THE STOLEN CHURCHES OF THE KEHUKEE BAPTIST ASSN. (N.C.)

 The Kehukee Baptist Association is generally believed to have been organized in either 1765 or1769 and without doubt those churches were General Baptists in faith and practice. These churches were founded by Paul Palmer, a leading General Baptist. The Philadelphia Baptist Association sent "missionaries" Peter Van Horn and Benjamin Miller south to North Carolina to "visit the churches and preach the Gospel." Their mission was to churches, not to the masses moving into the southern Colonies. These two "missionaries" were specifically sent to Free Will churches begun by Palmer in order to "Regularize" them. This means turning them into Regular/Calvinist Baptists.

 In "A Concise History Of The Kehukee Baptist Association" it says 

 Through their instrumentality [Van Horn and Miller], many people were awakened; many of the members of these churches were convinced of their error, and were instructed in the doctrines of the Gospel; and some churches were organized anew, and established upon the principles of the doctrine of grace. These churches, thus newly constituted, adopted the Baptist confession of faith, published in London in 1689, containing thirty-two articles, and upon which the Philadelphia and Charleston Associations are founded. […]

THUS, by means of those ministers who visited the churches, several were reformed, and the work of reformation progressed, until the greater part of what few churches were gathered in North Carolina, both ministers and members, came into the Regular Baptist order. [...]

The churches thus reformed, although but few in number, entered into an association compact about the year of 1765, and first convened at Kehukee, from whence the Association took the name of the “Kehukee Association.” Thus, being formed in a body, they corresponded with the Charleston Association; and in this situation they continued some years, until the year 1774, when an alteration took place...¹

 So here we can see the "missionaries" were not sent to preach the gospel to the lost, but were specifically sent to "calvinize" General Baptist churches. Knowing that many on the frontier had no formal education, they took advantage of this, claiming that the General Baptists had baptized anyone who desired baptism, without a proper profession of faith. Was this the case? Or was it that they didn't have the "correct" confession of faith?

Even after the churches were "Regularized" many within them refused to embrace the Calvinist system. The pastor or Flat Swamp Church, John Page, had to continually tend with half of his church holding to general Baptist principles. On page 97 of the History it says "And although his church at times, was greatly distressed on account of a division amongst them, by reason of Armenianism and Universalism (general atonement), yet Elder Page appeared always steadfast in the Calvinistic doctrine".

When the Kehukee Association sought union with the Separate Baptists, the Separates declined for the very same reason that the Regulars had objected to when converting Kehukee to Calvinism!. Elder Sylvester Hassell said this;

 "These Separates objected to the Regular or Kehukee Baptists in the following particulars: 1. Because they did not require strictly from those who applied for baptism an experience of grace. 2. Because they held members in their churches who acknowledged they were baptized before conversion. 3. Because they indulged too much in superfluity of apparel. The most forcible objection of all appeared to be the retention of members who had been baptized in unbelief; and this was admitted on the part of the Regulars to be wrong; on which account several of their churches sought to correct it, by requiring all such of their members be baptized. This course gave offense to some other churches, who opposed the reformation; and, as a consequence, the churches at an Association held at Falls of Tar River, in October, 1775, divided; a part of them holding their session in the house, and the others in the woods, both claiming to be the Kehukee Association."

In 1753, a answer to a query from within the Philadelphia Association, the association affiemd that one who is unsure of hos salvation should still be baptized.

 1753 1. Query from the Church at Kingwood:
"Whether the assurance of faith be absolutely necessary in order for admission to baptism?
The judgment of this Association is: It appears to us, both from scripture and experience, that true saving faith may subsist where there is not assurance of faith. - Therefor, in answer to the second query, That a person sound in judgment, professing his faith of reliance on Christ for mercy and salvation, accompanied with a gospel conversation, ought to be baptized"

Ironic isn't it? The Regulars were found guilty of the very same infraction that they accused the General Baptists of holding! How many times did the Regulars infiltrate and take over Non Calvinist churches in order to "reform" them? How many times has this happened in modern times? Just as in the past, many Calvinists send "missionaries" to convert other Christians to Calvinism, rather than converting sinners to Christ.

 With a back door works system of "fruit inspection," which judges people's salvation based solely upon external practice, Calvinism places limited emphasis on the need for a heartfelt experience. The practices of Calvinist legalism tends to obscure such experiences. Without heartfelt religion, these brethren were forced to focus solely on manifestations of obedience which they interpreted as acts of righteousness. Thus, people were led to a mistaken assumption that works alone were reliable indicators of unmistakable and irrefutable evidences of grace.This is nothing more than back door Arminianism. Calvinism requires "works" to prove election, while Arminiainism requires works to maintain it. Neither can be certain of their election.

1. Burkitt, Lemuel, Henry Lemuel BURKITT, and Jesse Read. A Concise History of the Kehukee Baptist Association, from its original rise down to 1803... Revised and improved by Henry L. Burkitt.(Appendix. Biography of Elder Lemuel Burkitt and his family, by Dr. Wm. PA Hail.). Lippincott, Grambo & Company, 1850. pp. 15-17.

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