Being a Reformation Fan in a Baptist Church

I am currently teaching through the book of Hebrews in my Sunday School class. I teach the Adult 10 class at the First Baptist Church. Thanks to folks like R C Sproul, Wayne Grudem, Michael Horton, James R. White, John Piper, John MacArthur (and quite a few others) I have come to a realization of the truth of the doctrines of grace and the essential nature of the pure gospel in the life of the church.

Teaching the doctrines of grace in a Baptist church can be a challenge. While many of the founders of the Baptist faith were Calvinistic in their outlook early in the church, the Baptist faith has been long dominated by an Arminian outlook on the world. I grew up in another denomination (church of Christ) that is even more Arminian in nature, so I have seen that side of the theology coin very clearly. Both aspects (Baptist history and my background) add to the challenge of teaching the doctrines of grace (the TULIP) to my class.

However, I've seen the negative effects of the substitution of a form of the Law for the Gospel on my current denomination, and I feel a strong calling to be a part of the solution to this problem. In Hebrews, we are in chapter two, and if you recall, verse 9 of chapter 2 is a great teaching moment for the idea of definite atonement ('limited', if you use the TULIP). This lesson is coming up on October 4th. I am very grateful I have the Logos system in place to help prepare for this lesson, as the volume of material is overwhelming. Logos makes the volume manageable.

This won't be the last time one of the TULIPs comes up in Hebrews. It is an interesting, but worthwhile, challenge.