Did you know that the original Baptist confession of faith disagreed with you
Chapter 9: Of Free Will
1. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil.
( Matthew 17:12; James 1:14; Deuteronomy 30:19 )
2. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it.
( Ecclesiastes 7:29; Genesis 3:6 )
3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.
( Romans 5:6; Romans 8:7; Ephesians 2:1, 5; Titus 3:3-5; John 6:44 )
4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that by reason of his remaining corruptions, he doth not perfectly, nor only will, that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.
( Colossians 1:13; John 8:36; Philippians 2:13; Romans 7:15, 18, 19, 21, 23 )
5. This will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the state of glory only.
( Ephesians 4:13 )
www.reformedreader.org/ccc/1689lbc/english/1689econtents
Arminianism came late to Baptists. They, although not “Protestants’ in the sense they did not protest Rome... still found the doctrines of Grace in their scriptures
“Did you know that the original Baptist confession of faith disagreed with you”
The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, found in updated language here:
http://www.grbc.net/about_us/1689.php
is not the original baptist confession of faith. It also doesn’t account for the being two types of Baptist - Particular and General. And example of a General Confession of Faith, from 1612, is found here:
http://www.reformedreader.org/ccc/acof1612.htm
I don’t agree with it all, either. However, there have been two camps of Baptists - Particular (because the believe in Calvin’s interpretation, with God atoning a particular group of people), and General (they believe the atonement was meant for anyone who receives it). General baptists preceded Particulars, but not by much, and the latter have outnumbered the former...at least in theory. The SBC, for example, comes from a Particular tradition, but most of the members I’ve met have been General.
A good article written from a Particular viewpoint is found here:
http://www.reformedreader.org/history/pbh.htm
“Arminianism came late to Baptists.”
Well, I’m not arminian, either. However, general baptists were at least as early or earlier than particular baptists...but with each congregation being fully independent, it is kind of hard to know. The pastor where I go claims to hold to Calvin’s PD, but preaches as if he does not...
Also, see the timeline here:
http://www.reformedreader.org/btimline.htm