by Sandy » Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:41 am
The passage from I Timothy that includes verses 1-4 is frequently cited in the Quaker meetings I attended, with a particular emphasis on leading the quiet, peaceable life in godliness and dignity. It goes hand in hand with Philippians 2 and the statement about "working out your own salvation with fear and trembling" and being "lights shining in the darkness." I don't think I ever really heard anything about salvation being universal, but "working out your own salvation" didn't mean working to achieve it, but to be able to live out the values of Christian living they discerned as being simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship. The degree to which these things were made visible in their treatment of others went beyond anything I ever experienced among Baptists.
I find it interesting that some Primitive Baptists believe in universalism. My introduction to Primitive Baptists came the summer after my freshman year in college, when I was selling books door to door in Mingo County, West Virginia, down in the southern part of the state, deep in the mountains of coal country. I sat on the porch with an elderly gentleman who told me he went to a Primitive Baptist church and I made the mistake of asking him to explain what that meant. He didn't get much into theology or doctrine, he told me that "modern" things like Sunday School classes, air conditioning, padded pews with backs and indoor plumbing were turning the church into a show and they didn't have any of that. He believed in the "Holy Bible" the KJV because if it was good enough for Paul, it was good enough for him. Fortunately, one of the books I was selling was a black, leather bound KJV stamped with "Holy Bible" on the front. They had church once a month, since they had to share a pastor with three other churches and he lamented that all the young people were gone and it was just the old folks who had stayed. Imagine that. He asked where I went to church, wanted to know what "Southern Baptist" was and told me that unless it believed like the Primitive and Old Regulars, it wasn't Christian. I don't think he was a universalist and it would be interesting to find out where the universal Primitive Baptists are and how that developed.