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His congregation was full of Calvinists. As Al Mohler has pointed out, the rise of Calvinism was the logical outcome of the battle Adrian Rogers (and others) waged for the Bible.

When I was challenged with the Doctrines of Grace by a friend I resisted. I was around thirty-five at the time and firmly believed what I had been taught by my parents, my pastor and my bible professors at Union. I engaged the debate purely as a thought exercise. But as I argued and debated my friend, I began to have doubts and decided I needed to study the matter in a serious way for myself. I had no intention of becoming a Calvinist. What I was really doing was studying so I could win the argument. I understood the profound implications of Calvinism so I was very reluctant. But I knew that the Apostle Paul said we all see through a glass darkly. I knew I could be wrong, so my continual prayer was for God to show me the truth from His Word. I decided that I would stand on the Scriptures, regardless.

Many of my fellow Bellevue deacons, choir members, and Sunday School teachers were Calvinists, too. There were even some on staff. Once I was convinced of the Doctrines of Grace I and admitted it to a friend, I was shocked to discover how many were sitting in the Bellevue pews with me. Everywhere I went I met another Calvinist. I had no idea Calvinists were teaching across the street at Mid-America.

Interestly enough, a few months before he died, Adrian Rogers told a friend of mine he was a four and a half point Calvinist. Though I didn’t hear the conversation, I am sure he struggled with the idea of particular redemption (limited atonement). (W.A. Criswell was also a four-pointer, as was J. Vernon McGee I believe). If you go back and listen to his preaching, Dr. Rogers clearly preached election, but he did not talk about it in quite the same way as most Calvinist pastors do. When I was initially studying the Doctrines of Grace I realized I already believed much of it based on what I had been taught by Adrian Rogers.

Many do not know that the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention were Calvinists. I did know it because I had taken Baptist history in college. There was a drift that coincided with the rise of dispensationalism and other factors.

When I first told my parents I was a Calvinist they were upset. My father had been a deacon for more than forty years and both of my grandfathers were as well. My great-grandfather was a Baptist pastor. It took years of working on them, but thanks to God’s grace, today both of my elderly parents are Calvinists, too.

A couple more things I forgot to say, one of the causes of the rise of Calvinism in the SBC was the installment of a Calvinist, Al Mohler, at the helm of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. That happened because of the Conservative resurgence lead in part by Adrian Rogers. It’s my understanding that Dr. Mohler would not have been chosen if not for Adrian Rogers direct involvment. Today Southern has many Calvinists teaching and they turn out scores of Calvinists each year.

But Southern isn’t the only seminary turning out Calvinists. Two of the strongest Calvinist preachers in the entire SBC graduated from Mid-America Seminary—Jeff Noblit and Roy Hargrave. God used men like Adrian Rogers and Gray Allison to raise up a new generation of Baptists who hold to the historic baptist theology of men like John Bunyan, John Gill, William Carey (considered the “Founder of Modern Missions”), Charles Spurgeon (the “Prince of Preachers”) and the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The week Adrian Rogers died, WCRV interviewed John MacArthur, a Calvinist, and his tribute to Adrian Rogers was quite moving.

I know a local Presbyterian pastor who was a friend of Adrian Rogers. He still speaks lovingly and often of Adrian Rogers. I once met Dr. D. James Kennedy, a staunch Presbyterian Calvinist to be sure. He got excited when he learned Adrian Rogers was my pastor and he raved about his love for him.

My point is that Dr. Rogers was not the enemy of Calvinism that some seem to believe. I am not the only Calvinist who loved Adrian Rogers.

The sermon linked below from 2002 was the one that finally broke through my father’s old Baptist heart on the matter of Calvinism.

Election - Pure and Simple (Jeff Noblit from Muscle Shoals)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx4BBgqokeI