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POST GREAT AWAKENING IMPACT
There is general agreement between that Baptists are either strong Calvinists or strong Arminians. Stated succinctly, Calvinists believe in the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. That man, born and in the grips of sin, is incapable of saving himself. That God must first give him new life (Eph. 2:1,5) and put him or her in the hearing of His Word, and give him or her faith to respond to His command to repent and call on the Lord for salvation. This is Calvinism! However, John Calvin did not originate this teaching, Christ did (cf. Jn. 6:37, 39, 44, 65; Rom. 5:12; 10:9-17; Eph. 2:1,5, 8)! Arminianism on the other hand teaches God as being Sovereign, but denies it in practice. In other words, they believe man is born in sin and lost; while at the same time saying he has strength. That by his own ability man can chose God whenever he wants to. When looked at practically, Arminians deny the truth of Romans 5:6 and in a sense makes man autonomous. In doing so, they inadvertly deny God’s Sovereignty since the two cannot coexist. This is the problem faced by Baptists after the Great Awakening. Preachers of this period were mainly Evangelists, going from town to town with the Good News of Jesus Christ. However, their messages were mainly Calvinistic. Many Baptists and other established churches (especially the Puritans), opposed this style of preaching. However, the people loved these preachers. As suggested earlier, George Whitefield was one of the greatest preachers of the Great Awakening. Those saved by the Holy Spirit by his sermons became known as “New Lights” or “Separates”. These “Separates” or “New Lights” were not part of the early “Separates” who separated themselves from the Church of England in the 1600s. These were men and women who regarded themselves awakened by the Holy Sprit through the preached word. They regarded opposer of the Great Awakening as “Old Lights”. Another interesting point about these two groups was the New Lights were strong Calvinists while the Old Lights were Arminian in belief. These were two major categories of Christians as the result of the Great Awakenings. Three men of note who joined the Separates were Isaac Backus, Daniel Marshall and Shebal Sterns. All three would later join the Baptists, bringing with them their enthusiastic belief in evangelical revival and God’s sovereign grace, another important evolution of the Baptist faith. Since the New Lights had no established statement of faith, they leaned heavily towards the beliefs of Baptists. They approved of the Baptists’ practice of democracy in church government, simplicity of their order of worship, believers baptism and ordaining men to the ministry based on a divine call as proved by qualification of their gifts through preaching. Because of their likeness, Separates began joining Baptists congregations. Because of their strong evangelical focus, these New Lights Baptists took advantage of the impact left by the Great Awakening on the minds and hearts of the people. They seized on this opportunity and therefore increased the spread of the Baptist faith and its membership (The Baptist, Ann DeVerereaux and J. M. Stifle, Hippocrene Books). . The two men most instrumental in this were Isaac Backus and Daniel Marchall.ir membership. Unfortunately, there were many who did not agree with the New Lights and their zeal for evangelism. These “Old Lights” from established churches, which included Baptists and the more legalistic Puritan congregations, had expressed their opposition at the beginning of the Great Awakening. The harsh sermons by Edwards and others with their Calvinistic overtones went against all the Age of Enlightenment had stressed. Sad to say, these Old Lights, stuck in their traditions, joined the Baptists Just as the New Lights had, bringing about an outgrowth of splinter groups (The Baptists). Before the Great Awakening, there were Particular, General and the Seventh-Day Baptists. The latter believed the Sabbath fell on Saturday instead of Sunday. After the Great Awakening, three and possibly four new groups evolved: The Separatists Baptist, The Free Will Baptist, The Primitive Baptist and the Two-Seed-In The-Spirit Baptist. These divisions were small in comparison to the next obstacle faced by Baptists—Slavery. We will look at this issue in the next insert.
In Christ, Minister John Cobb
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