Calvinist Controversy at Louisiana College

February 26, 2013 By

The latest front in the Baptist battle over Calvinism and Arminianism has opened at Louisiana College, where the administration has decided not to renew the contracts of three faculty members - Jason Hiles, Kevin McFadden and Ryan Lister. The latter two have doctorates from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, while Hiles’s doctoral degree is from Southeastern Seminary. [...]

Filed Under: David Barton, Education, Southern Baptist Convention, Thomas Kidd Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

“Ask Jesus into Your Heart”: A History of the Sinner’s Prayer

July 10, 2012 By

Many an evangelical pastor has concluded a sermon by asking non-Christians to “ask [or receive, or invite] Jesus into their heart,” or to pray some version of what some call the “sinner’s prayer.” But some evangelicals, including Baptist pastor David Platt of Birmingham, Alabama, have begun to criticize the sinner’s prayer as unbiblical and superstitious. Surely, [...]

Filed Under: Calvinism, Evangelicalism, George Whitefield, Southern Baptist Convention, Thomas Kidd Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How Significant is Fred Luter’s Election for Southern Baptists?

June 26, 2012 By

This week my Baylor colleague Barry Hankins and I published a USA Today editorial, “Southern Baptists Cleanse Past,” commending the SBC’s election of its first African American president, Fred Luter. From the column: America remains torn by racial problems – and Sunday morning is still America’s most divided hour - but even the most cynical observer [...]

Filed Under: Southern Baptist Convention, Thomas Kidd Tagged With: , , , , , ,

“Traditional” Baptists and Calvinism

June 5, 2012 By

In May 2012 a group of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders posted a statement on the “Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation.” The statement defended man’s free will in accepting Christ’s offer of salvation, and highlighted what is now the key theological division within the country’s largest Protestant denomination. With SBC conservatives having [...]

Filed Under: Calvinism, Evangelicalism, Southern Baptist Convention, Thomas Kidd Tagged With: , , ,