This installment is titled “The History & Theology of Calvinism” by Curt Daniel, Chapter Fourteen, Nineteenth-Century American Calvinism.

 

The chapter is divided into seven subheadings, Old and New School Presbyterianism, The North-South Division, The Briggs Case, The Mercersburg Theology, The Dutch American Reformed, Baptist Calvinists, and Conclusion. 

Old and New School Presbyterianism. The rise of Presbyterians and the decline of Congregationalists during the Second Great Awakening, Charles Finney,

the issue of slavery, Lyman Beecher,

Albert Barnes,

and the Old School Traditionalists versus the New School Innovators.

 The North-South Division. The slavery issue is discussed. Geography seemed to play a role in the views held about slavery. Charles Hodge,

Samuel Davies, James Henley Thornwell, Robert Lewis Dabney, John Lafayette Girardeau, William S. Plumer, Benjamin Morgan Palmer, Thomas Peck, Daniel Baker, and Moses Hoge are mentioned.

 The Briggs Case. The encroachment of German liberalism is discussed, with Charles Augustus Briggs at Union Theological Seminary, New York, rejecting biblical infallibility. B. B. Warfield,

A. A. Hodge,

and W. G. T. Shedd

stood strong for the faith. Shedd’s History of Christian Doctrine, The Doctrine of Endless Punishment, and Calvinism: Pure and Mixed are listed.

 The Mercersburg Theology. Five paragraphs deal with theological controversies and Mercersburg College. One of the paragraphs reviews the career and writings of faculty member Philip Schaff, a well-known church historian.

 The Dutch American Reformed. Two paragraphs mention 18^th-century pastor Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen

and several 19^th-century leaders. These churches and communities were somewhat isolated from American culture at large because they continued to speak Dutch. They held to the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of the Synod of Dort. As America spread westward, more Dutch Reformed communities grew in Western Michigan and Iowa.

 Baptist Calvinists. Four paragraphs deal with Baptists in America during this century. The first paragraph mentions Baptists and Methodists, early Baptists such as Roger Williams and Isaac Backus. He helped found Brown University and was the first major outspoken Calvinistic Baptist in America. “Baptists in America were relatively untouched by the English hyper Calvinism of Gill and Brian until the primitive Baptist movement arose in the nineteenth-century. Otherwise, most American Baptists were very Calvinistic in their theology.” Mention is made of the Philadelphia Baptist Confession of 1742 and The New Hampshire Confession of 1833. Baptists in this century split over the slavery issue, with most if not all the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention being staunch Calvinists. Named are W. B. Johnson, Patrick H. Mell, John L. Dagg, Basil Manley, Sr., Basil Manley, Jr.,

John Broadus,

B. H.  Carroll,

and James Petigru Boyce.

Mention is also made of the so-called Landmark Baptists, led by James R. Graves

and James M. Pendleton.

 Conclusion. “Though there were a few Episcopalians and Congregationalists that shared core Calvinistic convictions in this period, the main upholders of historic Reformed Theology in nineteenth-century America were primarily the Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, some German Reformed, and most Baptists (with obvious modifications in ecclesiology). The voices of their leaders still echo today in the hearts of their theological descendants.”

Become A Reader Or Get Out Of The Ministry!

 

I did not grow up in a Christian home. I recollect attending fewer than ten church services from my birth to almost two months after converting to Christ. When I did begin attending church, a fundamental Baptist at work was the first human being ever to invite me to church. The first Sunday I attended that Baptist Church, I was baptized and became a member. I have never regretted being baptized in that Baptist Church, becoming a member of that Baptist church, or of developing more profound and deeper Baptist convictions from that day to this. 

However, I found myself a bit of a fish out of water in that first Baptist church where I was baptized and where I served. I grew up in the home of an unsaved man who had a voracious reading appetite. My dad read, on average, a book a day. Let that sink in. A book a day! The Baptist church where I was baptized was pastored by a man with no formal education, with a library that measured approximately 36 inches wide, and who had developed a technique that enabled him to avoid almost every question asked him. 

“Pastor, what does the Bible say about the gift of tongues?” “That’s a very good question,” he would say, “and the topic of my current study of God’s Word. Let me get back to you when I’ve completed my study, and I will have an answer for you.” Regardless of the question asked the pastor, that was the typical answer that he provided. His pattern of avoiding questions in this manner troubled me. 

About 14 months after my conversion, I informed my pastor that I felt God was dealing with me about the Gospel ministry. Having no experience as a Christian or as a churchgoer, I asked him what I should do. He recommended that I go to the Bible college, where he served as a trustee. When I told another church member what the pastor had said, he protested. He said, “You are a college graduate already. You have an engineering degree. Bible college is not for you. You need to enroll in seminary.” My response was that I would follow my pastor’s advice. 

After my new bride and I had relocated to another church to serve in while attending Bible college, I was troubled once more, this time by a comment made to me by my second pastor. He had attended Pillsbury Baptist college, had obtained a master’s degree from somewhere, and held a doctorate. Yet he claimed the most valuable course he had ever taken was a management training seminar conducted by General Motors! I wondered what the largest corporation in the world, at that time, could teach any Gospel minister about serving God, providing spiritual leadership for a congregation, or knowing how to exalt Christ. 

My Bible college matriculation lasted two years since I transferred so many credits from Oregon State University. Additionally, every textbook for the courses I took were books I had already read. My two years there were profitable because of my exposure to three wonderful teachers, Billy Hamm, Norman Duncan, and Russell Gordon. Additional benefit came from my exposure to M. Jack Baskin (a true visionary who I still call a friend) and many men who were classmates and are still valued friends. 

One of the things that bothered me about Bible college, and Bible colleges in general, is that no one ever seems to flunk out. While I was in engineering school, the academic rigor was real. Some students simply could not cut the mustard, either because they were unwilling to work hard enough to learn the material or because they were not smart enough to grasp the concepts. I found it troubling that no one ever seemed to flunk out of Bible college. How can any school be taken seriously by anyone if no one is ever flunked out? 

One of the consequences of the independent Baptist’s approach to training future leaders is adopting the Bible institute approach developed by the Congregationalist evangelist Dwight L Moody. Remember that Dwight Moody was a very poorly educated man. But he ministered to very poorly educated people. And though he was a lifelong learner and cultivated himself by a devotion to reading and study, his model for training gospel ministers was suited only to the profoundly under-educated. Yet fundamental Baptists chose to embrace the Moody model. This guaranteed inevitable consequences. 

Among the consequences of adopting the Bible institute approach to establishing Bible colleges for training pastors and missionaries is the low academic proficiency level by students, teachers, and the movement. Thus, several generations of Baptist pastors and missionaries possess diplomas, who fancy themselves well-educated. Still, they neither read to maintain or improve proficiency in their areas of supposed expertise, nor are they willing to engage in the kinds of discussions that well-educated people in every other discipline participate in regularly and routinely. As well, imagine their reaction should one of their church’s kids manage to flunk out of Bible college (which is why it never happens). 

Another related consequence to this approach to training men for the ministry is a broad-based mistrust of those who possess real training and academic sophistication, which brings me to my present episode of Ministerial Musings. 

I am reading the second good-sized hardback book over the last couple of days. It is a second preacher’s work, but with the same characteristics as the first preacher’s book. Both books are shot through with assertions that are never backed up with footnotes or proofs. The assertions are just made, and the reader is expected to passively accept the assertions. It seems that the only source these authors are willing to rely on is Strong’s Concordance. 

Think about that. A man writes a 400-page book that is full of assertions he is unwilling or unable to prove. I suspect the reason he does not cite sources is a wariness of those whose positions are somewhat different than his own. He has not the expertise to evaluate the reliability of their work. So he ignores them. He does not trust them. He suspects they have no fidelity to the Bible. He is wary that they are trying to change the Bible. Yet, he relies on Strong’s Concordance? 

Do you see how illogical his approach is? He relies on Strong’s Concordance for the meanings of Greek and Hebrew words (and the occasional Aramaic word) without question. He has complete confidence in Strong’s work while ignoring Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution early on influenced Strong! 

What is the takeaway? I am not suggesting that formal education is required for fitness in the ministry. There is always C. H. Spurgeon. However, there is no place in the Gospel ministry for a man who does not read or a man who will not read. Leaders are readers, and if you refuse to humble yourself so that you will allow someone else a shot at teaching you something from the Bible that you will learn no other way, then you need to quit the ministry and find yourself secular employment that does not require the kind of devotion the gospel ministry demands.

“The History & Theology of Calvinism” by Curt Daniel, Chapter Thirteen, The Princeton Theology.

 The chapter is divided into six subheadings, Origins, Seminary Faculty, The Twentieth Century, Westminster Theological Seminary, The Princeton-Westminster Theology, and Conclusion. 

“The first Presbyterians in America were Scots-Irish who settled mainly in Virginia and the Carolinas. They brought with them Orthodox Reformed theology, a dedicated work ethic, a desire to raise godly families, and a determination to worship God in all of life. This reached its theological high point in the Princeton theology of 19^th century America.”[1] 

Origins. From the log college of William Tennent,

to the College of New Jersey in Princeton, to Princeton University, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Mentioned are William Tennent, Jonathan Dickinson, Aaron Burr Sr.,

Jonathan Edwards,

Samuel Davies, and John Witherspoon,

the only preacher to sign the Declaration of Independence. 

Seminary faculty. Archibald Alexander (the first seminary president), sons James W. Alexander and Joseph Addison Alexander, Samuel Miller, William Henry Green, Charles Hodge,

Alexander Hodge, Gaspar Wistar Hodge. 

The Twentieth Century. B. B. Warfield, Francis Patton, Geerhardus Vos, Robert Dick Wilson, John D. Davis, William Park Armstrong, John DeWitt, Charles Erdman, J. Gresham Machen.

 

Westminster Theological Seminary. Mentioned are Wilson, Allis, and Cornelius Van Til, who left Princeton to begin Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Erdman, Voss, Armstrong, and a few others stayed at Princeton. John Murray taught New Testament and theology at Westminster. Cornelius Van Til developed the apologetic system known as presuppositionalism. Later, Jay Adams revolutionized Christian counseling with the approach he termed Nouthetic Counseling.[2]

Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California and Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida were also founded. 

The Princeton–Westminster theology. Three paragraphs are devoted to discussing this topic. 

Conclusion. “Princeton and then Westminster seminaries were the most influential evangelical and reformed seminaries in America for decades. But if all Princeton could depart from evangelical orthodoxy, anyone could. We would all do well to learn from history.”[3]

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[1] Curt Daniel, The History & Theology of Calvinism, (Durham, UK: EP Books, 2019), page 126.

[2] Later, a series of books by Martin & Diedre Bobgan expose the unscriptural aspects of the CCEF movement and develop the New Testament approach to counseling which is Christ-centered rather than being problem-centered.

[3] Ibid., page 130.