Is the SBC president a Calvinist?

Others may give a definitive answer. My guess for the last truly Calvinistic SBC president would be E.Y. Mullins.

Ken

[ November 22, 2002, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: Ken Hamilton ]

 

1) No.
2) No.
3) Probably Mullins. 1921-1924.

Just a note: Mullins was a "Calvinist", but his emphasis upon experience opened the door to great modifications in Baptist theology.

Out of curiosity, why do you ask?

[ November 22, 2002, 11:37 PM: Message edited by: Rev. G ]

 

This is from www.founders.org/FJ19/article1.html -

The clear and precise commitment of Southern Baptists to Calvinism diminished rapidly after the time of Mullins. Preachers and teachers began to dismiss even the remnants of Calvinism remaining in Mullins. Dale Moody's The Word of Truth gloried in the fact that it was the first theology by a Southern Baptist completely to dismiss all "five points" of Calvinism, including Perseverance of the Saints. Nothing more antithetical to the position of Dagg and Boyce, indeed to their entire understanding of the spirit and fabric of the Christian faith, could be produced. Herschel Hobbs, in his reworking of Mullins's Axioms of Religion, focuses on man's freedom over God's sovereignty when he pictures God's activity as limited simply to offering "every incentive." "The final choice," however, "lay with man. God in his sovereignty set the condition. Man in his free will determines the result."

[ November 22, 2002, 11:37 PM: Message edited by: Ken Hamilton ]

 

Yes, I remember reading that article in the Baptist Slandered for the first time. It still gives me heartburn.

Rev. G

 

John Piper spoke on a week-night last year at Prestonwood (to the college & career crowd). So, perhaps the folks at Prestonwood are at least "friendly" to Reformed folks. I just don't honestly know.

Rev. G

 

Especially telling in this quote from the Baptist Standard article - "While Mohler makes much of the presumed change in direction at Southern Seminary from Broadus to Mullins, "the only true progression you see between Broadus and Mullins is the de-emphasis on Calvinism," Lefever said.
This change was in keeping with the changing view of Baptists at the time, he added."

So I guess these modern leaders of the SBC believe that the theology upon which the SBC was founded was in error. Or else, they have no problem with changing one's theology to "keep up with the times" regardless of what is taught in the Bible.

Also, this is a really snide remark in the article - "but had we continued in the Boyce/Broadus tradition, we would have remained a racist Southern sect."

And, of course, the usual strawmen are set up by the non-Calvinists - "For one thing, they could not accept the damnation of infants", "Carroll was a 'modified Calvinist,' who was followed in the presidency by L.R. Scarborough, a 'whosoever will may come' evangelist."

Not exactly a balanced article on SBC history. But I doubt it was meant to be.

Ken

 

I had the author for the first half of church history. He stated, "Augustine and Pelagius were both committed Christians who disagreed on some things," or words to that effect. Of course, he wrote a biography on Carroll and completely discounts the Colossus' theology.

Rev. G