I would like to preface this post with the cliff notes version of my testimony:
1.Grew Up Free Will Baptist
2. During my first few years of college I became a true-blooded Classical Arminian with slight Wesleyan influence (Preveniant Grace, Synergism, etc.)
3. Became a United Methodist
4. Went through about a six month season of immense spiritual turmoil where I tried to escape from God through willful sinning and plain idiocy. God's grace and mercy would not let me go so I ended up realizing how stupid I was because God's grace finally overcame my stupidity.
5. The season of turmoil ended over a year ago, I shed my Arminian presuppositions, and because of my life experience and intense non-biased Bible study I came to accept the doctrines of grace.
Though, I am no longer Free Will Baptist nor Arminian, I do have friends and family that I care about still in the denomination, even though I haven't attend a FWB function in a long while besides occasionally attending my grandpa's church. One thing I have notice from my own time in the FWB and talking with the lay people and clergy alike is that about 75% of the rural FWB pastors with no theological education teach a scary theological doctrine of repeated regeneration,
Those who teach repeated regeneration in the FWB hold that a person is initially saved by faith (they have no concept of grace not even preveniant grace), but his salvation is maintained by works. Every time a person sins they lose their salvation until they consciously confess and repent of their sin. If a christian died while speeding then these people would believe that person would be in hell. This is straight Pelagianism.
Those who are the defenders of FWB/Classical Arminian Orthodoxy like Stephen M. Ashby, J. Matthew Pinson, and Robert Picirilli denounce this position, but with no true overseeing body it is hard to police this heresy. The FWB treatise is also ambiguous so it can be read to support repeated regeneration (I will post the passage below).
The Scholars hold and teach that the historical FWB position and Classical Arminian view of Salvation is this:
1. Man is dead in their sin
2. Preveniant Grace heals all humanity's depravity enough so that they man chose to Accept/Reject to God's universal call through faith
3. Since Faith is the only way to attain salvation then the only way to lose salvation is give up on that faith and if a Christian does that then he/she becomes an Apostate and can never gain salvation again.
While I disagree with Arminian Theology because I see the exegetical arguments for it to be lacking (especially the idea of preveniant grace), I see this doctrine of Repeated Regeneration to be completely unbiblical and psychologically dangerous. It is not just incorrect theology which should be discussed among fellow believers, It is a form of psychological abuse because it gives no assurance of salvation.
My question is simple: Should I state my concerns with some of the more powerful members of the denomination? I feel that a Calvinist telling an Arminian denomination about heresy in its midst might be seen as insulting. At the same time this is the denomination I grew up in, and i still have a sort of childhood nostalgia about it, and care deeply for the people in it.
Any advice?
In Christ Alone,
Marcus
P.S. Here is the treatise section on Perseverance of the Saints that seems to be ambiguous
There are strong grounds to hope that the truly
regenerate will persevere unto the end, and be saved,
through the power of divine grace which is pledged
for their support;127 but their future obedience and
final salvation are neither determined nor certain,
since through infirmity and manifold temptations
they are in danger of falling;128 and they ought, therefore,
to watch and pray lest they make shipwreck of
their faith and be lost.129
1.Grew Up Free Will Baptist
2. During my first few years of college I became a true-blooded Classical Arminian with slight Wesleyan influence (Preveniant Grace, Synergism, etc.)
3. Became a United Methodist
4. Went through about a six month season of immense spiritual turmoil where I tried to escape from God through willful sinning and plain idiocy. God's grace and mercy would not let me go so I ended up realizing how stupid I was because God's grace finally overcame my stupidity.
5. The season of turmoil ended over a year ago, I shed my Arminian presuppositions, and because of my life experience and intense non-biased Bible study I came to accept the doctrines of grace.
Though, I am no longer Free Will Baptist nor Arminian, I do have friends and family that I care about still in the denomination, even though I haven't attend a FWB function in a long while besides occasionally attending my grandpa's church. One thing I have notice from my own time in the FWB and talking with the lay people and clergy alike is that about 75% of the rural FWB pastors with no theological education teach a scary theological doctrine of repeated regeneration,
Those who teach repeated regeneration in the FWB hold that a person is initially saved by faith (they have no concept of grace not even preveniant grace), but his salvation is maintained by works. Every time a person sins they lose their salvation until they consciously confess and repent of their sin. If a christian died while speeding then these people would believe that person would be in hell. This is straight Pelagianism.
Those who are the defenders of FWB/Classical Arminian Orthodoxy like Stephen M. Ashby, J. Matthew Pinson, and Robert Picirilli denounce this position, but with no true overseeing body it is hard to police this heresy. The FWB treatise is also ambiguous so it can be read to support repeated regeneration (I will post the passage below).
The Scholars hold and teach that the historical FWB position and Classical Arminian view of Salvation is this:
1. Man is dead in their sin
2. Preveniant Grace heals all humanity's depravity enough so that they man chose to Accept/Reject to God's universal call through faith
3. Since Faith is the only way to attain salvation then the only way to lose salvation is give up on that faith and if a Christian does that then he/she becomes an Apostate and can never gain salvation again.
While I disagree with Arminian Theology because I see the exegetical arguments for it to be lacking (especially the idea of preveniant grace), I see this doctrine of Repeated Regeneration to be completely unbiblical and psychologically dangerous. It is not just incorrect theology which should be discussed among fellow believers, It is a form of psychological abuse because it gives no assurance of salvation.
My question is simple: Should I state my concerns with some of the more powerful members of the denomination? I feel that a Calvinist telling an Arminian denomination about heresy in its midst might be seen as insulting. At the same time this is the denomination I grew up in, and i still have a sort of childhood nostalgia about it, and care deeply for the people in it.
Any advice?
In Christ Alone,
Marcus
P.S. Here is the treatise section on Perseverance of the Saints that seems to be ambiguous
There are strong grounds to hope that the truly
regenerate will persevere unto the end, and be saved,
through the power of divine grace which is pledged
for their support;127 but their future obedience and
final salvation are neither determined nor certain,
since through infirmity and manifold temptations
they are in danger of falling;128 and they ought, therefore,
to watch and pray lest they make shipwreck of
their faith and be lost.129
