Randall Easter, a student and five-point Calvinist at SWBTS and pastor of First Baptist Church of Briar, near Fort Worth, told CT that tensions remained on campus over the possible firings. He said that some professors who hold to Calvinism told him they had recently been called into meetings with Patterson.
"They started with four-point and five-point Calvinists," Easter said. "They said they were asked about their soteriology, their view of salvation. They were left with the impression that they may or may not be laid off because of their soteriology."
Although Patterson has publicly expressed concerns about Calvinist tenets that he thinks might hurt evangelism, he has said the issue should not divide Southern Baptists. He and close friend Albert Mohler, the Calvinist president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, debated the issue at the 2006 Southern Baptist Convention....
