INTRODUCTION :
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IS NOT A CALVINISTIC CHURCH !!!
If you have no idea what Calvinism is then this page will mean little to you and it is not presented for the purpose of confusing anyone. There are many winds of doctrine blowing today and we reject the doctrines of John Calvin.

The fatalistic view election has come to be known in our day as Calvinism. John Calvin was a Reformer who gave us the T-U-L-I-P outline of these doctrines. Their adherers refer to them as the doctrines of grace. No doubt these beliefs did not originate with Calvin but they have become personified in him. Many Presbyterians consider this Reformer to be a major influence in their beliefs. We at FBC reject many of the teachings of Calvin especially as it pertains to the Salvation of men's souls. We are not Calvinists and we are not free-will Bapists. While we believe man is responsible before God for his choices we would not associate ourselves with true Free-Will Baptists who believe that salvation is wholly by the will of man and that it can be lost as well as regained, as though there was an attachment of works. We believe in the Sovereignty of God and in the security of the believer as does the Calvinist but we also consider every lost sinner to be a candidate for the saving Grace of God. I am not providing these thoughts here to necessarily convince anyone. That seems to be difficult to do on either side of this debate. This is just an explanation of the things that we believe and practice. By no means is the material presented here exhaustive at this time.

EASY-BELIEVISM
We reject the modern methods that some are using to supposedly win souls. Salvation is more than a handshake and it is more than a repeated prayer. If an individual has never been convicted or drawn by the Spirit of God there is no possible way that they have been converted. At First Baptist Church, we may not be fatalistic, but we believe that God does all of his own saving. My own converts will not make it into heaven, and if they are mine they will likely not remain faithful. Not eberyone who wants to go to heaven will get there. Many will go to hell, calling Jesus Lord because they have never had a genuine conversion experience wrought in their hearts by God through faith and Repentance. So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It is not more stories and illustrations that lost sinners need but rather they need to hear what God's word says about their sin and about the atoning power of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

THE FOLLOWING IS A SERMON EXCERPT.....
WHY WE ARE NOT CALVINIST'S
(Rev 22:17)-And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

An Evangelist friend of mine once asked in a sermon he was preaching, why you had to be an Armenian or a Calvinist. In other words why do people have to be so polarized on these issues ? Sometimes people look foolish in light of the scriptures because they are attempting to align themselves with a set of doctrines rather than to study and interpret the scriptures accurately. This evangelist stated that rather than being a Calvinist or Armenian he was just a bible believer. And here at First Baptist Church we too believe the bible. We believe all of it. Even what we don’t understand we accept through faith to be true. There is no possible way for someone to be a hardshell Calvinist and truely believe all of the bible in its literal teaching.

We are not Freewill Baptists at FBC. We believe in the security of the believer. And that salvation cannot be obtained through good works or rituals. We believe that God knows all things. But we are not Calvinists.

We are not Calvinists because we reject the idea of a Limited atonement and of irresistable grace. The word 'Limited' should never be applied to God or to what He does. To us, at FBC every man is a prospect for salvation. We believe that God wants to use our church to shed light into the darkness of this world.

WHY ARE PEOPLE LOST ?
(John 3:17)-For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
(John 3:18)-He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

WHY DO PEOPLE NOT BELIEVE ?
(Rom 10:14a)-How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

WHY DO PEOPLE NOT HEAR ?
(Rom 10:14b)-.....and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Many preachers in many churches have quit preaching salvation to sinners and have started preaching Sovereign Grace to the Saints. What does the bible plainly command us to preach ?

(Mark 16:15)-And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

The gospel or “GOOD NEWS” is not that your loved ones and friends cannot be saved but rather that we must tell them that Jesus came to save! Hard-shell Calvinism is not compatible with the term “Good News”.

God is not obligated to save anyone. He doesn’t save out of obligation but rather out of love. Many people die without ever hearing the gospel and go to hell. If ignorance was bliss we would not have been commanded to preach the gospel to all the world. We must get the gospel message out.

IRRESISTABLE GRACE ?
Do all people get saved whom God's Spirit deals with ?
(John 1:11)-He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Can a man reject Christ ?
(Isa 53:3)-He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

(Luke 13:34)-O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

LIMITED ATONEMENT ?
(John 1:9)-That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

(2 Pet 3:9)-The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

WHO DID JESUS DIE FOR ?
The UnGodly..... (Rom 5:6)-For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Sinners..... (Rom 5:8)-But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

All..... (2 Cor 5:14)-For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

The Church..... (Eph 5:25)-Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

The World..... (John 3:16)-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.

The real message of the Calvinist to a lost man is that Jesus might have died for you but then again he might not have either. Nail it down friend Jesus died for sinners ! All of them !