Hardshell Silence & Father's Words

In the posting Hardshell Silence Speaks Loudly back in December, 2016, I spoke of the near total lack of engagement with us at The Old Baptist Test blog regarding the errors of the "Primitive Baptists." As an addition to that short posting I want to make mention of some words of my beloved father, Elder Eddie K. Garrett Sr.

A few years ago I was involved with Dr. Mack Griffin, God rest his soul, here in Monroe, N.C. He was the head of a small seminary and a group of several Baptist churches that supported it. One of those churches, Crossroads Baptist Church, is where I had my membership for a few years. Dr. Griffin and I became close friends as I studied intermediate Greek under his tutorship and as I taught a class in the seminary. I recall vividly Dr. Griffin with another elder journeying with me to the campus of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky where I had a debate on the campus with Campbellite John Gentry. I remember this event because my father and sister drove down from Ohio to attend the debate. Father and I stayed in one motel room and Dr. Griffin and Dr. Babaa in another room. During the days we all had many discussions about Bible doctrine and I can recall those discussions to this day.

Prior to this debate I had been having heated discussions with Dr. Griffin and members of the churches associated with Dr. Griffin and the seminary here in Monroe. I used to call father and we would talk about these disagreements. One of the grave errors of Dr. Griffin and the churches here was their practice of baptizing in the name of Jesus only, their refusal to say "in Jesus name" when they ended prayers, and their denial of the Trinity and belief in Modalism. I did not know these things about them when I first began to associate with them, but as I began to hear them preach these things I began to engage them on the issue. I used to make arguments to Dr. Griffin and the brethren, from scripture, that to my mind completely destroyed their Modalism. Many times they would simply remain SILENT and give no response to my arguments. Of course, I knew why. The arguments were not answerable. In scripture language, their mouths were stopped. (Titus 1:11) I recall asking father this question - "what do you think of people who, in debate, refuse to respond to arguments?" His reply was - "because they can't answer them." I agree. Now to the point.

I have had the same thing happen in the numerous debates that I have had with the Campbellites. Many arguments that I made against their heretical doctrines were blatantly ignored. I know why and so do others. It is the same way with the Hardshells. This blog and the Baptist Gadfly blog are full of arguments against the Hardshells and to this day, only one person, Jason Brown, has attempted to respond to those arguments. For the most part the Hardshells have remained silent towards what we write here, and their silence says a lot! Does it not? Recalling father's words, it is "because they can't answer them."

Come on my Hardshell brethren, engage us here! What have you got to be afraid of? What could you possibly lose? Though we may press our points in debate, especially when they are ignored, we will still treat you kindly as brothers in Christ. Further, we are always open to be corrected if wrong.