UNITED BAPTISTS IN GEORGIA

 Given my recent discovery and contact with United Baptists in northeast Alabama, it renewed my desire to see if could find any United Baptists in Georgia. The Towns Creek UB Association in Alabama had told me that they fellowshipped several churches in North Georgia that were similar in doctrine, that had descended from some United Baptists, but no longer used that name. As I was digging, I ran across the history of the Tugaloo Baptist Association in northeast Georgia. It is now part of the Georgia Baptist Convention and the SBC. However, it was founded as the Tugaloo Association of United Baptists. I have been searching for United Baptists (henceforth "UB's") for years, and wouldn't you know it, I found it right under my nose. The Tugaloo UB Association is the association that my grandmother's church is in, which is New Bethel, constituted  in 1870 formed out of Nails Creek, constituted 1794.

This is also of great interest, because this association was definitely a Calvinist association, with some quirks. Let's looks at their original articles of faith that pertain to election and perseverance.

Article 3 states "We believe in the doctrine of eternal particular election." Article 7 states "We believe that God's elect shall be called, converted, regenerated and sanctified by the Holy Ghost." And article 8 "We believe the saints will persevere in grace and never fall finally away."

Here we can see the litmus test I give to articles of faith to try and discern how calvinistic a group may have been. Article 3 qualifies in my book as the "certain number" clause, or limited atonement that I look for in Calvinist articles because of the word particular, while article 7 is the calvinistic associations' equivalent to "through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth", the article found in nearly all non Calvinist or Provisionist articles. Article 7 would also rule out the regeneration before faith doctrine. In my opinion, this association was founded as a calvinistic one, and lends further proof to my theory that United Baptist associations kept their individual theologies in tact, and wasn't the "mixture" that many historians say they were. Some associations however were a mixture of both Calvinist and Non Calvinist ("Provisionists") and Arminians, as was the Georgia Baptist Association, which was a Separate Baptist group and never adopted the "United" name. However they were definitely United in practice, so much so that they allowed all three types of Baptists into the association. This has led me to wonder why there ever was a "United Baptist" movement, as the Separate Baptists already tolerated a variety of views.

So what about those quirks I mentioned in the Tugaloo Association? Here are some things recorded in their minutes, but not much explanation. In 1824, the Tugaloo Association received Jesse Mercer (Calvinist) and Adiel Sherwood (Provisionist) to seat, and both men took the "stand" and preached, along with a black elder, named Posey. Here we can see that they allowed Adiel, a non predestinarian elder to preach, from the Georgia Association. (See my article "A Short History of the Georgia Baptist Association."). It is strange though, that they allowed this, on several occasions, yet they declined to correspond with the Georgia Association year after year. Why?

The next "quirk" found among the queries to the Tugaloo UB Association, was also in 1824. The query asks "What is to be done with a preacher who declares himself to be  Separate Baptist, and has no fellowship with those who hold the doctrine of election?" Answer "A minister making a public declaration of such principles should be dealt with according to the gospel, and should he not give satisfaction, excluded."

Why is there no explanation of how this came to be? The answer sounds more like a Regular Baptist response than a United one. Was said minister a Calvinist who turned non Calvinist? And why is the title "Separate" equated with general provisionist?  Was he excluded for being a general provisionist, or because he refused to fellowship Calvinists? He obviously came from that very association. Did the Tugaloo fellowship non Calvinist associations yet strictly adhere to calvinist principles within the association itself? They obviously allowed non Calvinists to preach, as in Adiel Sherwood. Also why did they say the minister did not hold to the "doctrine of election" instead of saying "particular election" when every non Calvinist articles of faith clearly state they believe in election, yet interpret it differently?

Another question that may be asked, is whether Parkerism or two seedism was coming to light, since Daniel Parker was licensed to preach by a Tugaloo association church, but not ordained. Parkers "Views on the Two Seeds" was published just two years later in 1826. Was this a reason that there began to be some defections from predestinarian distinctives? When the mission controversy appeared, they lost very few churches. Also, it can be proven that churches formed within the association after the Civil War, were Provisionist or non Calvinist. Did the whole association drift away from Calvinism, or did the SBC become the defacto union of United Baptists, thus eliminating any need for individual articles of faith by associations, with each church free to preach its own views?

About this time, many totally Arminian Baptists who had been Separates, formed their own United Baptist associations. In 1829 Elder Cyrus White published a pamphlet opposing unconditional election and limited atonement called "A Scriptural View of the Atonement", which also argued against unconditional election, and eternal security. Although he was never excluded from any association, as the Separates tolerated such views, many thought it best to organize the United Baptist Association and soon after in 1835 the Chattahoochee Association of United Baptists, which were free will or Arminian.. All these UB assocations were in the Georgia Baptist Convention. It wasn't until the Southern Baptist Convention was formed, that the Arminian, or Free Will Baptists declined to participate.  It was then that  they changed their name to "United Free Will Baptists", later forming their own state convention in 1890, called the Georgia State Convention of Liberal Baptists, and by 1900 had over ten associations. In the 1930's they joined the National Association of Free Will Baptists, their equivalent to the SBC.

All of this proves that there were many Arminan Baptists among both the Separates and Uniteds, that were not the result of the Free Will movement by either Benjamin Randall in New England or Paul Palmer in the South. The northern Randall line of Free Will Baptists merged with the Northern Baptist Convention in 1910 when they greatly softened the calvinistic doctrines they formerly held to in the Philadelphia Confession. The Palmer line remained its own entity and many Free Will churches from the north who refused to merge into the Northern Baptist Convention joined the southern line. As noted above, the Free Will United Baptists joined both those groups at the formation of the national Free Will Baptist Association. 

The Tugaloo Association is the first UB association I have found that seems to have been completely Calvinist. Obviously there were more but what happened to them? Maybe a majority went with the Primitives. Maybe many who went into the SBC, dropped the exclusive articles of faith after joining, allowing each church to decide for itself what doctrine they believed. Maybe that is why the first SBC confession in 1925 was based on the New Hampshire Confession which was worded in such a way that many views could tolerate. However, the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message seems to have done away with unconditional election as it said salvation was "conditioned on faith." This may have been amenable to any Calvinist who believed faith precedes regeneration, but would have alienated those Calvinists that held to regeneration before faith. If any current United Baptists out there happen to read this article, please don't hesitate to contact me, I'd love to talk!