Regular Baptists

Status
Not open for further replies.
JM

JM

Puritan Board Doctor
The Baptist Bulletin » What Does It Mean to Be a ‘Regular’ Baptist?
by Jeff Brodrick

In 1790, the same year the United States generated its first Federal Population Census, John Asplund compiled his Annual Register of the Baptist Denomination in America. Having a great desire and the wherewithal to have “travelled about 7000 miles, in about 18 months, chiefly by foot,” Mr. Asplund recorded for the very first time a comprehensive list of Baptist churches and associations in America.1 This Baptist census is interesting because the author described the greatest number of Baptists in America as “Regular,” one of the first times this label occurs in early American print. Who were these Regular Baptists?
Click to expand...
 
Eventually the name “Regular Baptist” became somewhat generic and no longer necessarily designated particular atonement beliefs.
Click to expand...

The General Association of Regular Baptist Churches has affirmed a moderately Calvinistic statement of faith based on the New Hampshire Confession (1833). Its use of the word “Regular” has never been a direct reference to a particular view of the atonement; rather, it stems from the later, more generic meaning of the word. By the time the GARBC was formed in 1932, the Modernist Controversy had split the Northern Baptist Convention into several factions. Regular Baptists held orthodox beliefs in an era when some Baptist churches were highly irregular. This meaning of “Regular” was clear from the beginning, when Howard Fulton preached his seminal sermon “What Regular Old Fashioned Baptists Stand For”
Click to expand...

Seems like a revisionist history of the GARBC. In 1988, Dr. Kenneth H. Good wrote about the origin of the GARBC in these words:

It seems fully evident that this young Baptist association, at its very inception, intended to declare to the world that it was both Calvinistic in soteriology and the 'heir apparent' of the historic Philadelphia Association in America and the Particular Baptists in England. Inasmuch as the Free Will Baptists had been absorbed into the Northern Baptist Convention only twenty-one years before the separation and oganization of the GARBC out of the parent body, this strong insistence upon the standard Calvinistic statements of faith by the young association has a significance. The relationship between Arminianism and Liberalism was well known to the 'founding fathers.' They desired to declare themselves free of both forms of heresy.
Click to expand...

Kenneth H. Good, Are Baptists Calvinists? Backus Book Publishers: Rochester, New York, 1988 (page 171).
 
It might well be...

The near extinction of the General Baptists, coupled with the expansion of Particular Baptists, especially through the labors of the Philadelphia Baptist Association (org. 1707), probably gave rise to the Particulars becoming the Regular Baptists.
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_Baptist

some more interesting reading...

The preamble of the Sandy Creek Church Covenant reflected Calvinistic theology. Stearns could probably be regarded as Calvinistic, but the Sandy Creek Baptists and most other Separates were not systematic theologians. They rejected creeds and sometimes also even eschewed confessions of faith. They typically offered a more prominent role to women in their congregations than did the Regular Baptists. Reflecting this disdain for theological discussion, Daniel and Martha Marshall's son, also a Separate Baptist pastor and acknowledged "low Calvinist," stated that he refused to "wade in such deep water" as the doctrine of predestination. Likewise, some Regular Baptists feared that the Sandy Creek Separatists drank from the Arminian well and thus hastened to send missionaries or leaders like Gano to test their theology.
Click to expand...

The influence of Calvinism on colonial Baptists: an ongoing argument emerging in the past decades of Baptist life revolves around the theological origins of early Baptists generally, specifically in America, and the role that Calvinist theology playe
 
Interesting thread, especially in light of the fact that yesterday my brother and I visited the grounds of a Regular Baptist Church here to look at a huge oak tree that had fallen in a storm last week. We're going to probably limb the monster for the firewood, then a mill will come and get the trunk for lumber.

This Church was established in 1810, and it sure appears to be the original building.

Back about 12 years ago I had called them when I was first looking for a reformed Church to attend, and the man I spoke to, a deacon, had no idea what I was talking about, so we looked elsewhere. My brother knows the Pastor, who helps run a rescue mission where he volunteers. I'd be interested in talking with him and hearing about their history and where they are doctrinally.

Thanks for the links, everybody.
 
For those of you in the east, the name on the building may not necessarily relate to anything believed by those inside of it. There are some "Baptist" churches in New England, for instance, with unitarian board members and pastors. I know a gay man married to his partner pastoring an ABC church in MA and a lesbian married to her partner pastoring another one named "Trinity." Over time, most Baptists in the major denominations followed the slide into Arminianism. Only in the SBC under the Founders' movement and at Southern under Mohler have there been any significant shifts back to the original particular (Calvinistic) Baptist doctrines. I am unaware of many in the ABC who would hold to the Doctrines of Grace, regardless of the name on the building.
 
DMcFadden said:
For those of you in the east, the name on the building may not necessarily relate to anything believed by those inside of it. There are some "Baptist" churches in New England, for instance, with unitarian board members and pastors. I know a gay man married to his partner pastoring an ABC church in MA and a lesbian married to her partner pastoring another one named "Trinity." Over time, most Baptists in the major denominations followed the slide into Arminianism. Only in the SBC under the Founders' movement and at Southern under Mohler have there been any significant shifts back to the original particular (Calvinistic) Baptist doctrines. I am unaware of many in the ABC who would hold to the Doctrines of Grace, regardless of the name on the building.
Click to expand...

Good point. However, my comments were with respect to the history of GARBC churches.

The OP quotes an article from the "Baptist Bulletin," which is the official publication of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC).

I don't have any problem distinguishing between the ABC churches, and the GARBC churches. However, what I find lamentable, is the way this article referenced in the OP seems to have "revised" the historic position of the GARBC as I learned it some 30 years ago.

It is interesting to go back and look at the beliefs of the early founders of the GARBC (like Dr. H.O. Van Gilder, Dr. R.T Ketcham, Dr. K.H. Good, and others of that time) Five Point Calvinists, all! And in their papers is evidence that they chose the word "Regular" deliberately because of its historic connection with the Particular Baptists.
 
At this point in time, however, the GARB has a dispensational hermeneutic and pretrib rapture in their official doctrinal statement.
 
They have always been dispensational and pre-trib even going back to their founding in 1932, the point however, I was trying to make is that at one time they did hold "officially" to the doctrines of grace with respect to soteriology.

It seems this "revisionist article," however is trying to indicate that the use of "Regular" in their name simply points to their not being "liberal," and has no bearing on their historic position regarding Calvinism.

I wonder what Dr. Van Gilder would have said to that. :eek:
 
I left the GARBC (and the area fellowship "NRBFC") in 1983 (or 84), and really haven't "looked back."

Suffice it say, the lack of Calvinistic preaching from the pulpit, and teaching in seminary classes is a more recent development. We lamented years ago, though that the historic position of GARBC was becoming more and more a minority position. For many years the NRBFC retained a majority of Calvinist pastors, but even 25 years or so ago, the marginal 4 pointers were getting a foothold.

However, I remember when the folks at Clark Summitt, PA taught the doctrines of grace, and our pastor (and the majority of pastor in the Notheast Regular Baptist Fellowship of Churches) proclaimed the five points from the pulpit.

This article from the Bulletin has shown me how far they gone.
 
Last edited:
Cotton Mather said:
PD,
Definitely interesting. I attended college at BBC in Clarks Summit. They've had a few strong Calvinist's in their history including Carter, Brown, and more recently Dan Cruver and Colin Smith who recently passed away. The current president is a self proclaimed 4 pointer, a hardline Dispensational, and very very very embarassed about speaking publicly on total depravity, unconditional election, and irresistible grace. He's more of a politician than a college president, and avoids doctrinal controversy at all costs. Even when some of the professors have embraced both a Willow Creek mentality and a more post-modern/emergent bent, he silently resides over his presidency without a word. Books by Brian McLaren, Rick Warren, and other such wonderful theologians have been utilized as standard materials for classes. Without any confessional foundation, the school is destined for failure. The seminary is the same. I was frightened when I heard the list of doctoral dissertations on subjects like "Sunday School Methodologies Applied to the Brazilian Mission Field" and other such nonsense. The seminary is very utilitarian in their philosophy of education. One professor is actually an open "post-modern" of sorts whose theological heroes include Stanley Grenz, Roger Olsen, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, and others. The situation is dark, and I'm happy to be done with the nonsense I've experienced.
Click to expand...

:offtopic: but I used to go to Soccer Camp at BBC in Clark's Summit.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top