Clark & Holmes on Predestination

The following was posted on a blog that I follow and authored by R. L. Vaughn called "Ministry and Music - Seeking the Old Paths." It can be read here:

http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com/2011/12/clarke-and-holmes-on-decree-of-god.html

"Clarke and Holmes on the decree of God"

""The decree of God is that whereby God hath from eternity set down with himself whatsoever shall come to pass in time. Eph. i. 2. All things with their causes, effects, circumstances and manner of being, are determined by God. Acts ii. 23, Acts iv. 28. This decree is most wise; Rom. xi. 33; most just; Rom. ix. 13-14; eternal; Eph. i. 4-5, II Thess. ii. 13; necessary; Psa. xxxiii. 2, Prov. xix. 21; unchangeable; Heb. xi. 17; most free; Rom. ix. 13; and the cause of all good; Jam. i. 17; but not of any sin; I John i. 5. The special decree of God concerning angels and men is called predestination. Rom. viii. 30." -- Introductory to articles of faith evidently written by John Clarke and Obadiah Holmes for the baptized church of Christ in Newport, Rhode Island. I'm not sure when this was written, but sometime before Clarke's death in 1676. Typed as recorded in John Clarke (1609-1676) Pioneer in American Medicine, Democratic Ideals, and Champion of Religious Liberty, by Louis Franklin Asher, p. 117; This is a clear expression of what the English and American Particular Baptist believed regarding predestination."  (emphasis mine SG)

John Clark and Obadiah Holmes were pastors of the first Baptist church in America.  Notice that the first Baptists in America were not of the modern Hardshell type, for they say that "all things that come to pass in time" are the result of God's decree and determination.  Yet, they also said that God was not the "cause" of "any sin."  Surely by "cause" they meant the immediate or direct cause of sin, that he was not the culpable cause.  They certainly could not be said to be rejecting the idea that God is no "cause" in any sense without contradicting themselves.  God decrees and determines a thing but does not cause it in any sense?  Doubtless the denial that God is the "cause" of sin simply meant that God is not the "author of sin," and doubtless Clark and Holmes believed that all things are predestined.  They also differentiate between special and general predestination.