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What Is A Reformed Baptist?
According to the Founders Ministries, Tom Hicks serves as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Clinton, LA. He also serves on the board of directors for Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary and is an adjunct professor of historical theology for the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies. I was recently asked to give a response to his article entitled “What is a Reformed Baptist”. I submit the following, believing it may be of help to others who are examining the differences between the Reformed and Particular Baptists. Tom Hicks writes:
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A Comparison Between The Covenantalism Of Moderate And High (Hyper) Calvinism
Based on the chart presented in R. C. Sproul's book, "What Is Reformed Theology", Jared Smith demonstrates the difference between the covenantalism of Moderate and High (Hyper) Calvinists.
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An Appraisal Of My Pastoral Ministry For The Year 1858
My Dear People,—The close of one year, and the commencement of another, is calculated to suggest solemn thoughts—none perhaps more solemn than those which arise out of the relation of pastor and flock. In that relation you and I have stood to each other during the year that is gone, and nothing is more uncertain than the continuance of that relation to the end of the year that is coming. This point of itself is worthy of notice by both of us in our respective positions. The notice of it which my heart suggests to me is, a few simple observations, not addressed to you merely from the pulpit as in the course of my ordinary ministrations, but in a somewhat more permanent shape; such…
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My Response To Josh Buice’s Assault On Hyper-Calvinists
Josh Buice, pastor of Pray’s Mill Baptist Church (Atlanta, Georgia), serves as Assistant Professor of Preaching at Grace Bible Theological Seminary and is the founder and president of G3 (Gospel—Grace—Glory) Ministries. On November 22, 2016, he published a column entitled “Calvinism Is Not Hyper-Calvinism” to “Delivered By Grace”. It is to this article I wish to respond. He begins, “Last week, I was interviewed by Chris Arnzen on his radio show, Iron Sharpens Iron, on the subject of hyper-Calvinism. It caused me to think about this subject and the importance of using vocabulary properly. As the father of a type 1 diabetic, I spend much of my time explaining to people in random conversations that type 1 diabetes (T1D) is not the same thing as…
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Covenant Theology And The Particular Baptists
The Reformed Baptist denomination, a section of which has amped up its claims to be the modern day representatives of the English Particular Baptists (PB's), subscribe to a seventeenth century covenantal framework reflective of the Westminster Confession and that of Presbyterianism. In their view, (1) the covenant of redemption is relegated to the backdrop of an ‘eternity past’ with (2) a conditional covenant of works God made with Adam before the Fall (requiring of him perfect obedience to the heart-law) and (3) a conditional covenant of grace God made (or promised to make) with sinners after the Fall (requiring of them saving faith in Christ). Because they have adopted the 1689 Baptist Confession as their denominational statement of faith, they believe this entitles them to…
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Duty Faith Dissected And Discarded
The reader is presented in the following pages with a perspicuous and full discussion of an important subject, both to the ministers and hearers of the glorious gospel; to the former, that they may take heed how they preach, and to the latter, that they may take heed how they hear. It is indeed granted, that a divine power accompanying the word is necessary to raise a dead sinner; but it is a question of closer enquiry, upon which men widely differ, how that power is given. We may observe two high instances of addresses to the dead, in the cases of the dry bones and of Lazarus; which are frequently produced by the advocates for universal exhortations, but, if we accurately investigate the divine…