BAPTISTS IN NORTH CAROLINA
We are having good meetings in North Carolina. Someone unites with the church most every Sunday. We are in the bounds of the Original Bear Creek Association—a lovely wide-awake band of Baptists, contented with the old-time apostolic principles—unconditional election, special atonement, effectual calling by the independent, sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, preservation of the saints, the resurrection of their bodies in the image of Christ at His second coming, and the final uniting and glorification of all the redeemed host out of every nation. They also recognize the program outlined and delivered to the organic church by the Saviour for its activities through time, which they claim in no way conflicts with the sovereignty and eternal purposes of God. Hence they hold sacred the idea that God’s children are active in the service of God—not governed by physical law, but under the parental and moral law, and hence accountable to God. So in their teaching they find a place for all the admonitions and commands of the Bible. Hence they admonish God’s children to obey the Lord, and inform them of the blessings promised to those who obey. As a result of such teaching, God’s little children are encouraged to cut loose from the world and follow the Saviour. In teaching predestination, or any other fundamental point of doctrine, if God’s ministers stay with the Bible, they have no occasion to apologize for, or be embarrassed in, calling attention to the many hundreds of exhortations taught in the Bible. (Pages 264, 265, originally printed in 1941.)
