Those baptists were not calvinists. They believed in the doctrines of grace, but they were not followers of Calvin. Calvin was not where they derived their doctrine from and certainly not their practice. Why should we thank Calvin for a contribution to the group most responsible for religious freedom when he made no contribution to them.
I'm surprised that someone who rattles on about others being ignorant cannot understand the difference between the system of belief derived from Calvin and the system of belief derived from the bible. They are not synonomous. Sometimes Calvin was right, but there were times he was dead wrong and when people claim historic baptists were Calvinists they leave our forefathers in the faith wide open to the same attacks which are rightfully hurled at Calvin's doctrine. I'm willing to bet those baptists weren't high on Calvin, weren't thanking Calvin when the bill of rights was adopted, and didn't consider themselves his followers.
Again, it was the Baptists who fought the good fight. Other groups would have been happy with a church state. The baptists, who alone had been persecuted by everyone else at various times, knew that such a situation would leave them in persecution yet. Thank God for the baptists, not Calvin.
Finally, this whole thread shows a certain shallowness of thinking. If one believes in election and predestination then people are apt to label that person a Calvinist. That's nonsense. True Calvinists, the ones who agree wholeheartedly with the doctrine and practice advocated by Calvin, will tell you that one cannot be a baptist and a calvinist. Baptists are not Calvnists and they never have been. Baptists in the past and still today held doctrinal beliefs that sometimes agreed with Calvinists, but that doesn't make them Calvinists. A Calvinist is one who follows Calvin. I don't follow Calvin. I follow what the bible teaches. The bible teaches election, predestination, particular redemption, etc. Sometimes Calvin agreed with the bible on those things, sometimes he did not. There were men before, during, and after Calvin who were in total agreement with the bible and were right where Calvin was wrong. It is they who I identify myself with, not Calvin.
