The above is the church building for Cincinnati Primitive Baptist church. Elder Lasserre Bradley Jr. was the founding pastor of the church, which was formerly a Landmark Calvinistic Missionary Baptist church until Bradley and a faction of that church "went Hardshell" and were constituted in 1958 as a "Primitive Baptist" church. A huge gathering took place to constitute the church and ordain Bradley and Bradley at once became the most desired minister among the Hardshells and he went everywhere among them holding meetings. He also had a large radio ministry that was supported by the "Primitive Baptists" far and wide.
My father, Eddie K. Garrett Sr., knew Bradley, father himself being also a Calvinistic Missionary Baptist living near Cincinnati. Several years later, about 1965, father also "went Hardshell" and his small church also re-constituted as a "Primitive Baptist" church. He and his church joined Cincinnati church and it was re-constituted as a "Primitive Baptist" church also and father was ordained an elder the same day at the Cincinnati church.
When I united with father's small church (meeting at that time in Trenton, Ohio) in August 1972, father took me to Cincinnati church where I first met Elder Bradley. I would sometimes go to Wednesday services at Cincinnati in 1972-1975 before I moved to North Carolina in March, 1976. Years later Elder Bradley gave me counsel when I was being told by the Bear Creek Association in North Carolina that my prior ordination was not valid and so I needed to be ordained again. I didn't think so. Elder Bradley encouraged me to not fight the brethren on this.
A few years after this he invited me to fill in for him at Cincinnati and the church paid for my flight from Charlotte to Cincinnati. I also used to take some of my church members from eastern North Carolina to the big October meeting at the Cincinnati church (their annual meeting). At that time hundreds of Hardshells came from all over the country to attend, including dozens of preachers.
A few years ago Elder Bradley began to speak against the Hardshell doctrine of "time salvation." He also was attacked for believing in the sure and certain "perseverance" of saints rather than merely their "preservation," although the founders of the "Primitive" or "Old School" Baptists believed in the former and is what is taught in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. He was also attacked for his support of missions and his belief that the Great Commission was given to the church. In the Primitive Baptist Library's Web Page (See here) we find this written:
"On June 16, 2001 (Saturday of their annual meeting), Shiloh Church, near Kimball, Nebraska, took a public stand against liberalism. The pastor announced that the church was unanimously agreed not to commune with those who believe or defend the heretical views of Gus Harter and Lasserre Bradley, who are the best-known leaders of the effort to establish a mission system among the Primitive Baptists, on the false principle that the commission was given to the church rather than to the apostles, with preacher schools, etc."
So, though Elder Bradley was once the most recognized and useful minister of the "Primitive Baptist" church, he in his later years was shunned and disfellowshipped by most Hardshells. The same thing happened to my own father after having been so popular among the Hardshells, after he was shunned for believing in the fall of Satan and the angels from heaven. But, that is another story. So, it is no wonder that Cincinnati church will no longer be called "Cincinnati Primitive Baptist" church but "Parkway Baptist Church."
I have become a close friend of Elder (Dr.) Jeremiah Bass, the pastor of the church. He is a very able scholar of the word of God and has a fine family. The church has lost members over the past couple decades due to the shunning by the Hardshells. A few years ago when I was at Cincinnati church Elder Bradley told me that they had recently lost several members over this trouble. I hope now that they will begin to grow and prosper. I am sure the Lord is pleased with their direction and leadership.
A few years ago I wrote about what Elder John Clark, a first generation leader of the "Primitive Baptist" church, said about the name the Hardshells called themselves, writing the following:
"We belong to that order called Old School, and by that we understand, in regard to salvation, all that is embraced in the doctrine of grace--and a strict construction of the scriptures throughout. But when that cognomen is sought to be used as a cloak and shelter for errors of the worst kind, we eschew it, we protest against it, appropriated to such a purpose."
"We never understood, in taking a stand 20 years ago against new measures in religion, that all who should enlist under Old School banners were to have the unbridled license to introduce and propagate any or all of the exploded dogmas of the dark ages, and it would all be sanctified by the wonderful charm imparted by the Old School colors under which we are sailing."
"We get up excitement upon a particular question, parties are formed, and we get fully under way in our march against opposing interests, and ere we are aware, we have been led or driven to an extreme far beyond the error we commenced battling against. Such is precisely the condition in which we consider some of the Old School Baptists at present."
"Such cunning craftiness has been displayed in introducing the wild doctrines among us, that the strange anomaly is frequently witnessed, of seeing brethren, sound in the faith when they express their own sentiments, actually affirming that they are not aware of the existence of any sentiment among professed Old School Baptists inharmonious with their own!"
(page 1 Vol. 1; no. 7 for April 1, 1854, in his periodical "Zion's Advocate" under the title "Old School Baptists")
See my post on this citation (here). I believe many of today's "Primitive" or "Old School" Baptists feel the same way. What the Hardshell sect has evolved into was well described by Clark. Now, today, the name "Primitive Baptist" has too much baggage. Many of the first churches in the anti-mission movement who adopted the name "Primitive," "Old School," or "Hardshell," towards the end of the 19th century, had to disassociate themselves from that sect because that sect declared against their belief that God uses means in the eternal salvation of sinners, or who believed in preaching to sinners, or who believed the Great Commission was given to the church, etc.
For instance, notice what happened at the start of the 20th century among the Hardshells in what was written in the "Primitive Baptist" periodical by Elder C.H. Cayce under the title "OUR WORK ENDORSED" for October 10, 1905. Cayce cites from the minutes of the Forked Deer Association of Tennessee for September, 1905 and gives the following from their minutes:
"By motion and second, agreed that we adopt as the sense of this association the action of five of our churches as expressed in their letters, that we declare non-fellowship for the idea of a federal form of government, that the commission was given to the church and not to the apostles or ministry, that it is the duty of the ministry to admonish the alien sinner to repent and believe the gospel, and against affiliation in and with secret institutions."
So, I pray that God honors the stand of Elder Bradley, Elder Bass, and the Cincinnati Church for their stand on the Bible and that they see a period of growth in the coming years and that they will be used by God to reach many of the lost sheep. It is good that any Hardshell church not be connected with the sentiments expressed in the above resolution of the Forked Deer Association.
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