To brother Jacobs I say thank you for your encouragement and support. We the editors of this blog are glad that we have been used by the Lord to edify many of the saints and perhaps have even been a means in bringing lost sinners to Christ.
About no comments on the series I did on the ordo salutis, I also have thought about the reason for no comments. I have had other series where I got comments, such as on one of the postings on the White Horse Rider. I even asked the readers, many of whom are Hardshell Baptists, to correct me if I'm wrong, as the above words I cite from me say. But, I wrote a short article titled No One Wants To Defend It in regard to this lack of rebuttal from the born again before faith folks. One preacher brother, a "Primitive Baptist," and I carried on a lengthy private debate via e-mail on this question and I wanted to publish it but he didn't want it published. Years ago I challenged James White to debate whether regeneration precedes faith. He declined. He thought I was just a protege of Bob Ross, a man who often took him to task over his affirming regeneration before faith. White is a good debater, except on this issue.
So, I agree with your conclusion brother Jacobs. They did not answer because they could not answer it. So, they lose the debate as you said. I was on the college debate team and know something about how to judge debates. If your opponent ignores your arguments, he automatically loses the debate on those arguments. In CEDA debate this is called "dropping" the argument, and you lose the particular argument you failed to respond to. We were taught to make a "flow chart" during the debate where we listed every argument given and the responses (rebuttal) in columns titled "first affirmative," "first negative," etc. A "drop" is where an argument no longer is rebutted, being no longer responded to, a kind of "giving up" on the argument. This is what the Hardshells have done in their dialogues with me.
Seventeen years ago when I first began writing in blogs, I began to get feedback from several Hardshells, who often would take pot shots and make nasty remarks about me, but who would not engage in gentlemanly and Christian discussion. Hardshell Jason Brown, who I respect, and I did carry on a debate in this blog back when we started this OLD BAPTIST TEST blog. You can read them for postings in the archives for the year 2011 into the year 2012. He even at that time started a blog titled "Primitive Baptist Apologist" - "A blog devoted to the excesses of Stephen Garrett's critiques of the Primitive Baptists." (See here) Well, who won the debate? He gave up and ended the debate. Further, he has not written anything in the above blog since he started it in 2011. He does periodically leave a comment but not in quite a while.
If any of the readers of my writings on any of my blogs read something they believe is a misinterpretation of scripture, I invite them to tell me so. We invite discussion from all our readers on any subject or text we write upon. I often wonder what our Hardshell brothers are afraid of when it comes to having a discussion on soteriology, the ordo salutis, or any other bible topic.
I sometimes close out an article by saying "what think ye?" I do that again. I desire feedback, both pro and con. I also invite brother Jacobs to write an article for this blog about his thoughts on the ordo salutis series or other articles on other subjects, and tell us about his religious affiliation. He can send them to me via email and I will publish them under his name. My email address is in my blogger profile.
1 comment:
I wonder if Bro Jacobs is Calvinist, Primitive Baptist or ??? That would be helpful to know. If he's a Calvinist (or PB for that matter) it would be interesting to hear his views. I have lately been pouring over old articles of faith of Baptists in the late 1700's thru early 1800's and both Calvinist and "low Calvinists" (general atonement, conditional election, eternal security) almost universally say "We believe God's elect will be called, converted, regenerated and sanctified". Even among the hyper PB's, these articles are the norm rather than the exception. I believe this shows even the 5 pointer Calvinist Baptists of the past believed faith precedes regeneration. The hardshells adopted Presbyterian doctrines that were never accepted among historical Baptists, and this is why they now embrace a false ordo salutis, time salvation, and the belief that regeneration occurs most often without conversion.
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