For James Leo Garrett, Southern Baptists needed to reclaim their evangelical identity through their rediscovery of “the authority of the Bible being the Christ-centered proclamation of the gospel being the witness by word and witness by life. This is what I have observed for all of my journey as one who was called by God to be an evangel in faith and practice.

I further believe it necessary to hold to the supernatural claims of the inerrant Word of God. The Bible is God’s revelation of himself through men moved by the Holy Spirit as they recorded what God said to them.

Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the divine and eternal Son of God providing many miracles before being crucified as the Savior of the world. He was then buried and rose again from the dead three days later just as He said He would. 

He afterward appeared many times to his disciples and ascended to the right hand of the Father. This same Jesus will come again in person just as He ascended from the Mount of Olives. 

What I learned at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is what I hold to at this very moment, “We are not with nor for those who would have a ‘scrapbook Bible.’ We take Christ’s endorsement of the Old Testament and receive the New Testament as Paul, the Holy Spirit, and the Fathers have handed it down to us. We believe it is God-breathed, and binding upon conscience and conduct, and is our only ultimate and infallible authority touching life and destiny.” – L.R. Scarborough.

I passionately stand with thousands of Southwesteners who have stood and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ across our world who will agree, “With this Christ, who left the fold so that he might find the lost sheep and bring her home to the heaven where divine love awaits her with open arms! With this Holy Spirit, who alone convicts and regenerates the sinner by faith. Our founders were not culture warriors against the world but militant evangelists going after the lost. They pursued the world to win it to a living faith in a living Lord.”  – Malcolm B. Yarness III. And I would argue, this continues to be the passion of Southwestern Seminary.

Jesus remains Lord.