What is a Reformed Baptist Church?

“Reformed Baptist” is a term not particularly well-known in evangelical circles. The name indicates both historical roots and distinct theological characteristics.

Historically, a Reformed Baptist identifies with a tradition that emerged directly from the Reformed Protestant movement. During the Reformation in 16th -17th century England there was a group of churchmen called the Puritans. The Puritans were believers who desired to see the church fully reform beyond any vestiges of Roman Catholicism or any other false teaching. There were three primary groups that made up the Puritans: Presbyterians, Independents, and Particular Baptists, which today are referred to as “Reformed Baptists.” They all shared common beliefs in the gospel and reformational doctrines, but the Baptists were set apart by a few beliefs. They believed in a church independent from state control that was governed congregationally and overseen in each local congregation by a group of elders. Also, they rejected the doctrine of paedobaptism (infant baptism). The summation of their beliefs were written down in the 2nd London Baptist Confession of 1689. Adhering to this historic reformed confession of faith is the primary distinctive of a Reformed Baptist. It shares themes and most….

Read the entire article at Gracechapel.

Benjamin Keach on Justification

by Tom Nettles

Editor’s Introduction

Benjamin Keach (1640–1704) became a Baptist at age 15, preached as a General Baptist, and suffered persecution, imprisonment, and the pillory for his convictions as a Baptist. After serving as an elder in a General Baptist congregation from 1668-1672, he became a Particular Baptist minister and founded the church at Horse-lie-Down in Southwark in London. He spent the remainder of his years as a zealous preacher of the gospel, an effective polemicist, a theoretician on principles of biblical interpretation, a poet, a hymn-writer, and a writer of allegory. His clear and bold defense of the doctrines of grace was informed by his previous years as an Arminian. He lived with sincere conviction that the doctrine of justification by faith was indeed the doctrine on which the church stands or falls. His sermons and expositional writings were filled with explanations of the centrality of this doctrine to a proper understanding of the grace of God.

In an exposition of Luke 7:42, “And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both,” Keach had an applicatory section explain how grace reigns through righteousness. Grace is not elevated in an unjust way………..

Read the entire article at Founders Ministries.

The retreat of the Reformed Baptist Movement & there will be no Baptist Library Vol 2 at the moment

It seems that within the last few years the Reformed Baptist movement has taken a step or two backwards. Blogs that used to provide great content for Reformed (Particular) Baptists or websites that did the same, have disappeared over the last few years. The Confessing Baptist site is gone. One cannot click a link for it without getting an error message. Pb Ministries has disappeared. I could go on and on listing sites, but you all should get the picture just by the few I listed.

It also seems that there is little to no interest for a library for Reformed (Particular) Baptists. Having spent upwards to 18 hours a day building the Vol I Library has done nothing to peak the interest among Reformed (Particular) Baptists. I have had a few suggestions that I should build a library that would be Baptist friendly and that would also be an alternative to the Puritan Hard Drive. In other words, several folks have told me that I should build a library that would require the selling of a hard drive for Reformed (Particular) Baptists.

This was my goal. My goal was to build a library that was Baptist friendly and also a library that was so big that it would have to fit on a hard-drive. However, since releasing The Baptist Library Vol I. I have sold absolutely no copies. My posts have been shared on Facebook, Reddit, Tumbler, Youtube, Linkedin, and this blog. I have also had my post shared in several Facebook groups that are centered on Reformed Baptist Theology.

With 350 Cd’s ready to ship, but no buyers of said Cd’s, I have stopped thinking about a library for Reformed (Particular) Baptists and have started concentrating on how I will pay my bills. So for the time being, all work has ceased and it looks like I will be going back out on the road driving a big rig.

Now I don’t mind working and I love truck driving, however, I also love trying to build a library that will equip saints for the ministry of spreading the gospel. This is my number one goal in life and that is to develop something that will aide people in their study of the Bible and in making them more knowledgeable in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So my heart is divided. I want more than anything to put that drive together, yet I also have to provide for my household. Seeing that a labourer or worker is worthy of his hire, no matter if he has a secular job, or if he is in the ministry of equipping the saints, then whatsoever he does ought to provide for his household. With that said, I have come across many a website that claims one should not make money or be paid for their work in the things of God. This is simply not true. Scripture is plain that a minster is worthy of his hire and that ministry ought to provide for the necessities of this life.

Once I go back out on the road everything will continue on here at Reformedontheweb as usual. I have placed enough post in scheduled post mode, so that I don’t have to touch this blog for several months. However, as I have time, I will log into this site and answer questions, moderator comments, and pre-schedule some more post.

The Baptist Library Vol I will still be available for purchase while I am gone. This includes all individual collections as well. My wife will ship out the orders while I am on the road.

Thank you to all those who have followed this blog over the past 9 years.

Sincerely,

Hershel L Harvell Jr.

Puritan Hard Drive Revisited or Puritan Drive Critique 3

Several years ago when the Puritan hard Drive was in Cd format, I decided to purchase them. It took over 2 years and $895.00 to finally receive what is now called the Puritan Hard Drive. The owner and manufacturer of this drive is Still Water Revival Books owned and operated by Reg Barrow.

Close to the end of this two year waiting period I contacted John Hendryx, of Monergism.com, to see if he might know when this drive would come out. John Hendryx was advertising for Reg Barrow and therefore I thought he might have some insight on when these drives would eventually start rolling off the production line. In my email I told John that I was beginning to wonder if I had gotten scammed. John’s exact words to me were: “I have been wondering that myself.”

Once the drive finally arrived I could not get it to work properly on my main computer and contacted SWRB and they hooked me up with their engineer. (I know, Right! Who hooks you to the engineer when you are having technical difficulties with a product) Through several emails we worked back and forth, but could not resolve the situation.

Due to not being able to use the drive on my main computer, that and several other factors, I wrote a critique of this drive. SWRB has a whole page devoted to critiquing my critique, however, Reg Barrows resulted to slander and ad hominem, instead of debating the issues. I had been accused of contacting his affiliates through email and by phone and harassing them. So I wrote another critique in response to that. At the time I used At&t cellular service as my primary phone service. My At&t bill would arrive with a full statement showing every call that had been made from my phone during that month. I still have all these billing statements and no phone call can be found to anyone regarding this matter. I also kept my emails from John Hendryx.

In the critique put up by SWRB, Reg Barrows claims that I harassed his affiliates through email and phone, yet the only testimony he has is the one by John Hendryx. John Hendryx supposedly said, “Seems mentally unstable or something insisting that the whole thing is my fault.” This statement does not trouble me. It just makes me wonder how anyone can run a Christian website and not have SWRB take that statement down while asking forgiveness of the one he is slandering, knowing that he was in agreement with me throughout this whole process. I don’t want to speculate, but advertising money will make individuals change positions on a whole lot of things. The Lord will judge those who slander others falsely.

Now on to the Puritan Hard Drive:

Reg Barrow, in his deceit filled sells pitches, makes the claim that this drive contains 2208 Reformed Baptist books, mp3’s, and videos. This is the main part of his deceitful sells pitches which I have challenged in both of my critiques. In my critiques I stated that there were indeed a few Baptists files on the drive, however there is nothing particularly Baptist about it. He challenged this by saying:

“However, since there is no way for others to substantiate many of the errors, inconsistencies and even outright lies in your review, I will provide just one example below (from your review) about how grossly inaccurate your review of the Puritan Hard Drive actually is, on a point that others can easily verify…”

Reg Barrow stated that there was no way for others to substantiate my claims (he says errors), but we shall prove that what I stated was no error. There are 2123 pdf files on this drive. I took the file names and copied them and put them into a webpage. I have highlighted in blue all the files by Baptists authors (I only ended up with 99 and had to drop seven of those because Octavius Winslow seceded to the Anglican Church in the last decade of his life) and have listed them above the list of names on the webpage. I also highlighted in red every book that teaches infant baptism over and against the Baptist position, without him also including books which argue for the Baptist position. One file by Andrew Fuller was only added because it includes letters and an appendix which tries to show that Andrew Fuller taught a false doctrine concerning Christ’s atonement. All the files by Baptist authors were placed on the drive because they do not contradict covenanters doctrines. (I will eventually put the names of the files of the 10,323 Mp3’s on a web page and go through them also. It might take several webpages and a lot of work, but I will substantiate my claims)

My first and second critique were made into Pdf’s back when I wrote them and a link to them is on the webpage above the list of books on the drive.

So if you want to go through the list of names or download my critiques, then visit my page. The link below the ‘Puritan Hard Drive’ link entitled: ‘Sample Page,’ is to a pdf containing only one page. A lot of these Pdf’s are scanned copies of books and so I copied one page and put it in pdf, in order that you would know how hard it is to read some of these files.

Puritan Hard Drive Critique—web page with a list of all pdf files

Sample Page—–click here to see a sample of a page from one of SWRB’s scanned books

Once you go through the books that were included on a covenanters hard drive, you will even say:

“There is nothing particularly Baptist about that.”

The Case for Credobaptism

A note from Executive Editor, Jonathan Master:

Theology matters. Place for Truth has no interest in smoothing over the rough edges of disagreements within the Reformed confessional tradition. But we also know that debates can often descend into name-calling and straw man arguments. Over two days, we are posting two brief summaries – one by a pastor of paedo-baptist persuasion, one by a Baptist pastor – on a subject that matters. We hope you’ll read both. They’ve each read the other’s article, and they’ve both presented their own arguments clearly and fairly. Both men argue – as you’ll see – from a theological perspective that reflects the framework of the Reformed confessions. Neither backs down. But the arguments they employ, and the spirit with which they employ them, are worthy of our time and attention.

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by Samuel Renihan

The practice of baptizing professing believers is grounded upon two complementary foundations. The first is an argument from the covenants of Scripture. The second is an argument from the commands of Scripture related to those covenants. Credobaptists and paedobaptists often assume, or argue, that the people of a given covenant receive the covenant sign. Thus, in the case of the subjects of baptism one must simply identify the covenant people. This is insufficient. The administration of covenantal ordinances is governed by specific laws, which must be obeyed strictly. For example, women were members of Abraham’s covenant but they were not recipients of its sign, circumcision. Likewise, infant males were circumcised, but only on the eighth day. As a result, to determine the subjects of baptism one must first identify and distinguish the covenants involved and then examine the accompanying laws.

 

 

 

Read the entire article here.

A Reformed Baptist Perspective on Public Theology: The Pauline Epistles, Part IX – 1 Corinthians 15-16

William F. Leonhart III

You can read earlier posts in this series by clicking on the links below:

An Introduction

Augustine’s Two Cities

Two Kingdoms in Luther

The Reformed Confessions (Part I)

The Reformed Confessions (Part II)

The Reformed Confessions (Part III)

Sphere Sovereignty in Kuyper

Redemption and Creation in Kuyper

John the Baptist

The Prophet Amos

The Incarnate Lord (Part I)

The Incarnate Lord (Part II)

The Incarnate Lord (Part III)

Introduction to the Book of Acts

The Ministry of Peter and John in Acts

The Ministry of Paul in Acts, Part I

The Ministry of Paul in Acts, Part II

The Pauline Epistles, Part I – Romans 1-8

The Pauline Epistles, Part II – Romans 9-11

The Pauline Epistles, Part III – Romans 12, 14-16

The Pauline Epistles, Part IV – Romans 13

The Pauline Epistles, Part V – Galatians

The Pauline Epistles, Part VI – 1 Corinthians 1-10

The Pauline Epistles, Part VII – 1 Corinthians 11

The Pauline Epistles, Part VIII – 1 Corinthians 12-14

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Every year around April, an onslaught of news stories are published claiming to have discovered Jesus’ pinky toe, and the like. Where these “scientists” got the original, authoritative labs to determine a DNA match is never disclosed. Rather, we are expected to grant more credence to these “scientists” than to 500 eyewitness contemporaries of the resurrection itself, because we have become an elitist culture: a culture that lives in the shallow end of the intellectual pool and defers whenever possible to the “elites” among us.

The Centrality of the Resurrection

Paul doesn’t leave the matter of Christ’s resurrection up to the religious and political elites of his day. Rather, he points to those who knew Christ best. He challenges his contemporaries to do the intellectual leg-work (like Luke; cf. Lk. 1:3) and thoroughly search out the matter of the resurrection. He not only submits the resurrection to the hard scrutiny of his first century contemporaries, but he also declares the resurrection to be of first importance.

 

 

 

Read the entire article here.

What’s new in the revised edition of the Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology?

By Pascal Denault

Since my book first came out in January of 2013, I wanted to revise it. At first it was minor corrections and typos, but along the way came some important precision that I wanted to include in my work. I have written this blog post to explain what’s new in the revised edition of the Distinctiveness. If you think it’s worth it, you may buy the paperback version or the kindle version (available beginning of next week Feb. 12th) on Amazon. Let’s start with a new endorsement by an important French theologian.

HENRI BLOCHER

The French-speaking Baptists, at least those from Europe (as I am), often ignore the Reformed origin from which the Baptist faith emerged—the genealogical continuity is certain. The fine work of this French Canadian pastor on the theology of the covenant, or the covenants, which was elaborated by the ancient Baptist doctors debating the other Reformed theologians, vividly presents this rooting. It also highlights….

 

 

 

Read the entire article here.

A Reformed Baptist Perspective on Public Theology: The Pauline Epistles, Part VIII – 1 Corinthians 12-14

William F. Leonhart III

You can read earlier posts in this series by clicking on the links below:

An Introduction

Augustine’s Two Cities

Two Kingdoms in Luther

The Reformed Confessions (Part I)

The Reformed Confessions (Part II)

The Reformed Confessions (Part III)

Sphere Sovereignty in Kuyper

Redemption and Creation in Kuyper

John the Baptist

The Prophet Amos

The Incarnate Lord (Part I)

The Incarnate Lord (Part II)

The Incarnate Lord (Part III)

Introduction to the Book of Acts

The Ministry of Peter and John in Acts

The Ministry of Paul in Acts, Part I

The Ministry of Paul in Acts, Part II

The Pauline Epistles, Part I – Romans 1-8

The Pauline Epistles, Part II – Romans 9-11

The Pauline Epistles, Part III – Romans 12, 14-16

The Pauline Epistles, Part IV – Romans 13

The Pauline Epistles, Part V – Galatians

The Pauline Epistles, Part VI – 1 Corinthians 1-10

The Pauline Epistles, Part VII – 1 Corinthians 11

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We often place a divide between ecclesiology and public theology but, depending on where we draw that line, we can often be in error. What we do within the church walls can potentially reap major consequences outside the church walls. If the world looks upon the church and sees that she is behaving in an unloving, disunified, or disordered manner, it very well could be that we are setting up unnecessary, though unintended, divisions between us and the culture. If we are more concerned with putting on a show for the world than speaking forth the word of conviction to the world, the world may join in, but they will have no incentive to submit to Christ’s discipleship. Rather, we will inevitably be expected to bow to their customs, preferences, and cultural mandates. Christ’s disciples will be guilted, coerced, or seduced into becoming disciples of the culture.

Preliminary Considerations

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul begins a discussion that follows through to 1 Corinthians 14. Many, both cessationists and continuationists, erroneously believe that chapters 12-14 center on the topic of tongues. Not only do people in both of these camps believe that tongues is the central theme here, but they falsely interpret tongues as an ecstatic utterance of an unlearned language.

 

 

 

Read the entire article here.

A Reformed Baptist Perspective on Public Theology: The Pauline Epistles, Part VII – 1 Corinthians 11

theroadofgrace

You can read earlier posts in this series by clicking on the links below:

•An Introduction

•Augustine’s Two Cities

•Two Kingdoms in Luther

•The Reformed Confessions (Part I)

•The Reformed Confessions (Part II)

•The Reformed Confessions (Part III)

•Sphere Sovereignty in Kuyper

•Redemption and Creation in Kuyper

•John the Baptist

•The Prophet Amos

•The Incarnate Lord (Part I)

•The Incarnate Lord (Part II)

•The Incarnate Lord (Part III)

•Introduction to the Book of Acts

•The Ministry of Peter and John in Acts

•The Ministry of Paul in Acts, Part I

•The Ministry of Paul in Acts, Part II

•The Pauline Epistles, Part I – Romans 1-8

•The Pauline Epistles, Part II – Romans 9-11

•The Pauline Epistles, Part III – Romans 12, 14-16

•The Pauline Epistles, Part IV – Romans 13

•The Pauline Epistles, Part V – Galatians

•The Pauline Epistles, Part IV – 1 Corinthians 1-10

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As mentioned in the previous blog, Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthian church in order to address several issues within the Church. We now move into a section in which Paul address an issue that directly intersects with our society today: gender and sexuality. Within the Church, 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 has been discussed extensively and the text has been central to numerous debates (such as the egalitarian/complementarian debate and the debate regarding head coverings). However, this passage has much to teach us regarding the meaning of gender and the relationship between the sexes.

The Foundational Analogy

We begin with v. 2-3

“Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:2-3, NASB)

We begin with the first statement that Christ is the head of every man. This affirms the truth that since Christ is the Creator and Preserver of all men, he must therefore be the head (or master and ruler) of mankind. Christ is the head of all men in that all gifts are derived from him and as the….

 

 

 

Read the entire article here.

A Reformed Baptist Perspective on Public Theology: The Pauline Epistles, Part VI – 1 Corinthians 1-10

William F. Leonhart III

You can read earlier posts in this series by clicking on the links below:

•An Introduction

•Augustine’s Two Cities

•Two Kingdoms in Luther

•The Reformed Confessions (Part I)

•The Reformed Confessions (Part II)

•The Reformed Confessions (Part III)

•Sphere Sovereignty in Kuyper

•Redemption and Creation in Kuyper

•John the Baptist

•The Prophet Amos

•The Incarnate Lord (Part I)

•The Incarnate Lord (Part II)

•The Incarnate Lord (Part III)

•Introduction to the Book of Acts

•The Ministry of Peter and John in Acts

•The Ministry of Paul in Acts, Part I

•The Ministry of Paul in Acts, Part II

•The Pauline Epistles, Part I – Romans 1-8

•The Pauline Epistles, Part II – Romans 9-11

•The Pauline Epistles, Part III – Romans 12, 14-16

•The Pauline Epistles, Part IV – Romans 13

•The Pauline Epistles, Part V – Galatians

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When discussing Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth, we must recognize that Paul did not merely write to address one single issue, but several. Corinth had asked several very valid questions of Paul. There were also some concerns about which Paul wanted them to know there was no question, because the answer was so clear. There were also reports that were brought to Paul about matters on which the Corinthian church was settled, but they had settled on the wrong side. In the following article, we will address several of these concerns, because many of them are still concerns for us today. Given the theme of our series, we will primarily be dealing with those concerns that touch the issue of public theology and, sadly, we will not have time to address all of the issues as thoroughly as we might desire.

To the Saints

First, let us recognize the endearment that Paul assigns to this church. He calls them saints: “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling,” (1Cor. 1:2a; NASB). Yes, this church had some major failings. However, he recognizes that they are beloved of God and, even as an apostle, he does not have the right to rail against Christ’s bride. He will go on to rebuke her, but he desires that she see that his rebukes come from a heart of love, not self-righteousness.

 

 

 

Read the entire article here.