More On The Three Stage Model Of Birth

"While the doctrine of some Old Regular Baptist would be in harmony with the majority of Primitive Baptist today, others among the Regulars hold to a more modified Calvinism, this difference led to the light is life split that took place in the Union Association. This division soon spread to other associations brought on by requests sent to them from the Union Association, resulting in the isolation of the Mud River Association, and the formation of the Bethel Association, other associations like the New Salem, chose not to divide over this issue, often churches and associations and even Elders are distinguished by which side of this debate they are on, those that hold to the doctrine that an individual is first begotten or quickened into life at the start of their travail, are called the "hard shell side" of Old Regular Baptist or the Old School, [this appears to be the original view of the first Regular Baptist in America] those who hold that life starts at the end of their travail (repentance) are called the "soft shell side". Today the debate is still among the Old Regular Baptist along with when one receives faith, men and women's dress, the receiving of divorced members, the doctrinal differences over hope and knowledge." (See here for the rest of the posting titled  "The Original Paradigm")

In this posting, and in others here in this blog, I have shown how this view was the predominate view of the first generation of "Primitive" or "Old School" Baptists. This view was later mostly discarded when the anti means heresy took over the denomination. The anti means faction would not in any way make spiritual birth to be accomplished by the communication of the word of God.

This view rejected the idea that some of the "begotten" (regenerated) would fail to come to the "birth," to the deliverance from the guilt of sin experienced while in "travail" in the womb of conviction. God was as much at work in converting (birthing) as he was in regenerating (begetting), in this view. However, the anti means faction could not accept this, and instead taught that though God's work in regenerating was efficacious and irresistible, his work in conversion was not, but depended upon the free will and merit of the regenerated.

Remember too that many of the forefathers of the PBs called themselves "Regular Baptists," such as Elder Lemuel Potter.