Unto These Hills

 Are today's Calvinists even more Calvinist that John Calvin? Did Calvin have a slip of the tongue in the following quotes?    In his commentary on Romans 5:18, Calvin affirmed, “Although Christ suffered for the sins of the world, and is offered by the goodness of God without distinction to all men , yet not all receive Him.” In his commentary on Galatians 5:12, Calvin declared, “God commends to us the salvation of all men without exception, even as Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world.”  A sermon on Isaiah 53 warned, “Our Lord Jesus suffered for all and there is neither great nor small who is not inexcusable today, for we can obtain salvation in Him. Unbelievers who turn away from Him and who deprive themselves of Him by their malice are today doubly culpable. For how will they excuse their ingratitude in not receiving the blessing in which they could share by faith? . . . Let us not fear to come to Him in great numbers, and each one of us...

  Brothers, first let me say that ALL Baptist confessions and articles of faith of which I am aware, begin with some sort of statement as to the Word of God. Most will state something like, "We believe the bible and the books of the Old and New Testaments contained therein, to be the ONLY rule of faith and practice." That being the most important article of any confession or abstract of principles, we must begin there. If it appears that Baptists were once all Calvinists, and then have evolved or changed their doctrine over time, there are only three  possibilities. 1) Either the term "Calvinism" had a much broader meaning 200 years ago and included any who held that final apostasy is not possible, or 2) Non Calvinist Baptists were more evangelical and founded more churches than Calvinists, thus over time we became the majority, or  3) After reading the sacred oracles written in Scripture, having been enlightened by easier access to the original language...

 David Benedict says this in 1848 of the Strawberry Association in Virginia.  "Disputes about doctrines. At this session (1774), the Association was most painfully agitated, by the discussion of the following very serious and important question, viz. Is salvation by Christ made possible for every individual of the human race? One whole day was spent in debating this subject, and most of the preachers took part in the debate. Those who supported the affirmative were called Arminians, the other side were denominated Calvinists." Benedict records that the two sides reconciled when he said " By mutual concessions and explanations, a reunion of the conflicting parties was effected during the same meeting, and they retired from the scene a united body." Benedict does not record which side prevailed, and we can only assume that it was decided to allow for diversity of opinion, since neither party seceded and formed a new association. Whatever articles of faith the...

 The earliest record I can find for the Bethel Association in South Carolina are the minutes of 1791, but no articles of faith appear. The articles of faith I have included, come from an individual church within the association. Also, these articles are from the 1840's long after the Bethel Assn. was formed. The Bethel Assn was a Separate Baptist association, and Separate Baptists eschewed confessions and articles of faith, and said the Bible was a sufficient confession. Most of them did however, adopt articles of faith after 1800 as the United Baptist movement came to the fore.  So how do I come to the conclusion that Bethel was not a Calvinist association? First, the church whose articles of faith I will furnish, finally got around to writing something down, there was nothing that many Calvinist articles would have, such as a "definite number" clause. There is no hint of limited atonement. While perseverance is mentioned, "preservation" is also mentioned aka ...

 The Bethel Baptist Assn. in Georgia was founded in 1832, from churches in the Columbus Assn. founded 1829. Bethel was founded upon general atonement principles, and was Non Calvinist by today's use of the term. They continuously used their original articles of faith, written in 1832 well into the 20th century. Below are the articles of faith as printed in the 1895 minutes. (See pics) Spelling errors are original to the text. Not much proof needed for this association, it is obvious they were not Calvinists by today's definition. The articles of faith do not come close to stating total depravity, only that we suffer the consequences of Adam's sin, not imputed guilt. The phrase " the blessings of salvation are made free to all people" and   " God is no respecter of persons " shows their belief in general atonement., and election " is the gracious purpose of God " similar to how it is stated in the New Hampshire Confession. A "definite numbe...

 The Yellow Creek Assn. was formed from eight churches in the North River Baptist Assn. and one from the Aberdeen Assn. in 1860, after the North River Assn. had grown very large. It was agreed to divide the association and the result was the Yellow Creek Baptist Association, founded upon the same constitution and articles of faith as North River. By this time North River had adopted the New Hampshire Confession, but retained their original articles of faith as "clarification", and Yellow Creek did the same. (A short article on this can be read in"Baptist Migration into Alabama, by David E.Gregg) I will dig into the Aberdeen Assn. It is probable that they were not Calvinist, since one of their churches joined Yellow River, but also possible this church was a "misfit" among Calvinists, and decided to join Yellow Creek. North River, founded in 1832, was Non Calvinist beyond all doubt. For a history of the North River Assn., articles of faith, etc., see my article ...

 The Concord Baptist Assn, formed in 1832 out of an even older association, the Louisiana Association. Their articles of faith sound very calvinistic to today's ear. Let's look at their articles of faith.    Articles of Faith. 1. We believe in one only true and living God, and that he has revealed himself unto men under the characters of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  2. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God and are of divine authority and the only rule of faith and practice. 3. We believe in the fall of Adam, in the total depravity of human nature, and in man's inability to restore himself to the favor of God. 4. We believe in the everlasting love of God to his people, in the doctrine of election, and the perseverance of the saints in grace. 5. We believe that sinners are justified in the sight of God only by the imputed righteousness of Christ, which is unto all and upon all who believe. 6. We believe that there is o...

  Wills Creek United Baptist Assn. founded 1836. Churches from Wills Creek formed the Towns Creek Assn. in 1870.  The Wills Creek article on the subject of election reads as follows: " We believe in the doctrine of election by grace in Christ, and that God according to His foreknowledge, purpose and grace, chose His people in Christ, before the foundation of the world, thru sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth . (article 6) and " We believe the saints will persevere in and be preserved by grace and never finally fall away nor be lost." ( article 7 ) Now let's compare this to the Towns Creek article on the same subject, which states: " God working all things after the counsel of His own will, and all His works from the beginning being known unto Him, of course all that the Father hath given to Christ, through sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and belief of the truth will come unto Him, so that none of them will finally be lost. " (a...

 The Hiwassee United Baptist Assn. was formed in 1823. The Hiwassee Primitive Baptist Assn. broke away during the late 1830's, over the controversy of mission societies, and "new innovations" of the day not authorized by scripture. As I've mentioned before, most historians have claimed that all Primitive Baptists to be the most calvinistic of all Baptists. In my article on the Eastern Assn. of Primitive Baptists, we can see that isn't true at all, as they denounced Calvinism as heresy, not once, but twice in their history. When I stumbled upon the Hiwassee PB's. I immediately noticed their articles of faith were almost identical to the Eastern District PB's. I decided to contact them to see what I could learn. I spoke with Elder Bill Brown. He knew nothing of my research, nor of my contact with other Primitive Baptists. I asked about the Hiwassee articles of faith and asked if that meant they were Calvinists. He immediately began to laugh and said "Wh...

The Teays Valley Baptist Assn. in West Virginia was founded in 1812. Some churches still exist that were in that association, and are now affiliated with the SBC. No early documents can be found that I am aware of, but we can know what they believed by examining associations that sprang from them. One such association is the Old Zion United Baptist Assn. Elder John Sparks, a current United Baptist and historian, wrote a book entitled "The Roots of Appalachian Christianity" published by the University of Kentucky. In this book, he details Baptist history (and other sects) in Appalachia. The Old Zion United Baptist Assn., which split from Teays Valley, because they objected to Teays Valley's support of the General Baptist Assn. of Virginia. (West Virginia was still part of Virginia at that time). They also objected to mission societies, benevolent societies etc as did the Primitive Baptists. However they did not object to evangelization or missionaries, they just believed o...

 The Roan Mountain Baptists Association now known as the Mitchell Baptist Association, in North Carolina, is found to be Non Calvinist at its formation in 1849. The churches that formed the association came out of the French Broad Association, shortly after the ending of the controversy over "eternal election and reprobation". The French Broad Assn. adopted the articles of faith of the Big Ivy Assn. which reunited with them after the doctrine of eternal election and reprobation had been repudiated. The Roan Mountain Assn. adopted similar, but not identical, articles of faith as follows;  1. We believe in one only living and true God and that there are three persons in the godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are one in substance and equal in power and glory. 2. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God and the only rule of faith and practice. 3. We believe in the doctrine of original sin. 4. We believe in man...

In 1807, the French Broad Assn. was formed from churches in the Holston Assn.  Articles of Faith of the Holston Assn. are as follows:  Article 1 . We believe in the only living and true God, and that there are three persons in the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are one in substance, and equal in power and glory. 2. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God, and the only rule of Faith and practice. 3. We believe in the doctrine of Original Sin. 4. We believe in man's impotency to recover himself from the fallen state he is in, by his own free will and ability. 5. We believe that sinners are justified in the sight of God, only by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. 6. We believe the saints shall persevere in grace, and that they never shall fall finally away. 7. We believe that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances instituted by Christ and that true believers are the only proper subjects the...

 The North River United Baptist Association, founded in 1832 by Elder David Andrews and members of the Tuscaloosa United Baptist Association. Elder Andrews had been preaching the "Arminianism" according to some accusers within the Tuscaloosa Association. In 1818, Bethel Church was founded on general atonement principles, and Andrews was pastor of the church in 1832. Why was there a controversy all of a sudden? Bethel Church, being a member of the Tuscaloosa Assn., and knowing that United Baptists allowed differing views regarding Calvinism and Arminianism, allowed rigid Calvinists to join its membership. The Calvinists had become a majority and hurled charges at Andrews, and the church, by a bare majority of one, excluded Andrews and half the membership. As a result of the exclusions, the North River Assn was formed strictly on general atonement principles.They adopted the following articles of faith. CONFESSION OF FAITH. We believe the Scriptures comprising the Old and New T...