This morning,
there is not a certain, single
scripture on my mind. Rather,
several conversations
at work have turned my mind in
many directions. Most
people, when they find out that
you are a Primitive Baptist
(especially if you are a
preacher), want to know what
the difference between Primitive
Baptist and "regular" Baptist is.
That question, as I grow older,
continues to get more
difficult. In 1832, there was
not as great a chasm
as there is today. The more
years go by, the greater
the difference becomes. However,
trying to have
charity, my most common response
is that we believe in
salvation by grace instead of
works. That generally
leads into election and
predestination, which in turn leads
into the sovereignty of God, and
finally leads into
belief, the gospel and its
purpose (some do not make it
this far without blowing up mad
first).
The greatest difference between
Primitive Baptists and "regulars" is
that Primitive Baptists start
with "God." Most everybody else starts
with "I." As I heard a minister
so ably put it
yesterday, "I is the little
letter in the middle of the word
sin." So, we should ever be
careful about talking
about ourselves more highly than
we ought. One man
this morning said, "When I read
the Bible, I find that
God wants everybody. For them to
be with Him, they
must accept and be baptized." I
told him that I had
never read such, and he replied,
"Well, I have never
read such about predestination
and election." At this
point one must wonder if they
really read the Bible or
what bible is it
that they read.
One must believe
something about those concepts
(election and predestination) for they are in the
Bible (Romans 8:28-32, Romans
9:7-13, Ephesians
1:3-6). So, I wrote down a list
of citations for him
to read this evening. Of course,
we went round for a
few minutes on John 3:16, and
thankfully, he seemed
receptive to what I had to say.
But, to truly
understand the Bible, in my
humble opinion, one must
first understand their place in
respect to the
Almighty. Our place is so low
(by nature) that there
is no way that we could possibly
aspire unto the
portals of glory. When one
realizes that truth, they
can begin to grasp the thought
that they were doomed,
and their only hope was that God
reached down when
they were unable to reach up.
May we ever reach up in
His service now that He has
given us the ability to
serve Him in
spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)
In Hope,
Bro Philip
|