During the past 100 years there have been two "isms" that have bothered Old Baptists very much. This has been Progressivism and Absolutism. It could be said that these two principles are directly opposites. People who promote the doctrine of Absolutism seem to be very conservative and those that promote Progressivism seem to be very liberal. This is true in a general way but you will find many variations in practices.

About the year 1895 there was a battle fought over the thought of God predestinating everything both good and evil. When this thought was carried to extremes it taught that God was the author of sin. And there are people still teaching that doctrine today. There seems to be a fine line between the doctrine of God's sovereignty and the doctrine of absolute predestination of all things. We need to defend the truth and condemn error but we need to be very careful just how we do it.

It was about the year 1908 that the Progressive movement got started in the Old Baptist Church. These people wanted to bring into the church new things that were not provided for in the New Testament. The movement carried to the extreme found many worldly things in the church. Naturally there were those that wanted to bring in only a few little things at the start, but others went all the way.

Between these two extremes there has been a people that have been called Old Line Primitive Baptists. Generally these people do not go on extremes on the doctrine of predestination, neither do they try to bring the things of the world into the church. But now and then a brother that knows nothing about the struggles of the past will lean over in one direction or the other. It is very important that we know something about the history of the church so that we may avoid the pitfalls of the past.

In Acts 2:23 you will find the reason why it is so difficult to find this fine line between the purpose of God and the wicked acts of man. A comma is the only thing that divides the two thoughts in this verse. God did determine that there should be a sacrifice for sin but He was not the cause of the wicked thoughts of those men who crucified Christ.

In this immediate area we have not been bothered by these two "isms" in recent years and that is one reason it could be easy for it to filter in unawares. We need to study the history of the church so that we may save ourselves a lot of trouble and heartaches. A. B. Hall "Rocky Mt. Newsletter", 1/1/86 [Editor's note: Although the writer didn't see signs of the "isms" in 1986 I believe there were in fact early signs of progressivism developing. In the earlier 1990's it began to emerge and for 15 to 20 years it fully bloomed into another liberal/progressive movement. As many of the older saints of God have passed on, the younger ones taking the reins have forsaken the paths of their forefathers in the faith."]