Primitive Baptists and Absolute Predestination
STATEMENT
Please be honest enough to tell the world that not all Primitive Baptists deny absolute predestination. As a matter of faith, during the split that led to the origin of Missionary Baptists or the New School Baptists, those who stood their ground for pure primitive worship - all of them believed in the ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION OF ALL THINGS. Can you deny that Elder Gilbert Beebe was a Primitive Baptists? Did he not preach and publish the ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION OF ALL THINGS? And as for the charge that the doctrine of absolute predestination makes God the author of sin, I will have you know that even the doctrine of election and reprobation makes him no less than the same. (Anonymous)
RESPONSE
First off, thanks for taking a moment to provide your thoughts on the matter of Primitive Baptists and Absolute Predestination. My line-by-line response follows...
Please, be honest enough to tell the world that NOT all Primitive Baptists deny absolute predestination.
It is an incontrovertible fact of church history that some ministers who preached under the Primitive Baptist moniker believed in the Absolute Predestination of All Things (APOAT). We are always dealing in generalities when we use labels like "Calvinist" or "Primitive Baptist" to discuss their theological variances and some exceptions are expected. To be clear, I do not deny that there are “Absoluter” Primitive Baptists nor do I make any particular effort to obscure that fact, but neither should you uncharitably and baselessly accuse me of dishonesty in the matter.
As a matter of faith, during the split that led to the origin of Missionary Baptists or the New School Baptists, those who stood their ground for pure primitive worship --- all of them believed in the absolute predestination of all things.
It is impossible to substantiate the claim that "all of them believed in the absolute predestination of all things" in the Calvinistic sense that is often implied by that statement. We simply do not have the data to make a determinative case.
Can you deny Elder Gilbert Beebe was a Primitive Baptists?
Elder Gilbert Beebe was most certainly a Primitive Baptist. He was also an Absoluter from my understanding of his writings. What’s more, I believe he was wrong in his Absolutism. Being a Primitive Baptist, even a prominent and influential one, does not eliminate the possibility of error. Primitive Baptist Elders, yea even apostles, can be wrong about things. This truth is codified for us in the New Testament (Galatians 1:6, 2:11).
and did he not preach and publish the ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION OF ALL THINGS?
He most certainly did preach that doctrine and publish that work, so far as I can tell. It was also regarded as somewhat controversial among the Primitive Baptists as evidenced by its handling in Hassell's History.
And as for the charge that the doctrine of absolute predestination makes God the author of sin, I will have you know that even the doctrine of election and reprobation makes him no less than the same.
Neither election nor reprobation make God the author of sin so far as I can tell, unless the latter is conjoined with APOAT wherein God causes men to commit sin against Him in opposition to His own revealed will. I submit that if God does that he is a house set against Himself. The Lord declared that such cannot stand. So we can be certain that God is NOT actively and directly causing men to sin against Him as a matter of divine decree, because, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:5b)
What’s in a name?
One thing upon which all Primitive Baptists (whether Absoluter or otherwise) should be should be fully agreed is the biblical fact that merely possessing the Primitive Baptist moniker (or, by extension, an unbroken church pedigree) is NO GUARANTEE that one’s doctrine is the truth. Many errors arise from the false premise that "If I can find a Primitive Baptist who believed some thing in the past, then this thing must be true” and its evil twin “if you can’t produce a PB who wrote something in support of what you believe, then your doctrine must be false.” Nothing could be further from the truth (Galatians 1:6). The Lord’s New Testament church, which today exists under the Primitive Baptist moniker, is an institution composed entirely of sinners and sinners are woefully inclined to error (James 5:19-20). Errors exist, not just in the evidently wayward denominational world, but also within the Lord's Primitive Baptist church as well. While I believe the Primitive Baptist church is the closest thing that one will find to the doctrine and practice of the bible on this earth today, this does not mean that it is without error and need for correction. Primitive Baptists who think themselves above the possibility of error are either wrapped in vain traditionalism or they possess a myopic view of church history. This indisputable fact of revelation is found in the manifold errors in doctrine and practice in the Lord's true New Testament church that the apostle Paul both chronicled and sought to correct. The churches of Galatia and Corinth were undeniably Old Baptist churches, yet they had many in their assemblies who were DEAD WRONG on a variety of doctrinal issues. I would invite you to consider a brief treatise on the matter that I wrote a while back entitled the Second Galatian Confession of Faith and to consider the ramifications of that essay as it relates to the beliefs of any particular Primitive Baptist in the history of the Lord's church.
Pointing out that a heavyweight 19th century Primitive Baptist minister believed in the absolute predestination of all things is NO PROOF that this is the doctrine of the New Testament church; regardless of his prominence or church pedigree. By the same logic, an appeal to the Second Galatian Confession of Faith would undermine that salvation is by sovereign grace on the basis that some earlier Primitive Baptists in Galatia believed another gospel (Galatians 1:6).
I offer that for your sincere consideration. May God bless our studies and understanding of his word.
- Elder Daniel Samons