April 4-5 Free Conference in Puxico, MO. Resister at fbcpuxico.com
April 24-26 Grace and Family Life Conference in Ridgecrest, NC.
Published by Keith Throop
I am currently serving as the primary teaching elder of Immanuel Baptist Church in Bloomington, Illinois, where I have been since 1993. My fellow-elders are George Drye, Brent Flint, and Ben Murphy, each of whom also resides in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Together, by the grace of God, we make up one pretty good pastor! I received my B.A. in Biblical Studies from Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University) in Columbia, South Carolina. And I received my M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. And, by the way, my last name has a silent 'h' and is pronounced 'troop.' View all posts by Keith Throop
This is interesting. A few observations:
The poll asked for a definition of Reformed Baptist and was asked of those who considered themselves Reformed Baptists. I would expect the vast majority of respondents to give a definition that best suited their own convictions without an eye for people who are reformed and baptistic to some degree but may or may not yet be fully informed or thoroughly thought out on the matter. I would be inclined to look for a minimal answer. I someone reformed soteriologically but don't know much about covenant theology? I would encourage this person to investigate further. Given that there is a difference between denying covenant theology, for example, and not knowing what it is, I may concede that this person could be a minimaly reformed Baptist. Knowing what covenant theology is and denying it outright may exclude such a one.
On a personal note: As a member of an SBC church fellowshipping with people who are decidedly not reformed and many who are reformed to some degree, I'm perhaps sensitive to identifying what degree is required for someone to be reformed. I have tell you that I'm happy if someone in my church is wrestling with reformed soteriology, excited if they are committed to all five points, and ecstatic if they know anything of covenant theology or the Baptist Confession of 1689. Fortunately, I have the opportunity to be ecstatic with several members of my church. On the other end, I have dearly beloved friends within my church who have some antipathy towards reformed theology. We'll keep working on those brothers and sisters.
Another interesting thing is that none of the possibilities in the poll are ecclesiologically founded. That is, knowing that there are Reformed Baptist Churches proper, none of the answers included membership in a Reformed Baptist Church. There may be some who would consider the reference to Reformed Baptist to apply to church membership.
Given that, one last observation is that covenant theology in the options isn't noted with the possibility of being of a modified form where the Baptist Confession of 1689 is. To be sure, Presbyterians would argue that we don't hold fully to covenant theology since we are necessarily credobaptistic. So there are differences in the tangential areas of covenant theology that could be considered modified.