The Donatists: Early Church Seperatists

When one hears the term “Separatist,” they will normally think if the group of believers who desired to separate from the Anglican Church in the 1600′s. But those are not the first Christian group to separate from an apostate church; the earliest such group was a small African body of believers known as the Donatists. The Donatists surfaced around 640 AD.

The Donatists are remembered for their faithfulness to the the true faith during the intense persecution under the Roman emperor Diocletian. Amid the heat of persecution, many self-professing Christians renounced Christ or lied about their belief in Christ in exchange for their lives. In many cases of persecution, fearful believers would conceal their faith by forging certificates that, upon being handed over to Roman authorities, would declare them to be non-believers, thus sparing their lives.

The Donatists are renowned for their refusal to give into the persecutions; as a result of their faithfulness, many were killed at the hands of the Romans. However, after the emperor Constantine came to power, many Christians who had renounced their faith under Diocletian came out and confessed Christ once more. They said they had only lied to save themselves from being tortured, killed or thrown into the Colosseum.

While some in the Christian church were ready to receive their repentant brethren back into their fellowship, the Donatists, who had not denied Christ, were outraged. The Donatist believers felt that those who denied Christ under persecution were not true saints and were corrupting the church. The Donatists, wishing to maintain the policy of Biblical separation, demanded that only those who re-confessed Christ and were re-baptized could be allowed back into the church. This staunch demand of re-baptism is what would gain the Donatists many enemies, even within the church.

The Donatist brethren were heavily opposed by the well-known Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, North Africa. Unfortunately for the Donatists, Augustine believed that once a person was baptized as an infant–a practice original in Roman Catholicism–was not only saved, but had no need of participating in baptism after confessing Christ as their Savior. Due to the conflict of doctrine the Donatists presented for Augustine, he desired to silence them, by force if necessary. After diplomacy failed, Augustine promoted and encouraged people, believers, to persecute and even kill anyone who preached the Donatist’s message of separation and against infant baptism.

Though the Donatist believers have been dead for over one and a half millennia, we as twenty-first-century Christians can and should learn much from their example. In times of intense and even fatal persecution, will we deny Christ or will we remain faithful unto death? Will we allow the church to be infested with those who deny Christ at the first sign of persecution? Will we stand by the Biblical doctrine of believer’s baptism or will we give into the Roman Catholic doctrine that infants can be regenerate through infant baptism? Will we be counted faithful as the early believers or will we shame their memory by giving into the pressures of persecution and modern doctrine? May God find us faithful as these who have gone before us.

Why Baptists Are Not Protestants: Part 1 of 4

Protest Against What?

Before getting to the real issue of why Baptists are not truly protestants, it is most essential for logic’s sake to define the word “protestant.” To be a protestant means that one is in protest against something–in historical context, this is one who protests against something and leaves it. Historically, the term protestant has referred to  group of Christian leaders, saints and groups that have become discontent or in conflict with the polity or doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church and have protested against her and left her. It goes without saying that in order for one to be protestant, in its true definition, one had to come out of the Roman Catholic Church–if not personally, then denominationally.

Martin Luther: The Reformation

Many people and even preachers and pastors associate Martin Luther with the greatest event in Church history since Christ’s ascension and Pentecost. The Protestant Reformation was a time where many questioned the Roman Catholic Church of her doctrine, authority and polity. Luther began the Reformation over his quarrel with the Roman Catholic practice of buying and selling indulgences. Luther’s famous 95 Theses were actually not against the pope, for Luther thought the pope to be a good man who was unaware of the scandalous activity of lower level Catholic leaders and especially of Johan Tetzel. Upon realizing that this damnable doctrine of indulgences went  straight to the pope himself–he had authorized the idea to pay for Vatican debt–, Luther declared his defiance for the pope. After getting into trouble with Pope Leo [ ], Luther began organizing and spreading what is historically referred to as the Protestant Church to oppose and break with and to purify the Roman Catholic Church. Luther did much political good, in the sense that he allowed religious freedom to take hold in Germany and therefore spread around the globe. He was not perfect by any means, teaching [ ]  , “contransubstansiation”–the doctrine that the Lord’s Supper is where the Lord Jesus is physically present around the elements. (Notice how close Luther’s view is to the Roman Catholic version of the Lord’s Supper, known as “transubstantiation”–which states that the elements are literally turned into the very blood and body of Christ and the sin offering of Calvary is re-offered each time the sacrament is observed. Luther would also hold to what we no call replacement theology–which believes that the Church has taken the place of Israel and that all Old Testament prophecies and promises directed towards Israel will be fulfilled in the New Testament Church. This view naturally and easily leads to anti-semitism. I have seen this first hand from Reformed leaders here in Greenville. (Men whom you would well recognize.) Luther’s antisemitism led him to publicly encourage and take art in persecuting, writing against and murdering Jews–whom he blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; they therefore deserved to be mistreated and killed in Luther’s mind. (Surprisingly, Adolf Hitler would utilize Luther’s writings and ideas to engineer his Nazi Holocaust. While Hitler actually made the ideas take widespread hold, Luther was Hitler’s engineer. The very ideas of wearing the Star of David and the Ghettos were directly derived from Luther’s own writings, many of which are unprintable. I do not believe the man to be truly converted. [read his interpretation of “the just shall live by faith.”]

Augustine: Calvin’s Model

Born in November 13, 354 Augustine is considered to be the founder of both the Roman Catholic Church and of Reformed Theology, or Calvinism. It is very interesting that both these groups claim Augustine as their founder. Before we move onto John Calvin, we must establish the undeniable connection between Calvin and Augustine. If you desire to understand Calvin, you must study Augustine. The actual deeds done by Calvin were result of the ideas of Augustine. Augustine was a Roman Catholic bishop in Hippo, North Africa. Augustine was a theologian and a philosopher–involved in Manacheanism and Neo-Platonism and heavily in favor of the distinctively and originally Roman Catholic practice of Infant Baptism or “Paedobaptism.” It is this invented and unbiblical practice of infant baptism that would lead Augustine to earn the bloody and violent reputation he should be remembered by. (More on this later when we discuss the Donatists.) Augustine’s major work was titled The City Of God; it was the textbook Calvin would use centuries later to establish his dictatorial reign in Geneva, Switzerland, during which he would use the same bloody and ruthless violence that Augustine against those who preached against Paedobaptism or any other of his teachings. Calvin would attempt to make Geneva the “City of God.” What Geneva would become was a place of terror, tyranny, murder and sadistic horror for anyone in disagreement with Calvin. Augustine never could have dreamed of how Calvin would put his thoughts and writings into practice.

My Experience With Calvinism

I would like to preface this article with two main statements: First, I desire to speak humbly and as a young man who is seeking the truth; secondly, I would like to say that I am in no way attempting to cause unnecessary strife or attack people who hold to Reformed theology, I am simply stating historical facts and my own personal experience.

John Calvin

My Initial Discontentment

I have wrote many times on this subject, over the last year or two; I truly was seriously distressed as a young college freshman. I saw a Fundamentalist church–in the broad sense–that was often shallow in the pulpit and in practical living. Discouraged by the lack of depth, I began to wonder if there was something deeper. It was during the climax of my discontentment with shallow doctrine and preaching that I found the Free Presbyterian Church. I had never had any experience with or true knowledge of the Presbyterian denomination, but was overwhelmingly taken by the Free Church’s deep preaching, deep doctrine and reverent worship. I began attending a local Free Presbyterian Church and fell in love with everything about it. Soon after beginning to attend there, I was introduced and immersed in the system of theology known as Calvinism.

The Appeal Of Reformed Theology

Even after coming out of Calvinism, I still vividly remember the intellectual and irresistible appeal of Calvinism. After all, Calvinism clearly and logically could explain the often ignored issues of election, and absolute sovereignty of God. I had not heard these things preached or discussed in such clarity and detail; I felt as if I had truly come to understand many hard things of Scripture I had never understood before.

On top of the intellectual appeal, I am also a great fan of history; it is only natural that I would love the association of Reformed theology with the Protestant Reformation. I became infatuated with Luther, Calvin, Geneva, Worms, reformation! I began to idolize these historic reformers.

Calvinism’s Effect On My Life

After genuinely believing I had been divinely introduced to a higher level of Biblical understanding, I began to struggle with feeling spiritually and intellectually superior to those who did not hold to Reformed theology. I began to interpret all of Scripture and life in general through the grid defined by the TULIP–the acronym for the five key points of Calvinism: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints.

I found extreme difficulty in witnessing to the lost, primarily because I was taught that man’s salvation is predetermined before he is even born, and if someone is reprobated by God, there is no hope for salvation even amid the most fervent prayer and witness. On the other hand, if a man has been chosen as one of the elect, my failure to witness will not keep him from being called unto repentance. While Calvinists will argue that their system does not promote a lax  in their witness and prayer lives, the inevitable result is a failure to witness and pray to and for the lost. I remember going on a tract distribution in downtown Greenville; the people just stood around and waited for “one of the elect” to simply walk up and take a tract–which was one that simply presented the Gospel with the hope that an “elect” reader would be drawn by God’s irresistible Grace unto salvation. What’s my point? It is my firm opinion that the Calvinist system discourages one from witnessing with the same fervor one might if they believe that people are not eternally damned to Hell before birth. This entire concept of predestination has been proven to be heretical–both by Scripture and by close examination of Church History. (More on this later.)

Doubts and Struggles

Even while embracing Calvinism, promoting it and preaching it, there were many things that truly bothered  and vexed me on the deepest levels. Mainly, the issue of irreconcilable words of Scripture that conflicted with the doctrines of Calvinism. While Calvinism told me to believe that men are predestined to Heaven or Hell in eternity past and that Christ’s death was only for the elect, and not the whole world–verses kept coming up that bothered me. For example, I would read things in Scripture like “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Or ones like “Who is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” How could God desire to save all but not send Christ to die for all?

I continued to doubt and struggle within my soul…until I turned to History.

Turning To History

I had taken a class on John Calvin at a Reformed Seminary here in town about one year ago; it was there that I had my first in depth education on John Calvin and his theology and life. I mention this fact because while in that class, the issue was addressed that some had accused John Calvin of brutality and murder of many people in Geneva, Switzerland. The professor brushed off those accusations and even said that Calvin had tried to save those lives and was simply unable to keep the mobs from killing those people.

When I read the history of Calvin and those killed in Geneva, I found that the truth was a far cry from what I had heard in that seminary classroom. It is documented (as I have shown in previous posts) that Calvin made sure that those who opposed him were either abused, exiled or killed. He burned people, beheaded children and had many people killed by encouraging the populace to do so. The seminary lecture had been a failed attempt to cover up for the murder of many at the hands of one whom historians call the “Pope of Geneva.”

I read more and more and became increasingly disturbed and mortified to know that I had  promoted the writings of one who was a fatalistic murder of those who disagreed with him.

What truly disturbed me was the fact that John Calvin’s hero was Augustine–the founding father of the Roman Catholic Church; Augustine believed one’s salvation lied not in Christ, but in his or her infant baptism. Augustine held on dearly to his infant baptism–as would John Calvin–and Augustine also made sure he received the “Last Rights” at his death. Augustine was clearly not a saved man; he was Calvin’s hero and model–and Calvin followed in Augustine’s footprints with great mimicry. Like Calvin, Augustine believed in using force to deal with those who disagreed with his teachings.

Even more disturbing was that I discovered that neither Augustine or Calvin ever truly converted from the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine. While Calvin may have desired to purify the RCC, he formed his theology out of the cardinal doctrines he learned while in the Roman Catholic Church.

The doctrines of predestination, infant baptism and allegorical interpretation of Scripture are neither protestant nor Biblical; they are doctrines from the Roman Catholic Church which Augustine taught and Calvin elaborated upon. Calvinists use the verse that speaks of God loving Jacob and hating Esau while they were still in the womb as evidence for divine election and reprobation. However, Genesis 25:23 says

And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

We see from this verse that such a reference speaks not of Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, but of two nations and the dominance of Israel over the other–because of God’s covenant with Abraham.

I am humbly telling what history records and Scripture confirms.

Determined to Preach Truth

Based upon the truth of Scripture and the record of history–religious and secular–Calvinism is not the gospel; it never was and never will be. It is a perversion of the gospel and according to Jude, should be opposed and exposed as such.

I regret with all my heart that I was so ignorant of the truth about this blasphemous, bloody cult.

I am sorry  if I have offended you, but Scripture and History hold Calvinism as such as I have described it; to excuse Calvinism or to embrace it is to go against Scripture and the record of History–both things I am not prepared to do.

It is my desperate hope and plea that people would go search the Scriptures and even history and see the truth about this horrible misrepresentation of Almighty God.

I am not interested in causing division or strife, but I cannot in good conscience, remain silent to proclaim what I have been most solemnly convinced of by God’s Word and history.

Some Thoughts on 2 Timothy 4

2 Timothy 4

¹I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

²Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

⁴And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

⁵But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

⁶For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

⁷I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

⁸Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Brief Remarks:

I realize that I have made some decisions and written some articles and posted other articles that have caused serious emotional and even heated reactions from my friends of the Reformed and Calvinistic persuasion. I wish to first make it clear that I have not intended to deliberately offend them or to cause strife. I love these friends and desire to continue our friendships.

I also am aware that several have written me publicly and privately conveying the message that I am being “tossed by every wind of doctrine.” I cannot do anything more than simply say that this struggle has been going on in my heart for some time; for the last several months–really since last September–about the way in which some say that God predestines some to Hell and some Heaven. (Regardless of how Calvinists define unconditional election, that is the inevitable result.) I also am bothered by the way John Calvin and the Westminster Confession are exalted as virtually equal with Scripture itself. God did not need John Calvin to come along in the 1500′s and improve upon Scripture; The canon was closed and perfect long before the Protestant Reformation. I have been struggling in my soul with the way in which Luther and Calvin and the other Reformers are looked to as men to imitate. While they did some good and had some good thing to say, I am not comfortable with elevating them as highly as Reformed people do.

As having been raised a Baptist and coming from a historic family heritage of the Baptists, I say plainly that the Baptists are not Protestants–because the Protestants came out of the Roman Catholic Church; quite frankly, I feel that many and if not most Lutheran and Presbyterian Protestants have not come out far enough.

I have serious problems with John Calvin for several reasons including his Mystic teacher Augustine, his manipulation of people with his TULIP– which he forced Scripture to fit– and his remorseless killing of anyone who opposed him. This man was and is not to be praised or imitated. I seriously do not even believed the man–based on his own pen–even had a true conversion. Augustine relied on Christ maybe, but also on his infant baptism–a ROMAN CATHOLIC FALSE DOCTRINE– and the Last Rites, which he had administered to him before death, JUST IN CASE.

I end with this: What we know as Calvinism is not the Gospel that was first given; It is a form of fatalistic popery. I am so ashamed that I was seduced by the intellectual appeal of it. I pray God will forgive me for promoting it and leading others into it. All I can do now is try to expose it and call for a deeper examination of the evidence that exposes it. I cannot believe how dangerous it is; I know many in it now hate me and consider me a heretic for opposing it. But I say this and this alone; they hate me not for the God they profess, but for the man they follow.

May God forgive my involvement in it, Amen.