Ready to Harvest Commentary on PBs
A YOUTUBE VIDEO ON THE PRIMITIVE BAPTISTS
I listened to What are Primitive Baptists? by Ready to Harvest over my lunch break. The narrator does a fine job representing the beliefs of the specific Primitive Baptists to which he makes reference. As a result, it would not be of much use for me to provide a detailed commentary, since much of it would be me saying, "Agreed," over and over again. That said, there were a couple of statements that stood out to me that I'll comment on:
GOSPEL DISTRIBUTION
“Put another way, those who have never heard the gospel may be the elect and there is no need to tell them the gospel because they don’t need to believe anything in order to go to heaven.” (Ready To Harvest)
This re-statement of the PB position seems uncharacteristically crass given the accuracy of the rest of this commentary. PBs do not believe "there is no need to tell them the gospel" as stated here. We most certainly believe there is a need to tell them the gospel. However, that need has nothing to do with their eternal salvation. Rather it has to do with their temporal instruction and well-being in discipleship. Indeed, we are to make disciples of Christ and that is impossible without teaching the gospel to those who are ignorant of it. While he does mention "in order to go to heaven" in that statement, I believe this might tip his hand a little bit. Those who believe that hearing the gospel is a requirement for eternal salvation also believe that populating heaven is the main objective of gospel ministry. From that line of thinking, it follows that if populating heaven is NOT a gospel objective, then there is no need to share the gospel at all. That is NOT the PB position. We believe gospel distribution is needful for many things, but populating heaven is just not one of those things. The video entitled The Gospel and The New Birth speaks to this matter in some detail for those interested in hearing more.
REGENERATION
“Regeneration makes children of God, conversion causes them to become Christians. Regeneration brings people into a saving relationship with God; conversion then brings them into a serving relationship with God.” (Atlanta PBC)
Taken in isolation without qualifying context, this statement from Atlanta PBC might be misleading. I believe that what is intended by "Regeneration makes children of God" is that regeneration is the first instance of spiritual life for a child of God and is that which subsequently makes MANIFEST that one is a child of God. Both those affirmations are true. That said, children of God were chosen before the foundation of the world, which long precedes regeneration in time and is the cause thereof. It is for this reason that Paul says, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Galatians 4:6) Paul identifies preceding sonship (i.e., election) as the cause of both regeneration and the subsequent cry of faith in a child of God. I believe it is more accurate to say:
Election makes children of God by covenant.
Regeneration brings forth those children in spiritual life by birth.
Conversion makes disciples by repentance and obedience.
As for "Regeneration brings people into a saving relationship with God" - I believe what is intended by this statement is that regeneration is the start of one's spiritual life. One's cognition of their relationship with God is ever and always subsequent to their spiritual birth. I believe the statement has reference to the vital aspect of the spiritual Father/Son relationship. That is true, however, since the relationship is also a matter of covenant, and since the covenant precedes the new birth for every child of God, I believe it is better to state that "Election brings men into a saving relationship with God by covenantally codifying that they should be holy and without blame before him in love." So there is a covenantal relationship before the foundation of the world that establishes the relationship in the mind and purpose of God and this precedes the beginning of one’s vital relationship to God in time. That is admittedly down in the weeds and a little bit technical but it is needful clarification nonetheless.
SUMMARY
The summary Ready to Harvest’s video is quite good, IMO. I believe the statements he draws from MTZ, Macedonia PBC, Fort Wayne PBC, primitivebaptist.net, primitivebaptistsermons.org, et al, do a good job of accurately and briefly representing what I regard as the mainline PB position.
- Elder Daniel Samons