Brian Rhodus: 0:12

This atonement, as you probably remember some of our discussions from the other sessions that we've had, this is where General Baptist and particular Baptist have their biggest differences. So is the atonement for everyone who confesses that whosoever will, or is it for who God had already chosen before time to be saved? So who is it for? Well, the general Baptist believed that Christ died for every person, and that all who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved. Is that what we believe today? Yeah, that's what we believe, that whosoever will For God so loved the world, that whoever believes in Him believeth in him. I got in trouble couple weeks ago I quoted that, and they said, You didn't quote it the King James way. I said, Okay, next time I say it, I'll say, believe it. Believe it in him. Shall not perish, but have everlasting life, whoever, whoever. And so general Baptist believed Christ died for every single person. If you believe in Him, you will be saved. Some other general Baptist beliefs would be this. Number one, a believer might fall from grace. We call that apostasy. What that means is you can either renounce your faith in Christ and no longer be saved, or you can do something so bad that you could lose your lose it all. So general Baptist did believe that. Particular Baptist didn't believe that, by the way, but also, remember what a particular Baptist believe about atonement, that God elected the save, so if God has already chosen XYZ to be saved, that there's nothing that that person can do because God's already chosen it to happen. That, yeah, yeah. So that would be the their election, that God has already chosen people to be saved, is what's going to identify with Calvinism, that Reformed theology, the fact that that particular Baptist believed that their salvation is secure, is how we believe today. So we took little bit from each each side. So other beliefs, yeah, that the general Baptist believed that people could lose their salvation fall from grace called apostasy. They also believe that a believer does NOT inherit Adam's sin. For example, God deals with individual people for their own sin, and not because of what Adam does. So that's one of the other things that we don't really take from the general Baptist, is that a believer does NOT inherit Adam sin. Well, if it were not for sin, we would not need Jesus, and there would never come a time, I like what Keith said, there would never come a time in our life that we would have sinned. Nobody taught us how to do that. Nobody taught Jim Ruth to lie. It's just a thing that that came about. But because of that, because of the committal of the sin, she needs Jesus to be her savior. We need Jesus to be our Savior. Number three, I'm glad I only did three and a half pages, because time has gone on. This been really good discussions, by the way. Number three, they would say, God does not predestine, some for salvation and others for damnation. What do you believe about that?

Unknown: 3:53

Yeah, and I think I think

Brian Rhodus: 3:59

this is a correct statement, but I think it forces people to have the wrong assumption, meaning that you know God, is God not sovereign? If that, that would be the, that would be the derivative question from this statement here, if God does not predestin Some to be saved and others to spend eternity in hell, is he not sovereign? Well, that's, that's the wrong question. The question the the answer to that is, is that God doesn't do that. God does not predestine some for salvation, does not do for others for damnation, because God allows free will. But does God know that someone is going to be saved 50 years from now? Absolutely, absolutely, because God is not bound by. Time. And we talked about that a little last week. You know, God knew when I was you know, from the beginning of time. God knew that in 2000 2019 99 or 2000 can't remember when I was 16, that I would put my faith, hope and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of my sin. God knew that from the beginning of time, he knew that back in this the summer that Jim Ruth would come to faith in Christ, from the beginning of time, he knows that, and he he knows that, you know, should the world continue 50 more years, that someone will give their faith to Christ, then God knows that that that's the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God is not his inability to predestined people. It's his ability to know who's going to be saved and who who isn't. So those are some of the views of the general Baptist when it comes to atonement for particular Baptist, you know, we've talked about this a little bit. They believe that God decided or predestined the fate of every person who would ever live before the creation of the world, but with salvation totally at God's initiative. No elect person can possibly lose their salvation. This is a particular Baptist view. I don't I don't really like the the phrase, once saved, always saved. I like to say, I like the phrase and and this isn't original to me. This is Rick Kennedy, former pastor, one of the first pastors that I served under as associate pastor at New Heights Baptist Church. He didn't like the the phrase once saved, always saved. He would always say the eternal security of the believer, the eternal security of the believer. And so with salvation totally at God's initiative, the particular Baptist are going to say, no elect person can possibly lose their salvation. Salvation can neither be gained nor lost by any decision or action of man, according to particular Baptist so you know, you can see how that doctrine has kind of morphed into what we believe today as a Southern Baptist church that's not Calvinistic, and will not be as long as I'm here. Okay, so we believe that everyone has the same opportunity, the same freedom, to choose Jesus as their Savior, as the next person, and once you genuinely accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, there is no power in heaven or hell that can separate you from the love of God. And so the second London confession said that once a person has been given to the precious faith of His elect, he can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved. Now these general verses, particular Baptist views of atonement, had huge in implications on three different areas. When you think of these different views of the Atonement, there's no wonder it had huge implications on these three areas. Number one, preaching. So there's no there is no need evangelism, that no need missions and personal ethics. You know, why should I be faithful to my wife if I know that God has already saved me by the end of the century, some extreme, particular Baptist, what we would call hyper Calvinist today, thought that preaching the gospel to the unsaved was it best, a waste of time and at worst, an insult to God? So why preach the gospel to the unsaved? If God's already chosen you?