Mohler’s history of “flip-flopping” demonstrates an inability (or unwillingness) to insist on maintaining truth over perceptions of tone. This can be observed through Mohler’s presentation of what he referred to as the need for the Christian church to go through a type of triage similar to what is experienced in hospital settings. In his 2004 essay, “A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity,” Mohler made the following assertion: “God’s truth is to be defended at every point and in every detail, but responsible Christians must determine which issues deserve first-rank attention in a time of theological crisis.” (A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.” 20 May 2004. Albertmohler.Com. Accessed June 13, 2018. https://albertmohler.com/2004/05/20/a-call-for-theological-triage-and- christian-maturity-2)
Using the hospital as an analogy, he contended that churches need to decide on what issues are of extreme attention and focus and treat them first before dealing with other, or secondary or tertiary, issues. Among what he called “crucial” doctrines are “Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, and the authority of Scripture.” These he refers to as “first-order” doctrines. Mohler then refers to “second-order” doctrines addressing such issues as infant baptism or ordination of women. Then, he refers to “third-order” as such as the doctrine of eschatology and the various interpretations.
Interestingly, Mohler continues and correctly maintains a crucial distinction:
A structure of theological triage does not imply that Christians may take any biblical truth with less than full seriousness. We are charged to embrace and to teach the comprehensive truthfulness of the Christian faith as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. There are no insignificant doctrines revealed in the Bible, but there is an essential foundation of truth that undergirds the entire system of biblical truth.
“A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.”
He continues with a stark definition of a liberal view of Scripture:
The error of theological liberalism is evident in a basic disrespect for biblical authority and the church’s treasury of truth. The mark of true liberalism is the refusal to admit that first-order theological issues even exist. Liberals treat first-order doctrines as if they were merely third-order in importance, and doctrinal ambiguity is the inevitable result.
“A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.”
Then, he takes a drastic turn and justifies himself with a critique of fundamentalism:
The misjudgment of true fundamentalism is the belief that all disagreements concern first-order doctrines. Thus, third-order issues are raised to a first-order importance, and Christians are wrongly and harmfully divided.
“A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.”
While Scripture clearly teaches against the ordination of women, Mohler already defended his position that women in ministry is a “second-tier” issue and, therefore, argues that he cannot be compared to a liberal. While the truth about this issue forces us to relegate this as a “first-order” doctrine, Mohler’s view is that anyone challenging his view is a fundamentalist and divides the church. So, naturally, the only stance to take regarding the ordination of women is to avoid being seen as a liberal and also avoid being viewed as a fundamentalist and relegate a clear truth of Scripture to “second-order” and simply move on to another topic.
Then, more recently, Mohler presents a stunning and irreversible refutation of his earlier proposition that the issue of women in ministry is relatively unimportant. In his 2021 essay, “Women Pastors, Women Preachers, and the Looming Test of the Southern Baptist Convention,” he made this correct (albeit far too late) assessment:
In truth, the issue of women serving as pastors fueled the Conservative Resurgence in the SBC. The question was instantly clarifying. The divide over women serving in the pastorate served as a signal of the deeper divide over the authority and interpretation of the Bible. Simply put, the only way to affirm women serving in the pastoral role is to reject the authority and sufficiency of biblical texts such as 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2. There is more to the picture, but not less. Furthermore, the Christian church in virtually every tradition through nearly two millennia in almost every place on earth has understood these texts clearly. In most churches around the world, there is no question about these texts even now. Furthermore, there is the testimony of God-given differences in the roles of men and women in the church and in the home throughout the Bible. The pattern of revealed truth is not hard to follow.“
“Women Pastors, Women Preachers, and the Looming Test of the Southern Baptist Convention.” 10 May 10 2021. Albertmohler.Com. Accessed August 13, 2021. https://albertmohler.com/2021/05/10/ women-pastors-women-preachers-and-the-looming-test-of-the-southern-baptist-convention.
Without admitting error or offering an apology or seeking repentance, Mohler’s 2021 piece just contradicted his entire 2004 statement regarding the ordination of women.
I wholeheartedly agree that maturity is urgently needed. But clarity is, too. There needs to be an answer to as to why we have arbitrarily manufactured 1st, 2nd and 3rd order theological categories when Scripture clear. While there are a few issues that are less clear such as infant baptism and eschatology that could be termed “second-order” the everything the is revealed through the truth of Scripture must be maintained regardless of their perceived tone. So, we should only need two “orders” to separate out those less clear doctrinal stances. If a local church or denominational tradition or teaching is not clearly detailed in Scripture it cannot be in the 1st order. In this triage piece from 2004, Mohler asserts women pastors is a 2nd order doctrine. Then, in his direct response to women pastors from 2021 he refers to the issue as clearly defined in Scripture and suggests it is non-negotiable because of that. Doing so makes it a 1st order doctrine.
When we, carnal humans, try to delegitimize or otherwise assign “importance” to certain portions of Scripture we will always have to play catch-up to match our polity and doctrine with Scripture. Yes- “no insignificant doctrines revealed in the Bible.” Whether we personally like it or not, truth is truth. Yes, we have to stand for truth and give clarity to the sufficiency of Scripture. What would be the state of the church today if Mohler initially took a firm stand on the truth in his 2004 piece instead of waiting until 2021 to override tone and restore truth?
Another example of the sacrifice of truth on the altar of tone is Mohler’s stark turnaround in a brief amount of time. Speaking at the ERLC National Conference on “The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage” in 2014 Mohler lamented and publicly repented of his earlier strict Biblical stance on dealing with sexual orientation:
One of the embarrassments I have to bear is that I have written on some of these issues now for nearly thirty years and at a couple of points I have to say, ‘I got that wrong’ and we’ve got to go back and correct it, correct it by Scripture. Now, early in this controversy, I felt it quite necessary, in order to make clear the Gospel to deny anything like a sexual orientation and speaking at an event for the National Association of Evangelicals, twenty something years ago, I made that point. I repent of that. I believe that a Biblical theological understanding, a robust Biblical theology would point to us, that human sexual effective profiles, who we are sexually, is far more deeply rooted than just the will, if that were so easy. But Genesis 3 explains that. Helps us understand that this complex of same sex challenges coming to us is something that is deeply rooted in the Biblical story itself and something we need to take with far greater seriousness than we’ve taken in the past, understanding that that requires a far more robust Gospel response than anything the church has come up with heretofore. This is a real challenge to us on Biblical authority.
ERLC. 2014. “Aftermath: Ministering in A Post-Marriage Culture | Albert Mohler.” Youtube. October 28, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq3EiToCylQ, 29:28.
Are you kidding me here? An actual apology from an SBC seminary president for actually standing firm on truth and admitting that he has turned to a focus on tone. Mohler continues to simultaneously make two correct assertions that are essential to a reliance on the truth of Scripture.
At the same time, he completely and utterly disregards them and absolutely denigrates the superiority of Scripture with the obvious intention to focus, instead, on tone. Mohler makes these two bold assertions in immediate succession:
I don’t believe that the Christian church has misread Scripture for two millennia.
I don’t believe that there was information lacking to the Holy Spirit that would have changed the meaning of these texts, information that is now available to us.
ERLC. 2014. “Aftermath: Ministering in A Post-Marriage Culture | Albert Mohler,” 30:29.
Yes, and Amen! It doesn’t require a seminary degree to observe that, until recently, the discussion on sexual identity began and ended with the truth of Scripture. God created male and female. Period, end of discussion. The insistence on the infallibility of Scripture requires that we firmly maintain that the Holy Spirit authored the Scripture and He wrote what He meant and meant what He wrote. Period, end of discussion.
Then, immediately, seemingly with the same breath, Mohler follows these with a revealing assertion that begins with the often-used clarifier, “but” to refute both: “But in terms of our ministry, in terms of our faithfulness, we’ve got to take all of this into consideration and we have to do so fast.” (“ERLC. 2014. “Aftermath: Ministering in A Post-Marriage Culture | Albert Mohler,“30:40) “But”? But what?!? In terms of our “ministry”? In other words, that’s what the truth of the Scriptures says but when we apply this truth to the quote, “real world,” we cannot contradict the culture or dare to allow our tone to conflict with the personally held beliefs of sinners.
Contrast all of this flipping and flopping and throwing truth under the proverbial bus with the truth of Scripture from 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Verse 17 is particularly revealing. First, Paul ties the sufficiency of Scripture with the completeness of our equipping for service with the initial use of ἵνα, “that, in order that or so that.” This clearly conveys that our ability to perform good works is contingent on our reliance on the truth of Scripture. Second, Paul uses ἄρτιος, “fitted, complete or perfect.” This word was commonly used in numerical calculations in reference to even numbers, which are complete and whole and can be evenly divided to equally complete and whole numbers. In this sense, we are whole and complete in our overall abilities and in our individual aspects of each ability. Third, if the point was not clear enough already, Paul also uses ἐξαρτίζω, or “complete, finished, furnished completely or accomplish.” Also, with the use of the perfect tense here, Paul asserts, once and for all, we are completely, perfectly and fully equipped to follow through and accomplish πᾶν or “all, every and any” good work.
God declared there is male and female. God declared male and female as equal but with different roles/ This truth is the source of our ability to minister to those confused on this issue. No “second-order” or “third-order.” There are no ifs, ands or “buts” about it. Period, end of discussion! No so-called “triage” is needed. If Mohler had the courage to state this within his 2004 piece, his 2021 reversal would not have been necessary.
This triage issue illustrates the importance of truth over tone. The truth of the Scriptures regarding women in ministry has not changed. What has changed is the culture around the issue. When the culture changes, those who rely on crafting a tone in alignment with what is perceived to be the majority, change their message to fit within that desired tone. When those like Beth Moore were extremely popular and seemed to be supported by a majority, those tone-sensitive leaders like Mohler applauded her. They found all kinds of ways to twist the Scriptures. They found all sorts of ways to utilize man-made fallacies to support their twisting. Then more recently, when those like Moore found opposition in the mainstream, the same tone-sensitive leaders like Mohler changed their tone and reversed their stance on issues like women in ministry. Truth is not true if it is not consistent in all circumstances and situations. Tone blows in the wind and rises or falls on the whims of man.
We do not need more triage, we need more truth over tone. If we maintain the analogy of the hospital triage setting, then what is really needed is triage for the proposed “triage.” We really only need one tier of emergency triage to focus our attention. One tier for everything specifically mandated or prohibited explicitly in the Scriptures. That’s it. We do not have the right to pick and choose what things we will or will not obey in God’s Word and relegate any issue to “non-essential.” Anything that is mandated or prohibited is “essential” for the Christian. Truth over tone.