© 2005 Rev. Dan McCauley
© 2005 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
Two weeks after the following news article was published, I was asked to preach at Lakeshore Drive Baptist Church, a church that had been supportive of my ministry. The sermon was well received.
Baptist Press. December 29, 1994. Trennis Henderson, Editor. Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine:
“Dan McCauley, Baptist Student Union director at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock since 1977, has been asked to resign… Arkansas Baptist State Convention executive director Don Moore reported that McCauley’s views of biblical authority, extra-biblical revelation and the security of the believer differ significantly from our commonly held faith as Southern Baptists. …McCauley, age 50, is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Monticello and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to accepting the BSU position at UALR in 1977, he served as a minister of education in South Carolina and an associate pastor in North Carolina.”
It is my understanding that disagreement with my personal theological interpretations of three issues: the role of the Bible, extra-Biblical revelation, and eternal security, have prompted my forced resignation as Baptist Student Union Director at UALR. I feel that there is some misunderstanding as to where I stand on these doctrines, so I’ve tried to flesh out my basic beliefs in these areas both to enlighten you and to allow you to enlighten me.
With no warning, I was asked to respond to eight questions, among which were the following three:
What is your view of the Bible?
What is your stand on extra-biblical revelation?
What are your views on the security of the believer?
To the best of my recollection, my responses were these:
I do believe in extra-biblical revelation. I believe that God is bigger than my concept or experience of Him. I believe that God is Truth, and all truth reveals God.
I’ve had some time to reflect on those questions, and from whence they came. In 18 years of BSU work, I never implied to any student that my personal doctrine was infallible. In fact, I told students that infallibility belongs to God alone, and that it was my desire that they should leave the BSU desiring to become more and more like Jesus Christ. Only vanity and immaturity would lead one to desire clones of himself to be running around. I would have students to be like me only in my desire to be like Jesus Christ.
To whom or to what does one subscribe ultimate authority? My position is that ultimate authority should only be given to God as revealed in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Example: Whereas the Bible told me about Jesus and his attitude toward pacifism, the Holy Spirit convicted me of God’s will for me regarding whether or not I should bear arms in Vietnam. We are not “born again” through our relationship to the Bible, but through our relationship to God.
When I’ve heard someone say that the Bible is our ultimate authority, I’ve usually responded “Which version or whose interpretation?” I contend that without a relationship to God as Holy Spirit to convict us of ultimate Truth, the Bible can and has been abused.
Only two weeks ago, the Democrat-Gazette carried a story of a young man who, through placing ultimate authority in the Bible, gouged out his right eye -cuttting the tendons with a pair of scissors — because he believed that a pentagram was located in the eye.
Satan quoted scripture in tempting Jesus. Many have used scriptures through the ages to support evil. In testifying to such, I am not demoting the Bible. The Bible is my mother in the faith, but as a tool used by the Holy Spirit. I am merely promoting the reality that God is our ultimate authority, and that we believe in a triune Godhead, not a quad-god.
Bibliolotry is a heresy. Indeed, I fear that this heresy is hindering people from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. For when we isogete the scriptures, to read into them what we want them to say, we tend to build walls around our little kingdoms of beliefs, to keep out those who would not subscribe to our particular creeds, interpretations or basic beliefs.
I support Baptist heritage when it has stated, “We have no creed but the Bible.” But has our heritage not also stated that soul-competency — the priesthood of the believer — is also a banner worth waving? Can one be convicted of not representing Southern Baptists when he takes the whole Bible as his creed and doesn’t teach anything contrary to scripture?
Oh, some would say, teaching that it may be possible to “fall from grace” is contrary to scripture. But I say to you, it is just a matter of interpretation and emphasis. A great Southern Baptist theologian, Dale Moody, one of my professors in seminary, taught and debated that we may, indeed, fall from grace. That position eventually led to his contract not being renewed.
Why would I even suggest to a student that it may be possible to reject our covenant with God? The answer: There is danger in the concept of cheap grace!
For decades, we have been baptizing young people in our churches who see Jesus only as Savior, not Lord. They are neither asking the question “What would Jesus do?” nor the question “What would Jesus have me to do?” Have we no responsibility to teach our students that they are to grow spiritually so long as they are in the Kingdom? Are Christians not given the mandate to obey the commandments of our Lord? Are we not told to ‘Be holy, even as our Father in Heaven is holy’ and to become perfect even as God is perfect? Can I, in good conscience, sit back and allow my students to believe that all God desires from us is our name on a church-membership role somewhere?! I think not!
Some would say that my emphasis on walking by faith and not by sight can lead to subjective discipleship wherein self-deception can take root. They contend that we may convince ourselves that the Lord is speaking to us when, in actuality, our own desires may be holding sway. Certainly, many who have claimed to have heard a word from the Lord have been self-deceived and others have simply been wolves in sheep’s clothing.
But scripture itself testifies that we are to walk by faith, not by sight. We are fallible in hearing what the Holy Spirit is saying, but the Holy Spirit is infallible.
Am I to allow a fallible human being to interpret the Spirit’s voice in scripture for me? Or am I to guard against self-deception by spending quality time with God and doing my best to obey His commandments? You be the judge.
As for extra-biblical revelation, I believe it to be heretical for anyone to limit God to their understanding or experience of Him.
As for extra-biblical revelation, I believe it to be heretical for anyone to limit God to their understanding or experience of Him. Even though I believe the Bible to be sufficient, I do not believe the Bible to contain all there is to know about Truth. For I believe the scriptures when they testify that God is Truth. And whereas neither science nor philosophy nor religion can contain the whole of God, where there is Truth in science, it is of God; where there is Truth in philosophy, it is of God; and where there is Truth in religion, it is of God.
In conclusion, I feel that there are three simple but profound phrases that have been my credo over the years, a credo that has placed me on the cutting edge and possibly over the edge.
Those phrases are:
It is more important to be taught how to think than what to think.
Being in relationship with God should precede doing things for God.
Unity in the spirit prohibits uniformity of practice or beliefs.
Trying to live by this credo requires effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress. May I be found worthy of it!
Dan McCauley was a campus minister for 18 years and served on church staffs for Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and the Disciples. He discovered The Urantia Book in 1985 while brousing the metaphysical section of a book store, but didn’t feel he could afford the price. His students bought it for him as a birthday present.