Tim,  you wouldn’t be a “former” Southern Baptist like myself, would you? Your story and your comments echo many of my views on this.  So many of the present leadership of the SBC just KNOW what God’s Word is,  and that it couldn’t possibly consist mostly of “their own appropriation” of that Word.  It just “says what it says”.  I think Jesus said “If you knew you were blind,  your sins would be forgiven.  But since you say ‘we see’,  your sin remains”.   That says something to me about claiming to have a corner on ‘who God is’ and what the Word is.