Walking in the Footprints of a Giant of the Faith
BY Dr. Richard Land

I lost a dear friend on November 15, 2005; so did the pro-life movement. In the twinkling of an eye, Dr. Adrian Rogers slipped from this world to the glorious presence of his Savior and Lord.

Despite his more than 50 years in the pulpit, Adrian Rogers said he believed the leadership role God afforded him in bringing to fruition the Southern Baptist Convention's doctrinal reorientation back to its conservative theological roots might be his most significant contribution to the Kingdom. Only God Himself can take measure of the eternal victories that sprang from seeds that Dr. Rogers sowed. Dr. Rogers was one of the giants of the faith of any era of the Christian church.

Dr. Rogers spoke passionately against abortion. He called the date of the Roe v. Wade opinion, January 22, 1973, "one of the darkest days in American history, a day, in my estimation, like Pearl Harbor, a day that will live in infamy." You could tell when he preached on the issue he was burdened about it and grieved about its legalization.

From the pulpit and in his Love Worth Finding television and radio ministry, his message was consistent--God's Word was all-sufficient. There is no question that his conviction that human life is precious and that each of us are made in the image of God changed the hearts and minds of tens of thousands of people. He stood for life and was perhaps the first pastor of a Southern Baptist mega church to speak in support of unborn human life from the pulpit.

Dr. Rogers' election as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) at the Convention's annual meeting in 1979 is viewed as the official beginning of what has been called the conservative resurgence, the movement through which the Convention's liberal drift within its seminaries and other entities would soon be confounded with the election of theologically conservative officials and faculty. He was elected president twice more--in 1986 and 1987--in somewhat calmer conventions as the SBC's movement back to the conservative orthodoxy of its grassroots membership marched to victory.

The resurgence allowed for a much clearer--and decidedly more accurate--understanding of what the Bible says on the life issue among Southern Baptists.

Dr. Rogers' willingness to be on the leading edge of the effort to pull the SBC back onto its theological foundation ushered in a climate that was immensely more promising for the unborn babies who were at risk of being aborted. Throughout his ministry, he was a fierce defender of life and promoter of SBC resolutions that called on Southern Baptists to protect the rights of the unborn, the infirm, and the elderly. The unborn had no more dedicated defender than Dr. Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers was perhaps the last half-century's premier example of an expository preacher who used his gifts to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. As pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, Tennessee, for 32 years, Dr. Rogers was a faithful, eloquent and engaging expositor of Scripture. Other than Billy Graham, he was perhaps the Southern Baptist Convention's best known preacher.

Adrian Rogers was the chairman of the committee that proposed revisions of the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message to the SBC in 2000. Under his guidance as chairman, the committee proposed and the Convention agreed that the Baptist Faith & Message should address specifically the sanctity of human life issue. In that process, this sentence was added to "Article XV: The Christian and the Social Order" in the statement of faith: "We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death."

Dr. Rogers, like most Southern Baptists, including myself, believed the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God. And when you believe that, you must acknowledge its authority in all aspects of life.

Prior to the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, the entity that I now head was defending abortion rights. A brochure designed for distribution in Southern Baptist churches said abortion might be wrong but "sometimes it may be the lesser of two available evils." A former president of the Christian Life Commission (now the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission) was a strong supporter of abortion rights. He also opposed, unsuccessfully, the placement of a Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in January on the SBC's denominational calendar in the 1980s.

Two years before the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution that expressed support for legalized abortion in cases of "severe fetal deformity" and where the pregnancy could damage the "emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother."

Three years later, the Convention revisited the issue and reaffirmed the 1971 pro-choice resolution.

Thanks to the sacrifice and boldness of Dr. Rogers and many others, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, along with every other SBC entity and seminary, now advocates a clear pro-life ethic. As a former SBC president, Dr. Rogers was instrumental in supporting the founding in 1984 of a group called Southern Baptists for Life, an association of pioneering Southern Baptists who offered a perspective that stood in sharp juxtaposition to the views being espoused by many who were still in SBC leadership at that time.

The Southern Baptist Convention has come a long way in affirming God's Truths in our faith and in our families. Dr. Adrian Rogers played a critical role in that monumental effort. Only in heaven will we know the full impact of Dr. Rogers' ministry--how many physical and spiritual lives were saved because of his preaching. We are walking in the footprints of this giant of the faith.

In 1979, as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, he called Southern Baptists home to their denomination's historic, orthodox roots; on November 15, 2005, God called a faithful Adrian Rogers home. A Prince of Preachers is now in the presence of the Prince of Peace, having heard, "Well done, thy good and faithful servant." The world--and now heaven--will never be the same for his presence.

Princeton and Oxford-educated, Dr. Richard Land has served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission since 1988. In 2005 Time magazine named Land one of "The Twenty-Five Most Influential Evangelicals." His radio program, For Faith & Family, has 1.5 million listeners. A renowned scholar, Land has worked as a pastor, theologian, and public policy maker. He is executive editor of Faith & Family Values magazine (www.faithandfamily.com).