Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists

Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists are part of a larger sub-group of Baptists that is

commonly referred to as "anti-mission" Baptists. This sub-group includes the Duck River and Kindred
Baptists, Old Regular Baptists, some Regular Baptists and some United Baptists. Only a minuscule
minority of Primitive Baptists adhere to the Two-Seed doctrine. The primary centers of Two-Seedism were
in Northern Alabama, Arkansas, Eastern Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas.[1][2][3]
As of 2002, five churches or congregations of this faith and order still existed in Alabama, Indiana,
Tennessee, and Texas.[4]

Origins
Baptists first appeared in North America in the early 17th century.[5] Through
the influence of the Philadelphia Baptist Association (org. 1707), the influx of
members to the churches from the Great Awakenings, and the union of the
disparate Regular and Separate Baptists, by the early 19th century Baptists
would become an important American denomination. This growth was not
without its pangs, and by 1820 these Baptists were embroiled in an intense and
sometimes bitter "missions" controversy. Much of the controversy centered
around the newly formed Baptist Board of Foreign Missions.

Elder Daniel Parker (1781–1844) was one of the earlier ministers to speak out
against the "missions" movement. In 1820, he released a booklet entitled "A
Elder Daniel Parker Public Address to the Baptist Society, and Friends of Religion in General, on
the Principle and Practice of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the
United States of America." The Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, organized
at Philadelphia in 1814, is best known as the Triennial Convention, but its official name was the "General
Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States." Objections by Baptists to the
Convention were based on both soteriology and ecclesiology. Parker was a strict predestinarian, but his
chief objections in the booklet are based on ecclesiology - for example, "They have violated the right or
government of the Church of Christ in forming themselves into a body and acting without of the union."
Several important preachers on the east coast led in the "anti-missions" movement, but Elder Parker was the
leader on the frontier, and probably spoke best to the common man.

It appears that during this time, Parker was also formulating views on God and man that he would first
release in his Views on the Two Seeds (1826). Parker taught that all persons are either of the "good seed" of
God or of the "bad seed" of Satan (the children of the good seed are roughly equivalent to the "elect" of
Calvinism, and those of the bad seed similar to the "non-elect"), and were predestined that way from the
beginning. Therefore mission activity was not only unbiblical, but as a practical matter useless, since the
"decision" was already made prior to birth.

It seems that Parker spread his "two seeds" far and wide, and a goodly number of the "anti-missions"
movement accepted his doctrine, though it never achieved anything near majority status. In 1834, Daniel
Parker and others migrated to the Texas frontier. Texas was still part of Mexico and the government would
not allow organization of Protestant (non-Catholic) churches in the region. Elder Parker determined to
organize a church before he arrived in Texas. The Pilgrim Predestinarian Regular Baptist Church was
constituted July 26, 1833 in Illinois. It still exists today, near Elkhart, Texas, though as "Primitive" rather
than "Two-Seed." Daniel Parker's name is almost synonymous with "anti-missions", but he was one of the
important frontier preachers in Texas, leading in the organization of about nine churches in the eastern part
of the state.

After the "missionary" and "anti-missionary" controversy brought division among Baptists, the "anti-
missionaries" were called by names such as Old School, Old Regular, Predestinarian, and Primitive (as well
as the pejorative "hardshells"). The Two-Seed churches were often connected with the Primitive Baptists
and seem to have been so until late in the 19th century. By that time, most Primitive Baptists had excluded
the "Two-Seeders" for holding heretical doctrines. However, in southern Georgia, at least, according to
historian John G. Crowley, one may still find Two-Seed doctrines expounded by Primitive Baptists "if one
knows where to go and what to listen for."[6] Though they hold much in common with Primitive Baptists
and often are so identified by outsiders, the Two-Seed churches do not consider themselves Primitive
Baptists.

Following Parker's death

The Two-Seed theological stance is known in some circles as Hyper-Calvinism, i.e., only evangelize to
those who can be discerned as being members of the elect. This group is extremely conservative. As one
observer noted, "'Innovations' have never touched these people." [7] In 1845, shortly after Parker's death,
this group experienced its first major schism. Central Kentucky's Elder Thomas P. Dudley, a member of a
church of the Licking Creek Association, produced a work on "Two Souls" to supplement Parker's on the
two seeds.[8]

Baptism is by immersion.[9] The only other ordinance this group practices is the Lord's Supper with foot
washing.[10] One commentator stated that this group was "so Calvinistic that they would exclude John
Calvin himself."[11]

The 1906 Census of Religious Bodies, there were nineteen churches in Tennessee, ten in Arkansas, nine in
Kentucky, five in Georgia, four in Indiana, three in Florida, two each in Alabama and Texas, and one in
Missouri with a total membership of 781. The Bear Creek, Bethlehem, Caney Fork, Drakes Creek, Elm
Fork, Lookout Mountain, Pilgrims Rest, Richland Creek, and Suwannee River associations were affiliated
with this movement.[12] The New Hope Predestinarian Baptist Association of Illinois existed in 1877, but,
was evidently extinct by 1906.[13]

In 1936, this body reported two churches in urban settings and fourteen in rural areas. The membership
stood at 201. One of the urban churches (in Alabama) had 57 members and was certainly the largest single
congregation. Local churches existed in Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Previously churches existed
in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Missouri. Three associations were also enumerated: Caney
Fork, Drakes Creek, and Richland Creek. In 1916, there had been nine associations.[14] For some reason,
the congregations in Texas and Indiana are not included in the 1936 report (they were still in existence)
although they had been listed in 1906 and 1916. Likewise, the Eel River Association, which folded in
1941, is omitted. Therefore, the figure of 201 adherents in 1936 is lower than it should have been.[15]

Current
Remnants of Two-Seed doctrine can still be heard among a few Primitive Baptists. In 2003, there appeared
to be four remaining churches of the Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists (two in Texas, and one
each in Indiana and Tennessee) with approximately 80 members. Two of the churches participate together
in the Trinity River Association, and two are independent.
Baptist historian Albert W. Wardin Jr. reported the following statistics in an article published in the June 22,
2002, issue of Baptist History and Heritage:

The U.S. religious census of 1906 recorded 781 members with 279 in Tennessee in nineteen
churches, the most in any state. Thirty years later, Tennessee had ninety-eight members in nine
churches. Today, nationwide there are only five congregations left. Two are members of the
Trinity River Association which includes the Little Hope Church near Jacksboro, Texas, and
the Otter Creek Church in Putnam County, Indiana, with a total membership in 2001 of forty
members. The Little Hope Church split in the 1940s, and the division meets in a home near
Bryson, Texas. Another congregation, Mt. Moriah in Limestone County, Alabama, has only
three members, existing practically in name only. The fourth congregation is the Concord
Church in the Highland District near McMinnville, Tennessee, with ten members and an
average attendance each Sunday from twelve to fifteen. Like other Primitive Baptists, it has no
Sunday school and uses no musical instruments in worship. The Lord's Supper is observed
annually with foot washing. Wine is used in the supper. It belongs to no association.[16]

In 2011, Valdosta State University announced that Dr. John G. Crowley, an assistant professor of history
there, was writing the first comprehensive history of the Two-Seed movement[17]

Cultural references
In his 1945 supplement to The American Language, H. L. Mencken singled out the Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit
Predestinarian Baptist Church as an example of the proliferation of "dissenting" Christian denominations in
the United States.[18]

American novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. refers to the sect in his early novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
(1965), when the title character claims that he is a member.

References
1. Crowley, John G. Primitve Baptists of the Wiregrass South: 1815 to Present. Gainesville, FL:
University Press of Florida, 1998, pp. 118-121. Hereafter cited as Crowley.
2. 1906 Census "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=FD0uAAAAYAAJ&dq=two+seed+in+the+spirit+predestinarian+baptists+census+19
06+bear+creek+bethlehem&pg=PA157). in United States Department of Commerce and
Labor. Bureau of the Census. E. Dana Durand, Director. Special Report—Religious Bodies,
1906: Part II Separate Denominations: History, Description, and Statistics. Washington, DC:
Government Printing Office, 1910, Vol. 2, pp. 155–157.
3. Sermon, "Marriage", Elder Sonny Pyles, http://www.primitivebaptistsermons.com
4. Albert W. Wardin, Jr. ″Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists: a Small Baptist Body.″
Baptist History and Heritage. June 22, 2002 [1] (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Two-Seed-in-t
he-Spirit+predestinarian+Baptists%3A+a+small+Baptist+body,...-a094160997)
5. Newport Notables (http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/notables/clarke.htm) Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20070927062252/http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/notables/clarke.htm)
September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
6. Crowley, p. 133.
7. Clark, Elmer Talmadge. The Small Sects in America. Nashville, TN: Cokesbury Press, 1937,
p. 249.
 8. Sparks, Elder John. The Roots of Appalachian Christianity: The Life and Legacy of Elder
Shubal Stearns. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001, p. 246.
9. Evans, M. G. "Immersionists and Church Union" in Twenty-ninth Annual Session of the
Baptist Congress Held in the First Baptist Church, At Atlantic City, N. J.—November 14, 15,
and 16, 1911. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, p. 137.
10. Albert W. Wardin, Jr. ″Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists: a Small Baptist Body.″
Baptist History and Heritage. June 22, 2002 [2] (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Two-Seed-in-t
he-Spirit+predestinarian+Baptists%3A+a+small+Baptist+body,...-a094160997)
11. Carroll, Ref. H. K., D.D. "Greetings." in The Baptist World Alliance Second Congress
Philadelphia, June 19–25, 1911. Record of Proceedings Published under the Auspices of
the Philadelphia Committee. Philadelphia, PA: Harper and Brothers Company, 1911, p. 187.
12. 1906 Census "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=FD0uAAAAYAAJ&dq=two+seed+in+the+spirit+predestinarian+baptists+census+19
06+bear+creek+bethlehem&pg=PA157). in United States Department of Commerce and
Labor. Bureau of the Census. E. Dana Durand, Director. Special Report—Religious Bodies,
1906: Part II Separate Denominations: History, Description, and Statistics. Washington, DC:
Government Printing Office, 1910, Vol. 2, pp. 155–157.
13. Crowley, pp. 124, 126-127, 211 n. 60, 228.
14. * 1936 census "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=ae_VJJVV8eQC&dq=Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit+Predestinarian+Baptists&pg=PA23
4). in United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Dr. T. H. Murphy,
Supervisor. Religious Bodies, 1936: Volume II Part 1 Denominations A to J: Statistics,
History, Doctrine Organization and Work. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office,
1941, Vol. 2, Part 1 pp. 234-236.
15. Miller, Terry E. "Voices from the Past: The Singing and Preaching at Otter Creek Church."
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 88, No. 349 (July-Sept. 1975), pp. 268.
16. Albert W. Wardin Jr. ″Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists: a Small Baptist Body.″
Baptist History and Heritage. June 22, 2002 [3] (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Two-Seed-in-t
he-Spirit+predestinarian+Baptists%3A+a+small+Baptist+body,...-a094160997)
17. "Crowley Studies Rare Religion" (http://ww2.valdosta.edu/news/email/060611.shtml).
Tuesday, June 7, 2011.
18. Mencken, H.L. (1945). The American Language: Supplement 1 (https://archive.org/details/a
mericanlanguage01menc). Knopf., p. 501.

Sources cited
Carroll, Ref. H. K., D.D. "Greetings." in The Baptist World Alliance Second Congress
Philadelphia, June 19–25, 1911. Record of Proceedings Published under the Auspices of
the Philadelphia Committee. Philadelphia, PA: Harper and Brothers Company, 1911, p. 185-
188.
Clark, Elmer Talmadge. The Small Sects in America. Nashville, TN: Cokesbury Press, 1937.
Crowley, John G. Primitive Baptists of the Wiregrass South: 1815 to the Present. Gainesville,
FL: University Press of Florida, 1999. Hardcover ISBN 978-0-8130-1640-5 Paperback
ISBN 978-0-8130-4468-2
Evans, M. G. "Immersionists and Church Union" in Twenty-ninth Annual Session of the
Baptist Congress Held in the First Baptist Church, At Atlantic City, N. J.—November 14, 15,
and 16, 1911. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 137–141.
"Crowley Studies Rare Religion". Tuesday, June 7, 2011. (http://ww2.valdosta.edu/news/em
ail/060611.shtml)
 Miller, Terry E. "Voices from the Past: The Singing and Preaching at Otter Creek Church."
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 88, No. 349 (July-Sept. 1975), pp. 266–282.
Sparks, Elder John. The Roots of Appalachian Christianity: The Life and Legacy of Elder
Shubal Stearns. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.
"Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/books?id=FD0u
AAAAYAAJ&dq=two+seed+in+the+spirit+predestinarian+baptists+census+1906+bear+cree
k+bethlehem&pg=PA157). in United States Department of Commerce and Labor. Bureau of
the Census. E. Dana Durand, Director. Special Report—Religious Bodies, 1906: Part II
Separate Denominations: History, Description, and Statistics. Washington, DC: Government
Printing Office, 1910, Vol. 2, pp. 155–157.
"Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/books?id=ae_VJ
JVV8eQC&dq=Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit+Predestinarian+Baptists&pg=PA234). in United
States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Dr. T. H. Murphy, Supervisor.
Religious Bodies, 1936: Volume II Part 1 Denominations A to J: Statistics, History, Doctrine
Organization and Work. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1941, Vol. 2, Part 1
pp. 234–236.
Wardin, Albert W., Jr. ″Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists: a Small Baptist Body.″
Baptist History and Heritage. June 22, 2002 [4] (http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Two-Seed-in-t
he-Spirit+predestinarian+Baptists%3A+a+small+Baptist+body,...-a094160997)

Further reading
Crowley, John G. Primitive Baptists of the Wiregrass South: 1815 to the Present. Gainesville,
FL: University Press of Florida, 1999. Hardcover ISBN 978-0-8130-1640-5 Paperback
ISBN 978-0-8130-4468-2
——. "The Two Seed Baptists of Georgia". Viewpoints: Georgia Baptist History, Vol. 16
(1998), pp. 39–57.
Exley, Jo Ella Powell. Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family., College Station, TX:
Texas A & M University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-1-60344-109-4
Lee, O. Max. Daniel Parker's Doctrine of the Two Seeds. Thesis (Th. M.)—Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, 1962. xi, [98] leaves.
Wimberly, Dan D. Daniel Parker: Pioneer Preacher and Political Leader (http://repositories.t
dl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/21896/31295009151308.pdf?sequence=1). Dissertation–
Texas Tech University. May 1995. (374 pdfs)
——. Frontier Religion: Elder Daniel Parker, His Religious and Political Life. Austin, TX:
Eakin Press, 2002. ISBN 978-1571683205

Denominational overviews
Clark, Elmer Talmadge. The Small Sects in America. Nashville, TN: Cokesbury Press, 1937,
pp. 248–249.
———. "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" in The Small Sects in America.
Revised edition. New York, NY: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1949, pp. 203–204.
May, Lynn E., Jr. "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists." in Encyclopedia of
Southern Baptists. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1958, Vol. 2, p. 1433.
Mayer, Frederick Emanuel. "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists." in The
Religious Bodies of America. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1954, p. 271, col.
1.
Mead, Frank S., rev. by Samuel S. Hill. Handbook of Denominations in the United States.
8th ed. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1985, p. 57.
 "The Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=1i2ofe6fu9gC&dq=%22old+Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit+Predestinarian+Baptists%22&pg=PA
110). in United States Department of Commerce and Labor. Bureau of the Census. The
Census Bulletin. Issue No. No. 375, May 12, 1893: Statistics of Churches. Washington, DC:
Government Printing Office, 1893, pp. 38–41.
"Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/books?id=FD0u
AAAAYAAJ&dq=two+seed+in+the+spirit+predestinarian+baptists+census+1906+bear+cree
k+bethlehem&pg=PA157). in United States Department of Commerce and Labor. Bureau of
the Census. E. Dana Durand, Director. Special Report—Religious Bodies, 1906: Part II
Separate Denominations: History, Description, and Statistics. Washington, DC: Government
Printing Office, 1910, Vol. 2, pp. 155–157.
"Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/books?id=oY7Y
AAAAMAAJ&dq=Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit+Predestinarian+Baptists&pg=PA150). in United
States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Rogers, Sam. L., Director.
Religious Bodies, 1916: Part II Separate Denominations: History, Description, and Statistics.
Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1919, pp. 150–152.
"Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/books?id=ae_VJ
JVV8eQC&dq=Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit+Predestinarian+Baptists&pg=PA234). in United
States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Murphy, Dr. T. H., Supervisor.
Religious Bodies, 1936: Volume II Part 1 Denominations A to J: Statistics, History, Doctrine
Organization and Work. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1941, Vol. 2, Part 1
pp. 234–238.
"Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists" (https://books.google.com/books?id=Th5D
AQAAMAAJ&dq=Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit+Predestinarian+Baptists&pg=PA40). in Watson, E.
O., ed. Year Book of the Churches 1921-22. Washington, DC: Hayworth Publishing
Company, 1922, pp. 40–41.

External links
Online Collection of Daniel Parker's major writings (http://asweetsavor.info/edp/) available
either in PDF or HTML.
A Public Address to the Baptist Society, and Friends of Religion in General, on the Principle
and Practice of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the United States of America (http://
www.primitivebaptist.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1461&Itemid=36)
by Elder Daniel Parker (1820)
Old Caney Fork Two Seed Baptist Association (http://www.danielhaston.com/places/churche
s/bigfork/big-fork-cf-assn.htm)
Elder Daniel Parker (http://www.primitivebaptist.org/writers/parker_d/)
Old Pilgrim Church (http://www.primitivebaptist.org/writers/parker_d/nmbm-articles.asp)
Old Fort Parker (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/oldfort/)
"Baptists, Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americ
ana_(1920)/Baptists,_Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit). Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Two-Seed-in-the-

Spirit_Predestinarian_Baptists&oldid=1182442780"