Just Who Are Southern Baptists?
What the evidence has shown is that Southern Baptists are an amalgam, a great river that is fed by many tributaries. Broadly speaking, the Calvinistic leanings of the Particular Baptists and the Arminianisic leanings of the General Baptists are important historical tributaries into American Baptist life. More particularly, the Charleston tradition and the Sandy Creek tradition are two of the most prominent tributaries which flow into the Southern Baptist current. What is most characteristic of Southern Baptist life as a whole is to be neither fully Calvinist nor Arminian, but a mixture of both perspectives which has formed into a Calminian Baptist or traditional Baptist position which has found broad expression in Southern Baptist life from before its founding in 1845 to the present day. Southern Baptists as a whole have never affirmed a five-point Calvinist confession nor a five-point Arminian confession. There have been times that one perspective or another garnered greater attention and popularity to swing one way or another for a decade or so (and we are currently in such a time), but in the end the anchor has always held within this Southern Baptist majoritarian consensus. And I imagine that it will for years to come.
https://swbts.edu/sites/default/fil...57.2 History or Revisionist History Lemke.pdf
