Free Will

[xThirst4Godx]

Although my faith icon is baptist, i still am not 100% convinced that i want to start affiliating with either the BGC or the SBC. I still have a lot of questions, and a few are: what is a freewill baptist? do i need to go to a baptist church to be baptist? is my pentecostal baptism voided because of my would-be conversion? that last one is the one that bothers me the most. anybody want to help?:help:

[Hammster]

Question 1. I don't know.
Question 2. Generally, you are what you affiliate with. I don't see the point in being a baptist unless you are going to a baptist church. I suppose if I moved and there were no baptist churches, I would find one that most closely believes in what I believe.

Question 3. No. Most baptist churches will recognize baptisms from other denominations.

[RandRob]

For the Baptism issue

I think you will find most Pastors will base your Baptism on the beliefs you held at that time

For instance a IFB would tell you that you that you can not lose your salvation

If you indicated to a pastor that when you were baptised as a Pentacostal that you believed you could lose your salvation then he wouldnt accept your Baptism

Likewise if you indicated any major difference in Doctrinal Views a Pastor would probably want to baptise you again

[BereanTodd]

A free-will baptist is basically another way of saying Arminian baptist. They are baptists who (quite strongly - and I would add wrongly) reject calvinism.

Most baptists would accept any believer's baptism as genuine and see no need to rebaptise. It is paedobaptisms where we would say, "no, baptism is something that follow's belief, so you would need to be re-baptised".

[prgallo]

I haven't heard the term freewill Baptist before. It's been suggested it means Arminian which is probably the case.

In my case I believe both Calivinisn and Arminianisn are both wrong and that each deny truths in scripture. So there are those of us the don't belong to either camp.

Until joining this forum I didn't realize that many Baptists accepted either of these two views (Calvin, Arminian).

Edit: It appears the Free Will Baptist believe salvation can be lost, among other Arminian beliefs. There good info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Will_Baptist_Church

[TexasSky]

Generally speaking, if your prior denomination viewed Baptism as an act of obedience that showed your personal desire to accept Christ as Lord and Savior, a Souther Baptist Church would not ask you to be baptized again.

However, if you come from a faith where infant baptism was considered to have "saved you", they would ask you if you have ever made a personal committment to Christ with full knowledge of what that means. If you have, they might not ask you to be baptized again, but then again they might, based on the theory you had not been baptized since you made that decision.

Any church can call itself "Baptist". That is, unfortunately, a problem sometimes.

While the Catholic Church or the Anglican Church, or even Methodiss and Lutherans, have set doctorines that every one who calls themself by that denomination basically share. Baptists consider themselves very independent, and how each congregation personally interprets the bible determines how they practice their faith. When you get to "organizations" , like the Southern Baptist Convention, or the General Baptist Convention or the Texas Baptist Conventions, you have a group of churches who all have said, "We all share these basic beliefs, and though we do not answer to one another in any way, we will try to assist one another via funding, literature, activities."

[NDNgirl4ever]

I went to a Methodist church until I was 13 and was baptized at about 11. My family and I then started going to a Southern Baptist Church. They fully accepted my Baptism, no problem.

[MeanieCalvinist]

I haven't heard the term freewill Baptist before. It's been suggested it means Arminian which is probably the case.

That is correct.

In my case I believe both Calivinisn and Arminianisn are both wrong and that each deny truths in scripture. So there are those of us the don't belong to either camp.

You are entitled to your beliefs. However, I believe that if pressed hard enough your own beliefs would make an inconsistent Arminian. Have you even studied Redemptive History? Have you read any Reformed works?

Until joining this forum I didn't realize that many Baptists accepted either of these two views (Calvin, Arminian)

It is good that we have forums like this were we can discuss our differences and learn more about what others believe and why.

Here is a good link on SBC History
http://www.founders.org (http://www.founders.org/)

In Christ,
MC

[prgallo]

You are entitled to your beliefs. However, I believe that if pressed hard enough your own beliefs would make an inconsistent Arminian. Have you even studied Redemptive History? Have you read any Reformed works?
MC

Wow, you decided that if hard pressed I would be an inconsistent Arminian.

Why do Calvinist need to classify other Christians into categorgies they are comfortable with. I find your assumption offensive.

BTW, I don't spend much if any time pursuing additional information about Calvinism as I don't any any interest and my time is to valuable to me.

[A Brother In Christ]

proverbs 16:9 states freewill and God's sovernity

hopefully they believe this?

[TwistTim]

proverbs 16:9 states freewill and God's sovernity

hopefully they believe this?
That is my belief....
Neither Five Point Calvinist nor Total Armenianism....

God has Preordained and Prearranged the Universe according to How He Knows Best. There will be events to line up to what he Ordains and It will be as He Declares it.

However, on the matter of one person's election/salvation.....God does not create Robots and He certainly does not create people just to watch them burn....He is a God of Love and Justice, Yes His Wrath is real and will be carried out, but he wouldn't make people just to burn them, that's neither Justice nor Love.
He gives us all the chance to repent and believe in Him, We all have that choice, God knows ahead of time what we will choose, nothing surprise Him, It's not cheating for Him to be outside of time and knowing all things. He is the maker of the Universe and definer of time for our benefit, not His after all.

So Personal Choice Plus the Sovereignty of God together equals a better picture than choosing just one side or the other.

And Yes I do listen to Calvinists and Armenian's.... I see truth come from both and I see them take certain truths and run to far to an extreme with them....

Many of the Southern Baptists I've been around fall into the same category as I do.... if they bother to state their salvation Theology at all, sadly a lot don't know what they agree they believe, or worse why they believe what they believe..... I'm no Mister Super Spiritual and I know more why I believe than a lot of folks that have been Baptist since they were kids and are now in their 70's, this is not pride on my part, but sadness that such ignorance of belief is that common.... There are Five Points Calvinists in the SBC, but they are not large in number, they are loud about Five Points Calvinism though..... I've been a Southern Baptist since I started going to church except for two years when I went to an Independent Missionary Baptist Church... it had been Southern Baptist but during the Liberal days it split off from the Convention to stay faithful to the word... sadly... when I went there Error had crept in and silly women and it was having an internal conflict.... and being a single church with no one outside it to help.... well I'm not a member there anymore, let's leave it at that... but be careful of Independent Churches as they have no safe guard fail back against error that creeps in.....