About a year or so ago, Fox News ran a story on a therapeutic phenomenon known as Destruction Therapy (//link). The therapeutic idea is both primitive and simple:  "fix" yourself by freely destroying something else (//link). 

Of interest to me is the possible parallel between the proposed method Destruction Therapy therapists advocate for securing psychological health and some Southern Baptist leaders who advocate similar measures to "fix" the Southern Baptist Convention.

Below is a flick which captures perfectly what some seem to want for the Southern Baptist Convention.

With that, I am...

Peter

  As I read Scripture, I'm struck with the profundity with which God's revelatory Word unfolds the Eternal Word made human flesh.

Below are two quotes.  You be the judge as to which snippet solicits from your spirit awe and wonder concerning God's Savior in Jesus Christ.

• "The point in all this is, had we seen Jesus as a man, we would have seen a normal guy carrying his lunch box in one hand and a tool box in the other heading off to work.  He did normal things that actual people do like farting, going to the bathroom, and blowing boogers from his nose" (Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears, Vintage Jesus, Crossway, 2007, p.32)

• "For in any number of passages, Scripture speaks of Jesus Christ as truly God and truly man. He is one of us, like us in all things, our brother, sharing our flesh and our blood. He did not come as a heavenly ambassador to frighten us with his surpassing divine power or, in spectral form, to bring us a message from heavenly realms. No, he entered into the reality of our world and life, having assumed the form of a servant. Repeatedly our attention is called to this fact, not in order that “man” be somehow honored for redemption, but in order that we should honor the way in which God redeemed the world" (G. C. Berkouwer, The Person of Christ, Eerdmans, 1954, p.224).

With that, I am...

Peter 

     A fundamental truism concerning Calvinism among Founders Ministries advocates is, real Calvinism is definitively five-point Calvinism.  Indeed their view many times reduces to "One may be Calvinistic in his or her theology and not hold to five-point Calvinism, but one is not a genuine Calvinist who does not specifically hold to five-point Calvinism."

Further, Founders Ministries advocates historically deduce Calvinism (keep in mind what genuine Calvinism is!) was all but unanimous in 19th Century Baptist life, particularly among the influential Baptists who became the "Founders" of the Southern Baptist Convention. Household names among Founders advocates  typically are Boyce, Mell, Broadus, Manly, and Dagg, among others.

One 19th century Baptist giant too often but understandably overlooked by Founders advocates is the Reverend Andrew Broaddus*.  Historian, George B. Taylor writes of Broaddus:

Taylor further quotes Broaddus' biographer, J.B. Jeter, cataloging the prestigious pulpits offered to Rev. Broaddus which he declined--pulpits including First Church, Boston; First Church, Philadelphia; First Church, Baltimore; First Church, City of New York; and First Church, Richmond (p.219)--all wealthy, vibrant congregations affording  their pastors generous salaries and powerful influence. 

Said the Religious Herald of Broaddus:

Hence, that Andrew Broaddus was a spiritual giant in 19th century Baptist life remains unquestioned. 

What remains interesting, however, is Broaddus' understanding of the atonement. Not only did Broaddus dispute the idea of Christ's atonement as a "pecuniary transaction," contradicting the Owenic understanding of Christ's death (which seems to be the theological default view of Founders advocates) but Broaddus explicitly cast the nature and extent of Christ's death in general atonement terms rather than limited atonement terms. 

Jeter quoting Broaddus writes:

From my understanding of Baptist history, any way you slice it, it comes up the same: 

while five-point Calvinists have been and will remain a part of the Baptist movement...

an interpretation of Baptist history which implies, as does Founders, that our true heritage as Southern Baptists is wed almost exclusively to five-point Calvinism must be, on historical and theological grounds, definitively rejected.

With that, I am...

Peter   

*Alternate spelling "Broadus"

**Virginia Baptist Ministers, Vol.2, 1860, p.218 (EE)

***Sermons and Other Writings of the Reverend Andrew Broaddus with a Memoir of His Life, J.B. Jeter, 1852

Let's have some fun this week, shall we?

With that, I am...

Peter

Since busting myths now possesses, as its capable, indisputable apologetic, the scholarly handling of "water-cooler talk" as definitive evidence for justifying that "myths" people believe exist, the study of history, philosophy, law and especially theology will never remain quite the same (//link). 

In that light, I offer the following in tribute toward this most recent and highly valued achievement.

With that, I am...

Peter