Dr. Roy Hargrave, Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida (a Southern Baptist Church), has written an open letter to Jerry Vines, Johnny Hunt, John Sullivan, and the Florida Baptist Convention. This letter is a specific response to a sermon preached by Jerry Vines on October 8, 2006, at the FBC of Woodstock, GA.
You may recall that this sermon made quite a stir last year. James White addressed it on several Dividing Line broadcasts; we at Strange BaptistFire devoted several posts to reviewing the sermon in-depth, and Tom Ascol (and others) addressed it as well.
But what has brought it to the forefront again this year is the fact that Dr. John Sullivan, the Executive Director of the Florida Baptist Convention, has mailed a set of Jerry Vines’ sermons entitled, “Baptist Battles” (which of course includes the sermon on Calvinism), to ever pastor in the Florida Baptist Convention. Several have commented on this as well, including Tom Ascol and SBF’s own Timmy Brister.
I certainly encourage you -whether you are a Calvinist or not-, to take a close reading of Hargrave’s open letter. Here is an excerpt which discusses the purpose of the open letter, which is followed by a thorough review of the Vine’s sermon itself:
It is not Dr. Vine’s right to preach it that I question, nor Woodstock’s right to believe it. My concern relates to the forum that has been provided by Dr. Sullivan and the Florida Baptist Convention for the dissemination of Dr. Vines’ views through funds which come from local churches who vehemently disagree with the misrepresentations presented in the sermon on Calvinism.
…If this is the official view of the Florida Baptist Convention, it needs to be communicated forthrightly. If it is not (which is the case), it should not have been sent with funds from our local congregations. Now that the damage is done, I would call on Dr. Sullivan to do the right thing and send a rebuttal sermon from the other side of the issue to the same recipients who received Dr. Vine’s sermon — with the same official endorsement given to the Vines sermon. To be balanced, it would be four sermons on the same subjects, with the exception of replacing Calvinism with Arminianism.
[To get the recent history of the Calvinism debate in the SBC, see Timmy Brister’s excellent ‘Compilation of the Controversy over Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention‘].
Nathan,
Thanks for the post. Pastor Roy is one that will stand for truth no matter what the cost is . I will say this again: Watch how the SBC Calvinist leaders remain very silent these days. Some seem to still “Play the Game”. They try to make “Both sides” happy. Look at the ones doing the conferences within the SBC and you tell me if I’m wrong. Roy Hargrave is different ! So is Tom Nettles and Tom Ascol.
Scott,
I have subscribed to Roy’s podcast and have listened to many of his sermons. I always enjoy them! I praise God that he is faithful in preaching the Word in a season (and a convention) where it certainly isn’t popular.
Thanks for the heads up on this story! I can always count on hearing the news from you first.
Note to Florida Baptist Convention on behalf of our congregation:
Don’t spend our missions gifts on this crap. Be consistant with the value of autonomy or elect a pope.
If Dr. hargrave wants to be consistant and not hypocriticle he needs to make sure that he is not mischaracterizing those who oppose “effectual calling’ as Arminians. I have yet to meet an Arminian. Maybe he should actually do some research on “arminianism”.
Mark, you’re probably correct, I should have said semi-pelagian. And if your assessment of my mischaracterization is true then I suppose a scorecard should be kept.
Misrepresentations of Calvinism by Jerry Vines — 25
Misrepresentations of Arminianism by Hargrave — 1
I assume you’ve informed Dr. Vines of your assessment of his lack of understanding concerning Calvinism.
Mark,
Instead of making some broad downgrading remark about Dr. Hargrave’s response why don’t you actually say what you disagree with so you can then be critiqued.
It’s easy and cowardly to just throw out a statement such as you made.
Man up!
Mark, You are more than welcome to disagree here, but please do it in charity.
I am interested in your statement about ‘never’ meeting an Arminian. What is an Arminian in your opinion?
Thanks for this website. I have been a close friend of Dr. Roy Hargrave since we were wide-eyed 18 year old freshmen at Southern Baptist College [now Williams Baptist College] in Arkansas 35 years ago [where we first heard men like David Miller, Ron Dunn and Dr. Jimmy Millikin, BTW]. I have served on staff with Roy, sat through many college and seminary classes with him, and rooted with him for our beloved Razorbacks and St. Louis Cardinals over these many years.
He is truly a great preacher of God’s Inerrant Word, and definitely a theologian and prophet as well. May God raise up more like him in these last days to
as did our Baptist forefathers.
I haven’t been as active on this front as I should’ve been lately. The Doctrines of the Grace of our Sovereign Lord are too important to allow them to languish. This wimpy humanistic modern gospel must not be allowed to go unchallenged. Especially in a denomination, as Dr. Tom Nettles’ book so meticulously documents, that was founded on the old truths proclaimed by Calvin, Whitfield, Spurgeon, P. H. Mell, Dabney, Boyce, Broadus, etc.
BTW, HAPPY NEW YEAR, my Brothers in Christ.