Comparing and Contrasting Primitive Baptist and Free Grace soteriology

In my Reformed days, I wrote very strongly against Free Grace theology, commonly called “easy-believism”. However, in my journey to the Primitive Baptist faith, I have come to notice several striking similarities between the two, and have had interesting and fruitful discussions with some of the “Free Grace” persuasion. So, I thought it would be a helpful idea to offer some notable comparisons and distinctions between the two views for those who may be interested.

Similarities

Sonship versus Discipleship

Free Grace theologians often speak of the differences between “salvation” and “discipleship”, believing that eternal salvation is a one-time event conditioned upon the sinner’s trusting in Christ for eternal life, while discipleship requires works on the part of one who already has eternal life as a result of believing. In the description to Lucas Kitchen’s book Salvation and Discipleship, we read the following summary:

SALVATION is a one-time event. It happens the moment someone believes in Jesus for everlasting life. DISCIPLESHIP is a long-term process. It happens when a saved person decides to obey Jesus on a daily basis. Not recognizing this simple distinction creates confusion. Not explaining the difference allows a mixed message to spread. Not knowing the difference between salvation and discipleship keeps many people from experiencing either.

Primitive Baptists likewise emphasize this distinction, with some variation. We typically emphasize “sonship” specifically in contrast to discipleship. This is because we view the new birth as a monergistic work of God, with the exercise of faith being an evidence and fruit of regeneration (John 1:12–13; 5:24; 1 John 5:1), whereas we recognize that disciples are made by other disciples synergistically cooperating with God (Mark 16:15–16; Matthew 28:19–20). Discipleship belongs to the practical, rather than the eternal phase, of salvation. Elder E.D McCutcheon, in the preface to his work From Sonship to Discipleship, states it this way:

God, by his sovereign power, in eternity, before time began, made all his beloved, adopted sons. The Spirit is calling, at the appointed time, each one of the beloved to vital sonship by an irresistible call; everyone of them will respond to that call. Then, the gospel comes to many of them who have been called by the Spirit and calls them to become manifest sons; to become disciples.

However, it appears that only a few respond to the gospel call and enter the strait gate and traverse the narrow way to abundant life, the life of a disciple. By “manifest sons” we mean that the gospel was given in order that men might be instructed in the things necessary for them to display to the world that they are sons of God

Notice that Elder McCutcheon alludes to Matthew 7:13–14, a text which is generally interpreted as referring to eternal salvation, and instead refers it to discipleship. He does this same thing in other places of his book, and this is how “the narrow way” and “strait gate” are generally understood by Primitive Baptists. He gives the same interpretation on page 74:

John told us to try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1.) There is only one way by which these spirits can be tried and that is by the scriptures. If we are not familiar enough with the word of God, we have no defense against them and it is easy for us to be led from the strait and narrow way into the broad way because most of us prefer the broad way.

Of course the difficulty of the narrow way is a reason that many do not enter into discipleship. Jesus said, “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life.” (Matt. 7:14.) Life in this sense means the life of any obedient child of God.

And again on page 96:

Satan has not changed in his aim; his methods change, but he uses every means at his command to prevent the subjects of the kingdom of his arch enemy, Jesus Christ, from enjoying the benefits available to them in this world. Peer pressure — the desire to go along with the crowd — and the influences of the world have to be overcome by those who would follow the Lamb of God. The gate indeed is “strait,” and the way is “narrow.” No wonder but few find it and are willing to pay the price required to possess the most precious things this world affords: Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

This understanding has also been promoted by some Free Grace advocates, such as Joseph Dillow in his well-known work Final Destiny, who states on page 281:

What then is “entered?” Entrance refers to entrance into a “way,” either “broad or “narrow.” Because they are disciples, they have already entered into personal salvation and are already guaranteed physical entrance into the millennium. What is at stake here is whether or not they enter into Christ’s way of life as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount on their journey to this future kingdom.

Right Division of Eternal and Temporal Salvation

Primitive Baptists are known for their distinct emphasis on the necessity of rightly dividing between eternal and temporal salvation in the scriptures. This doctrine has variously been called “time salvation” or “conditional time salvation”. A great example of this would be Elder Michael Gowen’s written defense of the doctrine, which can be found here. In that article, he states:

I maintain that the gospel is a declaration of something that is a reality. By its very nature, the gospel dispenses information — indeed, “good” news of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I insist, therefore, that the gospel and man’s subjective response to it is notGod’s vehicle for making salvation an objective reality. Christ’s death alone is the means of redemption. Through His finished work on the cross, redemption has been accomplished for all of the elect. If I am correct that perception does not determine reality, then what is God’s purpose in revealing the fact of redemption in the gospel, if it is not to make salvation a reality? His purpose in reporting the good news of redemption accomplished is to call upon those He has redeemed to respond in grateful and believing obedience so that He might be glorified even now. In other words, the gospel informs the mind of the objective fact of redemption so that the believer may render the worship and service to God in this present life that He so justly deserves. Yes, the true gospel does indeed “save” the believer, but this “deliverance” does not have eternal consequence. It is a deliverance, as the Galatians 1:4 says, “from this present evil world.” In no uncertain terms, Galatians 1:4 teaches that there is not only an eternal but also a present, or if you please, a temporal, benefit in the cross of Christ.

However, advocates of Free Grace theology are also careful to note this distinction. Dr. Bob Wilkin, a prominent advocate of Free Grace theology, wrote a handy little work entitled Salvation from What?, in which he states the following:

Did you realize that there are no uses of the words save or salvation in the Old Testament that refer specifically to deliverance from hell and the gaining of eternal life? None. And did you realize that in the New Testament only three in ten uses of salvation (so„te„ria) and save (so„zo„) refer to salvation from eternal condemnation and to obtaining eternal life? That means that 70% of the time in the New Testament the words save or salvation do not mean what most people think they mean, leading to misunderstandings that would be funny if they were not so calamitous. It is no wonder that people become wildly confused about the condition of the new birth since they take most uses of save and salvation in Scripture as referring to the new birth.

The Relationship Between Faith and Works (James 2)

Because of the distinction made between eternal salvation and discipleship, both Primitive Baptists and Free Grace advocates acknowledge that God’s people may not always have works to accompany their profession of faith. This is best exemplified in our mutual understanding of James 2’s teaching that “faith without works is dead”. Dr. Bob Wilkin, in an excellent study entitled Another View of Faith and Works in James 2 summarizes the Free Grace interpretation this way:

A believer whose life is generally characterized by good works may
go through times when he is unproductive because he fails to put his
faith to work. Whenever a believer has faith without works, he is in a
dead, unproductive condition, experientially.
Now my concern is not what characterizes my car generally. My
concern is whether my car works when I need it.
What do we do if a car is out of fuel? We fill it up so the car is alive
again. We don’t go out and buy a different car! So, too, a believer whose
spiritual life is dead (i.e., his faith is not combined with works) needs to
get to work. The problem is not that he needs to believe something dif-
ferent. Notice that nowhere in his epistle does James call for faith in
some other object. James is concerned that his readers need to look
around them and start meeting needs.

Similarly, Primitive Baptist Elder John R. Daily gave an essentially identical interpretation of this text in Zion’s Advocate, Vol. 44, №12, December 1905:

This does not mean that true faith is dead until works bring it to life, as some seem to construe it. James is here writing of showing charity to the needy, and very truly declares that to believe without acting would be a dead thing. If one believes and does not put his faith into activity, it is like the miser’s money while locked up in his chest. The money may be all right, but it will not be useful for practical business if it lies idle. So a man’s faith will be of no practical benefit while it is not coupled with obedience.

Preservation vs Perseverance

Both Primitive Baptists and Free Grace proponents affirm that the preservation of God’s people in a state of eternal life is a guaranteed promise, while perseverance in faith and good works is a commandment of God to his people, and is therefore not guaranteed. Free Grace proponent Shawn Lazar makes the following point in an article entitled Five Differences Between Perseverance of the Saints and Eternal Security:

Fourth, POTS and OSAS take different perspectives on sanctification. According to POTS, sanctification is unconditional. Since the elect are predestined to salvation, and God causes them to be sanctified, they will never fall into major sin or unbelief in this life but will persevere in faith and good works until death. By contrast, OSAS sees sanctification as conditional. You have to choose to be a doer of the word to be sanctified, and there is no guarantee that you will progress from a carnal state to a spiritual one. But believers are eternally secure whether they experience practical sanctification or not.

Similarly, Elders Michael Gowens & Lonnie Mozingo Jr. make the following remark in an article titled Ten Reasons Why Primitive Baptists are Not Calvinists:

Calvinism asserts that all the elect will persevere in faith and holiness. If an individual does not persevere, then he proves by his apostasy that he was merely a professor, not a possessor, of eternal life. Primitive Baptists insist that Divine Preservation, rather than human perseverance, is the Biblical emphasis, preservation being the term employed in Scripture to describe the eternal security of God’s people.

A child of God may indeed fall from his own steadfastness in the faith, but will not fall from God’s covenant favor. The chastisements upon God’s children in disobedience are parental and remedial [corrective], not punitive. All of God’s people will be preserved for they are “kept by His power”, but they are responsible for “keeping the faith”, “keeping their hearts with all diligence”, and “keeping themselves in the love of God” (that is, behaving in such a way that He will manifest His blessing upon them and that they may adorn rather than reproach the doctrine they believe). Their preservation, not their perseverance, is guaranteed by covenant decree.

Differences

While there are many points of agreement between the two positions, there are also some key differences which distinguish Primitive Baptist beliefs from those of Free Grace theology.

The Role of Faith in Salvation

Because Primitive Baptists affirm the doctrine of total depravity, and therefore also of man’s total inability to contribute the obtaining of spiritual life, we also affirm that regeneration necessarily precedes faith. This is not merely a “logical order” as many Calvinists or Reformed theologians tend to believe, but an actual temporal order (John 1:12–13; John 5:24; 1 John 5:1). Because faith is the fruit, not the root, of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) we affirm that belief in the Gospel is simply the evidence and assurance of ones eternal salvation, rather than the instrumental cause thereof. Consequently, while we believe that all of God’s children possess faith as a God-given capacity upon being born again, this does not necessitate that all of God’s children will exercise conscious assent to the propositions of the Gospel in this lifetime.

For this reason, whereas Free Grace advocates would read texts such as John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 11:26 etc. as prescriptively laying out the condition to be met in order to obtain everlasting life, Primitive Baptists see these texts as descriptive promises assuring those who believe that they are already in possession of eternal life.

The Purpose of Preaching the Gospel

In keeping with the previous point, Primitive Baptists would place belief of the Gospel under the temporal salvation category, and therefore also under the category of discipleship (cf. Matthew 28:19–20; Mark 16:15–16). We affirm that the Gospel, rather than bringing life and immortality to God’s people, only brings life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10) and provides salvation which is with or in addition to the eternal glory which is already purchased and laid up in store for God’s elect (2 Timothy 2:10). The preaching of the Gospel saves men from lots of things, such as this untoward generation (Acts 2:40), ignorance of God’s righteousness (Romans 10:3) and the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14), among other things, but it plays no essential role in the eternal salvation of any of God’s people. In fact, those who believe the Gospel are only a subset of the totality of those whom God saves (1 Timothy 4:10). One may consult this article by Elder Michael Gowens for more information on this point.

The Role of Rewards in Biblical Interpretation

In dealing with several texts that are commonly thought to teach that individuals can lose their eternal salvation (such as 1 Corinthians 9:24–26), Primitive Baptists and Free Grace advocates both maintain that such texts deal with temporal judgment and loss of blessings, rather than eternal damnation. However, our exposition of certain texts may differ in some areas. Most Free Grace advocates tend to be Premillennial, and therefore interpret several texts as pertaining to loss of rewards in the millennium, or missing out on the opportunity to one day reign with Christ. In contrast to this, although Primitive Baptists have no official or unanimous eschatological views, they tend to be predominantly Amillennial, and therefore also interpret many of these same texts as pertaining to loss of blessings in this life. It should be noted, however, that there are exceptions to this rule on both sides.

Moreover, because Primitive Baptists deny that belief of the Gospel is a condition for eternal salvation, we will typically interpret some texts as pertaining to discipleship which Free Grace advocates might interpret as dealing with sonship.

Conclusion

There are probably some more points of agreement and disagreement which could be brought out. I have attempted to accurately document everything so that those interested in inquiring further may do so via the links provided. Hopefully this short article will prove helpful.