Potter On Knowing Christ and Regeneration

Elder Lemuel Potter

1841-1897

Elder Lemuel Potter's book "A Treatise On Regeneration And Christian Warfare" (Read it here) was written in 1895. Potter at that time, and since his death, has been a recognized leader and apologist for those who call themselves "Primitive" or "Old School" Baptists, although Potter, like some others who were such, rather chose to be known as "Regular Baptists." In it he writes the following in chapter ten "The Body Dead, the Spirit Life" (emphasis mine):

"The idea that Christ is in his people presents a subject of great magnitude to us. He is in his people as he is not in the whole race of men, and all the rest of his creatures...He is in the hearts of his people by his Spirit and grace. In the new birth he takes possession of them, and the Father reveals him in them, and he manifests himself to them, and to them he communicates his grace, and grants them communion with himself. All this, and perhaps more is meant by the inspired apostle in the expression, "If Christ be in you." The saints are told that they are reprobates except Christ is in them. He is the life of his people, and if he is in them they have life, for Christ is their life."

In these words Elder Potter affirms that all born again children of God know both Jesus and his Father. That is not, however, what nearly all "Primitive Baptists" believe today. In my recent article titled "Hardshell Damnable Heresy" (See here) I cite from a "Primitive Baptist" book that actually says that many people are born again who do not know Jesus and in some cases even reject Christ.

From the above words of Potter, how would you answer the question -- "did Potter believe that people believe in Jesus when they are born again"?  

Potter, like many leading "Primitive Baptists" at the end of the 19th century, did not want to deny that Christ was revealed to sinners when they were regenerated. They did not want to affirm that unbelievers were saved. Elder Sylvester Hassell, another leader among them, wrote:

"Jesus is the Great Preacher, and, by His omnipresent Spirit, He preaches His gospel savingly to His people (Isa. 61:1-3,10,11; Luke 4:16-30; Heb. 2:11,12; Psalm 110:3)."

When the "Primitive Baptists" rejected the doctrine that God saves sinners by the means of the gospel or word of God, they then found themselves in an awkward state. Do we, or do we not, believe that a sinner must be a believer in Jesus and his Father to be eternally saved? Many at the end of the 19th century took the position that said -- "yes, they must believe in Jesus, but not through the preaching done by human preachers, but by the preaching Jesus himself would do personally." However, since the start of the 20th century, they have gone further and denied that Jesus reveals himself to those he regenerates so that they become believers in him.

So, though today's "Primitive Baptists" hold Potter in high esteem, they cannot accept what he said in the above words. They love his debates with W. P. Throgmorton and W.T. Pence wherein he denied that the Gospel or word of God were means in saving sinners, but I doubt that many will endorse what he said in the above citation.

What think ye?