Page "Arminianism" Paragraph 15

The debate between Calvin's followers and Arminius's followers is distinctive of post-Reformation church history.

The emerging Baptist movement in 17th-century England, for example, was a microcosm of the historic debate between Calvinists and Arminians.

The first Baptists – called " General Baptists " because of their confession of a " general " or unlimited atonement, were Arminians.

The Baptist movement originated with Thomas Helwys, who left his mentor John Smyth ( who had moved into shared belief and other distinctives of the Dutch Waterlander Mennonites of Amsterdam ) and returned to London to start the first English Baptist Church in 1611.

Later General Baptists such as John Griffith, Samuel Loveday, and Thomas Grantham defended a Reformed Arminian theology that reflected more the Arminianism of Arminius than that of the later Remonstrants or the English Arminianism of Arminian Puritans like John Goodwin or Anglican Arminians such as Jeremy Taylor and Henry Hammond.

The General Baptists encapsulated their Arminian views in numerous confessions, the most influential of which was the Standard Confession of 1660.

In the 1640s the Particular Baptists were formed, diverging strongly from Arminian doctrine and embracing the strong Calvinism of the Presbyterians and Independents.

Their robust Calvinism was publicized in such confessions as the London Baptist Confession of 1644 and the Second London Confession of 1689.

Interestingly, the London Confession of 1689 was later used by Calvinistic Baptists in America ( called the Philadelphia Baptist Confession ), whereas the Standard Confession of 1660 was used by the American heirs of the English General Baptists, who soon came to be known as Free Will Baptists.