How the SBC interprets the Bible:

Fundamentalists generally believe that the authors of the Bible were inspired by God, and thus that the Bible is inerrant ("without any mixture of error"). Its text is normally interpreted literally, except where a symbolic interpretation is obviously needed. "The Scriptures" section of the Baptist Faith and Message statement confirms these beliefs:

"The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.

The need for salvation, and how to attain it:

One long-term result of "the fall" was that all of their descendants were born in a state of "original sin". One consequence of original sin is that every person's normal destination at death is Hell, where they will be eternally tortured without any hope of mercy or relief. Another result had been an unbridgeable chasm between God and humanity; reconciliation and avoidance of Hell can only be achieved through the individual becoming "saved."

Salvation is based on the concept of substitutionary atonement, first developed by St. Augustine early in the 5^th century CE. Augustine believed that God the Father required Jesus to die on the cross in order to pay for the past and future sins of humanity. Apparently, the perfect justice of God prevented him from forgiving humans directly. He required the torture death of his only begotten son, who the Bible describes as sinless. The death of a totally innocent god-man was the only method by which the present gulf between God and man, created in Eden, could be bridged. A major tenet of Protestant Fundamentalist belief is that if a person hears the Gospel, acknowledges their sinful nature, is genuinely repentant, believes in the divinity of Christ, and trusts him as Lord and Savior, then they will be "saved". Two items  -- belief in Christ's divinity and personal repentance -- are controversial; some conservative Christians hold that they are not necessary for salvation, because they represent human works.

Once saved, God will forgive -- and actually forget -- an individual's past sins. In a process called sanctification, the Holy Spirit will continually improve their behavior and spirituality while they remain alive on earth.

They believe that many life changes result from being "saved":

Is salvation possible only through trust in Jesus?

During the 20th century, North America transitioned from being an almost exclusively Judeo-Christian region, into the world's most religiously diverse area. During the same century, the West became much less isolated from the rest of the world. These two factors, religious diversity and global integration, have forced American Christians to become aware of the beliefs and practices of other religions. They note that other religions teach various forms of salvation which can be achieved in different ways. For example:

Generally speaking, Christians have adopted one of three beliefs about other religions: Pluralism, Inclusivism or Exclusivism:

Exclusivism appears to be the most common belief among devout Christians in the U.S. One indication of this comes from a 1995 poll showed that only 21% of churchgoers regarded Islam as having a positive impact on society. Only 21% felt that Buddhism had a positive effect.

Most Southern Baptists and many other evangelical/conservative Protestants follow the exclusivism belief system. Some consider other religions as forms of Satanism, led by demonic forces. The latter are often vigorously opposed because they are viewed as drawing their followers away from salvation towards an eternity of punishment in Hell. 

Exclusivism within the Southern Baptist Convention:

The official web site of the Southern Baptist Convention links extensively to contents of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (SBJT). It is a publication of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. ₄ In a 1998 issue, they published a SBJT Forum which dealt with questions of religious inclusivity. ₅ In it, four leading Southern Baptist theologians gave answers to questions submitted by the magazine's readers.

Timothy George, founding Dean of Beeson Divinity School and senior advisor for Christianity Today, wrote part of the Forum, referring to:

Carl F.H. Henry, founding editor of Christianity Today and Senior Research Professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary wrote:

D.A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School wrote:

Scott Hafemann is Hawthorn Professor of Greek at Wheaton College, and is the author of many conservative Christian books and articles. He states that:

Bible passages supporting exclusivism:

The authors of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) were often strongly exclusivist. Some of the most frequently quoted passages reinforce this belief. For example:

At what age are Christians "saved"?

A study by Barna Research, announced on 1999-NOV-12, shows that most conservative Christians are "saved" while they are children. A person who is unsaved at the age of 14 only has a 10% chance of being "saved" at any time later in their life. The survey also showed that about 40% of all Americans consider themselves as having been saved during their lifetime. This number agrees with previous surveys. 

There are at least two conflicting interpretations of these data: