Featured Calvinism and the SBC (a 2013 discussion between Hankings and Mohler)

Hankins: "even with a PhD in theology, I had never worked that through" [soteriological positioning]

Makes me respect "scholars" even less than I already did before

 

Mohler: "it's disingenuous to act like we're shocked" [that people embrace an opposing theology which fits comfortably within the Baptist Faith and Message]

I couldn't agree more

 

Absolutely. And that's probably the one thing which dishearetens me the most about this argument at seminary/scholarly level.

People who have doctorates seem more concerned with a philosophical view of the implications than they are what the scriptures teach.

That kind of mentality should never pervade the thinking of a so-called scholar

 

What is interesting is that many persons seem to not like the term calvinism itself, and yet when you press them on what they believe, many would line up more with its basic tenets than against them.
Also, many seem to equate "bad calvinism: as being a high end one such as Hyper cal, but those seem people tend to make even "5 pointers" as being Hyper, which we are not!

 

Most SBC Traditionalists are what I call "Calvi-lite"

Holding a soft (or watered down) view of Total Depravity, and a soft view of Perseverance of the Saints, and then rejecting the sovereignty aspects of the Unconditional Election and Irresistible Grace, and flat rejection of Limited Atonement. Like a chiastic structure.

Very inconsistent, to say the least.

But Hankins acknowledged that "non-Calvinist" theology in the SBC has always revolved around Calvinism

 

I wish Hankins would have talked more, though

 

Many wish to have eternal security of the saints, and yet to have that established, they would have to hold to other points also!

 

If they see security through a Calvinist viewpoint, they really need the whole shootin' match through the same viewpoint. I agree

 

He seems to just be repackaging classic arminian theology, around the term of it being the Baptist package of sotierology!

We can read the scriptures and never find the term Trinity in it, not Bible, but are the truths not there yet?
And How can God will to save all persons by the Cross, and yet find more lost than saved it would seem?
And why this fixation on free will still?

 

I am not saying that only Calvinists are saved, but just that if one wants to hold to say 3 points, have to hold really to all 5!

 

I understand what you're saying.

I'm just saying that I've interacted with enough people who identify as "SBC Traditionalist" that I can see a watered down version of the T and P

Total depravity is "rejected" in favor of a mere propensity toward sin inherited from Adam, a so-called sin nature. But that's not really a rejection, just trying to soften it and make it more palatable. But it's ambiguous, and nobody wants to get specific as to what constitutes a nature or how to define it.

Then a light version of Perseverance of the Saints is embraced, and a feeble attempt to change it to "Preservation". But that's nothing but an attempt to male it less about what a man is doing and more about what God is doing in a believer.

But that's nothing but an attempt to bookend a philosophy which appeals more to emotional understandings of sovereignty and responsibility

 

I've been hesitant in the past, to embrace doctrine systematically, because of that. We're trying to comprehend the incomprehensible, fathom the unfathomable, and understand the One who sits higher than the heavens. Every system of doctrine runs into difficulty in the face of scripture, and we'd all be wise to acknowledge it more.

I agree. So much talk about Calvinist takeovers and hidden agendas from Calvinist seminary grads not revealing themselves in full (Hankins spoke to that issue). I really think some of that goes back to the seminaries, too.

I've asked, though, who are all these inept people who are making up "pastor search" committees? Who keeps appointing people to look for pastors, when the people have no idea about doctrines which differentiate?

Systemic failure, I suppose.

I think there's just a general philosophical air pervading society at large, and it's become impossible to get people back into a "scripture first" mindset. And they're going in and out of seminary unchanged (except that they've learned languages, history, and business modeling)

 

That's a very good point, and one that gets little to no consideration.

 

It is interesting though to see from the time of say the reformation forward, just how mean Biblical sound theology has come out from reformed/calvinistic/ and Baptist who held to most of those viewpoints, and contrast that with the theology, or lack of, among those who would be expressing more of the full free will aspect to salvation.