TENNESSEE RIVER BAPTIST ASSOCIATION ( NC) NOT CALVINIST

 The Tennessee River Baptist Association was founded in 1830. Although much information about its churches is included in The History of the Tennessee River Baptist Association by J.S. Smiley, 1893, no comments are made about its theology except for their articles of faith which are 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.


2. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God and the only true rule of word and practice.

3. We believe in the doctrine of original sin. 

4. We believe in man's incompetency to recover himself from the fallen state he is in by nature, and that justification in the sight of God is only obtained by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. - 

5. We believe in the doctrine of election through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.

6. We believe that saints shall persevere in grace, and that none of them shall ever fall away and be lost.

 7. We believe in the resurrection of the dead and a general judgement, and that the punishment of the wicked and joys of the righteous shall be eternal.

8. We believe that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances instituted by Christ, and that true believers are the only proper subjects thereof.

9. We believe the only true mode of Baptism is Immersion.

10. We believe that none have a right to administer the ordinances but Ministers of the Gospel regularly ordained to that office.

Aside from the the wording in article 5, which is found in hundreds of Non Calvinist articles of faith, we have another clue as to the theological persuasion of this association. In the life sketch of Elder Humphrey Posey, a founder of the Tennessee River Association, we learn that he also aided in the formation of the French Broad Association. This information is also found in The History of the Tennessee River Baptist Association by J.S. Smiley, 1893, page 83, pic below. The French Broad Association was definitely Non Calvinist, You can read about it here. 

I believe we can safely conclude that this association was Non Calvinist. Their articles of faith follow the same pattern and dozens of other Non Calvinist associations. The key phrase for Non Calvinist Baptists is "through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth." This means they believed "belief" brought you salvation, not a predetermined election. For other Non Calvinist assocations that have that identical wording see here, and here and here and here and here . Below are pics of the original book of their history showing the articles of faith.


 





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