Seminary through Dr. Mohler is consistent 

with his work throughout all Christian 

history. God is gracious to preserve 

His people and draw them back to 

faithfulness. As churches, institutions, 

denominations, and people drift away 

from him, God has graciously granted 

the invitation to return – and Southern 

Seminary is evidence of the blessing 

that comes from faithfulness recovered. 

May the celebration of God’s work 

to use Dr. Mohler over the past thirty 

years at The Southern Baptist Theological 

Seminary encourage you to delight 

in the goodness and grace of our God 

as we consider an example of Recovering 

Faithfulness. 

Vice President of 

Communications 

and Managing Editor: 

Jacob Percy 

Content Editor and Lead 

Designer: 

John Zurowski 

Production Manager: Drew Watson 

Photographer: Trevor Wheeker 

Archivist: Adam Winters 

Contributing Writers: Paul Akin, 

Hershael York, Mary Mohler, 

Joshua Powell, Jimmy Scroggins, 

Timothy Paul Jones, Caleb Shaw, 

Graham Faulkner, Jeff Robinson 

and Travis Hearne 

Subscription Information: 

Southern Seminary Magazine is published 

by the Southern Baptist Theological 

Seminary, 2825 Lexington 

Road, Louisville, KY 40280. The 

magazine is distributed digitally at 

equip.sbts.edu/magazine. If you 

would like to request a hard copy, 

please reach out by emailing 

communications@sbts.edu 

Mail: 

The Southern Baptist Theological 

Seminary, 2825 Lexington Road, 

Louisville, KY 40280 

Online: www.sbts.edu 

Email: communications@sbts.edu 

Telephone: 

800-626-5526, ext. 4000 

@TheSBTS 

@SBTS 

@SouthernSeminary 

2 the southern baptist theological seminary

contents 

v91 n1 

RECOVERING FAITHFULNESS • CELEBRATING R. ALBERT MOHLER JR.’S 30 YEARS AS PRESIDENT 

2 

from the 

editor 

45 

news & 

features 

8 

abstract of 

principles 

16 

selecting 

a president: 

from search 

committee to 

inaguration in 

1993 

36 

faculty 

books 

38 

recovering 

faithfulness in 

theological 

education 

by Joshua W. Powell 

4 

Faithfulness to the Mission 

RECOVERING THE GREAT COMMISSION 

by Paul Akin 

10 

Recovering Faithfulness 

A FACULTY PERSPECTIVE 

by Hershael York 

26 

Recovering Faithfulness 

A FAMILY PERSPECTIVE 

by Mary K. Mohler 

32 

Do You Really Believe You Can Turn 

This Ship Around? 

by Jimmy Scroggins 

54 

why the 

briefing? 

by Caleb Shaw 

and 

Graham Faulkner 

59 

we are all 

apologists 

now 

by Timothy Paul 

Jones 

65 

closing 

with 

gratitude 

by R. Albert 

Mohler Jr. 

spring 2023 

3

faithfulness to the mission with paul akin

Faithfulness 

to the Mission 

RECOVERING THE GREAT COMMISSION 

paul akin 

For the truth. For the church. For the 

world. For the glory of God. Since its 

inception in 1859, the vision of The 

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 

(SBTS) has always been global in 

scope. The founding faculty were actively involved 

in the cooperative mission efforts of the Southern 

Baptist Convention. Basil Manly Jr., James P. 

Boyce, and John A. Broadus all served as either 

Board Members or advisors to the Foreign Mission 

Board (now IMB) in the initial years of the 

Mission Board. The historical record reveals that 

the leaders of Southern Seminary have been actively 

partnering and serving alongside the Great 

Commission efforts of the IMB for more than 160 

years. That is an astounding fact and reality. That 

heritage of mission partnership and cooperation 

continues today under the leadership of seminary 

President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. 

SBTS is a confessional Southern Baptist seminary 

that endeavors to be a Great Commission seminary. 

The language of our mission statement expresses 

this Great Commission desire: 

Under the lordship of Jesus Christ, the mission 

of The Southern Baptist Theological 

Seminary is to be entirely committed to 

the Bible as the Word of God, to the Great 

Commission as our mandate, and to be 

a servant of the churches of the Southern 

Baptist Convention by training, educating, 

and preparing ministers of the gospel for 

more faithful service. 

A Great Commission seminary is one in which 

students learn to study and to teach the Bible 

in its entirety; one which understands its mission 

as arising from the church and, in turn, to 

serve the church, all with consuming urgency for 

the global mission. 

spring 2023 

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faithfulness to the mission 

Clear Great Commission desire has marked much of 

the history of Southern Seminary. Yet, there was a period 

during the 20th century where the institution experienced 

missional drift as Seminary leaders and faculty 

downplayed the authority of the Bible, the urgency of the 

Great Commission, and the exclusivity of Christ for salvation. 

With the 21st century approaching, the trustees 

of the seminary recognized it was time for Southern to 

recapture and reclaim its founding mission and Great 

Commission vision. 

The trustees of the seminary made a bold move in the 

Spring of 1993 by hiring 33-year-old R. Albert Mohler, 

Jr., as the 9th President of the seminary. The hiring of 

Mohler was catalytic to the reclamation of the institution’s 

original mission. In the face of much scrutiny and 

significant opposition, Mohler convictionally and courageously 

led the institution to return to biblical fidelity 

and theological orthodoxy. 

From the outset, it was clear that Mohler prioritized 

and emphasized the infallibility, inerrancy, authority, and 

sufficiency of the Bible—this unwavering commitment to 

the Bible as the Word of God has marked his leadership 

at Southern. The Mission Statement of the school, quoted 

above, reflects the primacy of Scripture in every facet of 

the institution. For Mohler, a commitment to the Bible as 

the Word of God is foundational to everything that takes 

place at Southern Seminary and Boyce College. 

In addition to a renewed emphasis on the primacy of 

Scripture, Mohler restored focus on the confession of 

faith that has guided the institution since 1859, the Abstract 

of Principles. In the opening convocation in the 

Fall of 1993, Mohler highlighted the founding vision and 

confession in an address titled “Don’t Just Do Something: 

Stand There!” The original intent of the Abstract of Principles 

was a clear understanding that faculty members 

would teach in accordance with and not contrary to the 

contents of the confession. Under Mohler’s leadership, 

the Abstract of Principles was no longer a document that 

could be nuanced or signed under a private arrangement 

as to the meaning of the document. One of the early priorities 

for Mohler was to restore the Abstract of Principles 

to its original intent and purpose and to define the 

confessional parameters of the seminary clearly. 

Flowing out of the priority of the Bible and the restoration 

of the Abstract of Principles, Mohler also cast 

a Great Commission vision for the seminary. Early in 

his tenure, he highlighted the necessity of evangelism 

and missions. He recognized that the primary purpose 

of theological education is to equip men and women 

for ministry that is focused on spreading the gospel and 

making disciples. To solidify this emphasis within the 

institution, Mohler helped establish the Billy Graham 

School of Missions, Evangelism, and Ministry at Southern 

Seminary in 1994. 

The newly established Billy Graham School allowed 

Mohler to hire new faculty members who were passionate 

about the Great Commission. He immediately hired 

professors who shared his passion for evangelism and 

missions and encouraged them to integrate this focus 

into their teaching and ethos on campus. Furthermore, 

Mohler has ensured that the seminary’s mission statement 

reflects its commitment to the Great Commission 

by explicitly stating the Great Commission as its mandate. 

In 2015, Mohler announced the launch of an online 

distance learning initiative called “Global Campus.” The 

impetus of this strategic and visionary initiative was a 

desire to provide high-quality theological training in 

accessible formats to aspiring pastors, missionaries, and 

leaders around the world. Mohler articulated the vision, 

“We do not merely want to have a program that allows 

people to access Southern Seminary online…Our ambition 

is bolder than that — it is to reach the nations.” 

Today, through the Global Campus initiative Southern 

Seminary is training and equipping God-called men and 

women in time zones and on continents across the world 

that the founders would never have dreamed possible. 

Mohler rightly understood that Great Commission 

training and preparation cannot be a “side project” for an 

institution that desires to make a truly global and eternal 

impact in an increasingly global and urban world. 

He recognized that a commitment to the Bible and the 

institution’s founding mission requires an unwavering 

commitment to the Great Commission. Today, Southern 

Seminary has the opportunity and stewardship to 

carry on the founders’ vision in reaching the people 

of a rapidly changing world with the unchanging gospel 

of Jesus Christ. 

Mohler’s commitment to the founding mission of the 

Seminary inevitably led to a greater emphasis and focus 

on God’s overarching mission to redeem and reconcile 

those created in his image from every tribe, tongue, people, 

and nation. His faithfulness to that mission for three 

decades has resulted in scores of pastors, missionaries, 

and church leaders serving Christ around the world. Today, 

seminary graduates are sharing good news, making 

disciples, and planting churches for the glory of God all 

over the globe. Southern Seminary, under the tricennial 

leadership of Albert Mohler, is a living picture of convictional 

faithfulness that has led to abundant fruitfulness. 

By God’s grace, the legacy of faithfulness to the mission 

and to the Great Commission continues today and, Lord 

willing, will continue until Jesus comes again. 


paul akin 

A Great Commission seminary is 

one in which students learn to study 

and to teach the Bible in its entirety; 

one which understands its mission as 

arising from the church and, in turn, 

to serve the church, all with consuming 

urgency for the global mission. 

spring 2023 

7

I. THE SCRIPTURES 

The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments 

were given by inspiration of God, and are the only 

sufficient, certain and authoritative rule of all saving 

knowledge, faith and obedience. 

II. GOD 

There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and 

Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself, all 

perfections, and being infinite in them all; and 

to Him all creatures owe the highest love, reverence 

and obedience. 

III. THE TRINITY 

God is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit 

each with distinct personal attributes, but without 

division of nature, essence or being. 

IV. PROVIDENCE 

God from eternity, decrees or permits all things 

that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs 

and governs all creatures and all events; yet so as 

not in any wise to be the author or approver of sin 

nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of 

intelligent creatures. 

V. ELECTION 

Election is God’s eternal choice of some persons 

unto everlasting life–not because of foreseen 

merit in them, but of His mere mercy in Christ–in 

consequence of which choice they are called, justified 

and glorified. 

VI. THE FALL OF MAN 

God originally created man in His own image, 

and free from sin; but, through the temptation of 

Satan, he transgressed the command of God, and 

fell from his original holiness and righteousness; 

whereby his posterity inherit a nature corrupt and 

wholly opposed to God and His law, are under 

condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of 

moral action, become actual transgressors. 

VII. THE MEDIATOR 

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is the 

divinity appointed mediator between God and 

man. Having taken upon Himself human nature, 

yet without sin, He perfectly fulfilled the law, suffered 

and died upon the cross for the salvation of 

sinners. He was buried, and rose again the third 

day, and ascended to His Father, at whose right 

hand He ever liveth to make intercession for His 

people. He is the only Mediator, the Prophet, 

Priest and King of the Church, and Sovereign 

of the Universe. 

VIII. REGENERATION 

Regeneration is a change of heart, wrought by the 

Holy Spirit, who quickeneth the dead in trespasses 

and sins enlightening their minds spiritually and 

savingly to understand the Word of God, and 

renewing their whole nature, so that they love and 

practice holiness. It is a work of God’s free and 

special grace alone. 

IX. REPENTANCE 

Repentance is an evangelical grace, wherein a person 

being, by the Holy Spirit, made sensible of the 

manifold evil of his sin, humbleth himself for it, 

with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and selfabhorrence, 

with a purpose and endeavor to walk before 

God so as to please Him in all things. 


X. FAITH 

Saving faith is the belief, on God’s authority, of 

whatsoever is revealed in His Word concerning 

Christ; accepting and resting upon Him alone for 

justification and eternal life. It is wrought in the 

heart by the Holy Spirit, and is accompanied by all 

other saving graces, and leads to a life of holiness. 

XI. JUSTIFICATION 

Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal 

of sinners, who believe in Christ, from all sin, 

through the satisfaction that Christ has made; not 

for anything wrought in them or done by them; 

but on account of the obedience and satisfaction 

of Christ, they receiving and resting on Him and 

His righteousness by faith. 

XII. SANCTIFICATION 

Those who have been regenerated are also sanctified 

by God’s word and Spirit dwelling in them. 

This sanctification is progressive through the 

supply of Divine strength, which all saints seek 

to obtain, pressing after a heavenly life in cordial 

obedience to all Christ’s commands. 

XIII. PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS 

Those whom God hath accepted in the Beloved, 

and sanctified by His Spirit, will never totally nor 

finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall 

certainly persevere to the end; and though they 

may fall through neglect and temptation, into sin, 

whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces 

and comforts, bring reproach on the Church, and 

temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall 

be renewed again unto repentance, and be kept by 

the power of God through faith unto salvation. 

XIV. THE CHURCH 

The Lord Jesus is the head of the Church, which is 

composed of all His true disciples, and in Him is 

invested supremely all power for its government. 

According to His commandment, Christians are 

to associate themselves into particular societies 

or churches; and to each of these churches He 

hath given needful authority for administering 

that order, discipline and worship which He hath 

appointed. The regular officers of a Church are 

Bishops or Elders, and Deacons. 

XV. BAPTISM 

Baptism is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus, obligatory 

upon every believer, wherein he is immersed 

in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 

and of the Holy Spirit, as a sign of his fellowship 

with the death and resurrection of Christ, of 

remission of sins, and of giving himself up to God, 

to live and walk in newness of life. It is prerequisite 

to church fellowship, and to participation in 

the Lord’s Supper. 

XVI. THE LORD’S SUPPER 

The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of Jesus Christ, 

to be administered with the elements of bread and 

wine, and to be observed by His churches till the 

end of the world. It is in no sense a sacrifice, but is 

designed to commemorate His death, to confirm 

the faith and other graces of Christians, and to be 

a bond, pledge and renewal of their communion 

with Him, and of their church fellowship. 

XVII. THE LORD’S DAY 

The Lord’s Day is a Christian institution for regular 

observance, and should be employed in 

exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both 

public and private, resting from worldly employments 

and amusements, works of necessity and 

mercy only excepted. 

XVIII. LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE 

God alone is Lord of the conscience; and He hath 

left it free from the doctrines and commandments 

of men, which are in anything contrary to His 

word, or not contained in it. Civil magistrates 

being ordained of God, subjection in all lawful 

things commanded by them ought to be yielded 

by us in the Lord, not only for wrath, but also 

for conscience sake. 

XIX. THE RESURRECTION 

The bodies of men after death return to dust, 

but their spirits return immediately to God-the 

righteous to rest with Him; the wicked, to be 

reserved under darkness to the judgment. At the 

last day, the bodies of all the dead, both just and 

unjust, will be raised. 

XX. THE JUDGMENT 

God hath appointed a day, wherein He will judge 

the world by Jesus Christ, when every one shall 

receive according to his deeds; the wicked shall go 

into everlasting punishment; the righteous, into 

everlasting life. 

spring 2023 

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ecovering faithfulness, a faculty perspective with hershael york 


Recovering 


A FACULTY PERSPECTIVE 

hershael york 

Even under the best of circumstances and enjoying 

the greatest possible support from all quarters, 

anyone who leads anything for three decades has 

accomplished something remarkable. No sailor 

has ever enjoyed comfortable winds blowing 

steadily at his back for 30 years, but even if he did, 

and if he piloted his boat consistently and safely 

for all that time, he would be lauded throughout 

the maritime world as one of the greatest captains 

ever. Even the greatest leaders rarely last thirty 

years at the helm of their organizations. Henry 

Ford didn’t do it. Neither did Sam Walton. Franklin 

Roosevelt made it for about half that time. 

Winston Churchill did not come close. 

Thirty years is an astounding accomplishment, 

but the obstacles and challenges through which 

Dr. Mohler had to lead, makes his accomplishment 

truly singular. Those few leaders who actually 

stayed in one role for three decades usually 

were able to do so because they led something 

they built from the ground up (like Walt Disney) 

or were welcomed into leadership by an organization 

that desperately needed change—and wanted 

it. The most astonishing aspect of Dr. Mohler’s 

tenure at Southern Seminary is also perhaps the 

most underappreciated: he was appointed to steer 

an organization that overwhelmingly rejected him 

and everything he stood for. For the first years of 

his tenure, the majority of the administration and 

faculty woke each morning with the singular goal 

of thwarting any attempt of the President to return 

the institution to its historic theological moorings. 

Who else could have had the patience, the 

wisdom, the skills, or the intestinal fortitude not 

only to withstand such relentless opposition, but 

also to reorient the organization despite internal 

obstinance? To put it bluntly, very few members 

of Southern Seminary’s 1993 faculty were positive, 

much less excited, about Mohler’s election to the 

office of President. If Mohler was commissioned 

to right the ship, his task seemed almost impossible 

because most of the professors would rather 

sink it by running to the side listing heavily to 

the “neo-orthodox” brand of liberal theology. Dr. 

Mohler’s predecessor, Dr. Roy Honeycutt, had 

ominously warned the seminary community in the 

fall 1984 convocation that “the crucial ingredients 

of our heritage [are] now being eviscerated by the 

myopic and uniformed action of independent fundamentalists 

and the sincere but naïve individuals 

spring 2023 

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ecovering faithfulness, a faculty perspective 

recruited to support their political party.” No one thought 

Dr. Mohler naïve. 

Consequently, Dr. Mohler was alternately accused 

of being a “fundamentalist” or, worse yet, a theological 

opportunist who struck a Faustian bargain to attain the 

presidency. This loathsome charge was made repeatedly 

by Southern Seminary faculty such as Bill Leonard and 

Henlee Barnette and immortalized in the 1995 film, 

“Battle for the Minds,” a documentary about Mohler’s 

appointment as President 

and the turmoil that ensued. 

The first two years of Dr. 

Mohler’s tenure were tumultuous 

to say the least. When 

he preached in chapel, students 

would stand with their 

backs to him throughout the 

sermon. Afterward, faculty 

members would be waiting 

for him at his office to voice 

their strong disagreement 

with the content of his message. 

At commencement, 

many graduates would 

refuse to shake his hand as 

he congratulated them and 

handed them their diploma. 

By 1995, the turbulent 

waves threatened to wash 

him overboard and bring 

an abrupt end to his presidency. 

Mohler and the 

dean of the Carver School 

of Social Work, Diana Garland, had serious differences 

about the mission of the Carver School, the ordination of 

women, and the election of future faculty. When Garland 

resigned, the reaction and rebuke of the faculty was as 

brutal as it was swift. In a vote of support for Garland and 

a repudiation of the President, only two members voted 

for him. Students and faculty members held a protest on 

the seminary lawn and Dr. Mohler was burned in effigy. A 

student spat on him. Students kept vigil outside his office 

singing the official hymn of the Carver School. Members 

of the seminary community said terribly mean things to 

the Mohler children, then six and three years old. 

Dr. and Mrs. Mohler were not sure that they could 

continue. Sitting on the floor in the President’s Home, 

weeping and crying out to God, they found the strength 

to go on. It became clear that 

the Board of Trustees would 

stay behind him, but finding 

the way forward meant finding 

a new faculty, and that 

would not be easy. 

At the same time, I 

lived seventy miles to the east 

in Lexington, KY, serving as 

pastor of the historic Ashland 

Avenue Baptist Church, 

watching all of this unfold. 

I did not know Dr. Mohler 

personally, but when he was 

elected President, I called 

him immediately while he 

was still Editor of the Georgia 

Baptist Index. I thought 

he should know at least one 

pastor in Kentucky was glad 

he was coming to Southern. 

In a brief but memorable 

conversation, I assured him 

of my prayers, but I also got 

a measure of the man. 

My own history with Southern was a bit complicated. 

I grew up in a very conservative group of Baptist 

churches that had formerly been Southern Baptist but 

had withdrawn from the SBC and become independent 

due to the liberalism they saw in the SBC, particularly in 

Thirty years is an astounding accomplishment, 

but the obstacles and challenges through 

which Dr. Mohler had to lead, makes his 

accomplishment truly singular . 


hershael york 

the seminaries and especially at Southern. When I chose 

a seminary, I did not matriculate at Southern precisely 

because I had seen the effect that Southern Seminary 

had on many Kentucky Baptist churches and preachers. 

Stories abounded about fresh young preachers who 

enrolled there only to have their faith challenged or even 

destroyed. When I learned that Dr. Mohler genuinely 

believed the Abstract of Principles and had been elected 

by the Trustees to bring the ship about and return to 

what the Founders believed, I was cautiously and prayerfully 

optimistic, but I wasn’t sure he could pull it off.– 

Especially in 1995. 

The Courier-Journal and local television stations 

were covering the turbulent events at Southern daily. 

Many faculty members were leaving, some voluntarily, 

some not, but each departure made news. Dr. Mohler’s 

search for a new generation of faithful, conservative 

Baptist scholars who would join him in training pastors, 

scholars, missionaries, and ministers to serve the 

churches of the Southern Baptist Convention became 

even more urgent—and more risky. One could not be 

sure that the seminary, let alone Mohler’s presidency, 

would survive the upheaval. 

People with great vision, however, are drawn to 

people with even greater vision. The faculty began to 

turn around as men like Danny Akin, Dan Block, Tim 

Beougher, and George Martin came to join Dr. Mohler in 

this grand endeavor. I finally met Dr. Mohler in person 

at the SBC in 1996 and he graciously asked me to preach 

in chapel that October. Over lunch with him and George 

Martin, I asked, “Who are you getting to teach preaching?” 

Little did I know that within a few months the Lord 

would lay on my heart that I should do that very thing. I 

left a thriving ministry in a large church I loved for much 

the same reason that every faculty member since 1993 

has come here–because I believed in Dr. Mohler’s ability 

to lead this seminary to fulfill the mission that God has 

given, and I wanted to be a part of something that has 

an eternal impact. 

I arrived in 1997 alongside Greg Wills, Robert Stein, 

Tom Schreiner, and Tom Nettles. Though there were still 

many members of the old faculty here then, the outcome 

was beginning to look more certain. With every successive 

year, more gifted godly men and women came here 

to teach, excited and energized by the historic doctrinal 

commitments that originally defined Southern Seminary 

and were reinstated by this faithful President. By the year 

2000, the faculty had turned over almost completely. 

After thirty years of uncompromising commitment 

to sound doctrine, no one questions the reality of Al 

Mohler’s convictions. In fact, those convictions are the 

reason the rest of us bought into his leadership. 

I not only know Dr. Mohler as my president and colleague, 

but also as a trusted friend and brother. Once, 

when my sons were teens, I feared that one of them was 

making bad decisions and straying from the Lord. Like 

any Christian father, I counseled him, prayed for him, 

corrected him, and loved him. I did everything I knew to 

do, including enlisting the prayers of close friends. When 

I asked Dr. Mohler to pray for my son, he went beyond 

what I asked. He invited my son to drive him one evening 

to a preaching engagement—two hours each way. And 

for four hours that night, Al Mohler spoke gospel truth 

to my son with the same commitment that made him 

succeed in turning Southern Seminary around. Today, 

that son is in ministry and a father himself, grateful for 

the way Dr. Mohler cared so personally for him and resolutely 

pointed him to Christ. 

The day I heard that a 33-year-old R. Albert Mohler, 

Jr. had been elected president of Southern Seminary, I 

could not have imagined the impact it would have on 

my own life. I could not have foreseen how that single 

decision would result in theological renewal in churches 

across Kentucky, the nation, and the world. I had no 

way to envision that he would assemble what many have 

called the greatest faculty in the evangelical world and 

their collective Kingdom effect. Thirty years of leadership 

is an accomplishment in any job, but when that job 

is to help thousands of ministers remain faithful to the 

Word of God and preach it, the reward is greater than 

anything we can celebrate here on earth. 

spring 2023 

13


“Thirty years of 

leadership is an 

accomplishment in any 

job, but when that job is to 

help thousands of ministers 

remain faithful to the 

Word of God and preach 

it, the reward is greater 

than anything we can 

celebrate here on earth.” 

hershael york 

spring 2023 

15


Selecting a 

President: 

FROM SEARCH COMMITTEE TO INAGURATION IN 1993 

spring 2023 

17

selecting a president: from search committee to inaguration in 1993 

Board Chairman Wayne Allen invited Dr. and Mrs. Mohler back to meet with the search committee to answer 

one more question: “Will you accept the unanimous nomination of this committee to be the ninth president of 

Southern Seminary?” 

Dr. and Mrs. Mohler pose with Wayne Allen 

R. Albert Mohler Jr. with the Presidential Search Committee 

after they had identified him as their chosen candidate 

to be voted on by the full board of trustees. 


. albert mohler, jr. 

Albert Mohler speaks at a press conference on March 26, 1993, after being elected president by the full 

board of trustees. 

spring 2023 

19


Dr. Mohler participates in a question and answer session with students as president-elect on April 8, 1993 



Dr. and Mrs. Mohler visit campus with Katie (age 4) and 

Christopher (age 1) after Dr. Mohler is elected President. 

Mrs. Mohler also greets students and speaks with 

them after the forum 

Dr. Mohler greets and speaks with students 

after the forum 

Dr. Mohler expresses gratitude to be with students 

and invites dialogue 

spring 2023 

21


Rick White places Presidential Medalian around the 

neck of Dr. Mohler during his first convocation. 

Fall Convocation on August 31, 1993 

The address is entitled “Don’t Just Do Something: Stand 

There” and clearly articulates Dr. Mohler’s commitment 

to the Abstract of Principles 

Dr. Mohler hugs Katie after being introduced 

as president 



spring 2023 

23


Graham, Henry, and Mohler tour the campus of Southern Seminary 



Billy Graham gives address at Dr. Mohler’s Inaguration 

Ceremony on October 14, 1993 

Billy Graham and Carl F.H. Henry with Dr. Mohler in his 

office on the day of his inauguration. Both Graham and 

Henry spoke at Mohler’s inauguration. 

Dr. Mohler introduces Billy Graham at Inauguration 

Ceremony 

Dr. Mohler with Billy Graham 

The Mohler family with Billy Graham during the 

Inauguration Reception 

spring 2023 

25

ecovering faithfulness, a family perspective with mary k. mohler 


Recovering 


A FAMILY PERSPECTIVE 

mary k. mohler 

On the beautiful campus of Southern Seminary 

and Boyce College, spring means families 

are happily gathering outside at last for picnics 

and outdoor fun. Children are everywhere - 

some pushed along in strollers, others worn in 

stretchy infant slings, and others still run about 

on their toddler legs. We once had two littles 

in tow with a stroller for walks on the campus. 

Can that really be thirty years ago? The calendar 

confirms it, yet it does not seem possible. We are 

doting grandparents now, but when we came 

back here in 1993 when Al was elected president, 

we were parents to four-year-old Katie and oneyear-old 

Christopher. 

I vividly remember many things about those 

first days here, even as other events now run 

together. Aiding my memory is the detailed 

journal I kept from when Katie was born until 

Christopher started school. While at times burdensome 

to keep up, mixed among the schedules 

and the seemingly unimportant details are many 

milestones and references to the adorable things 

kids say and do, along with my musings on events 

from those early years. This journal reminds me 

of events I had completely forgotten about and 

would not believe if I did not see them in my own 

handwriting. I have particularly enjoyed reading 

through those entries now in 2023. 

As I reflect on the occasion of our three decades 

here, I do so first with gratitude to the Lord for 

what he has done and then with amazement that I 

am blessed to be part of the story. The backstory is 

familiar to some of how we were living in suburban 

Atlanta when the presidential search committee at 

Southern Seminary began their work to nominate 

a new president. My dear 33-year-old husband was 

on the short list. This process coincided with the 

long days when our precious baby boy had colic 

and our toddler daughter was trying to figure out 

how to navigate a life of sharing her parents with 

this little baby who seemed to be quite unhappy. I 

was exhausted and in retrospect did not think it 

was likely that we would move back to Louisville 

less than four years after Al had completed his 

PhD. at the beloved seminary where we spent the 

first six years of our marriage. But it became clear 

very quickly the Lord had other plans. 

After meeting with Al, the search committee 

responded that he “completely blew them away.” 

The search committee met the next day, and here 

is a direct quote from my journal as to what one 

trustee told me: “We met at 2:00 pm to discuss 

spring 2023 

27

ecovering faithfulness, a family perspective 

our plans. At 2:01 pm, it was apparent that we had a 

unanimous decision. Each member of the committee 

was excited to share a Bible verse. It was the same verse: 

‘Let no one despise you for your youth.’ (I Tim 4:12).” 

Another trustee observed, “studies of institutions reveal 

that long-tenured administrations have the most significant 

influences on the school.” With a 33-year-old president, 

there was a potential for a record-long tenure, and 

with that, the age issue was answered. 

The committee, who had previously announced it 

would wait two weeks to make a decision, chose instead 

to make a lasting memory for us. The chairman called Al 

the next day as they knew we were still in the area visiting 

family and said, “There is a question that has come up, 

and we need you to answer it. I am confident you can 

address it. We would like you and Mary to come back 

up here for dinner.” 

I had one 

dress suitable 

for an interview 

with me so I 

had no choice 

but to borrow a 

dress from my 

mother-in-law. 

We returned for 

dinner with no 

idea what the 

question could 

be. Al’s gaze 

was riveted on 

the chairman 

as he does not 

like surprises 

and was eager 

to answer the 

committee’s question. In a rare moment, I saw what was 

coming first, as I noticed many wives pulling out cameras. 

The question was simply this: “Will you accept the 

unanimous nomination of this committee to be the ninth 

president of Southern Seminary?” And so it began. We 

had the joy of telling both sets of parents in person. What 

a whirlwind! But I remember that day, February 19, 1993 

like it was yesterday. 

The four of us made our first trip to the campus on 

April 6 after the full board met in Atlanta on March 

26 and elected Al as president. We stayed at the Guest 

House, which is now the Foundation House. We had a 

family photo taken on the porch of the Guest House and 

went to have a tour of what would be our new home. I 

attended a student forum in the chapel that gave me a 

little taste of the hostility that was to come. I described it 

in my journal simply as “infuriating.” So we returned to 

Atlanta to get our house on the market and started saying 

our goodbyes to friends and church members. We moved 

to Louisville on Memorial Day weekend after some very 

frustrated movers finally finished packing up “all of those 

books.” Those who had to unload them on the other end 

were no less frustrated. 

Since we knew almost no one in Louisville at this 

point, the seminary arranged for students to come and 

babysit at the house while we worked on the massive task 

of unpacking and setting up the house, even as several 

rooms were thankfully well furnished for the many seminary 

events we would soon begin to host. We learned 

later that some of those students were not pleased we were 

there, but ignorance was bliss. We were grateful to have 

the summer to figure things out before the busy fall, with 

the arrival of 

new students, 

new faculty, new 

trustees, and the 

inauguration all 

looming large. 

We celebrated 

our tenth anniversary 

that 

summer and 

marveled at 

how the Lord 

had blessed us 

from our newlywed 

home in 

Fuller Hall just 

ten years prior 

to a new calling 

in the President’s 

Home with two 

precious children. 

During that summer, we would take breaks and go to 

the campus for walks as we sought to get to know faculty 

and students. Our youth was an asset, given the amount 

of energy needed for the tasks at hand, but we certainly 

seemed to blend in more with the student families than 

the faculty. On one memorable occasion, several families 

approached us rather timidly and said quietly, “We are 

glad you are here. We believe in what you are doing.” I 

remember being happy to hear that but amazed at the 

reluctance to speak up and say so boldly. They were 

clearly in the minority and knew it. 

Over the course of the next several years, we faced 

many difficult days as my husband courageously carried 

out the task of recovering faithfulness at the Southern 

Baptist Theological Seminary, fulfilling all that he 



brilliantly outlined to the search committee. I know 

he shielded me by not recounting many mean-spirited 

attacks, but I could certainly see the toll it was taking on 

him. I am beyond grateful for the lack of internet in those 

days. No tweets. No blog posts. No Facebook groups. We 

resolved to continue to prioritize our family and took 

great joy in playing with our kids and going on outings 

with them, knowing they were completely clueless about 

what was happening across the street. We have shared 

in the past how five-year-old Katie once slipped a note 

under a closed door while we were discussing the latest 

crisis. The note simply said, “I love you.” Thankfully, she 

perceptively knew how we were protecting her from hurt 

that she could detect in our faces, but she communicated 

her love in the best way she could. How kind the Lord is 

to allow such memories to prevail while the distasteful 

memories continue to fade. 

Those dark days slowly gave way to brighter days as 

the Lord began to bring to Southern new students and key 

new faculty members—who brought with them precious 

families with whom we could link arms. Friendships 

were forged that continue to this day for us and our now 

grown children. The painful experiences of protests, sitins, 

boycotted faculty Christmas parties, rude graduates 

crossing the stage, and more all now seem unthinkable. 

Some of those new faculty wives joined me in starting 

Seminary Wives Institute, where we have trained student 

wives for over 25 years and counting. 

We have seen the Lord do a marvelous work in recovering 

faithfulness and returning Southern Seminary to 

its roots as the Bible is fervently taught as the infallible 

and inerrant Word of God. Against the naysayers’ predictions, 

student housing is full and families flock to our 

campus. Boyce College is thriving. We have the thrill of 

seeing the children of some of our first graduates from 

the Mohler era return to where they were once pushed in 

strollers and now sit in classrooms, many meeting future 

spouses! God is so good. 

Al and I will celebrate forty years of marriage this summer. 

Not long ago, we couldn’t well imagine being forty 

years old. Praise the Lord for his provision in allowing 

us to be healthy as we continue to do the work set before 

us—which is admittedly different than it was in 1993. 

I hope this does not appear to be self-serving, but no 

one could be prouder of the work my husband has done 

here than I am. What an honor it is to walk beside him 

and watch him use his amazing intellect and unprecedented 

work ethic. I have seen the Lord bring Galatians 

6:9 to fruition in his work: “And let us not grow weary of 

doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not 

give up.” There were many times, perhaps some of which 

are known only to me, when it would have been easier to 

“give up” and go do something else. Those thoughts were 

fleeting. The Lord sustained him, and we do have the joy 

of reaping the harvest. It is stunning to think about the 

over fifteen thousand graduates who have earned degrees 

from Southern Seminary and Boyce College since 1993. 

How humbling to consider how many thousands of 

couples and young families this includes who are now 

serving in a myriad of capacities as they take the good 

news of the gospel of Jesus Christ locally and to the 

ends of the earth. 

They have been educated through the diligent work 

of our stellar faculty, who passionately love the Lord and 

his Word as they teach without reservation the truth 

once for all delivered to the saints. 

Every time we see those happy families pushing their 

strollers, our hearts swell with joy as our mission here is 

confirmed yet again. God is faithful. Soli Deo Gloria! 

We have seen 

the Lord do a 

marvelous work 

in recovering 

faithfulness and 

returning Southern 

Seminary to its 

roots as the Bible 

is fervently taught 

as the infallible 

and inerrant Word 

of God. 

spring 2023 

29

northern baptists lose their confession 

“ I have seen the Lord 

bring Galatians 6:9 to 

fruition in his work: “And 

let us not grow weary of 

doing good, for in due 

season we will reap, if 

we do not give up.” 


30 the southern baptist theological seminary

spring 2023 

31

do you really believe you can turn this ship around? with jimmy scroggins 

32 the southern baptist theological seminary 

32 Southern Seminary

Do You Really 

Believe You 

Can Turn This 

Ship Around? 

jimmy scroggins 

n the fall of 1993, I visited The Southern 

Baptist Theological Seminary in 

Louisville. I didn’t know much about 

Southern Baptist history or politics. 

I was barely aware of the Conservative 

Resurgence that took place while I was 

in high school and college. I just wanted to 

serve Jesus in vocational ministry and knew 

I needed training. I had heard that the seminary 

in Louisville was the most liberal Baptist 

school and some had advised me to mark and 

avoid it. But a family friend had a connection 

to the school and he urged me to take a trip to 

Kentucky to check it out for myself. On that 

visit, I met Al Mohler for the first time. That 

consequential meeting changed the course of 

my life and began a vital friendship that continues 

to this day. 

I was raised in a Christian home and grew 

up attending church. Our family had a lot 

of diverse church experiences. My earliest 

childhood church memories are of a mainline 

United Methodist church in West Tennessee. 

We were immersed in a fundamentalist, 

KJV-only, independent Baptist church in 

South Florida in elementary school. When I 

was in the second grade, we moved to North 

Florida and joined a Southern Baptist church. 

A few years later we helped plant an Evangelical 

Free church in our neighborhood. We 

moved again when I was in high school and 

joined a small rural Southern Baptist church. 

The point is that by the time I understood a 

call to ministry as a junior in college, I had no 

sense of theological tribe or denominational 

identification – I was just a believer in Jesus 

who wanted to serve. Fortunately for me, my 

parents and pastors gave me a high view of 

Scripture, strong training in personal evangelism, 

and a love for my church. 

spring 2023 

33

do you really believe you can turn this ship around? 

As I considered the options for ministry training, I 

wanted to attend a seminary that would add intellectual 

underpinning to the biblical beliefs I had developed at 

home and church. One of my mentors warned me that 

the environment at Southern was likely to rob me of my 

enthusiasm for evangelism as well as my confidence in the 

Bible. Wherever I ended up attending graduate school, I 

was determined to hold onto my childhood convictions. 

On that Louisville trip, I spent a few days on the campus 

of Southern Seminary. I played basketball in the gym, 

toured the campus, and attended some classes. It became 

clear that Dr. Mohler was not very popular on campus. 

He had only assumed the presidency of Southern a few 

months earlier, and was already revealing plans to radically 

alter the school’s direction. The professors were not 

fans and said so from their lecterns. The students were 

upset about the new president, and several became emotional 

in informal conversations in the cafeteria. 

After being on campus for a few days, I had an appointment 

for a one-on-one meeting with Dr. Mohler. By 

the time I walked into his then-office on the first floor of 

Norton Hall, I had pretty much decided that Southern 

was not for me. I was discouraged by the spirit on campus. 

It was too liberal, too angry, too bitter, and too contentious. 

I wasn’t interested in getting involved with all 

of that. I just wanted to be trained to be a pastor. Southern 

wasn’t for me. 

When I walked into his office for the first time, I had 

no awareness of Dr. Mohler’s intellectual brilliance, nor 

of his academic accomplishments, nor his rock-ribbed 

commitment to faithful, orthodox, biblical Christianity. 

I didn’t know about the incredible depth and breadth of 

his leadership abilities. All I saw was a guy with gigantic 

glasses who appeared to be a little young for his job. And 

yet, as I talked with him in his office, I began to experience 

a massive change of heart. What did he say that 

changed my direction? 

Honestly, the entire vibe on campus felt old, stale, and 

angry. The sense of bitter resentment against a new conservative 

direction was palpable. And the freshly minted 

president was obviously unpopular with students and 

faculty alike. As a prospective student, the whole scene 

was unsettling. It was obvious that reclaiming the school 

for effective gospel service would be a steep climb. I wondered 

if a true turnaround was even possible. 

First, Dr. Mohler made it clear that he intended to 

return Southern Seminary to its confessional roots. He 

introduced me to the Abstract of Principles and handed 

me a white paper briefly explaining each article in the 

document. Instructors would be held accountable to the 

Abstract and would be required to teach “in accordance 

with, and not contrary to” that statement of faith. 

Second, Dr. Mohler explained that his emphasis on 

the Abstract reclaimed the theological mandate of the 

founders of the school. That confessional heritage had 

been forfeited over decades of leftward movement by the 

faculty and administration at Southern Seminary. Dr. 

Mohler intended to take it back. 

Third, Dr. Mohler was absolutely determined to use 

every ethical lever of leadership to restore the theological 

commitments of the seminary. The Conservative Resurgence 

in the SBC centered on the truthfulness and authority 

of the Bible. Ma and Pa Southern Baptist wanted 

their missionaries and their seminaries to reflect their beliefs, 

especially around biblical inerrancy and the priority 

of evangelism. While many believed that a turnaround at 

Southern was impossible, Al Mohler was confident God 

had placed and called him to Southern’s presidency for 

this purpose. He knew what Southern Baptists expected 

of him and intended to fulfill those expectations. 

As our meeting neared its end, I asked Dr. Mohler a 

question that was important to me. I said, “The students 

here don’t like you. That faculty isn’t on your side. After 

being on campus for a few days, I don’t know if you can 

really pull this off. Do you really believe you can turn this 

ship around?” Dr. Mohler replied, “I intend to either turn 

this ship around or I intend to sink it.” The conviction on 

display in that conversation was life-changing for me. I 

didn’t know if Dr. Mohler could finish the task or not, 

but I wanted to be a part of what God was doing at The 

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. And I wanted to 

learn leadership from a guy with that kind of resolve. 

I walked out of that meeting, walked down the hall, 

and wrote a check for my first deposit. I spent the next 

decade and a half of my life at Southern Seminary. I completed 

an MDiv., and then a PhD. I taught as an adjunct. 

I became a dean and served on the president’s cabinet. 

I was elected to the faculty and proudly signed the Abstract. 

In 2008, God called us to South Florida, where I 

serve as the Lead Pastor of Family Church. But that conversation 

in the fall of 1993 turned out to be so pivotal in 

my life – from that day on, SBTS has been my school. 


jimmy scroggins 

“I intend to either turn 

this ship around or I 

intend to sink it.” 

R. Albert Mohler, Jr.


recent faculty books 

Short of Glory: A B 

iblical and Theological 

Exploration of the Fall 

Mitchell C. Chase 

Crossway, 2022 | $17.99 

In this book, pastor and 

professor Mitchell Chase 

argues that in order to 

understand the fall and 

recognize its profound 

impact on later Scripture 

and the world today, Christians 

must first understand 

Genesis 3. Chase identifies 

themes found in Genesis 3– 

temptation, shame, messianic 

hope, and more–and 

shows how they reverberate 

throughout the rest of the 

storyline of Scripture. 

Pastoral Friendship: 

The Forgotten Piece in a 

Persevering Ministry 

Michael A.G. Haykin, Brian Croft 

and James Carroll 

Christian Focus, 2022 | $12.99 

Friendship is a need that 

touches the deepest parts 

of the human soul. This is 

especially true in ministry. 

It is a need that is not 

simply rooted in enjoyment 

and companionship, 

but in the necessity to 

care well for one’s soul 

and survive a long–term 

ministry. This book seeks 

to persuade every modern 

pastor of the essential need 

of friendship. And not 

just any friendship, but a 

close, personal, intimate, 

and sacrificial pastor– 

to–pastor friendship that 

regularly turns each other’s 

gaze to Jesus. 

Reaching Your Muslim 

Neighbor with the Gospel 

A.S. Ibrahim 

Crossway, 2022 | $12.99 

In Reaching Your Muslim 

Neighbor with the Gospel, 

A. S. Ibrahim seeks to provide 

readers with insight 

and practical tips to engage 

and share the gospel 

with Muslim friends and 

neighbors. Ibrahim divides 

the book into two sections: 

(1) a Christian understanding 

of the strands of 

Islam and the diversity of 

Muslims, and (2) practical 

ways for Christians to 

connect with Muslims and 

effectively communicate 

the gospel. This book also 

incorporates true stories 

about Muslims coming 

to Christ and answers 

common questions. 



recent faculty books 

The Spirit, Ethics, and Eternal 

Life: Paul’s Vision for the Christian 

Life in Galatians 

Jarvis J. Williams 

IVP Academic, 2023 | $32.00 

Come and See: The Journey 

of Knowing God 

through Scripture 

Jonathan Pennington 

Crossway, 2023 | $15.29 

Susannah Spurgeon: Lessons 

for a Life of Joyful 

Eagerness in Christ 

Mary K. Mohler 

Christian Focus, 2023 | $22.99 

The New Testament scholar 

Jarvis Williams considers 

how Paul’s letter to the Galatians 

can inform our understanding 

of the Christian 

life here and now as 

well as into eternity. What 

emerges from this careful 

study is a multifaceted vision 

of God’s saving action 

in Jesus Christ for both 

Jew and Gentile, in both 

the vertical relationship 

between God and humanity 

as well as the horizontal relationships 

among people– 

with cosmic ramifications. 

In Come and See, Jonathan 

Pennington helps readers 

understand what it means 

to know God from the Bible 

and details three effective 

approaches to interpreting 

Scripture. Using the engaging 

analogy of a road trip, 

he introduces three friends 

who each have distinct, 

clear ways of navigating 

the Bible: informational 

(understanding genres in 

Scripture and avoiding 

exegetical mistakes); theological 

(reading canonically, 

traditionally, and creedally); 

and transformational 

(focusing on the goal of 

reading Scripture, our posture 

as readers, and the role 

of the Holy Spirit). 

If the cliché ‘behind every 

great man is a strong 

woman’, is true, then Susannah 

Spurgeon remains 

one of the matriarchs of 

the same tradition. Spurgeon 

was the bone companion 

of her husband. 

As a pastoral assistant, as 

Charles’ wife and support 

through trials, this 

woman’s biography has 

been a long time coming. 

Mary Mohler has gathered 

information on Susie 

from sources spanning 

letters, devotionals and 

biographies. The result is 

a thoughtful, sympathetic 

and endearing epitaph to 

a sister in Christ, whose 

voice can no longer be 

ignored. Mohler allows 

room for academics,mothers, 

daughters and wives to 

dwell on Spurgeon’s joyful 

eagerness in Christ. 

spring 2023 

37

y joshua w. powell 

recovering 

faithfulness 

in theological 

education 


There are many things in life that we take 

for granted that we formerly could not. The 

T easy accessibility to the internet, the ubiquitous 

presence of the mobile phone, and 

the unhindered ability to take pictures of every single 

moment in life are just a few examples of things we now 

take for granted. In Southern Baptist life, we now enjoy 

the benefit of conservative leadership in our boards and 

seminaries, but it has not always been that way. 

In the summer of 1994, at 19 years old, the Lord called 

me into full-time ministry. Though it shocked me, it was 

not a shock to my family. My father and grandfather were 

South Carolina Baptist pastors and to many, I was simply 

following in their footsteps. They were both godly, faithful, 

Bible believing pastors who preached the inerrant 

and infallible Word of God. However, neither of them 

were seminary trained. It was not for want of finances 

or opportunity; it was because the seminaries were “too 

liberal.” I thought this was my path as well. 

I had some hope. In South Carolina, the Conservative 

Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention was 

working itself out in the institutions. Furman University 

separated from the state convention in 1992 because 

of the conservative stand that our convention had taken. 

The convention’s resurgence and some other factors 

allowed a Baptist junior college in our state, which was 

about to close its doors, to have a resurgence as well. 

North Greenville College switched to a four-year institution 

and decided to build upon the conservative theology 

of the vast majority of South Carolina Baptists. I 

enrolled at North Greenville for my ungraduated degree 

in Christian Studies. 

Even though I was in a minister’s family, we did not 

follow all the details of the Conservative Resurgence. At 

North Greenville, I learned the details of the 1979 election 

of Adrian Rogers. I learned of the Dallas convention 

in 1985, where forty-five thousand messengers showed 

up in what turned out to be a “watershed moment” with 

the election of Charles Stanley. I learned how the trustee 

system worked and how the SBC, unlike other denominations, 

could be turned around. That is when I learned 

of Southern Seminary. Granted, I knew of the institution; 

it was founded in Greenville and streets downtown 

still bore the names of the original faculty. However, I 

also knew that the school was steeped in liberalism 

and would be one of the most difficult to bring back to 

biblical fidelity. 

It was in a conversation with other ministry students 

when I first heard the name Albert Mohler. We were discussing 

the future of our education and the possibility of 

attending seminary when someone said, “It will be interesting 

to see what happens at Southern Seminary with Albert 

Mohler as president.” I heard his name several times 

in the next week or two until I finally asked my professor 

about him. My professor responded by handing me a 

pamphlet titled “Don’t Just Do Something: Stand There,” 

the first convocation address given by Albert Mohler as 

president of the seminary delivered on August 31, 1993, 

an action that helped set the course for the rest of my 

life. I took the pamphlet to a quiet place in the library 

and spent the next few hours devouring the address and 

chasing down every reference. I was caught up. 

In this address, I would find the foundation to which 

the seminary would be brought back to its conservative 

theology and the foundation on which I would build my 

own ministry. The address, in essence, was a call to return 

to the biblical and theological foundations of the seminary 

through a strict adherence to the Abstract of Principles, 

the seminary’s founding confession. However, there 

was more to it than that. It was an example of courageous 

leadership to stand for the truth when many around you 

would not. It was apologetic for why the seminary exists 

and what will be considered a true success. It would help 

shape my life and ministry moving forward. 

Confessional Faithfulness 

The beginning of the address is more than just a history 

lesson; it is a call to understand the school’s founding 

identity. Mohler refers to James Pettigru Boyce’s 1856 

address “Three Changes in Theological Institutions” as 

the “Magna Carta of Southern Seminary.” Boyce gave the 

address to the faculty in his first year as a professor at 

Furman University. He argued that theological education 

must be available to all who are called to the ministry no 

matter their level of preparation and that it would offer 

strenuous programs to produce ministers as “persons of 

exceptional preparation.” Boyce, raised in the “Charleston 

tradition,” also believed that theological institutions 

must be confessional to remain faithful to the Scriptures. 

As a result, Basil Manly, Jr., a fellow Charlestonian 

and founding faculty member, drafted the Abstract of 

Principles, the confessional document for the fledgling 

spring 2023 

39

ecovering faithfulness in theological education 

seminary. The Abstract was meant to be a unifying document. 

It speaks “clearly and distinctly as to the practices 

universally prevalent among us.” This statement indicated 

that “upon no point, upon which the denomination is 

divided, should the Convention, and through it, the Seminary, 

take any position.” In that day, the Abstract was not 

controversial at all; it was simply a testimony to the general 

beliefs of all Southern Baptists. This emphasis was essential 

to Boyce and the other professors; the school belonged 

to the churches, so it must be trusted by the churches to 

teach the truth. 

To this day, every elected faculty member signs the 

original Abstract. This act serves as a commitment 

“to teach in accordance with and not contrary to” the 

school’s confession, and as the “Fundamental laws” of the 

Institution state, any professor that does not fulfill this 

duty must be removed. As Mohler walked through the 

Abstract, he clarified that he intended to hold the professors 

to this commitment. The problem, though not stated 

forthrightly at the time, was that the leadership of the 

seminary had allowed the professors of the school to sign 

the Abstract without teaching according to the Abstract. 

This neglect meant the Seminary had lost its connection 

to the churches and was no longer trustworthy. Instead, 

Mohler intended to regain the churches’ trust and hold 

the professors accountable. This action took courage. 

Confessional Leadership 

There was no question the seminary would be hostile to 

Mohler’s firm confessional faithfulness. Even before he 

took office, two deans resigned because of his “conservative 

vision for the seminary.” In the coming years, Mohler 

would be confronted with the reality that many teaching 

and in the leadership of the school not only held to liberal 

views of the Scripture but believed that their liberal 

views could be reconciled with the Abstract. In his address, 

he walked through the confession and explained 

what it teaches. He touched on the dangers of heresy and 

stated very clearly that modernity, or progressive liberal 

theology, swept away true biblical Christianity and that, 

“cannot be so here.” 

This reality meant he would have to confront the people 

that were teaching outside the bounds of the Abstract 

head on. There would be student protests, faculty resolutions, 

and gatherings of both students and faculty on the 

seminary lawn to speak out against Mohler. But he stood 

firm. Courage is doing something daring, even when it 

means that you will do it alone, and that was the commitment 

Mohler was making at that first convocation. He 

would stand on the truth of God’s Word expressed in the 

Abstract, even if no one else would stand with him. He 

said, “The Abstract represents a clarion call to start with 

conviction rather than mere action. It cries out, ‘Don’t 

just do something: stand there!’” 

Confessional Success 

Mohler knew that the stance he took would be a costly 

one, especially in the beginning. Many argued that he 

would kill the seminary, either in existence or influence. 

However, these were not the criteria by which Mohler 

was going to measure success. Success will always be 

conditioned on faithfulness to the Word of God. Mohler 

stated, “we can never measure our life work in terms of 

activity and statistics.” The final measure of success is not 

found in any numbers at all. “We will be judged,” he stated, 

but it will not be on the “number of courses taught,” 

the number of “students trained,” the number of “syllabi 

printed,” or how many “books book published.” The 

true measure of the success of the school will be found in 

“whether or not we kept the faith.” Mohler wanted to be 

able to answer that question with “humble confidence.” 

All future success of the seminary is measured finally on 

biblical faithfulness. 

The receiving of that first convocation address early 

in my theological training was a kind providence to me. 

Confessional faithfulness, courageous leadership, and 

conditioned success not only became standards for my 

ministerial training but have also become non-negotiable 

benchmarks for my ministry. Dr. Mohler has consistently 

led with and lived out these convictions for the last 

thirty years. While many of us take conservative Baptist 

theological education for granted, we must remember 

that it has not always been this way. I am glad the Lord 

led me to Southern Seminary under the leadership of Dr. 

Mohler, and it has been my privilege to commend the 

school to not only my students but to anyone looking for 

faithful Baptist theological education. We must not take 

this for granted but be thankful. 


joshua w. powell 

All future success of the 

seminary is measured finally 

on biblical faithfulness. 

spring 2023 

41

Christ-Centered 

Students Need 

Christ-Centered 

Degrees 

Whether you are interested in 

pursuing full-time Christian 

ministry or want to make a 

kingdom impact in the 

marketplace, discover the 

degree that will prepare you 

to accomplish what the Lord 

is leading you to do. 

Available on-campus or fully online 

Scan the QR 

code to find the 

Christ-centered 

Boyce College 

degree that 

fits your student. 


“ Confessional 

faithfulness, courageous 

leadership, and 

conditioned success not 

only became standards for 

my ministerial training 

but have also become nonnegotiable 

benchmarks 

for my ministry. Dr. 

Mohler has consistently 

led with and lived out 

these convictions for the 

last thirty years.” 

joshua w. powell 

spring 2023 

43

Ready to 

Build Your 

Library? 

Visit The Bookstore at Southern, the largest 

theological bookstore in North America. From 

biblical commentaries to church history, we have 

everything you need to deepen your love of God 

and his Word and build your library. Our collections 

range from the newest releases to an extensive 

selection of high-quality used books! 

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news & features 

FBC Mayfield’s property sustained heavy damage after a night of tornados, 

December 10, 2021. 

one year later mayfield 

coming back after 

devastating tornados 

— 

By Jeff Robinson 

Until Jesus returns, December 10, 

2021, will live in infamy for citizens 

of Mayfield, Kentucky. 

That night, “the Beast” tore 

through town. 

Just before 9:30 that evening, one 

of the strongest tornadoes to hit the 

United States in the past decade—a 

storm so ferocious it moved one 

National Weather meteorologist to 

nickname it “the Beast”—roared 

through the center of downtown 

Mayfield. What the nocturnal beast 

left in its wake was hard to fathom: 

1,300 homes and businesses 

severely damaged or completely 

destroyed, nine late-shift workers 

killed at a candle factory on the 

outskirts of Mayfield and 24 total 

killed in Mayfield/Graves County 

Within about a 90-minute span, the 

marauding twister obliterated the 

city of Mayfield and then smashed 

through smaller western Kentucky 

towns of Benton, Princeton, Dawson 

Springs (site of 14 deaths), and 

Bremen. Its winds reached nearly 

200 mph, the surreal damage left 

behind ranked the tornado at an 

EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. 

All told, “the Beast,” spent more 

than three hours on the ground, 

traveled 165 miles, and took 58 

lives. 

Wes Fowler, pastor of First Baptist 

Church of Mayfield, hunkered 

down with his family and another 

staff member in the church as 

the storm leveled his hometown 

and his home church. In the days 

following, Fowler—a 2015 DMin 

graduate from SBTS and current 

PhD student—helped his church 

and community dig out of the 

rubble. Fowler and his church also 

became the epicenter for communicating 

Mayfield’s tragic story 

to the world as numerous media 

outlets, from the New York Times 

to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, interviewed 

him. 

Making Progress Daily 

The historic First Baptist Church 

building sustained heavy damage 

but was one of the few buildings 

Wes Fowler (left) pastor of FBC Mayfield, surveyed the damage to his church building. 

spring 2023 

45


left even partially standing in 

downtown Mayfield. Fowler grew 

up in Mayfield and has served 

as pastor of FBC since 2011. The 

church’s facilities are still being 

repaired with quite a way left to 

completion, a testimony to the 

extent of damage. 

“We are making progress every 

day with rebuilding our campus, 

but a project of this magnitude 

takes significant time,” Fowler said. 

“Thankfully, the exterior of our 

campus survived, but due to severe 

roof damage, every square foot 

of the interior needs renovation. 

And, since our campus is almost 

100,000 square feet, it’s quite an 

undertaking! 

“If all goes well, we are hoping 

to be back in our sanctuary by late 

summer or early fall, 2023. The 

remainder of our campus will 

likely take an additional year-anda-half 

to renovate. So, from the 

date of the tornado to completion, 

our renovation will be a three-year 

process.” 

Then there’s his hometown 

where hardly a single building was 

left unscathed. More than 1,300 

businesses, homes, and churches 

were completely demolished. In 

approximately the time it takes to 

read the first half of this article, the 

hometown Fowler had known his 

whole life was more or less erased. 

With 12 months now passed since 

that deadly night, the rebuild is 

progressing steadily. 

“As a community, Mayfield is 

making great progress and recovering 

well,” Fowler said. “Most of 

the demolition work is complete, 

and both individuals and businesses 

are beginning to rebuild. Committees 

meet on a regular basis to 

plan the future layout and design 

of downtown Mayfield, and the 

plan is coming along well. We still 

Tornados devastated FBC Mayfield’s property, including a bus. 

have a long journey ahead of us, 

but much has been accomplished.” 

Scars Remain 

There remain scars that cannot be 

seen with the human eye. For years 

to come, every time meteorologists 

use the words “tornado threat” 

and “western Kentucky” in the 

same phrase, anxiety will no doubt 

bubble up in the hearts and minds 

of Mayfield’s citizens. 

Fowler, who was named SBTS 

distinguished alumni last June in 

Anaheim, said the events have 

made him more vigilant about the 

weather. 

“In the past, I wouldn’t think 

twice about an incoming storm,” 

he said. “I would assume it 

wouldn’t be too bad, and even if 

the weather happened to be severe, 

I would assume it wouldn’t impact 

me. I think completely differently 

now.” 

While FBC Mayfield’s building 

sustained heavy damage, 

the church itself continues on in 

strength, Fowler said, adding that 

he has learned some important 

lessons about ministry in the wake 

of the devastation. 

“In the past year, I’ve learned a 

great deal about the church and 

about ministry,” he said. “I’ve 

always preached that followers of 

Jesus are the church and the building 

is simply where we meet. It’s 

one thing, though, to preach this 

truth; it’s quite another to actually 

live it. 

“For worship, we meet in a borrowed 

theater. For Sunday school, 

we meet in homes and businesses 

all across Mayfield. For children’s 

and youth activities, we rent space 

on a weekly basis. Piece by piece 

we intentionally make it a priority 

to gather, fellowship, worship, 

and hear from God’s Word. From 

experience, we are learning that 

the body of Christ is indeed the 

Church. The building is nice, 

but it’s a poor substitute for the 

church.” 

Ministry Goes On 

Help and helpers descended 

Mayfield from 42 states and media 

trucks were a constant presence 



in the weeks following the storm. 

But one year later, the media 

have moved on and the help has 

thinned out a good bit. But the 

Lord used that media coverage, 

Fowler said, to bring desperately 

needed help and resources to Mayfield 

and the surrounding area. 

“For several weeks following the 

tornado we had regular interaction 

with various forms of media,” he 

said. “For me, the interactions 

were positive and provided a great 

platform to share the Gospel and 

speak of the kindness and graciousness 

of God. 

“Now, as we approach the oneyear 

anniversary, several media 

outlets have returned to Mayfield, 

and I believe most in our community 

welcome them with open 

arms. In my opinion, the initial 

media coverage of Mayfield significantly 

increased awareness of our 

needs, which in turn impacted the 

level of support from around the 

country.” 

Stories of Christlike faithfulness 

emerged after the storm. Remarkably, 

several staff members from 

Samaritan’s Purse moved to Mayfield 

and still serve the community 

on a full-time basis. 

Said Fowler, “As part of their 

recovery plan, Samaritan’s Purse 

purchased a large tract of land 

and they are currently building 

Wes Fowler (right) talked with Mayfield residents in the aftermath of the tornados. 

60 homes for our community. It’s 

a massive project provided for 

Mayfield as a gift. How do you 

say ‘thank you’ when a ministry 

donates an entire neighborhood? 

I’m really not sure, but I know we 

are incredibly appreciative of their 

generosity.” 

Over the past year, there have 

been enhanced opportunities for 

gospel ministry due to the magnitude 

of the physical needs. The 

church meets the people’s physical 

needs while also seeking to meet 

the deepest need of human hearts. 

Ultimately, eternal needs are 

always the focus. 

“In ministry, we’ve learned that 

meeting physical needs oftentimes 

opens the door to addressing spiritual 

needs,” he said. “Immediately 

after the tornado, physical needs 

were abundant. People needed 

electricity, food, water, clothes, 

assistance with rent, vehicles, and 

places to live. 

“In the process of meeting 

those needs, relationships were 

formed. Then, in the context of a 

relationship, trust was built. When 

trust exists, spiritual needs can be 

addressed more easily. I believe we 

are called to proclaim the gospel in 

all contexts, but I’ve witnessed the 

effectiveness of meeting physical 

needs with the ultimate hope 

of addressing one’s most urgent 

need.” 

Mayfield friends and family remembered the lives of those lost in the storms. 

spring 2023 

47


Robert George (left), Andrew Walker (center), and Albert Mohler (right) 

discussed social conservatism in The Bookstore at Southern. 

sbts hosts renowned 

scholar robert george 

for lecture, panel 

with president mohler 

— 

By Travis Hearne 

Moral truth is attractive and leads 

to human flourishing, Robert 

George and Albert Mohler said 

during a discussion in the Bookstore 

at Southern. George serves 

as the McCormick Professor of 

Jurisprudence at Princeton University 

and is one of the world’s most 

respected voices within American 

social conservatism. 

George delivered a lecture on natural 

law and the crisis of Western 

morality, then joined Mohler for a 

conversation on social conservatism. 

Andrew T. Walker, professor 

of ethics at SBTS, led the discussion. 

The lecture was sponsored by 

the Carl F. H. Henry Institute for 

Evangelical Engagement. 

“We are in a new intellectual 

context,” Mohler said. “When the 

liberals of the last century claimed 

to save Christian morality from 

Christian theology, they lost both. 

For SBTS, we are proud to be 

cobelligerents against evil with Dr. 

George. But more than that, we are 

proud to be co-thinkers.” 

George and Mohler discussed 

the state of contemporary conservatism; 

For George and Mohler, 

true conservatism differs from 

blood-and-soil nationalism and 

popular expressions of neo-conservatism. 

“American conservatism was 

never blood and soil or throne and 

altar,” said George. “We American 

conservatives believe in a creedal 

nation where our identity is built 

on a shared commitment to the 

principles found in the Declaration 

of Independence and the Constitution—which 

is why anyone can 

become an American.” 

George said a unified culture 

must flow from the nation’s 

founding ideas. Mohler agreed and 

pointed out the difference between 

true conservatism and many of 

those who label themselves as 

conservatives. 

“I think one of the most crucial 

distinctions we can make today is 

between right-wing and conservative,” 

said Mohler. “Just wanting 

to blow up the left doesn’t make 

you a conservative. A conservative 

believes in permanent things and 

first principles.” 

Walker asked the two scholars 

to discuss the importance of 

institutions. The key difference 

between conservatives and liberals 

on the issue, according to George 

and Mohler, is that conservatives 

believe in building families and 

communities in ways that liberals 

don’t, even as they agreed that 

liberals have won most social and 

cultured institutions in America. 

“God created institutions,” 

said Mohler. “We lose everything 

except what we are determined to 

build and hold on to. When I see 

Christ building his church and 

Christian families—the foundational 

institutions—I see the beauty 

and attractiveness of truth.” 

On the state of the evangelical 

mind and his hopefulness for the 

future, Mohler said the recovery of 

social conservatism starts in local 

churches. 

“We are only here because of 

churchgoers in the pews,” said 

Mohler. “Knowledge production 

is a privilege, but discipleship is 

a mandate. Grassroots believers, 

through their sacrifice, are 

responsible for recovering social 

conservatism.” 

George stressed the need for 

courage and engagement with the 

world’s ideas. He’s hopeful that a 

rising group of conservative intellectuals 

will contend for truth and 

pass down a body of scholarship 

that future generations may build 

on. 

“If we’re going to march back 



through the institutions, we need 

young people who are brilliant, 

dedicated, adept, and courageous,” 

said George. “When I look around, 

I see young men and women committed 

to their faith and willing to 

take the stones and arrows coming 

for them. That inspires me to 

keep working and doing what I’m 

doing.” 

George’s appearance at Southern 

came on the heels of the release of 

Social Conservatism for the Common 

Good: A Protestant Engagement 

with Robert P. George, edited 

by Andrew T. Walker. The book is 

a collection of essays from Protestant 

writers and thinkers written 

to help evangelicals apply George’s 

philosophical and practical insights 

to their own public witness. 

One chapter is a brief biography 

of George by John D. Wilsey who 

serves as associate professor of 

church history at SBTS. 

Afternoon Lecture 

In George’s afternoon lecture, he 

set forth an introduction to natural 

law theory and its relationship to 

basic moral goods. According to 

George, the natural law is discerned 

through the use of practical 

reason. By practical reason, George 

simply means that we come to 

understand the exact contours of 

the natural law as we reflect on the 

reasons for our everyday actions 

that cause us to flourish. 

George also lectured at length 

about the basis of human rights, 

which he referred to as norms of 

justice that civil law recognizes to 

protect the ability of human beings 

to flourish. A just act, according to 

George, is what helps us reach the 

end for which God has made us. 

George went on to argue that the 

natural law is taught in Romans 

chapters 1-2 as the “law written on 

the heart” that God implants inside 

of every human being. The reason 

George’s lecture is important is because 

it stresses the reasonableness 

of Christian ethics as consistent 

with human flourishing. Human 

beings cannot flourish apart from 

obeying God’s order of creation 

that we learn through the natural 

law. 

Walker said he was thrilled that 

George spent time at Southern and 

believes the seminary community 

will benefit from the lecture and 

discussion. 

“I hope students come away with 

a deeper appreciation for an approach 

to ethics that speaks to the 

comprehensive nature of Christian 

ethics,” said Walker. “As Professor 

George taught us, theology not 

only grounds ethics, but explains 

why ethics can possess the rational 

explanation that they do; and that’s 

because Christian ethics promote 

human goods that are conducive to 

human flourishing.” 

Robert George delivered a lecture on natural law in Heritage Hall. 

spring 2023 

49


sbts hispanic 

program adds doctor 

of ministry degree 

— 


Southern Seminary is now offering 

a fully Spanish online DMin 

degree with cohorts starting once 

a year. 

SBTS Provost Paul Akin said 

the new degree will build upon 

the success of Southern’s Online 

Hispanic Program (OHP), which 

has equipped ministers across 

the Spanish-speaking world since 

2016. 

“The Spanish DMin is held to 

the highest standard of academic 

rigor,” Akin said. “At the same 

time, it is tailored for pastors and 

church leaders. The online format 

gives Hispanic pastors and church 

leaders an opportunity to immediately 

apply what they are learning 

in their local context.” 

Southern has a history of 

leading efforts in Spanish theological 

education and is one of the 

few institutions accredited by the 

Association of Theological Schools 

(ATS) approved to offer MA and 

MDiv degrees fully in Spanish. 

As OHP enrollment increased, so 

did the demand for post-graduate 

education. 

Roberto Carrera, director of the 

Online Hispanic Program, and 

Felipe Castro, director of Hispanic 

Initiatives, saw the need to offer 

the DMin. Carrera was previously 

named Director of OHP in 2021. 

“For years, many of our graduates 

expressed a desire to continue 

furthering their studies,” Carrera 

said. “Many asked quite pointedly 

if we’d ever offer a doctorial degree. 

We saw a need for more pastors 

and church leaders to become the 

thought leaders and expert practitioners 

in their sphere of influence, 

and the DMin at Southern is 

uniquely suited to meet this need.” 

In view of the new degree, Akin 

preached at Iglesia Bautista Internacional—the 

church of pastor 

and Southern professor, Miguel 

Núñez, on February 5. Núñez has 

served on the SBTS faculty since 

2016 and will host seminars in the 

Dominican Republic. 

“We are thrilled to deepen our 

partnership with Miguel Núñez,” 

Akin said. “He is integral to our 

Spanish MDiv and will be an 

anchor to the Spanish DMin. Each 

cohort will have its first semester 

in the Dominican Republic at the 

Instituto Integridad y Sabiduría— 

giving fellow students and our 

professors the opportunity to 

connect.” 

Akin said the new degree is a 

natural next step in fulfilling the 

Great Commission and will prepare 

Spanish pastors and church 

leaders with the best of theological 

education. 

“I am convinced that there is 

a great opportunity for Southern 

Seminary to help train and equip 

a rising generation of pastors and 

church leaders across Latin and 

South America,” Akin said. “This 

initiative is a natural outflow of our 

commitment to the Great Commission 

and a desire to see Spanish-speaking 

pastors, missionaries, 

and church leaders equipped to 

serve the Lord in the years ahead.” 

understanding 

small details can 

enhance your bible 

reading, scholar says in 

annal gheens lectures 

— 


and Jeff Robinson 

Six surprising details will forever 

change your Bible reading, Peter 

Williams told the Southern Seminary 

community during the 2023 

Gheens Lectures, held February 

8–9 in Heritage Hall. 

English New Testament readers 

often take these six details for 

granted: question marks, capital 

letters, quotation marks, paragraphing, 

verse division, and 

Doctoral students (left) talked with director of Hispanic initiatives, Felipe 

Castro (right), at SBTS. 



Peter Williams delivered the Gheens Lecture series in Heritage Hall. 

punctuation. But Williams said 

these markings are additions to the 

Greek text. While sometimes helpful, 

these translation decisions can 

distract readers from the author’s 

original meaning. 

“Question marks weren’t used 

consistently until the fifth century 

and the original letters weren’t 

upper or lowercase,” Williams said. 

“For centuries, Christians read 

their Bible’s fine without punctuation 

and speech marks. Some 

of the useful marks in our Bibles 

went from optional and helpful to 

now binding our interpretation.” 

Williams serves as Principal of 

Tyndale House at Cambridge in 

England and is one of the leading 

Bible scholars in evangelicalism. 

The topic of the lecture series 

was “Surprising Aspects of Jesus’s 

Teaching.” He is a member of the 

translation committee for the ESV 

Bible. 

Williams pointed to Pilate’s 

conversation with Jesus in Mathew 

27 as an example. Pilate’s exact 

words to Jesus were, “You are the 

king of the Jews.” Most English 

translations add a question mark 

to Pilate’s words, but Williams said 

this causes readers to miss the 

significance of Jesus’s response. 

“Pilate intends to ask a question,” 

Williams said. “But in God’s 

sovereignty, the actual pattern of 

his words convey the truth that 

Jesus is king. Jesus answered, ‘you 

have said so’ because he took 

Pilate’s words as a testimony to the 

truth rather than a question.” 

In another lecture, Williams 

argued that it is possible that Jesus 

taught and spoke often in Greek. 

Many scholars maintain that Jesus 

spoke only Aramaic, but discoveries 

since the Dead Sea Scrolls were 

found in 1947 demonstrate the use 

of both Hebrew and Greek alongside 

Aramaic in Roman Palestine. 

Williams offered several lines of 

suggestive evidence from the New 

Testament that suggest that the 

Lord used Greek. 

One example came from the 

Sermon on the Mount. There, Jesus 

addressed an audience from several 

different places surrounding 

Galilee, an audience that would’ve 

been composed largely of Greek 

speakers, so it is quite possible he 

would have delivered his famous 

address in Greek. 

“When groups from so many 

different places came together, we 

would therefore expect the teaching 

to be given in the language 

most likely to be recognized by 

all, namely Greek,” he said “This 

is, of course, unless the teaching 

were to be given in more than one 

language.” 

Ultimately, the language Jesus 

spoke doesn’t change anything 

about what he taught, so it’s not an 

issue with massive consequences. 

“In one sense it doesn’t matter 

at all what languages Jesus spoke,” 

Williams said. “Whether he taught 

in Aramaic, Hebrew or Greek, 

most Christians in the world today 

will be reading his lessons in translation 

anyway. 

“But the understanding that it 

is perfectly plausible that Jesus 

may have spoken Greek helps us 

spring 2023 

51


to understand his life a little more 

clearly — not as someone who 

lived in an isolated rural outpost, 

but as a member of a vibrant and 

cosmopolitan community. It also 

encourages us that there is no need 

to imagine a gulf between what 

Jesus originally said and what is 

recorded in the Gospels.” 

southern 

seminary graduates 

selected as leaders 

— 

By Jacob Percy 

As one observes the announcements 

coming from institutions 

of Christian higher education, a 

pattern begins to emerge – graduates 

of The Southern Baptist Theological 

Seminary are consistently 

appointed to leadership positions. 

These appointments are not 

a new trend. Since its founding 

in 1859, Southern Seminary has 

served to prepare and equip its 

students to lead at the highest 

levels of church, denomination, 

and academic life, with graduates 

serving as college and seminary 

presidents and in numerous 

influential positions of leadership 

throughout its history. 

Announcements in 2023 continue 

this pattern as Southern Seminary 

graduates have been selected 

to be the dean of the Talbot School 

of Theology, appointed to Beeson 

Divinity School’s Billy Graham 

Chair of Evangelism and Cultural 

Engagement, selected as Provost 

of Charleston Southern University, 

and most recently, a graduate 

of Southern Seminary’s PhD. in 

leadership announced as president 

of Liberty University. Southern 

Seminary graduates stand ready 

and prepared to answer the call 

Medalion in front of Norton Hall at Southern Seminary. 

when institutions need trusted 

leaders. 

Southern Seminary graduates 

are selected to lead in the classroom 

of Christian institutions 

as well. For example, Southern 

Seminary has more PhD. graduates 

in teaching roles within 

Association of Theological Schools 

(ATS) member institutions than 

any other evangelical seminary. 

In a recent Association of Theological 

Schools report, Southern 

ranked third among all mainline 

and Catholic seminaries for PhD. 

graduate placement. 

Schools all over America bear 

witness that the world’s first 

seminary-based research doctoral 

program, introduced in 1892, 

produces professors and leaders 

in high demand among Christian 

colleges, universities, and seminaries. 

Now more than ever, Christian 

institutions need leaders 

prepared to face the challenge of 

leading Christian institutions to 

faithfulness to all that the Lord 

has commanded. With all that 

depends on today’s Christian leaders, 

those aspiring to leadership 

must strive for more preparation, 

more theological formation, and 

more biblical training. Southern 

Seminary is committed to preparing 

leaders for more by equipping 

them for faithfulness. Faithfulness 

to the Lord. Faithfulness to the 

church. And faithfulness to lead in 

whatever ways the Lord provides. 

If you are ready to be prepared 

for Christian leadership, we are 

confident the PhD. in leadership at 

the Southern Baptist Theological 

Seminary is the exact program to 

prepare future leaders for faithfulness 

in today’s world. The PhD. in 

leadership is a multidisciplinary 

degree designed to shape students 

as confessional scholars in the 

following primary areas: communication 

and pedagogy, organizational 

philosophy and strategy, and 

theology and human development. 

This degree, offered in modular 

format, is for leaders and educators 

in ministry, higher education, 

Christian schooling, and educational 

administration. 



The 

Southern 

Fund 

In our increasingly secular age, there 

is no better time to be trained in 

rightly dividing the Word of Truth 

than right here, right now at 

Southern Seminary. 

Our resolve to be faithful to the 

Scriptures has enabled us to become 

one of the most trusted names in 

theological education. 

With thousands of financial partners 

faithfully supporting our students, we 

are also one of the most affordable 

names in theological education. 

Every dollar given to The Southern Fund 

is one less dollar our students have to 

pay in tuition. 

Scan the QR code to 

learn more about 

supporting our 

students 

spring 2023 

53

y caleb shaw and graham faulkner 

why the 

briefing? 


“It’s Monday, June 5, 2023. I’m Albert 

Mohler, and this is The Briefing, a daily 

analysis of news and events from a 

I 

Christian worldview.” 

For thirteen years, listeners have heard that familiar 

introduction to a podcast that has become an irreplaceable 

part of their daily routines. As we celebrate Dr. 

Mohler’s thirtieth anniversary as President of The Southern 

Baptist Theological Seminary, it is fitting to recognize 

the incredible work that he does to ensure his dedicated 

listeners wake up to a new episode of The Briefing 

each weekday morning. 

The Briefing starts with newspapers—lots of newspapers. 

Dr. Mohler reads them, underlines and highlights 

them, rips them, and folds them until they are suitable 

for use during a recording session. If you ever find 

yourself in an airplane and hear someone veraciously 

tearing newspaper, just look around. There is a chance 

that Albert Mohler is nearby preparing for a future edition 

of The Briefing. 

But his research goes far beyond what is included in 

the print editions of the major papers. He scours the internet 

for news stories. Every afternoon, his team prints 

the news stories he has sent to an email account that is 

solely dedicated to Briefing research. The timestamps 

of these emails often reveal that he has been awake researching 

while the rest of us—well, most of us—are 

asleep. He also has near-countless subscriptions to other 

magazines and academic journals, and his team spends 

the afternoon sifting through material, doing their best 

to help him keep up with every sphere of news possible. 

At the end of the recording, much work is still left 

undone. The audio engineer must edit the program, 

transcribe it, and upload it to the website. The producer 

must draft headlines and send them to Dr. Mohler for 

approval. Once Dr. Mohler returns the final headlines, 

the producer can put together the daily email, format the 

post on AlbertMohler.com, and ensure the podcast distributes 

across all platforms properly at 5am. 

People often ask how Dr. Mohler produces The Briefing 

so consistently. Besides the time and energy mentioned 

above, one answer comes to mind: Mrs. Mohler. 

She is just as committed to the program and makes every 

sacrifice necessary for it to happen. Only the Lord knows 

how many meals The Briefing has ruined or changed in 

some way. But every Briefing producer knows that of all 

of Dr. Mohler’s listeners, Mary Mohler is his most faithful. 

spring 2023 

55

why the briefing 

The better question, then, is, why do Dr. and Mrs. 

Mohler sacrifice so much for The Briefing? Anyone 

who has traveled with the president has had the honor 

of learning why first hand. Without fail, listeners always 

approach him and say something like, “You have no idea 

how much I appreciate The Briefing. I listen every day.” 

We have heard pastors thank Dr. Mohler for how The 

Briefing helps them think through complicated counseling 

situations. We have watched as parents, often with 

their children in tow, tell Dr. Mohler that they listen in 

the car on the way to school every day, and they thank 

him for the discipleship opportunities that the program 

gives them with their children. We hear from high school 

students whose teacher has assigned the class to listen to 

The Briefing as part of their Christian curriculum. The 

list could go on and on. 

The answer, then, is that the sacrifice does not compare 

to the impact the Lord has allowed The Briefing to 

have in the lives of faithful believers. Each month, hundreds 

of thousands of listeners from all over the world 

tune in to hear Dr. Mohler analyze the most pressing 

issues of the day with biblical wisdom, Christian conviction, 

and gospel clarity. The reach is simply staggering. 

But perhaps the sweetest aspect of it for Dr. Mohler 

is when listeners become students at Southern Seminary 

and Boyce College. Each of our Preview Day events are 

full of prospective students who mention that they first 

heard of the institution through The Briefing. You should 

see their faces when the tour turns the corner into the 

recording studio and they have the opportunity to sit 

at the desk and behind the microphone. Dr. Mohler’s 

labor to record The Briefing is really another part of 

his incredible, faithful service to The Southern Baptist 

Theological Seminary. 

As two men who have collectively produced every 

episode of The Briefing over the last five years, we testify 

to the time and energy Dr. Mohler dedicates to make 

The Briefing possible. More importantly, we testify to the 

character of the man behind the microphone. His love 

for the Lord, for God’s Word, and for the Church are 

clear, both when the microphone is on and when it is off. 

During our time of service in the President’s Office, 

he and Mrs. Mohler have celebrated our engagements, 

weddings, baby showers, and graduations. We have 

laughed together to the point of tears when he had a little 

trouble pronouncing “Beyoncé” or “Belarus.” We have 

also been around during some difficult times when he 

needed to cancel episode recordings because a family 

member had passed away or a health situation unexpectedly 

occurred. Through every season, it has been, 

and continues to be, our great joy to serve the mission of 

Southern Seminary as we assist Dr. Mohler in getting The 

Briefing out into the world. 

As this season of The Briefing concludes, we give 

thanks to the Lord for what he has done through this 

podcast. We pray for God’s blessing on season fourteen 

and beyond. We pray that every edition would be to His 

glory and for the faithfulness of Christ’s Church in an increasingly 

secular age. We pray for the Mohlers as they 

continue the task, and we look forward to even more 

fruit that the Lord will bear through Dr. Mohler’s daily 

analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. 

The Lord knows we need it. 


“ The sacrifice does not 

compare to the impact 

the Lord has allowed The 

Briefing to have in the lives 

of faithful believers.” 

caleb shaw and graham faulkner 

spring 2023 

57


y timothy paul jones 

“we are all 

apologists now” 

The following is an edited and shortened form of Timothy Paul Jones’s Faculty Address given on February 1, 2023, 

titled “Brothers and Sisters, We are All Apologists Now.” The video recording of this address can be found at equip.sbts. 

edu and at timothypauljones.com. 

Apologetics is no longer a task that’s limited 

to biblical scholars and theologians. In 

A some sense, it never was, or at least it 

shouldn’t have been. Yet the scope of 

apologetics has necessarily expanded. 

Cultural and societal changes have turned apologetics 

into an unavoidable consequence of living publicly as a 

Christian. Pursuing a Christian way of life will inevitably 

require providing a defense of this way of being in the 

world, not merely for apologists but for all of us. 

This change has been underway for generations, but 

the precise stakes of this change have become particularly 

clear in recent years. 

What Happens When Christianity Is No 

Longer Considered Good 

In 2019, for example, British medical doctor David 

spring 2023 

59

we are all apologists now 

Pursuing a Christian way of life 

will inevitbly require providing a 

defense of this way of being in the 

world, not merely for apologists 

but for all of us. 

Mackereth lost his job for declining to use pronouns that 

conflicted with an individual’s birth gender. When he 

appealed to a tribunal, Mackereth lost his case because— 

in the words of the tribunal—the general practitioner’s 

“belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism 

and conscientious objection to transgenderism … are 

incompatible with human dignity.” To pursue a Christian 

way of life is—based on the assumptions undergirding 

this decision—to stigmatize innocent people and to 

stand in opposition to human dignity. 

This change has profound implications for apologetics. 

Broadly speaking, one might say that the necessary 

scope of apologetics has extended from miracles to 

metaphysics to morality—and this change is not limited 

to courtrooms, classrooms, and boardrooms. I recently 

glimpsed it firsthand when I stepped into student ministry 

for a few months and encountered a different set of 

doubts than I had ever faced before. 

The Doubts I Never Dreamed I Would Face 

I first worked with middle school and high school students 

nearly three decades ago, before anyone had heard 

of Britney Spears or the Star Wars prequels that inflicted 

Jar Jar Binks upon millions of unsuspecting moviegoers. 

During those years, students typically didn’t struggle with 

their faith until the first year or two of college. When they 

did doubt their faith, the questions they asked had to do 

with the truthfulness of Scripture or the plausibility of 

miracles. These students did not always pursue a Christian 

way of life, but they and their parents assumed that 

Christian ethics were good for them and that 

Christianity makes the world a better place. 

In 2019, I returned to student and family ministry 

for a few months in a temporary role, and I discovered a 

very different set of challenges and doubts. Doubts about 

Christian morals now preceded any questions about 

Christian miracles. One young woman in particular confessed 

that she found the historical evidence for the resurrection 

to be compelling. Yet she was willing to reject 

Christianity and the Bible if the Christian faith could not 

accommodate her conception of herself as bisexual and 

perhaps transgender. In her mind, for Christians to withhold 

affirmation of her self-conception was to disregard 

her dignity and to devalue her psychological well-being. 

In her way of thinking, evidence for the Christian faith 

was irrelevant unless the Christian faith could be conformed 

to her perception of what is good. 

This is a dilemma I never envisioned in the 1990s— 

an acceptance of the evidence for the central miracle of 

the Christian faith coupled with a rejection of this same 

faith on the basis of its perceived immorality. For her and 

many others like her, moral doubts about Christianity 

have taken precedence over challenges related to miracles 

or metaphysics. 


timothy paul jones 

When the Goodness of Christianity Is in 

Question, Every Christian Is an Apologist 

As long as apologetics remained in this realm of miracles 

and metaphysics, it might have been conceivable— 

though perhaps not desirable—for apologetics to remain 

the domain of trained experts who argued for rationality 

and provided evidences based on their areas of expertise. 

However, when it becomes necessary to contend for 

the social good of publicly practicing Christian faith, no 

Christian can be exempted from defending the way of life 

that they are pursuing. 

Brothers and sisters, we are all apologists now. 1 

The question is not whether we will do apologetics; 

it is whether or not we will do apologetics well. The primary 

mode of this apologetic must move beyond merely 

appealing to evidence for the reality of miracles and the 

reliability of Scripture. Today, we must defend the very 

morality of historic Christianity. But where can contemporary 

Christians locate an approach to apologetics that 

is fitted for a context in which the social good of Christianity 

is in doubt? 

We Have Been Here Before 

In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman 

rightly recognizes the second century A.D. as one 

possible precedent for this present era in which the very 

goodness of Christianity for the social order must be 

defended. The second-century church flourished “by existing 

as a close-knit, doctrinally bounded community that 

required her members to act consistently with their faith 

and to be good citizens of the earthly city as far as good 

citizenship was compatible with faithfulness to Christ.” 2 

Trueman does not detail precisely how the habits 

of the second-century church might shape apologetics 

today. That’s what I’d like to do here. My goal is to 

consider what such an apologetic might look like in 

the twenty-first century. To do this, I’ll focus on a second-century 

apologetics text written by a Christian philosopher 

known as Aristides of Athens 

How an Apologist from the Second Century 

Might Inform Our Apologetics Today 

Little is known about Aristides of Athens beyond what 

Eusebius of Caesarea preserves, that the author was “a 

believer earnestly devoted to our religion.” Jerome adds 

the further detail that Aristides was “a most eloquent 

Athenian philosopher” who retained his philosopher’s 

garb after becoming a follower of Jesus. 

Aristides begins his Apology by appealing to the beauty 

of the created order. According to Aristides, the beauty 

and orderly motion of the cosmos require a deity who is 

“immortal, perfect, incomprehensible,” and self-existent. 

“He stands in need of nothing,” Aristides declares, “but 

all things stand in need of him.” After this declaration of 

the necessary nature of the divine, Aristides turns to the 

concerns that drive his defense of Christianity: Which of 

the four types of people in the world—barbarians, Greeks, 

Jews, or Christians—is devoted to a deity that meets these 

necessary qualifications? From the perspective of Aristides, 

because human beings imitate what they venerate, 

defective devotion inevitably produces defective ethics. 

It is at this point that the Apology of Aristides becomes 

particularly helpful when it comes to doing apologetics 

in an era when we are all apologists. 

1. Christians Practice Radical Civic Good 

without Bowing to the Civic Gods 

One of the central arguments Aristides makes is that it is 

possible to practice radical civic good without participating 

in the veneration of the civic gods. For Romans in this 

era, civic devotion was primarily a matter of divination, 

supplication, and sacrifice to the gods with the pragmatic 

goal of securing divine favor and avoiding divine wrath. 

Because Christians refused to participate in these religious 

rites, the church was seen as a threat to the cohesion 

and stability of the social order. That’s why Aristides 

and other second-century apologists go to such lengths 

to make their case that Christians pose no threat to the 

social order. Christians accomplish civic good without 

venerating the civic gods. In fact, according to Aristides, 

Christians do more to strengthen the social order than 

barbarians, Greeks, or Jews. According to Aristides, the 

cosmos itself remains due to the prayers of the church. 

“To me there is no doubt,” he writes, “that the earth 

itself abides through the supplication of Christians.” One 

aspect of the good that Christians do is asking God for his 

mercy on the world, but the church’s contribution to civic 

good does not end with supplications directed toward 

the Christian God. It includes the lives Christians live 

together and the care they direct toward their neighbors. 

Christians, according to Aristides, “rescue orphans 

from those who abuse them, and they give without 

spring 2023 

61


grudging to the one who has nothing.” Although 

some philosophers did criticize the practice of abandoning 

unwanted infants, rescuing the fatherless would 

have seemed ludicrous in a context where children unacknowledged 

by a father were widely perceived as disposable. 

Aristides continues, “Whenever one of their poor 

passes from the world, each one according to his ability 

pays attention and carefully sees to his burial. If anyone 

of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name 

‘Christ,’ all of them provide his needs, and if it is possible 

for him to be delivered, they deliver him.” These patterns 

of giving to the impoverished and caring for the imprisoned 

were mocked by second-century satirists such as 

Lucian of Samosata. 

Persons outside the Christian faith in the second century 

questioned how Christians could do anything other 

than civic harm since they abstained from the civic liturgies. 

The response of Aristides and other second-century 

apologists was that Christians contributed to the civic 

good not only through prayers to their God but also 

through their care for the disadvantaged. This good was 

greater than any good enacted by those who practiced 

the rites of the venerable gods. 

The questions posed by those outside the faith in the 

second century were not identical to the challenges of 

the twenty-first century, and I do not pretend that they 

were. Today, the challenges have to do with whether a 

Christian can possibly contribute anything other than 

civic harm if he or she does not wear a Pride patch on a 

uniform or use someone’s preferred pronoun or affirm a 

young woman’s conception of herself as bisexual. Yet perhaps 

there is more similarity than one thinks at first. In 

some sense, these contemporary cultural demands constitute 

a civic liturgy that includes vestments and rituals, 

blessings and confessions and absolution, coupled with 

widespread incredulity that anyone who refuses these 

rituals could possibly contribute to the common good. 

In such a context, all of us are apologists now because 

the conflict is between two contradictory sets of religious 

commitments. 

How, then, can Christians today demonstrate their 

contribution to the common good while refusing to 

conform to these civic liturgies? One possible response, 

grounded in the Apology of Aristides, is for Christians 

to be characterized by such generosity toward the disadvantaged 

and the marginalized that these habits of life 

seem absurd to the world. Aristides was not describing 

civic good that the world would recognize as good. He 

was describing something better—a goodness so rich 

and radical that it could not be fitted into the world’s 

categories—and so should we. What if the church’s participation 

in care for the impoverished, our love for prisoners, 

and our welcome of children in the foster system 

was so widespread that an awareness of these habits was 

at least as widely known as our stand against progressive 

sexual agendas? What if the church’s pursuit of communities 

that are richly multiethnic, multisocioeconomic, 

and multigenerational caused twenty-first century people 

to raise their eyebrows at the sheer strangeness of 

Christian community? 

Aristides of Athens 


timothy paul jones 

2. Christianity Is a Coherent Commitment 

that Requires Consistency Between 

Profession and Practice 

A further point that Aristides makes is that Christianity 

represents a coherent commitment that requires consistency 

between profession and practice. This stood in 

stark contrast to his cultural context. In the minds of 

most people around Aristides, participation in the rituals 

of the gods did not require any belief in the stories 

repeated about the gods. Christianity, unlike Roman religion, 

required coherence between the beliefs professed 

and the habits practiced. 

Aristides showed that Christianity entailed not only 

an external coherence between the profession and practices 

but also an internal coherence. According to Aristides, 

all other religions produced contradictory narratives 

that only the Christian narrative is able to reconcile. 

The barbarians claimed, for example, that the elements 

of the cosmos were divine, but they manipulated and 

even destroyed these same elements, revealing that the 

elements could not be divine after all. The Greeks made 

righteous laws yet venerated and imitated unrighteous 

gods whose actions contradicted these righteous laws. 

The Jews received a righteous law from God but they did 

not keep it—according to Aristides—and chose to worship 

the angels through whom the law was given instead 

of the God who gave it. In Christian faith, however, there 

is coherence and consistency between the truths professed, 

the liturgies practiced, and the lifestyle required. 

In a time when apologetics is the task of every 

Christian, this coherence between beliefs and practices 

provides a crucial argument for the Christian way 

of life. For one thing, Christianity’s call for external 

coherence between profession and practice provides an 

explanation—grounded in the venerable witness of the 

church throughout the generations—for why a Christian 

should not verbally affirm that which he or she knows to 

be false regarding an individual’s gender. 

Furthermore, the internal coherence of Christian 

faith reminds believers that any commitment which 

contradicts Christian faith will also, in the end, contradict 

itself. Every human commitment includes some 

fragment of truth, goodness, or beauty. These crumbs 

of truth, goodness, or beauty—no matter how fragmentary 

they may be—will cohere with Christianity in some 

small way, but they will do more than cohere with some 

aspect of Christian faith. They will also introduce internal 

contradictions in any commitment that stands against 

Christian faith. In the Apology of Aristides, even the barbarians 

recognize the beauty of the cosmos; it is not their 

recognition of this beauty that introduces the contradictions 

in their commitment, it is their divinization of it. 

The contradictions of the twenty-first century are not 

the same as the ones that Aristides faced, but the responsibility 

of apologetics to point out these contradictions is 

perhaps more crucial than ever. Today, the inconsistencies 

may be found in other places—for example, in the 

contradiction between the affirmation of human equality 

and dignity on the one hand and a rejection of humanity’s 

formation in God’s image on the other hand. What 

this should shape within the Christian is humble confidence—confidence 

because Christian faith does indeed 

provide a coherent and comprehensive account of the 

way the world is, yet humble because God alone comprehends 

this account wholly and completely. A Christian 

marked by this humble confidence can simultaneously 

recognize the world’s narratives as false and yet celebrate 

every strand of truth, beauty, and goodness that appears 

in these false narratives. The Christian can do 

spring 2023 

63


Even if our defenses do not persuade the world that 

Christianity is good for the social order, they form 

a community that persists in holiness, love, and 

proclamation of the gospel. 

this because each of these strands stretches back to transcendent 

reality and thus reveals a contradiction in the 

world’s narratives that Christian faith alone can resolve. 

3. Apologetics Calls the Community to the 

Public Practice of the Truth 

According to the apologists of the second century, it is 

possible to practice radical civic good without bowing to 

the civic gods, and the coherence of Christianity testifies 

to its truth by revealing the contradictions in every 

competing narrative. Having heard my considerations 

regarding how these truths might be contextualized in 

the twenty-first century, some of you may now find yourselves 

wondering, “Will these tactics from the second 

century work? Will they persuade the world that Christians 

are, in fact, good for the social order?” 

My answer is, “No, they won’t, and I never 

intended them to do so.” 

I have no confidence that these arguments will persuade 

any contemporary secular progressivist that Christian 

professions and practices are good for the world. As 

far as anyone today can tell, the apologies of Aristides 

and others like him did not change imperial perceptions 

of Christianity. In the second century, the worst persecutions 

were, after all, yet to come. 

Why, then, have I provided you with these ancient 

examples? And why have I dared to declare that we are 

all apologists now? 

It is not because I expect these practices to convince 

any secularist of the social good of Christianity. It is 

because God works through practices such as these to 

form us into the type of community that will persist past 

the rise and fall of every power that resists God’s truth. 

What is likely to take shape through these particular practices 

is not the persuasion of the world but the formation 

of a people—a people who persist in publicly practicing 

and proclaiming their faith. Even if our defenses do not 

persuade the world that Christianity is good for the 

social order, they form a community that persists in 

holiness, love, and proclamation of the gospel. And, no 

matter how vast the gap may grow between us and the 

prevalent culture, this gospel remains “the power of God 

for salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). 

And this brings me back to the young woman who 

preferred her own bisexual self-conception over evidence 

for the resurrection that she herself admitted was 

compelling. During the pandemic, I lost track of this 

teenager but, throughout 2019, her engagement with 

church followed a predictable pattern. She would attend 

student ministry for a short time before declaring she 

would never return, due to her disagreement with the 

moral implications of the gospel. And yet, a few weeks 

later, she would be back again. I never asked why, but 

I think I know. It was because the people of God loved 

her and cared for her in a way that no one in her home 

or at school did, despite her unwillingness to embrace 

the gospel. As far as I know, she never was persuaded 

that Christianity is good for the world, but she had discovered 

that Christians could be good to her. Someday, 

somewhere, I pray that God will work through that 

knowledge to clear her moral confusion as he draws her 

to himself. In the meantime, we persist in defending the 

goodness and truth of the Christian faith, forming God’s 

people to proclaim God’s truth knowing that God is still 

at work through the gospel, even in a world where we are 

all apologists now. 

____ 

Notes 

1. Os Guinness, Fools’ Talk: Recovering the Lost Art of Christian Persuasion 

(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 15. 

2. T Carl Truman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural 

Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution 

(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 407.

Southern Seminary Magazine (Vol 91.1) Recovering Faithfulness: Celebrating R. Albert Mohler, Jr.'s 30 Years as President

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