Dockery: Calvinism has roots in SBC history
Dockery located the beginning of Baptist life with the rise of English
Separatism in England. As Baptist life developed in England in the 1600s, Baptists divided between "General Baptists," with individuals like John Smyth as their leader, and "Particular Baptists." The Particular Baptists represented a more Calvinistic understanding of salvation, while General Baptists held to, as the name suggests, a more "general" understanding
of the atonement.
At the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention in May 1845, it would have been difficult to find leaders who were not Calvinistic in their theology, Dockery said. He distinguished between a Calvinistic denominational leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention and its less Calvinist laity. At that time, however, the question over Calvinism was not plaguing the newly formed denomination. Dockery drew attention to the Calvinistic leanings of the Abstract of Principles, a document written by James P. Boyce that would serve as a doctrinal weathervane for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which was founded in 1859 in Greenville, S.C., before it moved to Louisville, Ky. Boyce was president of Southern Seminary from 1859 to 1888.
the atonement
As Southern Baptists became more programmatic in the mid-20th century, Dockery said, "the SBC re-envisioned itself, largely ignoring the 19th Century roots."
It was during this time that Southern Baptist theologians like Herschel Hobbs began moving Southern Baptist theology "toward a modified understanding of predestination and foreknowledge. He [Hobbs] believed that God affirmed every free human choice in such a way that the choices are not predetermined." The "modified Arminianism" of Hobbs and famed pastor Adrian Rogers, Dockery said, stands in stark contrast to the 19th century Calvinism of Boyce, Broadus and Manly.