Is Southern Baptist Traditionalist Soteriology Synergistic?

What is synergism?

[Synergism] is the teaching that we cooperate with God in our efforts of salvation. This is opposed to monergism which is the teaching that God is the sole agent involved in salvation. Cults are synergistic in that they teach that God's grace combined with our efforts are what makes forgiveness of sins possible. (Synergism Carm.org)

In other words, God is the only efficient cause in the bringing about of regeneration.


Dr. Leighton Flowers and I had a discussion on one of his Facebook Live videos called, "Q&A on G3 and Synergism," on his Soteriology 101 facebook page. At around 10:40 in, Dr. Flowers did something that perplexed me: he stated that he pushes back (i.e. rejects) against the term "synergism".  He stated that the reformed use of the term was the result of a conflation on the reformed side. I will allow him to speak for himself:

To see more, check out his video here and jump to 10:40.


Upon hearing his argumentation, I immediately realized that the issue of synergism was being confused with something else. As someone who has taken the time to understand Dr. Flowers and has spoken with Dr. Flowers in video chats, comment boxes, and through direct messages, I figured that I was well equipped to properly represent and respond to his position. After commenting, I responded to another commenter and tried to kindly, graciously correct the mistake made by Dr. Flowers. Here is our conversation:

EDIT: When speaking with a synergist in a situation like this, a friend of mine pointed out that it is very useful to bring up the term, "efficient cause." Ask the synergist, "who is the efficient cause of regeneration?"

Empty Rhetoric and Inconsistency for the Sake of Tradition

I recently had a discussion with a Roman Catholic in the comment section of a video by Dr. Leighton Flowers. It appeared that he was attempting to convert Dr. Flowers to Roman Catholicism. I would like to briefly note that this seems to be the trend among synergists: those who subscribe to a false gospel (Rome, the Orthodox Church, etc.) will make contact with synergists within the body of Christ (arminians, traditionalist southern baptists, etc.) in an attempt to either join with them or convert them. I have spoken before on the common betrayals of reformed brethren by the synergists (within the camp of Christ), who will join forces with those outside of the camp of Christ against those of the reformed faith. What is the reason? Reformed theology. However, that is not the purpose of this post.


Many topics were quickly covered in this discussion, but this is a display of the inconsistency that many Roman Catholics (even apologists) must engage in. It is breathtaking. It begins with John Martin's comment on the first page.