Comments on: The Halfway Covenant: The End of Puritanism in America http://www.newreformationpress.com/blog/2010/01/21/the-halfway-covenant-the-end-of-puritanism-in-america/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:41:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Sarah Wilson http://www.newreformationpress.com/blog/2010/01/21/the-halfway-covenant-the-end-of-puritanism-in-america/#comment-1285 Sarah Wilson Mon, 03 May 2010 18:04:51 +0000 http://www.newreformationpress.com/blog/?p=1318#comment-1285 Hi, there! Found your blog today and really appreciated your thoughts on the lives and influences of the Puritans. Thought you might be interested in a brand new <a href="http://www.logos.com/products/prepub/details/6357" rel="nofollow">pre-publication offer</a> from <a href="http://www.logos.com" rel="nofollow">Logos Bible Software</a> on the history of the Puritans. Thanks and let me know if I can help in any way! Sarah WIlson Hi, there! Found your blog today and really appreciated your thoughts on the lives and influences of the Puritans. Thought you might be interested in a brand new pre-publication offer from Logos Bible Software on the history of the Puritans. Thanks and let me know if I can help in any way!

Sarah WIlson

]]> By: Larry http://www.newreformationpress.com/blog/2010/01/21/the-halfway-covenant-the-end-of-puritanism-in-america/#comment-972 Larry Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:09:40 +0000 http://www.newreformationpress.com/blog/?p=1318#comment-972 Wow! Great article. Now my Calvinistic SB and later the same PCA makes historical sense. Especially that part about interrogating who actually possesses and does not posses saving faith. At one point, one just before I left and one afterward, our elders (in our Calvinistic SB) interrogated two teens out of the church, wouldn't baptize them. Which the teens saw as meaning "I'm a Christian". The main killing question? Do you still have desires to sin? Kids answer that truthfully unlike adults who try to split apart their desires. When they answered sheepishly "yes I still have those desires". The elders deemed them unregenerate and thus no baptism. The teens were devastated and made the decision, "I can't be a Christian because I can't fight this problem so as to eliminate it". Less than a year later they became atheist/agnostics. My own early journey in SB-ism was similar. I was at the time struggling with my own "am I elect/saved" and was my baptism a baptism and also at the time training to become a future elder at that church. When that happened I told my wife in whom alone I confided, "I couldn't answer that question any different than they did. I can't be an elder because I don't know if I'm really regenerate, elect or baptized." We eventually left the church for a job situation and the rest is history. One other thing: One should realize that in this church all this interrogation did not come under the look and feel of a stern austere legalism of (Hollywood) styled Pharisees. Not at all. All were very nice cordial good friends, laugh it up kind of fellows that otherwise said with their lips "grace alone". But in reality that was only a moniker, the real "theology" was what played out in the rest of the ministry. The constant issue was purifying the church to have only truly regenerate baptized folks. In SBism the CONSTANT cry whether at the church level or seminary level (I know I was around it a lot in Louisville) was and I quote "a need to return to the regenerate church". Any baptist worth his salt knows this. It was not until PCA that we had multiple level memberships, which I found odd coming out of baptist polity. Larry Wow! Great article. Now my Calvinistic SB and later the same PCA makes historical sense. Especially that part about interrogating who actually possesses and does not posses saving faith. At one point, one just before I left and one afterward, our elders (in our Calvinistic SB) interrogated two teens out of the church, wouldn’t baptize them. Which the teens saw as meaning “I’m a Christian”. The main killing question? Do you still have desires to sin? Kids answer that truthfully unlike adults who try to split apart their desires. When they answered sheepishly “yes I still have those desires”. The elders deemed them unregenerate and thus no baptism. The teens were devastated and made the decision, “I can’t be a Christian because I can’t fight this problem so as to eliminate it”. Less than a year later they became atheist/agnostics. My own early journey in SB-ism was similar.

I was at the time struggling with my own “am I elect/saved” and was my baptism a baptism and also at the time training to become a future elder at that church. When that happened I told my wife in whom alone I confided, “I couldn’t answer that question any different than they did. I can’t be an elder because I don’t know if I’m really regenerate, elect or baptized.”

We eventually left the church for a job situation and the rest is history.

One other thing: One should realize that in this church all this interrogation did not come under the look and feel of a stern austere legalism of (Hollywood) styled Pharisees. Not at all. All were very nice cordial good friends, laugh it up kind of fellows that otherwise said with their lips “grace alone”. But in reality that was only a moniker, the real “theology” was what played out in the rest of the ministry. The constant issue was purifying the church to have only truly regenerate baptized folks. In SBism the CONSTANT cry whether at the church level or seminary level (I know I was around it a lot in Louisville) was and I quote “a need to return to the regenerate church”. Any baptist worth his salt knows this.

It was not until PCA that we had multiple level memberships, which I found odd coming out of baptist polity.

Larry

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