I have over many years written extensively on Hardshell errors in doctrine, but have delayed any large apologetic writings on two grave errors of today's neo Hardshells, one in Eschatology, and the other in regard to Bible translations and "KJV Onlyism."
Problem Areas in Theological Science
Historically, the "Primitive" or "Old School" Baptists have had great difficulty in certain areas of Bible doctrine. In my many writings I have addressed these areas and difficulties. A short description of these will be first given before I address particularly the above two named areas of theological difficulty.
Theology & Christology
Originally there were severe difficulties over the doctrine of the Trinity, having people who espoused Sabellian and Arian heresies, and many who argued for numerous errors regarding the sonship and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, some even arguing for a creation of the human soul, body, or nature of the man Christ in eternity past.
Today nearly all Hardshells deny the omnibenevolence of God, his love for all, and insist that God has no loving kindness or good intentions towards those not chosen to salvation. The impenitence of the non-elect and their eternal death is not the least displeasing to God. God does not will that all men in general believe and acknowledge all his revelation to men.
Originally many believed that God did not create the Devil or the fallen angels, believing that they had a separate existence apart from God's creative act, thus denying that God was the Creator of all things.
Many Hardshells have traditionally misunderstood the eternal acts of God or his decrees, having gone to extremes, some affirming that God makes men commit each sin, willing them to do so, denying all second causes or contingencies, while others so whittled down the doctrine of the decrees (predestination) as to deny God's sovereignty.
Ecclesiology
There are numerous errors in this area of doctrine, such as the denial that the church of Christ is a missionary body, that the great commission was given to the church, that the church militant must have a visible chain link succession of sound churches back to the days of the Apostles, i.e., their "Landmark" errors, "patternism," etc.
Hamartiology
Chief among errors in this category of doctrine are their ideas about the nature of man in its fourfold state. As far as the original state of man, many of them, believing that Adam was not made in any sense a "spiritual" being, and this being the case, they argued that man was not originally capable of performing "spiritual acts." They erred in not perceiving that "spiritual" most often refers not to a physical characteristic "essence" of a human soul or body, but to a moral quality. This error was a leading cause of errors in discerning the nature of the change involved in spiritual renewal and birth.
Soteriology
The errors in this area are numerous, involving nearly all the five points of Calvinism. I have dealt quite extensively with these, involving chiefly their conception of the salvation process from new birth to final glorification. Their denial of means in rebirth, of the necessity of gospel faith and conversion for final salvation, of the need to persevere as part of God's preservation, are examples of these errors. Many of the first Hardshells, under "Two Seeder" influence, also erred regarding the doctrine of election.
The two areas where the above named two errors are located are in:
1. Biblical Theology
2. Eschatology
The KJV onlyism of today's Hardshells concerns what the Hardshells say about the written revelation of God, or the Bible, and thus goes under the doctrinal sub title of "Biblical Theology." I have wanted to certainly include a series of chapters on this issue in my mammoth work "The Hardshell Baptist Cult." The Lord willing, I will be doing this writing in the near future when I have finished other undone series.
The numerous errors of the Hardshells regarding "Eschatology" and regarding interpretation of prophecy are great and have been alluded to previously by me in other writings. But, I have not yet written extensively on this topic. I want to do so as it is very important. So, the Lord willing, these two errors will be fully dealt with in the coming months.
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