Tennessee History

An Excerpt From “Free Will Baptists in Tennessee”

by Robert E. Picirilli

The Goodspeed History of Tennessee indicates that “the Free-will Baptists have had an  organization in the western part of [Robertson] County, near Tumersville, since 1798, when  Nathan Arnett and Jonathan Darden gathered the members of that denomination into a  church.”‘ While we have no documentary-confirmation of this, and some of it I consider suspect, there have been Baptists of the Free Will variety in Tennessee at least since shortly before the turn of the century.

For those not familiar with this branch of the Baptist people. I take time only for the barest summary, by comparison. As the name implies, Free Will Baptists are, in some ways, (self-) consciously  Arminian. We differ from our much more numerous and influential cousins, the Southern Baptists, in these ways: 1) we affirm the possibility of aposta.sy by retraction of faith; 2) we never required the rebaptism of those who come to us, satisfied with their prior immersion; 3) our churches have always practiced open communion; and 4) we hold that footwashing is an ordinance. The frustrating thing about the history of Free Will Baptists in Tennessee is that it has been poorly preserved and researched. Read more…