In a new book, Southern Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. defines and defends the doctrine of inerrancy as the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy articulates it.

The Chicago Statement is the preeminent evangelical explanation and affirmation of the doctrine of inerrancy of the Scriptures. Nearly 300 evangelical scholars, including Carl F. H. Henry, J.I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, R.C. Sproul, James Boice and others signed the statement in 1978.

In his contribution to Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy, Mohler asserts inerrancy means “the Bible, as a whole, and in its part, contains nothing but God-breathed truth,” he said. “When the Bible speaks, God speaks.”

Mohler contributed to the new Zondervan book that addresses the question of the “doctrinal rationale … and Scriptural warrant” of the term “inerrancy” as a way to define the Bible’s truthfulness.

Paul Chitwood, executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, posed the question, “How shall we respond to the gospel?” in a chapel service at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, March 11.

Preaching from Galatians 4:1-7, Chitwood, who previous was assistant professor of evangelism and church growth at Southern Seminary, encouraged believers to rejoice in the gospel, revel in the adoption secured by Christ and rest in the spirit of God’s son. Chitwood illustrated each of these points by a particular geographical location from his own personal experience.

Beginning in Gorée Island, Senegal, an island known for its slave-trading history, Chitwood invited his listeners to “rejoice” in redemption from the slaveholder of sin. Drawing from Gorée Island’s history, he highlighted the even greater slavery of sin.

“This, friends, is the gospel: to set at liberty those that are oppressed,” Chitwood said, explaining this as the image that Paul gives in Galatians 4:3. “How should we respond? Should we not respond with rejoicing that we have been set free from the slaveowner of sin?”

Moving to Galatians 4:4-5, Chitwood said that his second geographical location was Chongqing, China, with a stop en route to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Through these locations, Chitwood invited listeners to “revel” in “adoption from the orphanage of Satan.”

La conferencia 9Marks en Southern hizo un sonido diferente este año, ya que el seminario fue anfitrión de su primera conferencia completamente en español. El 27 de febrero se realizó una conferencia para pastores hispanos conjuntamente con la conferencia anual de 9Marks para pastores. Miguel Núñez, de República Dominicana, quien es pastor, autor y conductor de un programa televisivo transmitido en más de 20 países, fue uno de los conferencistas, junto a otros pastores.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., presidente de The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, dijo que esta conferencia para pastores hispanos apuntaba a la necesidad y al deseo de alcanzar a la comunidad latina.

“Es una honra y un gozo para Southern Seminary el poder realizar esta conferencia para pastores hispanoparlantes, y, honestamente, quedamos sorprendidos del resultado”, dijo Mohler en una entrevista sobre esta nueva adición a la conferencia regular de 9Marks. “Fue mucho más de lo que pudimos haber imaginado. Esto nos muestra la necesidad de que los Bautistas Sureños en particular, y los evangélicos en general, tengamos una estrategia intensiva de alcance a la comunidad hispana”.

Southern Seminary’s 9Marks at Southern conference looked and sounded different this year, as the seminary hosted its first-ever conference entirely in Spanish. A Feb. 27 Hispanic pastors’ conference was held in conjunction with the annual two-day 9Marks conference for pastors. Miguel Núñez, Dominican pastor, author and a popular TV show host, broadcast in 20 countries, spoke at the conference, along with other pastors.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the Hispanic pastors’ conference pointed to the need and desire for outreach to the Hispanic and Latino communities.

“Southern Seminary was honored and extremely pleased to host this conference for Spanish-speaking pastors, and we were quite honestly overwhelmed with the turnout,” Mohler said in an interview about the new addition to the regular 9Marks conference. “It went far beyond anything we could have imagined. It just points to the need for Southern Baptists particularly, and evangelicals more generally, to have an intensive, strategic outreach to the Hispanic and Latino community.”

Speaking for the second time in less than 100 days at Brigham Young University, Southern Baptist leader R. Albert Mohler Jr. told students and faculty at the school, “We may go to jail sooner even than we thought,” recalling his concern about the threat to religious liberty raised in an October appearance at the Mormon-owned school.

“I am not here because I believe we are going to heaven together, but I do believe we may go to jail together,” said Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, at an Oct. 21 address at the Latter-day Saints’ premier educational institution, named for Mormonism’s second president.

Delivering the Feb. 25 Forum Lecture about human dignity, human rights and human flourishing at the Marriott Arena on the BYU campus, Mohler revisited the concerns of his October speech in which he called on Mormons and evangelicals to work together in defense of religious freedom, while recognizing serious theological differences between the faiths.

Since the October address, “so much has changed,” Mohler said, noting federal courts have ruled against Utah’s prohibitions against polygamy and gay marriage and the president of the LDS church has been “summoned to appear in a secular court in London.”

Islam is the “great rival system of belief” to Christianity, according to R. Albert Mohler Jr. And with 1.6 billion adherents, Muslims make up nearly a quarter of the world’s population. In response, the leadership of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary opened and dedicated a new academic center for the study of Islam, Feb. 13.

“I am very, very excited about the Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam,” said Mohler, who is president of Southern Seminary, during a chapel service immediately preceding the dedication. He said that faithfulness to the Great Commission requires ministers to study this rival religion, and  “not merely to understand Islam as others might seek to understand it, but to achieve a Christian understanding of Islam.”

The dedication of the new center coincided with the seminary’s annual Great Commission Week. The four-day event included panel discussions with veteran missionaries and church planters, outreach “excursions” in the Louisville community and evangelistic training sessions.

According to Mohler, the Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam, named for donors Connie and Bill Jenkins, will lead Southern Seminary — and the broader evangelical academy — in studying and engaging Islam through the lens of the Christian gospel. And while he affirmed the value and even necessity of studying Islam through secular and Islamic scholarship, the primary concern of the center is engagement, including evangelism and apologetics.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., posted an essay to his website, www.AlbertMohler.com, in response to today's ruling by Federal District Judge John G. Heyburn declaring unconstitutional parts of Kentucky's ban on gay marriages. The following is an excerpt:

"Christians who affirm the biblical understanding of marriage as the union of a man and woman must now recognize that we can no longer count upon the government and its laws to reflect that understanding. Even the proponents of same-sex marriage must surely recognize the radical legal and moral shift in Western civilization and human history this change implies. Christians understand that marriage is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity and that marriage, as defined by the Creator, is fundamental to human flourishing.

"We now know that the government cannot be counted on to affirm this message. As a matter of fact, we have to face the reality that the government — even in the Commonwealth of Kentucky — may teach a radically different message through its laws. But the real question for Christians is not whether the government gets the question of marriage right, but if we do. In the grand scheme of things, that is the Church’s real challenge."

Mohler's entire essay — "The Other Shoe Drops in Kentucky: Federal Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage in the Commonwealth" — is available here.

A new academic initiative at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to foster a theology of work and economics among students and faculty received a major grant from the Kern Family Foundation, seminary officials announced recently.

“We are very pleased to enter into this partnership with the Kern Family Foundation,” said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary. “This grant will make a real difference in the ministries of our students, who will gain invaluable knowledge and insight from the programs that this grant will make possible. We deeply appreciate this investment in our students and their future ministries.”

Randy Stinson, senior vice president for academic administration and provost, said, “In the next decade the topic of faith, work and economics will be more important than ever. With growing economic complexities it will be incumbent upon every pastor to be able to speak intelligently on this topic in order to teach his congregation how the gospel applies to this important intersection of life. The grant that we have received will go a long way in preparing the ministers of the gospel that we are training on this campus.”

Kenneth Magnuson, director of the initiative and professor of Christian ethics at Southern, expressed appreciation to the Kern Family Foundation for its “generous grant.”

“We are grateful for the Kern family’s commitment to equipping future pastors with an understanding of issues at the intersection of faith, work and economics,” Magnuson said.

While “cultural Christianity is dead” in an increasingly secular America,  evangelicals have the “theological resources” to keep the faith, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said during a public discussion about faith and politics on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Mohler, the president of the seminary, joined nationally syndicated radio show host and conservative pundit Dennis Prager and The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat for the event, “Faith and Freedom in the Public Square,” Jan. 28. The trio of public intellectuals engaged in a frank, wide-ranging and often entertaining two-hour discussion of secularism and shifting morality in America.

Douthat, a Roman Catholic whose 2013 book about religion in the United States, Bad Religion, received wide acclaim and appeared on the The New York Times bestsellers’ list, opened the evening with a “view from Washington.” He offered a “distillation” of the socio-religious environment — the cultural conversation on issues such as religious liberty and faith and politics — in the nation’s capital.

“Ask Anything: Weekend Edition,” a new weekly segment of R. Albert Mohler Jr.’s “The Briefing” podcast, will launch Sat., Feb. 1, bringing back a popular feature of the former “The Albert Mohler Program” radio show that allowed listeners to pose questions to the theologian, author and broadcaster.

“Ever since the end of the Albert Mohler program, I’ve received many requests for a return to something like ‘Ask Anything Wednesday,’” said Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The “Ask Anything Wednesday” feature was held each week during Mohler’s former daily, live radio show, which aired nationally 2004-2010 over the Salem Radio Network. He discontinued the radio show to begin in 2010 “The Briefing” podcast, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview perspective.