Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Tracing Hardshell History

This posting is closely aligned with these postings:

"Nooses Around The Neck" (here)

"Change In Traditional Interpretation & It's Significance" (here)

"Hardshell Lies About Their History" (here)

 "An Analysis Of 19th Century PB Leaders" (here)


The Battles Among The Old Schoolers

(after separation from Mission Baptists)

1. Trinitarianism

involving these errors

- Arianism

- Sabellianism

The non trinitarian views were championed by Elders Samuel Trott, Gilbert Beebe, and Wilson Thompson and the periodical "Signs of the Times" and those holding those views came to be known as the "Beebe Old School Baptists."

Those who opposed the Arianism and Sabellianism of the above named elders were James Osbourn (the chiefest), John Clark (who wrote a book against these errors of the Beebe Baptists), John Watson, etc.

2. Eternal Vital Unionism (or "Two Seedism" in general)

involving these errors

- the nature of regeneration or rebirth

- eternal children (of both Christ and the Devil)

- non Resurrection of the bodies

- denial of the second coming of Christ in person

3. Means in Regeneration and Rebirth

involving these questions

- whether faith in Christ and repentance (conversion) are requirements for salvation

- what is the nature of saving faith

- what does it mean to hear God's voice in salvation (in the internal call)

4. Absolute Predestination Of All Things

involving these questions

- the extent of the divine decrees

- the nature of free will 

- God's permissive will

- whether God be in any sense a "cause" of moral evil

- looking at all the first Hardshell periodicals it seems clear that all believed all things happen according to God's will, decree, sufferance, or predestination

- a faction arose that denied the absolute predestination of all things and these became known as "limited predestinarians" or "conditionalists."

5. The Great Commission & Missions

involving these questions

- whether the church, apart from the ministry, are under the Commission

- whether the commission was fulfilled in the first century by the apostles

- whether the church has a duty to teach the bible by Sunday Schools and Bible Classes

- whether the church has a duty to provide means for the education of ministers (support seminaries)

- though many opposed individual or church responsibility for the great commission, yet not all, and so was a matter of dispute in later years

6. Musical Instruments in Church Worship

involving these questions

- do the scriptures authorize them?

- should the issue be a test of fellowship (orthodoxy)?

7. Sunday Schools & Bible Classes

- first Hardshells generally opposed them because it was new in Baptist history and not specifically mentioned in scripture

- after a few years many Hardshells began to see the need for such and to promote them but they continued to be a point of dissension 

This list and outline could be improved, expanded, etc., but thought I would put this "first draft" out there now, for "the time is short."

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