Is Soul Competency THE Baptist Distinctive?
…persons the freedom to make choices. The Genesis account of creation makes crystal clear that this freedom carried with it awesome responsibility. We are responsible for our choices. God sets forth the consequences of good and bad decisions. If we exercise our freedom to obey him, we have life. If we use our freedom to deny him, the result is death (Genesis 1-2). The Bible and Soul Competency The Bible is filled with examples of soul competency. The Bible considers it a fact that people have freedom of choice. The Bible also teaches that people are accountable to God for their choices. For example, God’s gift of the Ten Commandments assumed the competency of human beings to understand them and the freedom to accept or to reject them. With acceptance came blessing, and with rejection came punishment. But in any case, competency and freedom of choice were assumed (Exodus 20:1-17). The people of Israel were given choices, indicating a competency to make decisions. Joshua declared, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24:15). This challenge would have been meaningless if the people had no competency or freedom to choose. The heroes of the faith in the Old Testament,…