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No difference between strict Calvinism and "Mahometanism" in viewing sovereignty?

Below are two descriptive selections from two 19th century sources, one selection of which describes Calvinism's view of sovereignty and the other Mahometanism's view (or, in today's term, Islam's view). The first is from an essay in Review & Expositor by famed Southern Baptist historian, A.H. Newman, entitled "The Calvinism of Calvin." The selection to be compared is from an entry entitled "Mahometanism" in Buck's Theological Dictionary (1838). A.H. Newman on Calvinism: "Before the first man was created God had established (statuerat) what he willed should take place (fieri) concerning... Read more →

God avenges Calvinist church by striking dead a non-Calvinist preacher

THE CHURCH IN PORTSMOUTH AND NORFOLK, VIRGINIA. In the year 1789, there were a few members in Portsmouth and its vicinity, who were of the Baptist society, but were members in the church at Shoulders's Hill. Through the instrumentality of Elders Elijah Baker, Thomas Armistead and others, there were several added in Portsmouth and Norfolk. After which, the members petitioned the Association, then held in the Isle of Wight, to send helps to constitute them into a church. Whereupon Elders John Meglamre and David Barrow were sent; who, when attending,... Read more →

Charleston tradition loses influence at Brown Creek Baptist Association

In the Fall of 1854, several churches from North Carolina's Moriah Baptist Association—an association birthed by The Charleston Association in 1815--decided to organize another association. Meeting at the Wilson Chambers School House (school located across the road from Mt. Olive Baptist Church), the Brown Creek Baptist Association was constituted.1 The association may have taken its name from Brown Creek Baptist Church (1773). In 1884, the name changed from the Brown Creek Baptist Association to Union Baptist Association.2 The minutes of the meeting reveal the mindset the churches possessed toward the... Read more →

North Carolina’s Friendship Baptist Association organized in 1861 as non-Calvinistic

On Oct. 25-26, 1861, a group of Baptist delegates from several churches met with the Valley Town Baptist Church on Valley River in North Carolina and organized the Friendship Baptist Association.1 Among the first orders of business was adoption of a confession of faith which all the churches forming the alliance could embrace. Below is the Confession of Faith originally adopted by the Friendship Baptist Association in 1861. 1. We believe in one only living and true God, and that there are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the... Read more →

Baptist Association birthed over election and predestination

Named after the French Broad River flowing 210 miles from Western North Carolina to East Tennessee, the French Broad Baptist Association organized in 1807 with six churches, three each from two existing associations—Holston Association and Broad River Association.1 The organizers immediately prepared for adoption both a Covenant and Rules of Decorum for the newly established association. The Covenant or confession of faith contained twelve articles, the first four of which are provided below: Article 1. We believe in the only living and true God, and that there are three persons... Read more →

1807 Abington Baptist Association Confession of Faith: Will history finally vindicate Southern Baptist Traditionalists?

After frequently corresponding with one another, a convention of messengers from three Pennsylvania Baptist churches was held on Saturday, December 26, 1807, at the Abington log cabin home of Rev. John Miller for the purpose of forming a new Baptist association.1 Quite interesting to us is the confession of faith the Abington churches chose as their charter document of belief. The churches oddly but apparently sought little, if any, assistance in forming their association from what's now the oldest Baptist association in America, The Philadelphia Baptist Association, an association a... Read more →

W.J. McGlothin-- "doubtful" whether The New Hampshire Confession of Faith "ought to be called Calvinistic"

William Joseph McGlothlin (1876-1933) was longtime Professor of Church History at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary before becoming President of Furman University in Greenville, SC in 1919.1 Educated at several institutions, including Southern seminary, studying theology under James P. Boyce's successor, F.H. Kerfoot, McGlothlin finally earned a PhD from the University of Berlin in 1902. He remains among Southern Baptists' most esteemed historians. Below is an excerpt from his text on Baptist confessions of faith, an excerpt containing his description of the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, the confession used in... Read more →

Early American Baptists divided over atonement and missions

Three years after the township of Caroline, New York was organized in 1811, Baptists followed by organizing the First Baptist Church of Caroline. According to an historical sketch of Tompkins County penned in 1894, "This society [i.e. the First Baptist Church] was organized in 1814 with fourteen members and Rev. Pliny SABIN pastor. In 1848 a house of worship was erected; this was removed in 1863 and a neat building erected at Brookton, which was dedicated January 11, 1864; its cost was $2,500. The society also owns a parsonage. The... Read more →

Anabaptists not Reformers unloaded the theological dead wood of medievalism

Below is an excerpt from a 1918 historical essay by Rufus M. Jones (1863-1948), Quaker Christian and then Professor at Haverford College. Published in Harvard Theological Review, "The Anabaptists and Minor Sects in the Reformation" remains an enlightening read on the rise of Anabaptism during (and even before) the days when reformers like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli were considered the leading lights of protest against the Roman Catholic Church. Concerning the Magisterial Reformers, even though they did what Jones describes as a "monumental piece of work" in changing the course... Read more →

'Christ our Representative' by Christmas Evans

Christmas Evans (1766-1838) remains a legend among Welsh Baptists even to modern times. Below is a quote from one of his evangelistic sermons. Search the streets of Jerusalem; go to the garden of Gethsemane; inquire on the hill of Calvaiy. Who is willing to die for sinners to-day? There is the tree. There is the executioner, with hammer and nails. - Who will offer himself a sacrifice there, for the redemption of man? None but Jesus. None but Jesus was able ; none but Jesus was willing. “Here am I,”... Read more →

Sandy Creek Baptists viewed Reformed doctrine of election "troubling"

Emir Caner, President of Truett-McConnell College, writes an informative piece on the Sandy Creek tradition in the latest volume of the Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry published by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Contra the view of many Southern Baptist Calvinists who dismiss virtually all theological distinctions between the Sandy Creek Baptist tradition and the so-called Charleston Baptist tradition, Dr. Caner suggests that "The Reformed definition of election was particularly troubling to those birthed out of a Sandy Creek (Separatist) heritage." He then quotes from famed Baptist historian, George... Read more →

Is every issue a gospel issue?

Below is a sampling from a young but obviously erudite theologian from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Blake Newsom. In pursuing the question, What is the Gospel?, Newsom cuts through the literary wasteland in evangelical circles that tends to see all issues as "gospel issues" by flatly concluding "If everything is the gospel, then nothing is the gospel." Here's the entire contextual snippet: Of concern to this writer is that the gospel has become a buzzword in Evangelicalism. As is often the case with buzzwords, they lose their core... Read more →

Bono on Who Jesus is

I've never followed closely either Bono or the musical artistry of U2. Even so, his insistence upon an orthodox historic understanding of the Person of Christ, including the literal, bodily resurrection of our crucified Lord, in the face of skeptical questioning sorta makes me regret I have not taken Bono's visible faith more seriously since the 1970s' star appeared in Pop Culture. Judge for yourself... Read more →