CONCORD BAPTIST ASSOCIATION (KY) NOT CALVINIST

 The following is an excerpt from the circular letter of the Concord Baptist Association, Owen Co. Kentucky, from the minutes of the 21st session in1841. This association was founded in 1820.

"  She (the church) may preach the gospel, by using means to place the word of life within reach of every individual, not only in our own land, but by sending it abroad upon every breeze until it shall have found access to every family that dwells upon the wide domain of earth, and until its healthful and ameliorating influences shall have flowed through the veins of every government under the sun, and until Paganism, Mohamedanism, and every species of idolatry, shall have fled from the earth, before the celestial light. Each member of the church must bear a part of this burden of preaching sustained by the whole, and must also, himself, be a constant and zealous preacher to those around him, by his daily walk and conversation. In this sense, the humbliest saint that holds a place in the house of the Lord may be a preacher."

If the above is taken in a literal sense, and the wording seems to be how it was intended, then this association simply could not have been Calvinist. You can read the entire letter here.

More below from the circular letter of 1840, the full version can be read here;

" Ah, brethren we are sure that you well remember all these things, and we prayerfully and tearfully exhort you to renew and keep alive first love [blurred] Salvation of the whole human race - let your bodies and spirits and your wealth become willing instruments in the hands of the Lord to spread His Gospel in every land, kindred and tongue, and cease not making efforts to produce this happy result till it be fully accomplished." 

If the Concord Association was praying and working for the "salvation of the whole human race", and for a conversion of the world to the point where "every species of idolatry shall have fled from the earth" it seems reasonable to conclude that any man woman, boy or girl was within reach of Christ's atonement, and that it was offered for the "whole human race". There is simply no way any Calvinist could conceive of a salvation for the whole human race, and an eradication of paganism and idolatry by the conversion of the entire world.  I am confident that this association was not Calvinist by today's usage of the term. 

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