EASTERN DISTRICT ASSOCIATION OF PRIMITIVE BAPTISTS (VA) NOT CALVINIST

To date I have found many Primitive Baptist (PB's) associations who were not Calvinists, some even calling it heresy. The reason many historians teach that all PB's are highly Calvinistic, is because the non Calvinist ones gradually rejoined their Missionary Baptist counterparts as their opposition to mission societies softened, The Non Calvinist portion of PB's, adopted Sunday Schools, musical instruments, revivals and other church activities that the Calvinistic PB's rejected. As an example, read the further down in this article from the Eastern District Association of PB's.

Originally organized in 1835 as the Mulberry Gap Association of United Baptists, the Eastern District Association was organized in 1848 with the first meeting being held at Blackwater Lick (Big Door), when they broke away from the Mulberry Gap United Baptists over "new innovations not warranted by scripture", namely mission societies and anything beyond the associational level.. They adopted the exact articles of faith of the Mulberry Gap Association of United Baptists.

Original Articles of Faith 

1) We believe in the only true and living God, as he is revealed to us in the scriptures, viz: by the Father Son and Holy Ghost
2) We believe that the scriptures of the old and new testament are the word of God and the only rule of all saving knowledge and obedience
3) We believe in the doctrine of Election according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth
4) We believe in the doctrine of Original Sin
5) We believe in man;s impotency to recover himself from the fallen state he is in by his own free will and ability
6) We believe that sinners are justified ion the sight of God only by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ
7) We believe that the saints will persevere in grace, and never finally fall away
8) We believe of a truth that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation that feareth him, and worketh righteousnes is accepted with him.
9) We believe in the revealed religion of Jesus Christ internally in the soul.
10) We believe that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of Jesus Christ, and that true believers are the only subjects of these ordinances and that the true mode of baptism is by immersion.
11) We believe in the resurrection of the dead and a general judgement.
12) We believe that the punishment of the wicked will be everlasting, and the joys of the righteous will be eternal.
13) We believe that no Minister has the right to the administration of the ordinances, only such as are regularly called, and comes under the imposition of hands by a Presbytery.
 
These articles may sound calvinistic to today's reader. However, not only were the Eastern District Primitive Baptists not Calvinists, they were ANTI Calvinist and called Calvinism HERESY. How do I know? read this query from Flat Rock Church Virginia, and the response from the association. 
 
 
"Can we fellowship the doctrine known as Calvinism, or is it heresy?" (page 11 of the Query Book) The answer was "...fellowshipping the doctrine known as Calvinism, or limited atonement, or fatalism, which we believe to be heresy, should be rejected...we do not believe God created the mass for destruction or...that God left them in their helpless state without offered mercy. And we have no fellowship with that doctrine that God foreordained all things that come to pass, even as some claim that God has predestined all the wicked acts of men, and yet holds them guilty. This compared to the teachings of Christ is a grievous error not to be tolerated by the saints of God. We believe what God has predestined will come to pass."
 
The Hiwassee  Association of Primitive Baptists, Original Tennessee Association of Primitive Baptists, Beulah Association of Primitive Baptists, as well as the associations they split from during the mission/anti mission split, all have the almost identical articles of faith. Note the phrase "through sanctification and belief of the truth" found in so many Non Calvinist articles of faith. I have yet to find an association having this phrase in their articles, that turned out to be Calvinists by today's usage of the term.
 

original document can Be seen here on pg 4 of the file. See attached pics of the Query Book and response to Calvinism.

 
 
 
 







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