Elder Jeremy Sarber on Hardshell Preaching

Elder Jeremy Sarber, a former pastor with the "Primitive Baptist" Church, and one of my ministerial friends, said the following in a recent sermon (a good one too) titled "The Fault Line Between Pride and Faith" on some verses in Habakkuk (See or Listen here):

"Years ago, I was invited to preach at a small church conference in the mountains of Virginia. Most of the pastors there preached in a sing-song style—extemporaneous, unstructured, and difficult to follow. Their rhythm rose and fell like an auctioneer. When the conference came around the next year, I received a call, not inviting me back, but telling me I wasn’t welcome. According to them, I was “too educated.” That was the first and only time I’ve ever been accused of that. But what they meant was that I was too articulate. Clear, intelligible speech didn’t seem like “real preaching” to them. Yet according to Scripture, if the message can’t be understood, “you will be speaking into the air” (1 Corinthians 14:9)."

This provoked me to recall all that I have said about how "Primitive" or "Hardshell" Baptists judge the quality of sermons, for he is obviously alluding to a "Primitive Baptist Church." If you do not preach in a sing-song manner, or if you appear too articulate, or well versed, or you preach with notes, you are judged to not be able to preach. Back in 2008 I wrote about this in my Baptist Gadfly blog. (See here) I also wrote about it in this blog (here). Recently I also had this to say about Daniel Parker, one of the founders of the "Primitive Baptist Church," citing other historians (See here):

Citing page 48 of Daniel Parker's "Public Address to the Baptist Society..." Anna Holdorf, author of "GALVANIZED BY THE GOSPEL: NINETEENTH-CENTURY BAPTIST MISSIONS AND THE ANTI-MISSION RESPONSE," wrote (See here emphasis mine):

"Daniel Parker boasted, as did many other anti-missionists, that he was uneducated. He wrote that he had “no knowledge of the English grammar, only as my bible has taught me.” Parker further noted that the doctrinal “errors” that marked the beliefs of pro-mission Baptists “nearly all originated amongst the wise and learned.”

In my series on Hardshell Mission opposition (See here) I cited from the memoir of Elder J.M. Peck, an opponent of Parker who wrote the following about an incident:

"That Brother J n be requested to state explicitly his objections against missionaries."

His reply was honestly made, as follows:

"We don't care any thing about them missionaries that's gone amongst them heathens way off yonder. But what do they come among us for? We don't want them here in Illinois."

The moderator replied: 'We live in a free country, and Baptist churches love liberty. We need not give them money unless we choose, and we are not obliged to hear them preach if we do not like them. Come, Brother J n, let the church know your real objections."

"Well, if you must know, Brother Moderator, you know the big trees in the woods overshadow the little ones; and these missionaries will be all great, learned men, and the people will all go to hear them preach, and we shall all be put down. That's the objection." (pg. 111)

In another post in that series I cited John T. Christian's history where he said this about how the anti mission Baptists (Hardshells) reasoned in their opposition to a learned clergy (See here):

"Others feared that educated men would take their places." ("A History of the Baptists" Chapter Seven "The Anti-Effort Secession from the Baptists")

Back in 2017 I wrote a series of articles titled "Uriah Heep Humility" where I also spoke of how the Hardshells exult in their ignorance and feign humility thereby.

In the third article in that series I even cited from a present day "Primitive Baptist" elder who wrote the following (See here):

"As I begin, I hope that this section is not my attempt to prove to you how proud I am of my humility. I realize that in our Primitive Baptist culture the right words to begin any message with are the presumed-proper words of self-expressed humbleness. I am sure that at times these words have come from the heart. And I am equally sure that at other times they are as shallow as the superficial humility they attempt to exalt. I fear that we sometimes attempt to flaunt before others the greatness of our humbleness. And when all is said and done, we proudly wear our self-proclaimed, self-proven, self-given and self-received humble badges with all the false and hypocritical honors connected therewith."

The irony in this is seen in the fact that though they decry an educated ministry yet they boast of having special knowledge of the Bible, even saying that they preach by inspiration. 

All this reminds me of my chat a few years ago with Elder Charles Smith, one of the older elders here in Monroe that I was once associated with when I was with the Hardshells, and which I wrote about (here). He insinuated that my problem was that I was too intelligent for the Hardshells. 

I am sure that brother Jeremy is as happy as I am to have been delivered from the heresies of the Hardshell cult. Of course, not all of today's Hardshell Baptists have this same view of preaching, but many still do, and it is a fact of their history that this was their view in the 19th century, and in a large part of the 20th century.