Soul competency is a Christian theological perspective on the accountability of each person before God. According to the view, one's family relationships, church membership, or ecclesiastical or religious authorities cannot affect the salvation of one's soul from damnation. Instead, each person is responsible to God for one's own personal faith in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.

Baptist view

The basic concept of individual soul liberty, is that in matters of religion, each person has the liberty to choose what conscience or soul dictates is right, and is responsible to no one but God for the decision that is made. A person may then choose to be a Baptist, a member of another Christian denomination, an adherent to another world religion, or to choose no religious belief system, and the church, the government, family and friends may not make the decision or compel the person to choose otherwise. In addition, a person may change one's mind over time. According to Francis Wayland, president of

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

(1827–1855),

Roger Williams Roger Williams (March 1683) was an English-born New England minister, theologian, author, and founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Pl ...

established the commonwealth of Rhode Island on the fundamental principle of "perfect freedom in religious concerns; or, as he designated it, "SOUL LIBERTY". In line with soul competency, the

Southern Baptist Convention The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestant, and the second-largest Chr ...

has no official

creed A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) which summarizes its core tenets. Many Christian denominations use three creeds ...

. They, however, have the Baptist Faith and Message, a statement of "generally held convictions" although many Southern Baptist churches do not hold to the Baptist Faith and Message.

Notes

:Wayland states further "No man of his age had so clear conceptions of the rights of conscience as the founder of Rhode Island, and no one had ever carried them so honestly to their legitimate conclusions. I go further: no one has yet been able either to take from or add to the principles of religious liberty which he so simply and powerfully set forth. They stand as imperishable monuments to his fame, like the obelisks of Luxor, on which the chiseling of every figure is now just as sharply defined as when, three thousand years since, they were left by the hand of their designer."

References

External links

Southern Baptist Convention on Soul competency
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921114605/http://www.sbc.net/aboutus/pssoul.asp , date=2008-09-21 Baptist Christianity Salvation in Protestantism Freedom of religion