Baptists in America: A History

by Thomas S. Kidd

Most Baptist churches espoused moderate Calvinist beliefs. They generally held to the doctrinal views of English Baptist minister Andrew Fuller, who advocated a modified Calvinist view of the atonement. Fuller argued that Christ’s death on the cross was “sufficient” to forgive the sins of all, but “efficient” only for the elect. In 1795, the Danbury Association entertained a query from a member church: “Are the non-elect in any sense bought by the blood of Christ?” It answered, “If by being bought, you mean to ask, whether the atonement is sufficient for the whole world; we answer in the affirmative: but if you mean to ask, whether the atonement of Christ has bought any of the fallen race, so as to release them from the curse of the divine law until they are regenerated, we answer in the negative.” Some thought that this position was quasi-Arminian, suggesting that Christ had somehow died for all humankind. Staunch Calvinists saw the atonement as sufficient for only those predestined to salvation. At the Powelton Baptist Church in Georgia, four members separated in 1791 because the church endorsed Fuller’s theology of the atonement. Pastor Silas Mercer polled the congregation, asking whether it should “excommunicate a member, for holding what is called a general provision.” A majority voted in the negative, and they decided to expel the four hyper-Calvinist schismatics instead.