The first congregations of Primitive or "Hardshell" Baptists split from the main Baptist church in 1827 in North Carolina. They are doctrinally about as far as you can get from the Free Will Baptists.

One of the core beliefs of Hardshell Baptists is the doctrine of election (a.k.a. predestination). God has chosen some individuals for salvation and others for damnation. There's nothing you can do to change it and there is no way to know the whys of God's choices.

The question of when God did this choosing is still a matter of some debate, however. Some groups believe that God set it all out at the beginning of time, and therefore even Eve's fatal sin and the fall of man were all part of the big plan. Others believe that it was at the time of the expulsion from Eden that God did all the sorting.

Hardshell Baptists are sometimes called more Calvinist than Calvin.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.