Subjective Bible Interpretation at Southeastern Baptist

Prof. Elizabeth Mburu

“Like Southern Seminary, Southeastern has abandoned its strong adherence to biblical fidelity and objective truth and exchanged it for social justice activism and woke theology. While the school has been engulfed in secular philosophies such as Critical Race Theory for a number of years, standpoint epistemology is relatively new to the scene and has taken a stronghold in the school’s curriculum–despite the fact that they will not use the terminology. Standpoint Theory, also known as Standpoint Epistemology, teaches that knowledge and insight, at least in part, emerges from one’s social status or cultural background. In other words, people from different cultures, upbringings, hardships, and personal experiences have a special ability to glean truth from various sources. Recently, the videos of Southeastern Seminary’s Southeastern Symposium online conference were released whereby one of the keynote speakers, Elizabeth Mburu, openly taught these concepts. According to Mburu’s bio, she pursued her doctoral studies at Southeastern. She said, ‘It seems we, as Africans, are still trying to imitate foreign ways when it comes to reading, interpreting, and applying the Bible in our every day lives. So the solution I propose is a contextualized African intercultural approach to the study of the Bible.’ This is antithetical to how the Scriptures actually teach us to understand the truth–the truth is universal and is to be rightly understood in its original authorial intent. Mburu’s lecture suggests that she believes biblical truth to be subjective, rather than objective. It suggests that she believes that instead of the Holy Spirit revealing the truth as is meant in its original context, that the Holy Spirit instead intends for the Scriptures to mean different things to different people groups.”

Pastor Tom Buck, First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas, warns, “SEBTS is teaching a hermeneutic based on standpoint epistemology. Hermeneutics is not static but is ‘dynamic’–it changes based upon your cultural context. This view isn’t just in error, it’s flat out dangerous!” (@TomBuck, Jul. 16, 2020).

“Prominent SBC Seminary Teaches that Biblical Interpretation Is Subjective,” Reformation Charlotte, July 16, 2020