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Southern Baptists debate Calvinism. He previously taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he was Professor of Church History and Chair of the Department of Church History. Prior to that, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. Soteriology the study of the doctrine of salvation, how the Triune God ends the separation people have from God due to sin by reconciling them with Gods self. In fact, over 60 percent of graduates of one of our seminaries identify themselves as five-point Calvinists. We cannot assume that pulpit (search) committees will have the theological understanding of Calvinism to ask the sort of questions that need to be asked for full disclosure to take place, Hankins said. Calvinist Chris Roberts, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Panama City, Florida, draws a similar conclusion: The statement affirms that there is corruption (inclined toward sin), but denies that there is inability. Part of HuffPost Religion. It sets forth the decisionistic evangelical cultural orthodoxy gradually developed from Finney to Graham and baptizes it as traditional Baptist soteriology. Dr. Steve W. Lemke's prcis of the two streams of soteriology (doctrine of salvation) meandering through our Southern Baptist history is enlightening: To oversimplify a bit, Southern Baptists have two theological tributaries flowing into our mainstream - the Arminian-leaning General Baptists and the Calvinist-leaning Particular Baptists. For a denomination that has already said a wife should submit herself graciously to her husband and banned women pastors from the pulpit, its a potentially explosive debate. . More traditional Baptists say if Jesus died only for the elect, then Baptists trademark evangelism becomes pointless. Chapter 1 by Jerry Vines, president of Jerry Vines Ministries and pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Florida, introduced the entire discussion with an exposition of John 3:16. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. While conservative Southern Baptist Calvinists and non-Calvinists agree that the person that comes to faith in Jesus Christ and his saving work is secure in salvation and the certain heir of eternal life, Calvinists see this as the result of God's saving purpose from eternity and his effectual operations in time so that their immutable security