The Founders Movement and Billy Graham

Primitive Baptists identify themselves as adhering to the original or “primitive” faith once delivered to the saints both in doctrine and in practice. As such we remain committed to the notion of defining and defending our beliefs solely on the foundation of scripture. So when we hear of our brothers and sisters in Christ among the Southern Baptists promoting a notion they call the Founders Movement - it gets our attention, because Primitive Baptists have long contended that the doctrine and practice of modern-missionary-style-Baptists is very much the result of their departure from the doctrine and practice of the first century church described in the New Testament. Having examined their writings, however, I find that their well-meaning efforts at reforming the SBC are fundamentally flawed and contradictory. Let's take a look at what I mean by that.

Paul Washer on the Importance of Seminary EXAMINED

This video endorsement of The Master’s Seminary by Paul Washer was recently called to my attention. I must admit that I have mixed feelings about Washer. While his preaching on the subject of depravity is among the best I’ve ever heard, I have found that this is radically offset by numerous instabilities and doctrinal errors found elsewhere in the popular brand of Calvinism he promotes, the foremost being the suggestion that though Jesus Christ only died for the elect, that the is nonetheless sincerely offering eternal life to all of humanity, including those for whom he did not die. In the following video, Washer goes on to reveal a host of other instabilities lurking in his particular flavor of “reformed” theology.

Early Church Fathers Sampler

In my discussions with other professing Christians, I often encounter those who employ quotes from the early church fathers as a means of establishing the truth of some doctrine or practice. It seems as though a great many Christians believe that if you can demonstrate that some first or second century, post-apostolic Christian believed some particular thing, and documented it outside the canon of scripture, that this somehow establishes that this particular belief is correct beyond any further dispute. But let me say this very, very clearly so that there can be no misunderstanding on the matter:

The early church fathers were a cornucopia of error and confusion that are often at great variance with the word of God, which alone is able to throughly furnish us with respect to matters of doctrine and practice. (TETH)

Was Every Man Given to Jesus?

The bible establishes that the Father gave a people to Jesus Christ (John 6:37) and that Jesus Christ covenanted to save those people (John 17:2,11, 24). It follows that we stand to gain a great deal of understanding about the covenant of salvation by answering one simple question - Was every man given to Jesus? (wherein "every man" = "all of humanity") Based on the aforementioned covenant promises that Jesus Christ has entered into regarding this given people we should start with two observations.