Baptists on Justification: Can We Join the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification?

Abstract

In the summer of 2002, there was a conference at Lutheran Seminary, St. Paul, MN, "The Gospel of Justification in Christ. Where Does the Church Stand Today?" Several papers were read on the Joint Declaration (fD) by Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians. In a private conversation, the main organizer of the conference, Dr. Wayne Stumme, urged the author of this paper to "get the Baptists at the table."! Instead of attempting to present Baptist soteriology as such, this paper has a much more modest goal-namely, to describe some parameters of the Baptist understanding(s) of justification and to bring out a number of agreements between Baptists and Roman Catholics in regard to soteriology. The acknowledgement of the sufficient commonalities of faith offers a basis and incentive for further theological conversations between the two churches. Perhaps it will also facilitate the "noncontrastive understanding of justification" between Baptists and Roman Catholics.' I would like to comment on two early Baptist con

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: An Outline of its Genesis and Impact From a Baptist’s Perspective

“…At the same event in 2003 the Estonian theologian Tarmo Toom presented a paper on the question: "Can we join the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification?" 55 This does not simply present the views of the author himself, but is compiled from representative sources, namely two English confessions of faith from the early period of the Baptist Movement 56 and two dialogue documents between Baptists and Catholics. 57 Toom does not give a clear answer to his main question, whether Baptists can enter into agreement with the JDDJ, but he does demonstrate important areas of agreement between Baptists and Roman Catholics in soteriology.…”