Elder Hosea Preslar (Primitive Baptist)

Elder Hosea Preslar

1814 - 1877

This elder wrote a book titled:

"Thoughts on Divine Providence: Or a Sketch of God's Care Over and Dealings with His People, Together with a Concise View of the Causes and Effects of the Late War in the United States"

I have this book in my library. I bought my copy of it about 1977 in the book store of Cincinnati Primitive Baptist Church. I have cited from his book in several postings through the years. (See here, here, here). He lived at first in Anson County, North Carolina, the county adjourning my own (Union county), although at the time of his birth Anson County covered most of North Carolina, and as time went on new counties were formed out of it. He immigrated with his large family to middle Tennessee and was aided by Elder John Watson, a learned medical doctor of the time, specializing in obstetrics. Elder Watson published his final revision to his book "The Old Baptist Test" right before his death in 1866, with the help of his fellow minister and doctor, Elder R.W. Fain. Preslar's book was published in 1867. 

After the death of Watson, Hosea moved back to North Carolina and became part of Lawyer's Spring Primitive Baptist church which he had previously been a part of, and which was in the Bear Creek Association that was formed in 1832. However, he wrote to the North Carolina periodical "The Primitive Baptist" and said that he had observed how that Association held to Two Seed views. The postings I reference above give citations from him on this fact. I first visited Lawyer's Spring church when my father filled appointments in the churches in the Bear Creek Association. Later, when I moved to North Carolina, I also had occasions when my wife and I visited this church. This church, at the start of the 20th century, had an intense fight over the status of Elder J.R. Wilson, and over the doctrine of the absolute predestination of all things. 

Preslar, like Watson, was a strong opponent of Two Seedism and wrote much against it, and in doing so listed many of their errors. I have shown how the Bear Creek Association, which I was once a part of, still holds to several errors of Two Seedism. (See these postings: here, here, here)