Dear Michael
Where to start, where to start.
I think these were from you, or at least they were mentioned in some discussions you participated in.
The first errant observation I noticed was that Primitive Baptists divided from Southern/Missionary Baptists. Nope. I have seen this put out in print other places, but it just ain’t so. Most of our folks would argue that it is the other way around, and have good reason to state that. To this end, our folks still practice in a way Baptist Churches operated before the onslaught of the Wesleys and Methodism. Baptists before about 1800 had nothing called Sunday Schools, Primitive Baptists still don’t, Missionary Baptists do. Most Baptists at one time subscribed to the Philadelphia or London Confessions of faith, Missionary Baptists changed theirs, we didn’t. Many Primitive Baptists still use the legal name “Regular Baptist,” this is especially true of churches established prior to 1865. The Church I originally joined, prior to moving away from the area, was established as the “Regular Baptist Church of Jesus Christ on Big Helton Creek.”
That being said, the churches I am familiar with, here in the east, for the most part ante-date Missionary Baptist Churches in the same neighborhoods, and were never part of the Southern Baptist Convention, and their parent and grandparent churches weren’t either, so, how could we split out of something of which we were never a part? A good number of churches in this area can trace their heritage to and through the Welsh Tract Church in Newark, Delaware, which is still a Primitive Baptist Church, was formed in Wales and came to America en masse in 1703. Some of us still have some correspondence and limited fellowship with our Particular Baptist brethren in England and Wales. This waned considerable over time because of distance, but those that remain there and here are pretty much the same, even to this day.
The second issue, and I am not sure whether you said it or not, is that Primitive Baptists are hyper-Calvinists, and thus heretics. Whether or not we are heretics, God will judge, and I don’t believe we are. Certainly no more heretics than many other Christian denominations, and certainly not as heretical as others. For example, most of the folks I know feel much more kindly toward Presbyterians than some other Baptist groups would like. As for myself, If I were not a Primitive Baptist, I would be a Presbyterian.
On to the major issue, our folks would tend to resent being labeled Calvinists. We rarely use the term among ourselves. We are in agreement with the five points of Calvinism, and I find no shame in that, and no I am not going to argue the points of it. One of these days I might, but not today, not up to it. In this thread, don’t remember exactly where now, would have to do a search, and I am writing this off line, we were accused of believing of double predestination. Nope, it ain’t so. We believe that at some point in what we consider time, God chose a people out of every kindred, tongue and people on the face of the earth, and that he made a way to reconcile himself to those through the blood of Christ. Most of us believe that host will be beyond our ability to count, and we can count pretty high.
Someone in this same thread brought up the term “hardshell” or “hardshellism” it wasn’t you to the best of my memory. We have sorta embraced this term, though it wasn’t meant originally to be one of flattery. As I understand it from some of the older folks it was applied to us for excessive use of the scripture where the angel came to Joseph and told him, “Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for she SHALL bring forth a son, and thou SHALT call his name Jesus, for He SHALL save his people for their sins.” I believe that she, Mary, did bring forth that Son, and that He was called Jesus and he did (already, past tense), save His people from their sins. If believing that makes me a hardshell or more properly a hard shall, it is perfectly fine with me. (Seeing a more militant side of me yet?)
I think in this same thread, I am referring to, you noted that we were nearly gone for believing what we believe. Perhaps so. Our fathers and grandfathers reacted in some ways they shouldn’t have to the changes they saw happening in the early 19th century, and maybe they went to far the other way. But if the truth were known, we are about as numerous now as we were then. It appears from reports that such isn’t the case, but from our internal guesses we have about 75,000 members in white congregations in the United States, and about 50,000 in African-American congregations. Are we sure of the numbers, no. Many of our churches are no longer in associations, and don’t report their membership statistics to anyone. In 1886 our preeminent church historian, Sylvester Hassell, estimated there were 100,000 Primitive Baptists. So, we have slipped some, and a lot of our congregations are old, and a lot are not. That said, we are different from many churches in that we have lots of folks who attend regularly who are not members. We would estimate among ourselves that our members and friends would amount to about 250,000 folks. Some of the slipping in numbers comes from lack of enough ministers to keep all the meeting places open. Some comes from our folks allowing their children to attend Sunday School with their friends, and be swayed away from the faith of their fathers. We should be much stronger than we are.
Of late their has been a resurgence in Calvinism among non-Primitive Baptist Baptists – the Founders movement in the SBC, the increasing number of Reformed Baptists and Sovereign Grace Baptists, the Calvinist types among the IFBs, so it isn’t really so much a doctrinal thing that keeps us down. It is somewhat internal to us the reason for some of this. Our folks have a habit of turning the other cheek when some one says something about us that isn’t true. Often we have let others answer for us, who don’t have any clue about what we believe. And frankly some nut-cases have appropriated our name, and folks associate all Primitive Baptists with the odd theories and beliefs of a few. Note some of the questions at the beginning of this thread (I’m not saying those asking the questions are nuts, but there is apparently considerable disinformation about us out there).
And with that I fear to have rambled on entirely too long.
With respect, your friend, but apparently a heretic.
Jeff.
