Sunday, September 28, 2014

Philippine Brother Confronts Hardshellism

A brother in the Philippines (a place where some Hardshells have carried their cult teaching) wrote a blog post titled "My Encounter with PBs in Antipolo" (SEE HERE).  This same brother left the following comment on my blog posting of Chapter 7 - "Time Salvation - A Novel Idea" (SEE HERE):

"I appreciate this BLOG against PB heresy very much. It lessened the time I had to be with them to know what I should before I oppose."

We appreciate this comment very much and lets us again know that our writings are helping some who confront this cult.

On his blog, this brother wrote:

"I attended a conference of Pastors of the Old Line Primitive Baptists in Luzon, and saw their demeanor, beheld their doctrine, and asked them questions."

Boy, would I love to have been there and asked a few questions also! Actually, no Hardshell wants to answer apologetically to such questions!

The brother continued:

"This is to see for myself and hear for myself what they have to say regarding our doctrines, and what they really teach in agreement with each other."

In that encounter, they teach that we Sovereign Grace Landmark Baptists preach a tainted gospel because they insist that all of us do not believe in spirit regeneration."

In other words, because a church doesn't believe in the Hardshell idea of "immediate regeneration" (anti-means, or anti evangelical faith) or "Spirit alone" regeneration, it is not a legitimate church and therefore all it does is to be rejected, including its baptisms. Ironically, the ancestors of the Hardshells, including all the leading founders of the "Old School" or "Primitive" Baptist cult, believed in means, that evangelical faith was necessary for being eternally saved.

What this brother is seeing, though he does not expressly say it, is that the Hardshells are a cult.

The brother continued:

"Because of this tainted gospel, according to them, we are not saved, in a temporal sense (they can not say who really is saved eternally) and because of this we have false authority and therefore we are false churches and have to be rebaptized by their line of churches."

Only those who embrace Hardshellism are members of the church of Christ and enjoy temporal salvation. Again, a cult characteristic.

The brother continued:

"It is good to discern, study, go deep, but when a man or a church would consider churches of God as unchurched, unsaved, based solely on the strictest definitions of doctrine, I believe they are dividing and dissecting the doctrines too much and are forming conclusions which will never end divisions and confusions."

All I can say is "amen"! I thank God that this brother was able by grace and the work of the word and Spirit to see the cult status and heresies of those who boast that they are the "only ones," the Lord's favorites.

The brother continued:

"In my analysis, when American teachers of the PB kind divide and separate from each other, Filipino PBs also follow suit."

He was able to see how the Hardshells are schismatic, strifeful, and full of rivalry. He sees how such actions betray the Spirit of Christ.

The brother continued:

"I must therefore warn our brethren about hearing their teachings. (We also brother at the Old Baptist Blog!) Many are good teachings but some go to the extreme of telling you, you are not in the right church, come to our church and be baptized by us and you would be right with God."

Again, he simply describes the Hardshell spirit and their cult mentality.

One person commented:

"Know their history and you can destroy their foundation."

Boy, is that not the truth?! I have been putting out information on their history for years and all I can say, after all these years, is that no Hardshell has had the courage to step up and give an "apologia" for their beliefs and practices, and deal with their false historical claims.

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