Calvinist Flyswatter

Works of Stephen Garrett

THE RESEARCH WORK OF
STEPHEN GARRETT

I just can't say enough in commendation of the tremendous and valuable research work done by the former "Hardshell" minister, Stephen Garrett at the BaptistGadfly.

I measure my words when I say that no writer with whom I am acquainted has done more to plough-up the "Hardshell" heresies and erroneous scriptural interpretations.

This is especially true in regard to the fallacy of "regeneration precedes faith," or "born again before, without, and apart from faith," a favorite hobby-horse of the modern Pedobaptist Reformed camp, the falsely so-called monergists, and other Hybrid Calvinists. This includes the likes of R. C. Sproul, Iain Murray, Ernest Reisinger, James White, some teachers at Southern Seminary (Louisville), Tom and Bill Ascol, Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and many of the Internet websites which are devoted to a hybrid form of "Calvinism" in contrast to the creeds and confessions of faith.

Surely, Stephen has come to the kingdom "for such a time as this" when Hybrid, Hyper, Ultra, and Pseudo "Calvinism" is rampant on blogs and websites.

Not only so, but Stephen is also an expert on "Campbellism," and has conducted quite a number of Public Debates with some of the representatives of this "twin" of Hardshellism, both born from the same "womb" of Pedobaptist Hyper Calvinism. Though diverse, these two 19th century (1830's) movements represent two aberrant extremes in departing from the creedal view of the Gospel in relation to the New Birth -- the Hardshells teaching the "Spirit Alone" heresy and the Campbellites teaching the "Word Alone" heresy.

A few years ago, it was my privilege to appear with Stephen and Larry Wessels on Larry's "Christian Answers of Austin, Texas" to do a series of TV programs on "Hardshellism." I never fail to learn from Stephen, especially in view of his many years of affiliation with the "Primitive Baptist Church" (Hardshells).

If you are interested in either or both of these, you will find no better source for evaluating and refuting them than from the writings which Stephen Garrett has erected on the BaptistGadfly.

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posted by Bob L. Ross @ 10:13 AM