Tim Enloe vs the Reformed Baptists

There are a number of people out "there" who call themselves Reformed Baptists. They are Calvinists, hence the part of the title, Reformed. They also hold to adult baptism only, hence they are Baptists. Where they run into trouble is when they try to show that the two systems are compatible.

Historically, the Reformed rejected adult baptism as taught by the anabaptists of their day. The anabaptists also rejected Calvinistic predestination of their day. Somehow, here in America, these two views have been fused with parts picked out of each and melted together into this theological melting pot known as Reformed Baptist.

James White, of Alpha Omega Ministries, is the leader of one subsect of this phenomenon. White and his followers are particularly certain that Calvin had it right in understanding salvation. They run a IRC channel called #prosapologian where they quickly ban anyone who argues effectively against their position. Other opinions are quickly deemed non-christian. It seems it's not faith that saves for them, but having a right doctrine of salvation is what saves. One is saved or unsaved based on what how one thinks that one is saved.

One of their own, named Tim Enloe, author of the blog Societas Christiana, started questioning the status quo with White and his followers and they came down on him like a load of bricks. Enloe got himself in trouble because he started reading the Reformation Fathers as well as reading the early writers of the late Medieval period- immediately preceeding the Protestant Reformation. Enloe found the Reformation Fathers substantially closer to Rome than to the Reformed Baptists and let the Reformed Baptists know that they were not in agreement with the Reformed Fathers. Being Reformed is more than having the doctrine of Salvation of Calvin.

Enloe has written an article titled, I Hate My Generation: Why I Left Modern Evangelicalism. Enloe also has a weblog, Societas Christiana, where he deals with issues of theology, culture, philosophy and apologetics. In particular, Tim Enloe traces his own trajectory of faith through the Reformed Baptist movement.

Even though I don't hate Evangelicalism or want to leave Evangelicalism, Tim does have some interesting points to consider on this page such as the relationship between faith and reason and the importance/meaning of the sacraments. For White and the Reformed Baptists to embrace a form of the sacraments more like the Anabaptists has caused them to depart in a substantive manner from the Reformation Fathers. But Enloe makes this point much more effectively than I ever could on his page. A google search for Tim Enloe and Reformed shows other debates, etc that he has engaged in. This debate has slid into other blogs like Coffee Conversations, 40 Bicycles, Reformed Catholicism, Theonomy, Douglas Wilson's Blog and Sweet Tea, and Theology. Note it takes a while to sort out the who is who in this running debate/dialog.

I think that this is an area where the Evangelical Covenant Church has a unique contribution to offer the Christian community. We affirm both forms of baptism because we believe that our unity is not based on having a particular view of baptism or salvation, but in on faith in Christ. We have a high view of the sacraments, rejecting the notion that they are just ordinances. Christ is present in the sacraments, but we don't define just how that is the case. We can come out of a Lutheran heritage that has been formed by revival.