Question: Mr. Hunt, [were] you trying to say [in your Jan '97 article] that 45 percent of those ...

Question: As a conservative evangelical Christian and Southern Baptist pastor I was troubled that you wrote [Jan ’97] “And only 55 percent of the delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention of Louisiana in November voted that the Bible is inerrant! Why don’t the Christian activists show concern for this unbelief which eternally damns souls?” Mr. Hunt, are you trying to say that 45 percent of those Louisiana SBC delegates are on their way to hell, and is belief in the doctrine of inerrancy a precondition for salvation...? Please clarify your position in the next issue of TBC....I question the fairness and integrity of accusing a group of people of being in unbelief, heresy, and even apostasy by rejecting the doctrine of inerrancy.

Response: I’m sorry that what I wrote was misunderstood. I did not intend to convey that the Southern Baptists who deny the inerrancy of Scripture are necessarily lost. If they believe the gospel, they are saved eternally. What I did intend to convey was that a denial of inerrancy puts the gospel itself in question. If the Bible is not entirely true, then who is to decide which parts are valid and which parts are not? A denial of inerrancy could provide unbelievers with the excuse they seek for rejecting the gospel and thus damn their souls. No, I did not intend to convey that the 45 percent who rejected biblical inerrancy are “in unbelief, heresy, and even apostasy,” but I do believe that a denial of inerrancy is a big step in the direction of all of these.