BETHEL UNITED BAPTIST ASSOCIATION (MO) NOT CALVINIST

 The Bethel Association of United Baptists (Missouri) , organized in 1816. You can read the basic history by William Polk in History of the Bethel Association written in 1856 here. Articles of faith are as follows;

 1. That the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the infallible word of God and the only
rule of faith and practice.
2. That there is only one true God, and in the God Head or divine essence there are Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
3. That by nature we are fallen and depraved creatures.
4. 1'hat Salvation, Regeneration, Sanctification and Justification are by the life, death, resurrec-
tion and ascension of Jesus Christ.
5. That Saints will persevere through grace to Glory.
6. That believers Baptism, by immersion is necessary to receive the Lords Supper.
7. That the Salvation of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked will be eternal.
8. That it is a duty to be tender and affectionate to one another and to study the happiness of the
children of God in general; to be engaged singly to promote the honor of God.
 

These articles are very similar to most articles adopted by United Baptists during the attempt to merge Regular and Separate Baptists into one body. However, cooperation did not last long. When the mission/antimission feud erupted, the veil was lifted from many Calvinists, which revealed their true doctrines, and most all United Baptists broke fellowship with calvinistic doctrines during this time. While there are still quite a few United Baptist associations today, none are calvinistic. Most hold to eternal security, but many are Arminian.  As an example of the declarations against Calvinism as a whole, read this from the Bethel Association;

 "Elder W. M. Polk, long a minister in Bethel Association, was one of the strong combatants against this heresy. He declared parkerism to be Fatalism; two seed-ism, anti-nomianism,very much akin to universalism, licensing men to carry out their wicked designs, dishonoring God, and giving the devil the honor of fathering a great portion of the worId of all mankind." Truly the men who advocated this doctrine were generally found hindering every progressive steps of the churches, such as Sunday School work, mission efforts and better education for the God-called and church ordained ministers.
There is a homely saying, "When it rains it pours" ,this pictures the trouble and heartaches of the
United Baptist Churches from 1803 to 1845." This is from the Central Missouri United Baptist Assn. history, page 42, by Elder W.W. Handy. You can read it here. This is also found in A History of the Baptists in Missouri by R.S. Duncan (1832-1909) page 69 here. R.S. Duncan was the son of Elder Lewis Duncan, a Non Calvinist Baptist who you can read about in my article here.

All those who remained "United Baptists" after the mission/antimission split, still agreed that mission was a necessity. They were however against boards, and societies and felt that missionaries must be sent out by their local churches, who would have knowledge of the doctrines they would teach, much like Independent Baptists today.  Elder Handy's history says "We readily agree this plan would not meet the approval of the "Two-Seeders" led by Daniel Parker and some of the "Hyper Calvinists"who held on to the predestination theory, but surely the rank and file of the United Baptist people would be loyal supporters. (page 46) Notice how Elder Handy equated predestination with Hyper Calvinism. In this you can see, that while predestination is not "Hyper Calvinism" this sentiment shows that in the past, it was seen as one and the same. 200 years ago, you could be a "Calvinist" and NOT believe in Calvin's predestination doctrines. The term was used with a much wider variance back then, and this is why most believe all Baptists were Calvinists, when in fact, they were not. The term "Calvinist" 200 years ago simply meant "not Arminian". Today we have more terms from which to draw, and while our theology has not changed, terminology certainly has changed.

Statements of excluding Calvinists from among the United Baptists came about as the result of hyper Calvinist Elder Daniel Parker's "two seed in the spirit" doctrine which says that Satan is eternally self existent, and is "god" along with the God of Jesus Christ. All men are either the offspring of Christ or of Satan, and those of Christ are the elect. This bears some resemblance to elements of Mormonism. While most Calvinist associations rejected this as heresy, strains of it remained, especially in the Calvinist (Hardshell) faction of Primitive Baptists. This, along with the new doctrines among Hardshells, such as having faith in Christ is not necessary or even probable to be "elect", and that regeneration occurs without knowledge of Christ, and may even occur among those who reject Him, and that the gospel is not meant for the alarming of sinners, as most cannot believe anyways, caused all Non Calvinist United Baptists to declare that "these doctrines are the logical conclusion of Fatalism (Calvinism), therefore, we exclude, disfellowship and warn all those holding to that system, that heresy is in its very fibers." (from the Declaration of Exclusion of the United Baptists of Georgia, 1845)

Most United Baptists went into the SBC. About 70% of the associations which formed the SBC, originally were called "United Baptists".