Next to Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898), James Henley Thornwell
(1812-1862) was a very influential Southern Presbyterian theologian.
According to Dr. Curt Daniel, R.L. Dabney was the Southern counterpart
to Charles Hodge of the North. So, it seems that Dabney was the more
influential Southern theologian.
The following is an excerpt taken from a link partially entitled "Southern Presbyterian Heretics" [link broken, page no longer exists]:
Here’s a Thornwell quote:
“There is a difference between them [election and reprobation],
however; election finds the objects of mercy unfit for eternal life, and
puts forth a positive agency in preparing them for glory; reprobation
finds the objects of wrath already fitted for destruction, and only
withholds that influence which alone can transform them. … reprobation
is strictly an act of sovereignty in which God refuses to save, and
leaves the sinner to the free course of the law. … Our Standards afford
no sort of shelter to the Hopkinsian error that the decree of
reprobation consists in God’s determining to fit a certain number of
mankind for eternal damnation, and that the Divine agency is as
positively employed in man’s bad volitions and actions as in their
good.” (from Collected Writings II)
Here Thornwell shows that he believes in conditional reprobation,
contrary to the Scriptures which say that Esau was reprobated BEFORE he
had done anything evil (i.e., unconditional reprobation). Thornwell is
also saying that God’s agency is NOT positively employed in man’s bad
volitions! So, God just “lets them go their own way” without
any intervention in their lives. This is a form of semi-deism,
and it is totally contrary to the Scripture (see Deut. 2:30; 2 Sam.
17:14; 1 Kings 22:20-23; 2 Chr. 18:22; 2 Chr. 25:17-23; Ps. 105:25;
Prov. 16:4; Prov. 21:1; Isa. 6:9-10; Isa. 19:14; Isa. 45:7; Acts
4:27-28).
