Historia ecclesiastica

SWITCHING AND CONSOLIDATING

2007-02-19T08:43:00.001-05:00

This post is to make known the fact that I have switched the entriety of this blog Historia ecclesiastica over to Wordpress here: www.historiaecclesiastica.com. Please update links and feeds accordingly. I shall also be consolidating my entire Website, Fontes, into that web address. I am deeply indebted to Darrin Brooker for help with this.

THE FLOODLIGHT MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

2007-02-17T12:25:00.000-05:00

In all of the activities of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers and in the life of the Church is there one thing above all other things he is seeking to do? Is there, in other words, a centre to his work and ministry in the lives of Christians?

An answer to these questions can be readily found in John 16:13-14, verses which record important words that Jesus spoke to his disciples on the night of his betrayal.

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

In the surrounding context Jesus is assuring his disciples that they will not be left alone when he returns to the Father after the cross and resurrection. Jesus will still be present with them, but not now via his Incarnate presence but rather by means of his Holy Spirit. He is thus helping them understand something of the ministry of the Holy Spirit after what we call Pentecost.

Now, in the words “He will bring glory to me,” we have set forth for us what J. I. Packer has rightly called the “Holy Spirit’s distinctive new covenant role,” namely, “directing all attention away from himself to Christ and drawing folk into the faith, hope, love, obedience, adoration, and dedication, which constitute communion with Christ.” This ministry of the Spirit in relation to Christ is what Packer goes on to call “a floodlight ministry.” [Keep In Step With The Spirit (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1984), 64, 65. A slightly revised edition has just been released by Zondervan (2005).]

Since 1985 I have had the privilege nearly every year of teaching at Séminaire Baptiste Évangélique du Québec, in Montreal, Canada (SEMBEQ), the French Fellowship Baptist seminary in the west end of Montreal, located on Gouin boulevard. The building that houses the seminary used to be a school and is located in a very prestigious area of the West Island of Montreal. I recall vividly one summer night after I had taught all day. I had decided to go for a walk in the neighbourhood. I noticed that a good number of the owners of the wealthy homes in the area had strategically placed floodlights around their homes so that passers-by like myself might ooh and aah about their achievements in stone and brick.

Now, if instead of focusing on the homes which were lit by the floodlights I had instead concentrated my attention on the floodlight themselves—“Oh, that’s an interesting-looking floodlight; I wonder where they bought it” or “what a lovely light that floodlight is giving; I wonder how powerful it is”—I would have missed the whole meaning and purpose of the floodlights. The owners of the homes had put the floodlights out in front so that I should look at their homes, not at the floodlights, the source of illumination.

So it is with the Spirit’s ministry. He has been sent by God the Father to focus our attention to Christ, to kindle in our hearts an unquenchable love for Christ and for his purposes, and to enable us to reflect faithfully his person and character. The Spirit has not come to primarily speak about himself. He has not been given to us so that we should focus primarily on him and his work. He has come to inhabit these mortal frames so that we should love Christ and adore him, and that we should seek to live each day in obedience to Jesus. The work and ministry of the Holy Spirit has this one indispensable genuine mark then: it is Christ-centred—it is designed to exalt him and glorify him in the minds and hearts of men and women, and boys and girls. As the great nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) once put it:

"If we do not make the Lord Jesus glorious; if we do not lift him high in the esteem of men, if we do not labour to make him King of kings, and Lord of lords; we shall not have the Holy Spirit with us. Vain will be rhetoric, music, architecture, energy, and social status: if our one design be not to magnify the Lord Jesus, we shall work alone and work in vain." [The Greatest Fight in the World (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1891), 64].

DR BRUCE METZGER

2007-02-14T18:53:00.001-05:00

I just heard of the death of Bruce Metzger, pre-eminent New Testament textual critic (brief account here: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--obit-metzger0214feb14,0,2607775.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey).

I heard Dr Metzger at McMaster Divinity College back in the 1970s and was deeply impressed by both his learning and his Christian demeanour. Over the years I have used a number of his books with great profit, especially those dealing with New Testament textual criticism and his superb work on the New Testament canon.

Praise the Lord for the gift of such a scholar.

ONE NIGHT WITH THE KING

2007-02-14T10:36:00.000-05:00

My wife, daughter and I watched the new movie about the story of Esther, One Night with the King, last night. Overall it was excellent. The costumes and sets sumptuous as one might expect of the Perisan Empire at its height. The acting was very good as well, though I found the Persian King a little stiff. And justice was done to the overall biblical text which was faithfully reproduced in the script. Scenes of prayer were especially done well.

Esther is, of course, a great story, easily adaptable to the media of film. Over the years it has helped me understand God's sovereignty in history. This is very interesting since the name of God is not explicitly mentioned in the book. But the whole story is redolent with God's providential workings on the stage of time and space.

It was interesting to see Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole together in the same film, reminsicent of that great blockbuster Lawrence of Arabia. Sharif plays Memucan and O'Toole the prophet Samuel. The latter is involved since a link is made between Haman the Agagite and the Amalekite king Agag (1 Samuel 15), whom Samuel told Saul to destroy along with all of his people. This link is something of conjecture.

Another piece of filler had Haman linking the Jews with the democratic-loving Greeks. Bring a lover of Greece—and rooting for their victory over Persia in the Persian Wars when I read those accounts as a young boy—and, since my conversion to Christ, a lover of ancient Israel as well, I found quite this link interesting. I didn't feel this additional stuff about the Greeks, rooted in scholarly opinion that the feast that Ahasuerus throws at the beginning of Esther 1 was preparatory to his campaign to subdue the Greeks, detracted from the movie, which was superb and well worth one’s time.

And it was a love story to boot--very appropriate on the eve of St.Valentine's Day

20 THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

2007-02-11T17:34:00.000-05:00

I am always thrilled when someone recommends the riches of our Christian past. A new book from Tyndale House, entitled 20 Things You Should Read (2006) and co-authored by four writers—David Edwards, Margaret Feinberg, Janella Griggs and Matthew Paul Turner, each of whom takes turns introducing the various works—is a good way to dip into some of the riches of our heritage. The authors/compilers rightly emphasize that these works of the past reveal how our Christian forebears struggled with many of the questions we wrestle with and how their beautifully-framed answers still convey hope and inspiration (p.vi-vii).

The Christian writers chosen are quite eclectic, ranging from Augustine to Madame Guyon, Julian of Norwich to Karl Barth. Some readers, myself included, would question the wisdom of such a wide range of authors, but I was glad to see the two key Reformers Luther and Calvin included as well as Bunyan, Charles Wesley (interesting that John is not included), Whitefield and Spurgeon. All of the writings are taken from documents available on the net, but it is great to have them in one compass like this.

The omission of John Owen and Jonathan Edwards—both masters of spirituality—is curious. But any such collection is bound to omit favourite authors of other Christians.

I also felt that at times the introductory comments were not helpful in doing justice to the historical context of the various authors. To say, for example, that Augustine “partied like a rock star before his conversion” and that up until that event, which took place when he was thirty-one, he had led “a promiscuous, unruly lifestyle” (p.1) simply is not true. After a year or so of such living when he first went to university in Carthage, Augustine actually settled down to a fairly prosaic life, seeking truth in the cult of Manichaenism and the Platonic philosophy.

But the intended audience of the book is obviously young men and women who have not been interested in the riches of Christian authors of the past. And in recommending these riches to such, the book succeeds admirably.

ON THE MORTIFICATION OF THE BEARD

2007-01-25T11:03:00.000-05:00

Bristle and whisker,
If they be not shorn,
Shall grow into such a bearded lattice and mat
That a thousand roughnesses
Could there be hid with ease.

Some claim ‘tis only nature’s way
For others, the fashion of the day;
But, for me, once plainly seen in mirrored glass,
The die is cast: shave off it all
And have done with sin.

© Michael A.G. Haykin, 2007.

LINES UPON JAVA'S ILLNESS

2007-01-21T15:59:00.000-05:00

What meaning for Java’s life
When sight for those lustrous eyes has gone,
Sensations ceased and his purring voice been stilled?

And what the import for me
Of those hugs and tickles, and love bestowed
In silly words like lovers speak?

And what for God of his gentle life—
Lived out in peace’s ambience? Had he but known
He could have shed his fears like fur.

Beyond, Brilliance shines
And lambent answers.

© Michael A.G. Haykin, 2007

THE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THEOLOGIANS

2007-01-16T17:59:00.000-05:00

Last fall in The Globe and Mail (Monday, October 23, 2006, p.A19), Michael Higgins made a very astute comment regarding the public role of intellectuals. Writing in a piece entitled “Lament for our public intellectuals,” he emphasized that the specialization of scholarship in our culture requires all the more for there to be public intellectuals who communicate their ideas to the world outside of academia.

There is, he rightly pointed out, a “the concomitant moral responsibility of intellectuals to communicate lucidly with the larger community, eschewing in the process the sometimes parasensical jargon” of the Academy.

This is also true of the world of theological academia. One of the great negatives of the current ecclesial scene is the separation of church and academy that has afflicted us in North America in various ways and to various degrees since the late nineteenth century. If God has called a person to a life of theological scholarship, such a person has a responsibility before God to “communicate lucidly” with the church. And also to recognize that he is responsible to the church for his doctrine and thought.

THE MINISTER

2007-01-15T23:13:00.000-05:00

Refulgent, an angel of light
Came to me the other night
(Tho’ not for me Abraham’s sight)—
I did not see him
Could not share bread
Like the patriarch or offer
A pillow for his head—
But light was shed upon my path
And peace outpoured instead of wrath—
And all because his Lord and mine had died.

© Michael A.G. Haykin, 2007

CONNECTING PRAYER AND HISTORY

2007-01-11T23:45:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday my pastor, Carl Muller, preached an excellent sermon on 2 Thessalonians 3:1, one of my favourite Pauline texts. He emphasized first that Paul was “passionate about seeing God glorified in the saving of many souls through the ministry of the Word.” This should be true of us as well.

The text also sets forth, Pastor Muller asserted, a pattern for us—the pattern of being a person of prayer. I was struck by one point especially with regard to this second main point. We are to “pray,” he said, “with a sense of history.”

He drew this from the phrase “as happened among you” (ESV). The Thessalonians were being urged to remember how the Word of God had impacted their lives, and pray for the same results to happen in Corinth where the Apostle was labouring.

In other words, when we pray, we are to remember how the Lord has moved in the past and pray with a due sense of the greatness of his power and grace. A very helpful connect of history and prayer.

PURITANISM: THE REAL THING

2007-01-10T23:34:00.000-05:00

Old stereotypes die hard. Often it’s far easier to hang on to misguided caricature than do the tough digging for the truth. The words “Puritan” and “puritanical” offer a good case in point.

Our Canadian Oxford Dictionary, for example, after giving these terms a standard historical explanation, notes of the adjective “puritanical” that it means “one opposed to pleasure.” No surprise then that the Puritans are regularly pilloried by our pleasure-loving culture. Sure, some words that have distinct historical associations lose them after they enter into common currency. But not so with these words and their cognates.

Journalist and satirist H.L. Mencken best summed up our popular perspective on Puritanism when he defined it as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy” and observed that “there is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.” One only needs to think of some depictions of historical Puritans in the film industry to see how such definitions have been taken to be gospel.

Richard Harris’ portrayal of Oliver Cromwell, the Puritan ruler of much of the British archipelago during the 1650s, in the movie Cromwell is one that he is able to carry off with nary a smile. It makes for good dramatic contrast with Alec Guinness’ brilliant role as the ill-fated Charles I, but it is hardly an accurate depiction of the man who enjoyed a practical joke from time to time, loved music and allowed dancing at his court, and had as his chaplain the theologian John Owen, who used to wear his hair powdered and adorned himself with a fashionable velvet jacket and flashy Spanish leather boots.

Much more recently, the first chapter of Charles Beauclerk’s Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King repeats this standard vilification of the Puritans. They were men who “strove relentlessly for the light, their instincts bound like squirming devils and shoved into some dark corner of the soul.” They denied the common people of England simple pleasures like wrestling and running, holidays and theatre, and made adultery a capital offence. Evidence of the dreariness of the Puritan regime is found in the horrific names they gave their kids: names like “Abstinence, Forsaken, Tribulation,…Kill-sin and Flyfornication”!

But the truth, when examined, is quite different. As Marxist historian Christopher Hill, an expert in 17th century British history, once observed, “very few of the so-called ‘Puritans’ were ‘Puritanical’.” Granted, instances of dreary kill-joys can be found in their ranks, but they are not to be taken as representative of the whole.

The Puritans were serious people, but knew when to laugh. Smiles and laughter, Richard Bernard maintained, were part of a good life. And Richard Sibbes, an influential Puritan during the reign of James I and Charles I, was confident that “joy is the habitation of the righteous.” Nor were they opposed to sports and recreation. Cromwell gave his daughter dancing lessons. Other Puritans were into hunting and fishing, bowling and swimming, and even skating. What they were against were cruel sports like bear baiting and using up what they considered a day of rest and spiritual reflection, Sunday, for such activities. Even theatrical entertainment, which the Puritans attacked because of frequent lasciviousness, was tolerated to some degree during the reign of Cromwell. Hardly “the great iron giant of Puritanism” as Beauclerk depicts the movement.

And as for sex, William Gouge, a prominent Puritan leader, could encourage married couples to engage in sexual intercourse with “delight, readily and cheerfully,” since it was essential to marriage. Another Puritan leader, Richard Baxter, could urge married couples to remember that there is nothing the human “heart is so inordinately set upon as delight.” Husband and wife should thus take pleasure in each other. Take joy in your wife, Baxter urged husbands and then quoted the Bible, “let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love.”

Finally, what is often forgotten about the Puritans is the utterly key role that they played in advancing democratic freedom. In a collection of essays dealing with “counterfactual” history, John Adamson, a Cambridge University scholar who specializes in the political and cultural history of 17th century Britain, has an intriguing essay entitled “England without Cromwell: What if Charles I had avoided the Civil War?” He reasons that if Charles I had been able to avoid the Civil War, the evolution of England’s constitutional monarchy, in which power came to be shared between the crown and parliament, may well have been set back decades, even centuries. And England could have ended up being a mirror image of Louis XIV’s absolutist France across the Channel.

As it was, the debates among the army officers around Cromwell during the 1640s about the right to religious freedom and Cromwell’s own incredibly deep conviction that freedom of religion was a natural right were crucial steps on the road to the democratic freedoms we enjoy today. It is amazing to think that—according to the reporting of the New England Puritan, Roger Williams—Cromwell once maintained in a public discussion “that he had rather that Mahumetanism [i.e. Islam] were permittted amongst us, than that one of God’s children should be persecuted,” which is a very interesting comment in light of recent events.

Well, all of this puts Puritanism in a very different light and is a good reminder that common perceptions about our past can sometimes be very misleading.

WHY HE CAME

2006-12-25T04:44:00.000-05:00

Moss on stone,
And masonry cracked—
This is our world.

Wounded, battered and shorn—
Shorn of glory, and
That innate sheen of light
That possesses and frees
And empowers.

This is why He came.

© Michael A.G. Haykin, 2006

STUDENTS OF THE FRENCH REFORMATION

2006-12-16T14:35:00.000-05:00

One of the deep joys of my life has been involvement with other scholars seeking to grow in their understanding of God’s ways in the history of his Church. This past week I spent three and a half days with Stéphane Gagné, the assistant pastor of a French Baptist Church in St-Georges-de-Beauce, Quebec. He is working on a M.A. in Church History from SEMBEQ in Montreal (for Stéphane’s blog, see Yanick Éthier, Stéphane Gagné, & François Turcotte).

We normally meet twice a year like this and spend time working through an historical period. This time we spent our days at St. Paul’s marvelous library in Ottawa, working through the French Reformation, the relationship of Calvin and Pierre Viret, the origins and course of the French Reformed cause in France, Huguenot history between the death of Théodore de Bézè and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and some of the key figures of this era—Pierre du Moulin, Jean Claude, Moïse Amyraut, and Claude Brousson. Last night and this morning we studied the English Reformation—its causes and course—and the emergence of Puritanism.

Looking at the French Reformation and the English Reformation in such close proximity reminded me afresh of the links between the two. For instance, I cannot help but think that it is possible that Jean-Baptiste Morelli’s working out a Congregationalist perspective in Paris in the 1560s before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day had an influence on the position of Browne, Barrow and Greenwood in the 1580s and 1590s.

Or again, to be Reformed between 1660 and the 1680s was a harrowing experience. In both France and England the Reformed cause was a house under siege and it was on the defensive. From a pessimistic perspective, much seemed lost. But our ways are not God’s ways, nor are our time his times. His timing is always perfect.

EMINENT CHRISTIANS: 14. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

2006-12-16T13:02:00.000-05:00

Among the leading painters of the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite school of artists was Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). And among his finest paintings is that entitled Ecce Ancilla Domini (1850; Tate Gallery, London) in which Rossetti depicts the Virgin Mary being addressed by the Angel Gabriel. If one looks closely at the woman depicting Mary, and one is familiar with what Rossetti’s sister looked like in her younger years, one would clearly see that the model for Mary is none other than Christina Rossetti, the finest poetess of the Victorian era. There appears to be a sadness to Christina’s face which says more about her life than it does necessarily about Mary’s.

Her life—a sketch

Christina was born into a remarkably gifted family in London, December 5, 1830. Her parents, Gabriele and Frances Rossetti, were emigrés from Italy. Though the family was gifted artistically, they had little money and seem to have struggled financially, despite the fact that her father was a Professor of Italian at King’s College, London. It was from her mother that she imbibed her Evangelical faith.

As a teenager Christina was quite beautiful. In 1848 she became engaged to James Collinson, one of the minor Pre-Raphaelite painters, but Christina ended the engagement in 1850 when he re-joined the Roman Catholic Church. Collinson went on to enter a Jesuit college, though he would leave without being ordained. It was that same year that Christina sat for her brother’s painting Ecce Ancilla Domini.

When her father’s failing health and eyesight forced him to retire from teaching in 1853, Christina and her mother attempted to support the family by starting a day school, but had to give it up after a year or so. In the early 1860s she was passionately in love with a man by the name of Charles Cayley. Cayley had a remarkable facility for languages, being a master of Hebrew, Homeric and classical Greek, and Italian. He even oversaw a translation of the New Testament into Iroquois. In 1864 he proposed to Christina, but according to her brother William Michael, she refused to marry him because “she enquired as to his creed, and she found that he was not a Christian; either absolutely not a Christian, or else so far removed from fully defined religious orthodoxy that she could not regard him as sharing the essence of her own beliefs.” Thereafter she led a very retiring life, interrupted by recurring illnesses. Her final three years—she died on December 29, 1894—were spent suffering from breast cancer, which involved surgery at home in 1892 and much pain and suffering.

Expressing her faith in poetry

Her faith was deeply tested by these illnesses, and though there is sometimes a morbid, introspective streak in statements she made at this time and in her poetry, her Christian faith—to some degree influenced by Anglo-Catholicism, but having a decidedly Evangelical cast—shines through in her poetry. Ponder, for instance, this poem, written in 1893, near the end of her life. It is a poem that echoes the watch-cry of the Reformation—Christ alone.

None other Lamb, none other Name,
None other Hope in heaven or earth or sea,
None other Hiding-place from guilt and shame,
None beside Thee.

My faith burns low, my hope burns low,
Only my heart’s desire cries out in me
By the deep thunder of its want and woe,
Cries out to Thee.

Lord, Thou art Life tho I be dead,
Love’s Fire Thou art however cold I be:
Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my head,
Nor home, but Thee.

In the bleak mid-winter

Evangelicals are probably most acquainted with Rossetti through her Christmas carol, In the bleak mid-winter. It first appeared in Scribner’s Monthly, a New York magazine, in January 1872. It was written in the midst of Christina’s suffering from a condition known as Grave’s disease.

Christina sets the birth of Christ against the backdrop of the bleakness of a chilly English winter, and gives a series of vivid contrasts between his heavenly state and that to which he stooped when he became a human being.

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Throng’d the air,
But only His mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

An exposition

What is the key-word in the first stanza? “Bleak.” Christina is not merely describing the weather, but speaking of an inner winter. And the word “bleak” prepares the reader for the intense images that follow: the wind that “made moan,” the earth as stiff and solid as iron, and the water so frozen it was like a stone. And the way she drops these intense images one on top of another is like what is described in the second half of this verse: layer upon layer of snow. The repetition of the first line reinforces the picture that Christina wishes to depict: the utter bleakness of the winter.

The second stanza comes “seemingly out of nowhere.” From a picture of bleak winter we are taken to the theme of the governance and upheaval of the universe. The first two lines come from 1 Kings 8:27, and Christina is seeking remind us of the greatness of God—the awesomeness of his person. Lines 3 and 4 are from Revelation 20:11: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.” Here, from another angle, the awesomeness of our God is being stressed. Before him the universe will melt.

Commonly linked to Christmas in the Christmas tradition is the Second Coming. The link obviously is the fact that both involve the coming of Christ to this world. But how different they are: at his Second Advent, Christ will come as an awesome warrior-king who will re-create the entire universe. But at his first coming: a stable was sufficient to house him—this One whom the universe cannot contain (note the reference to Jesus as “Lord God Almighty,” drawn from texts like Revelation 1:8, 11, 17; 21:22). Finite earth and heaven are far too small a container for the Infinite God. Yet, when he comes as the Incarnate One, he enters this world in the cramped quarters of a stable.

In stanzas 3 and 4 there is again a vivid contrast. In heaven the angelic worship of Christ’s glorious being is never-ending and unceasing. But when he comes to dwell on this earth, Christina depicts him as content with the worship of animals—though we might well ask, did the animals worship?—and of his virgin mother. Were there angels to worship at the birthplace of Christ? We are not told so in the nativity stories in Matthew and Luke. But, in this regard, see Hebrews 1:6. Also note that Christina makes it clear that his mother worshipped him, a clearly Protestant note.

But central to Christina’s meditation on the meaning of Christmas is not simply its mysterious paradoxes, but this question: how should we properly respond to the coming of Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, into our world? The shepherds and the Magi have gifts that match the parts they play in the Christmas story—but what of us, what can we give? Christina sees herself as having nothing to give, for she is “poor.” Her poverty is her whole self.

But she, and we, can give to him something unique and therefore doubly precious: our hearts, the centre and core of our beings. As she wrote in A Carol for Children:

I must be like those good Wise Men
With heavenward heart and look:
But shall I give no gifts to God?
What precious gifts they took!

Lord, I will give my love to Thee,
Than gold much costlier,
Sweeter to Thee than frankincense,
More prized than choicest myrrh…

THE YOUNG PIERRE TRUDEAU & T.T. SHIELDS

2006-12-16T02:15:00.000-05:00

On a trip from the Maritimes, after attending the International Conference on Baptist Studies IV in the summer, I happened to pick up a Saturday Globe and Mail, and not surprisingly found myself gravitating to the editorial page and book reviews. A fascinating book review that appeared on one of the editorial pages was on the then-new book on Pierre Trudeau: Young Trudeau, Son of Quebec, Father of Canada by Max and Monique Nemni. Apparently it is a quite a revealing work, depicting a far different young Trudeau than the one many of us remember, namely the committed federalist and foe of narrow Quebec nationalism. Here is an ardent right-winger, deeply antagonistic to the Canadian war effort and a believer in “every French-Canadian nationalist myth about the evils of les anglais.” Jeffrey Simpson, who wrote the review, notes that Trudeau’s views “were utterly consistent with those of the Catholic Church in Quebec until the war’s later years.” [“Pierre Trudeau was no Talbot Papineau”, The Globe and Mail (July 15, 2006), A13].

Earlier that week, at the conference I had been at, I had listened to a paper that had mentioned the fiery anti-Catholicism of the Toronto Baptist pastor T.T. Shields. But, after reading the review of this book, it struck me that Shields’ anti-Catholicism was quite understandable in the time period given the large numbers who would have shared the views of the young Trudeau.

It was an excellent reminder that one of the ways to avoid anachronism in the study of an area of history is to read widely in the time period under study.

JAMES ORR ON DOCTRINE

2006-12-11T09:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a great quote by Free St. George’s on the importance of doctrine: “Monday Quote: James Orr: We all have theology.”

VOCATION AMONG THE PURITANS & THEIR HEIRS

2006-12-10T16:56:00.000-05:00

I was given a copy of Tabletalk yesterday. I had not read this publication for quite a while. I have really enjoyed it in the past. The particular issue that I was given, entitled Proud Mediocrity: Facing the Addiction of our Culture (September 2006), was no exception. It was very well done, especially the article by George Grant, entitled “A Passion for Truth.”

I was intrigued, however, by a statement made by Chris Donato in his good piece, “In the Service of the King.” He linked the waning of “the Christian ideal of vocation”—rigorously implemented by the English Puritans—to the “religious and political repression of the seventeenth century” and the replacement of the “fatalistic hyper-Calvinism of certain Puritans” by the “mechanistic Deism of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment” (page 17). This is extremely intriguing! And of course, in the small space allotted for the article, only a potted version of this thesis could be given. But it would be fascinating to pursue it further.

Donato seems to assume or assert four things.

First, the attacks on the Puritans in the Restoration era by Charles II and James II undermined the Puritan concept of vocation. Why was this so?

Second, certain Puritans were hyper-Calvinistic. Which Puritans were hyper-Calvinists? Well, certain Baptist authors in the eighteenth century are often accused of being hyper-Calvinists—I am thinking of men like John Gill and John Brine and John Skepp (the term needs to be well defined to include Gill)—but historically these men are not Puritans. If we rule out these men, I am not sure who Donato has in mind.

Third, this hyper-Calvinism precedes the “mechanistic Deism of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.” Actually, though the chronology is the other way around. Does this undermine the thesis though?

Fourth, Evangelicalism did not maintain the Puritan view of vocation. But is this so? I think one can see a Puritan view of vocation in John Wesley’s view of work and wealth, for instance (via his maternal grandfather, the Puritan Samuel Annesley). You see it when Evangelical authors address domestic issues—consider Samuel Stennett on domestic duties in his sermon series on this topic.

But these are only initial thoughts. I would love to see someone track through the idea of vocation in the 18th century, asking the question, did it change from the Puritan view? And when did it change and why?

JOHN GILL'S GRAVE IN BUNHILL FIELDS

2006-12-09T15:20:00.000-05:00

As some of you know, who have been to Bunhill Fields, London, that great campus sanctorum, it contains the grave of many Baptist, and other Nonconformist, worthies of the past: John Owen, John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, Susannah Wesley (a Nonconformist till her early teens, and the daughter of the great Samuel Annesley), John Rippon, etc.… A number of the graves are suffering the ravages of time typical of stone and mortar in an urban setting like London. Among the graves in the latter category is the table tomb of John Gill (1697-1771), the most prominent English Baptist of his day.

Jeff Straub, professor of Church History at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Plymouth, Minneapolis, e-mailed me recently about the state of Gill’s grave and that the grave can no longer be easily identified. He rightly suggested seeking to do something about it. He has just written to an official in the City of London to see if a bronze marker with details about Gill can be possibly erected to mark the grave.

He and I hope that the cost of this project could be borne by raising funds among interested British and American Baptists who hold John Gill in high esteem. It is hoped to announce specifics at the large Baptist gathering next August in Charleston, South Carolina (see “Baptist History Celebration”, http://www.baptisthistorycelebration.org), where some 450 Baptists—both historians& history buffs—will gather to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the signing of the Philadelphia Confession. Those of you are interested in helping in this worthy commemoration, please make a note to check back here or at the “Baptist History Celebration” site then.

A JOURNALLING PRAYER AND JOHN NEWTON

2006-12-02T15:00:00.000-05:00

Journalling has been a time-honoured Christian means of grace in Evangelical circles stretching back to the Puritans. Here is an excellent prayer by John Newton (1725-1807) in this regard:

“I dedicate unto Thee this clean unsullied book and at the same renew my tender of a foul blotted corrupt heart. Be pleased O Lord! to assist me with the influence of Thy Spirit to fill the one in a manner agreeable to Thy will, and by Thy all sufficient grace to overpower and erase the ill impressions sin and the world have from time to time made in the other: so that both my public converse and retired meditation may testify that I am indeed Thy servant, redeemed, renewed and accepted in the sufferings, merit and mediation of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and Holy Spirit, be glory honour and dominion world without end.” (Sunday 22nd December 1751).

It is the bicentennial of his death next year and Sola Scriptura Ministries (http://www.sola-scriptura.ca/) has a great conference lined up in London, ON, in November to celebrate that and two other key historical events—the tercentennial of the birth of Charles Wesley and the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade.

Check out the conference here: “The Dungeon Flamed With Light” - The Great Awakening in the 18th Century November 16-27, 2007 - London, Ontario

CELEBRATING ADVENT & CHRISTMAS TODAY

2006-12-02T14:05:00.000-05:00

Not finding Advent and Christmas explicitly named in the Bible, many of our Evangelical forebears refused to celebrate it. Some of my heroes, the Calvinistic Baptists of the 18th century, are a good example in this regard. But while we must learn from the past—a deep-seated conviction I live my life by—we don’t live in those days. It is today we must seize for Christ. And it is Scriptural to set apart days—even seasons—to reflect on God’s goodness and mercy, and to seek his face. And the Advent—blessed are all those who long for Christ’s appearing—and Christmas seasons are a marvellous time for such reflection and such seeking.

PS It is very interesting that many of those remarkable brothers and sisters of the 18th century were adamant about celebrating the Fifth of November—the anniversary of England’s deliverance from the Gunpowder plot in the first decade of the seventeenth century and then of the landing of William III in England in 1688, “King Billy,” who brought religious toleration.

I think, for example of Caleb Evans’ great sermon on British Constitutional Liberty given on November 5, 1775 or Evans’ The remembrance of former days (Bristol, 1778).

Was that hypocrisy? Not at all. I simply think Advent and Christmas are more important than November 5—though I do value religious freedom (see previous post!).

THE AQUEDUCTS OF ANCIENT ROME AND GOD'S COMMON GRACE

2006-12-02T13:25:00.000-05:00

Roman technology in the Ancient world was second to none. Think of the aqueduct system that fed the heart of the Empire, Rome itself. There were eleven aqueducts that daily delivered 1.2 million cubic metres of water (nearly 300 million gallons)—yes daily!—to the city.

One of the superintendents of the aqueduct system for the city, Sextus Julius Frontinus, the curator aquarum, penned a fabulous treatise De aquaeductu (97ad) at the close of the first century during the reign of Nerva. Comparing the system of aqueducts to other architectural marvels of the ancient world, he asked:

“I ask you! Just compare those useless pyramids, or the good-for-nothing tourist attractions of the Greeks with the vast monuments of this vital aqueduct network.”

When the Apostle Paul arrived in Rome for the first time (Acts 28), he would have seen these architectural marvels, and when he stayed in the city for those two years under house arrest, the water he drank and bathed in would have come through this remarkable system of aqueducts. How thankful we should be for the common grace that surrounds us.

Here, in the West, I am deeply grateful for the architectural web of institutions that grace our world—the freedoms of speech and movement that we enjoy because of them—and the freedom to preach the gospel and plant churches. These should never be taken for granted. There are others in this world—the old remnants of leftist ideological persuasion, radical Muslims, for instance—who would deprive us of such.

Daniel Johnson, in a disturbing article [“Allah’s England?”, Commentary, 122, no.4 (November 2006), 41-46] quotes a self-styled spokesperson for Islam in England, a certain Abu Izzadeen, a convert to Islam, dismissing free speech and our democratic way of life and saying over the British airwaves: Britain “doesn’t belong to you [the British], or to the Queen, or to the government, but to Allah. He has put us on earth to implement shari’a law” [page 46].

I, for one, am deeply thankful for the web of the Western culture—no, it is not Christian—but oh the freedoms it gives. In this we see the goodness of God designed to lead sinners to repentance!

Like the water the ancient Apostle drank in the city of Rome.

THE TOMBSTONE OF SARAH JUDSON

2006-12-01T20:32:00.000-05:00

Nick Clevely (see previous post) has also informed me that the tombstone of Sarah Judson, the third wife of Adoniram Judson, who died and was buried on the island of St Helena, has been moved from the de-consecrated cemetery in Jamestown to the courtyard of the Jamestown Baptist Chapel.

While in the cemetery in Jamestown, it was damaged, probably by vandalism, and as a result, the top section of the tombstone is completely missing. At present Nick does not have a description of how it used to look, so he is looking for information in order that he can begin the process of restoring it.

This tombstone is not merely a tombstone; it is in fact a monument erected by the Baptists of Philadelphia. It is a wonderful part of Baptist Missions history and should not be neglected.

Nick is looking for information about the description of the tombstone, so if you have such information or if you would like to contribute to the restoration of it, your help would be most welcome and appreciated. His e-mail is as follows: clevely@helanta.sh.

THE BAPTISTS ON ST. HELENA

2006-12-01T20:30:00.000-05:00

Over the past year I have been communicating with a Reformed Baptist brother by the name of Nick Clevely, who is ministering on the island of St. Helena. Nick recently passed on to me this potted history of the Baptist work on the island.

The Baptist work on the island was begun by an American Baptist Missionary named James McGregor Bertram in 1845. On July 14, 1845, Bertram arrived at St. Helena. Upon arriving he was met by a Mr. James Morris, who asked, “Have you come here, Mr. Bertram, to preach Christ’s gospel?” Mr. Morris then informed the Rev. Bertram “there are only four or five people on the island who know anything about a work of grace in their hearts.”

The next day, Rev. Bertram held his first service and preached from Acts 16:14-15. By Sunday, July 20, they had to move to a much larger place for worship, and met in someone’s home. It was determined to call a meeting on July 30 (only 14 days after Rev Bertram’s arrival) for the purpose of raising funds for a mission house. Thus the foundations of the Baptist Church were laid.

It was at a meeting held on August 20, 1845 (37 days after Rev Bertram’s arrival) that it was unanimously decided “to procure the largest stone edifice in the town that could be purchased. A large stone dwelling house in the central part of town was purchased for £550.” At a meeting held on the September 30, 1845, the following minute was recorded: “Mr. Carroll proposed that a public notice should be posted to notify that Divine Services will commence in the Mission House on the 28th October, 1845 at 10 o’clock and 3 o’clock in the afternoon.”

Not long after Rev. Bertram’s arrival, he was waited upon by Captain Mapleton, the principal magistrate of the island. He invited Rev Bertram to Sandy Bay where the Gospel had never been preached! It was early January, 1846, that they went by horseback to Sandy Bay. It was at the dwelling of Mr. and Mrs. Lambe that Bertram preached his first service in Sandy Bay. The first baptism took place on the April 2, 1848, where some 45 people followed the Lord, and within a year 149 were baptized, and by 1884, 440 were baptized members of the church! Sounds like revival!

Most regrettably Bertram committed suicide in 1868, throwing himself off a ship on a return voyage to America.

The Jamestown Chapel, where the Baptist work started, is the flagship of what are now four chapels on the island and was built in 1854. The three other chapels on the island are: the Head o’Wain Chapel (1918), the Knollcombe Chapel (1893) which has on its grounds an historical monument, the Boer War graveyard where prisoners who died in an epidemic were buried, and the Sandy Bay Chapel, which experienced another revival in the early twentieth century.

THE SIN OF RACISM

2006-12-01T12:51:00.000-05:00

Since I never watched Seinfeld, I knew nothing about Cosmo Kramer, played by actor Michael Richards. And I had not heard about the incident of Richards’ racist remarks until just now, reading it on the blog of Kirk Wellum. That led to reading this mini-essay by CT editor-at-large Ed Gilbreath, who writes on “Kramer's Sins--and Ours”, which is excellent.

Having come from a Middle Eastern background (my father is a Kurd from Iraq), I experienced significant racist remarks in early High School—one young man insisted on calling me “Arab” and sometimes resorted to calling me by the N-word!—but only through life in Christ can there be healing for this sin. He is the One who breaks down the walls dividing men and women from each other on the basis of race. Ephesians 2 is such a powerful critique of this sin.

Yet even here Christians can fail. One thinks of the racism that underlay the slave trade in which Christians participated. But they were not living in accord with the Gospel! May God the Holy Spirit shine light and truth into all the crevices of our hearts and root out sin in its entirety, including the sin of racism!

GODLY ADVICE FROM OLIVER CROMWELL

2006-11-30T15:22:00.000-05:00

Oliver Cromwell has been much misjudged. In my opinion, after nearly ten years of reading him, I esteem him as one of the most remarkable Christians of his day.

Here, for example, is advice he gave but two years before his death to his son Harry Cromwell: “with singleness of heart make the glory of the Lord your aim. Take heed of professing religion without the power…” (Letter, April 21, 1656).

JOHN GILL & JONATHAN EDWARDS

2006-11-28T02:05:00.000-05:00

“To see Him, the King, in his beauty, is a ravishing sight, and which fills [the soul] with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Sounds like Jonathan Edwards, right? Or another one of the divines from his affective stream of piety?

No. It is from the much-maligned John Gill (d.1771). See his Body of Divinity, p.777.

There is much more in Gill than dry-as-dust theology—there is life and power and joy in Christ. While I do not deny there are some theological problems with his Calvinism, at its heart it was drawn from the same well as Edwards’.

Someone needs to compare the theology of Edwards and Gill. I am amazed that no one ever has.

PRAYING FOR TBS

2006-11-25T22:35:00.000-05:00

One of the great privileges of being Principal of Toronto Baptist Seminary is having colleagues like this brother and his passion for teaching: Pray for These Boys... While you’re praying for them, please remember Toronto Baptist Seminary as whole in your prayers.

ANDREW FULLER & BASIL MANLY, JR.

2006-11-25T15:07:00.000-05:00

For an interesting link between Andrew Fuller and Basil Manly, Jr., see my post AN ANNOTATION OF BASIL MANLY, SR. in the blog The Elephant of Kettering: Andrew Fuller.

JOHN PIPER TO SPEAK ON ANDREW FULLER

2006-11-25T11:31:00.000-05:00

This year’s annual Bethlehem Conference for Pastors is on “The Holiness of God”, is to be held February 5-7, 2007, and has R.C. Sproul, Thabiti Anyabwile, and William Mckenzie as speakers. John Piper, the host and Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will give his biographical address—which he does every year to the delight of historically-minded believers—on Andrew Fuller on February 6, 2007, @ 1:45 pm.

It is to be entitled: “Holy Faith, Worthy Gospel, World Vision: Andrew Fuller’s Broadsides Against Sandemanianism, Hyper-Calvinism, and Global Unbelief.” Sounds fabulous, as well as the rest of the conference.

HT: Justin Taylor. Justin has links to learn more about the speakers and read John Piper’s invitation.

ADDING MOSS TO THE ROSE

2006-11-24T11:54:00.000-05:00

Gilbert Laws’ biography of Andrew Fuller [Andrew Fuller: Pastor, Theologian, Ropeholder (London: Carey Press, 1942)] is a rarity, possibly because it was published during the war years when paper was scarce. But due to the fact that it is an important document, here is his rendition of the entirety of C.H. Spurgeon’s letter to Andrew Gunton Fuller upon the former’s receiving the latter’s life of his father (on page 127):

Venerable Friend,
I thank you for sending me your Andrew Fuller. If you had lived for a long time for nothing else but to produce this volume, you have lived to good purpose.
I have long considered your father to be the greatest theologian of the century, and I do not know that your pages have made me think more highly of him as a divine than I had thought before. But I now see him within doors far more accurately, and see about the Christian man a soft radiance of tender love which had never been revealed to me either by former biographies or by his writings.
You have added moss to the rose, and removed some of the thorns in the process.
Yours most respectfully,
C.H. Spurgeon.

C.S. LEWIS & PERSECUTION

2006-11-24T01:59:00.000-05:00

Most of Lewis’ colleagues at Oxford University found his zealous defence of the Christian faith irritating, if not embarrassing [Lyle W. Dorsett, “C.S. Lewis: An Introduction” in his ed., The Essential C.S. Lewis (New York: Macmillan Publ. Co., 1988), 3]. Magdalen College, where Lewis taught, was during the 1930s-1950s “leftish, atheist, cynical.” According to Clyde Kilby, “One report went out that no one at Magdalen wanted to sit next to Lewis at the table because he would immediately turn and ask, “are you a Christian?” Both by nature and dictates of good taste, Lewis was utterly opposed to putting anyone in a corner. Yet this was the sort of gossip that, along with his output of books on Christianity, finally prevented Lewis’s being awarded a professorship…”

“For some twenty-five years Lewis knew what it was to be sneered at, to be called “saint” cynically, but still he was friendly with all his colleagues.” [Clyde S. Kilby, “Holiness in the Life of C.S. Lewis”, Discipleship Journal, 22 (July 1, 1984), 15]. Especially after the publication of his Narnia books in the 1950s, a sizeable body of the Oxford faculty shunned him. Some criticized him to his face, while others did it behind his back.

C.S. LEWIS ON FRIENDSHIP

2006-11-24T01:52:00.000-05:00

Found this great quote on friendship from C.S. Lewis on the blog of Jayme Thompson:

“Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say, “Sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends.” I know I am very fortunate in that respect.” [The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (29 December 1935)].

PIERRE DU MOULIN

2006-11-24T01:34:00.000-05:00

My dear friend Stéphane Gagné has an excellent little post on the Huguenot Pierre du Moulin. I have long appreciated the work of Du Moulin. I am so glad he is being rediscovered by our French brethren: La prédication selon Pierre Du Moulin (1568-1658).

THE IRONY OF NT WRIGHT'S ANTI-CONSTANTINIANISM

2006-11-23T00:49:00.000-05:00

Have been reading “The ‘Fresh Perspective’ on Paul: A Theology of Anti-Americanism” by Denny Burk and deeply appreciate his take on NT Wright and the New Perspective. It strikes me as deeply ironic that Wright, who is so anti-Empire and critical of Constantinianism, is, by virtue of his position as an Anglican Bishop in the Church of England, deeply enmeshed in a Constantinian structure! If he were to think through the ramifications of his critique he should exit the Church of England pronto and become—say it not in Gath—a Dissenter or Nonconformist!

THANKING GOD FOR CS LEWIS

2006-11-22T09:58:00.000-05:00

Like so many others I can remember exactly what I was doing for a portion of the day exactly 43 years ago this very day. I was munching on a cheese roll—that is, one of those big Kaisers with cheese in it; I still love the things—and a news flash interrupted the television show I was watching—Ponderosa!—to inform the watching public that the President of the United States, JFK, had been assassinated. I was in England at the time and I can still visualize the room in which I was lying at Knoll Court, Coventry.

Later, in my teens, as an avid fan of sci-fi—I almost never read the stuff today, but have shifted in my fiction loves to mystery!—I read the works of another who died that day—Aldous Huxley.

Years later, when I was converted and beginning to read Christian literature, I learned of yet another who had died that day, C.S. Lewis (1898-1963). Lewis was very instrumental, along with Francis Schaeffer, in informing and shaping my early Christian mind. Since then I have gone through a love-like relationship with his writings. There have been times when I have loved his stuff, and others when that love has been replaced by mere liking. Some of his stuff is really not so good—the space trilogy for example. J.I. Packer was undoubtedly right when he said, for example, that Lewis’ The Hideous Strength is really hideous!

But there are other works that are really remarkable and will surely stand the test of time: The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce and the small collection of essays, The Weight of Glory—the latter of which I have read numerous times, in particular, the title essay, “The Inner Ring” and “Membership.”

In recent years, there has been a great debate over whether Lewis was actually a believer. That he held some aberrant ideas is clear. For example, he was an inclusivist and murky on the destiny of those who are sincere in their worship of other gods and have never heard the name of Christ (see the ending of The Last Battle). (He did believe in the reality of hell, though, for those adamant in their rejection of Christ). And his remarks on the atonement in Mere Christianity are not really helpful.

Personally, though I think he was the genuine thing. For instance, any study of his witness at his college at Oxford in the face of vicious slander and shunning by some of his colleagues—including the Marxist historian Christopher Hill—reveals a man prepared to suffer for his Christian profession. So, despite his theological flaws, I thank God for every remembrance of C.S. Lewis.

WATTISHAM STRICT BAPTIST CHAPEL

2006-11-11T11:56:00.000-05:00

One of the glories of my Calvinistic Baptist heritage are the various causes tucked away here and there in the UK countryside that speak of a love for the Scriptures, a love of our heritage of Baptist piety, and above a love for the Lord Jesus. The Highland Host at Free St. George’s pointed me to one such in his post, I am Preaching this Lord’s Day.

He is preaching at Wattisham Strict Baptist Chapel this coming Sunday—may the Lord powerfully bless His Word to both preacher and congregation—and highlights this report about the church (as he points out, remember the writer is a Roman Catholic): http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/wattishambapt.htm. The church has its roots in the stirring days of the late eighteenth century.

Seeing the pictures and reading the report gave me a longing to be in the UK and visiting such a Bethel! I was actually supposed to fly over this weekend for about ten days, but the month of October exhausted me, and I regrettably had to cancel a couple of important engagements.

May the Lord richly own this congregation in Suffolk and exalt Christ, the only Saviour, through its verbal witness and lived-out testimony.

INDEX ALPHABETIQUE DES TEMPLES PROTESTANTS DE FRANCE

2006-11-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

I found this absolute gem on the Free St. Georges blog: Index alphabétique des temples protestants de France. Wow! If you love French Calvinist history, this is a must. Thanks Highland Host! Now, someone needs to do this online for Dissenting congregations in the UK.

THE MARRIAGE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE

2006-11-10T18:02:00.000-05:00

A few years ago Doreen Moore wrote a gem of a book entitled Good Christians, Good Husbands? It deals with three marriages: one ugly, one so-so and one great. The ugly one was that of John Wesley and Molly Vazeille—a terrible marriage, much of it Wesley’s fault. The so-so was the marriage of George Whitefield and his wife Elizabeth James—he really married to have a housekeeper! Then there was the sparkling “uncommon union” of Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Pierpont. Wow what a marriage!

Thought of this as I read the following “Friday rambling” of Tim Challies:

“I read a biography of David Livingstone this week and drew out a couple of quotes. The first is taken from a letter he wrote to a friend in which he described his fiancee (soon to be his wife). He described her as “not a romantic. Mine is a matter of fact lady, a little thick black haired girl, sturdy and all I want.” I guess it’s a good thing she was not a romantic for clearly Livingstone was not either!” (Friday Ramblings).

Of course, some might say it was a good thing for Livingstone’s intended that she was not a romantic, since he thought of nothing of prolonged peregrinations in Africa without her. Personally, I think such men should not get married—they only bring disrepute on the holy institution. There must be fire and passion, or why get married?

HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE

2006-11-10T18:01:00.000-05:00

Dr. Russell Moore illustrates how Christians must live under their government with integrity and grace: Nancy Pelosi Is My Prayer Partner.

THE ONGOING IMPACT OF A HOLY LIFE

2006-11-10T17:59:00.000-05:00

This is good stuff—thrilled to see the way Edwards’ holy life is still having an impact. Thanks for posting this, Paul: Resolved: Jonathan Edwards and the Men of GFC.

EMINENT CHRISTIANS: 13. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, part II

2006-11-10T17:34:00.001-05:00

Constantinople

When Gregory of Nazianzus came to Constantinople in 379 he found the orthodox community in the city both fragmented and extremely tiny, not only because Arianism had long dominated the city, but also because other parties, inimical to orthodoxy, had established themselves within the city, e.g., the Eunomians, the Apollinarians, the Novatians, and the Pneumatomachi. Consequently, upon his arrival at Constantinople, Nazianzen commenced the re-organization of the small orthodox community and to this end, he dedicated a private home to be used as their church.

From this small church, which Nazianzen called Anastasia, the theologian, combining his rhetorical education and innate love of words with a deep desire to proclaim the truth, expounded the Nicene faith to “enraptured audiences.” Central in his exposition of orthodoxy and attack on “the new theology” of the Eunomian and the Pneumatomachi, were the Theological Orations, delivered between July and November of 380.

Prior to Theodosius’ triumphant entry into Constantinople on 24 November 380, Nazianzen’s position had not been official. But upon the Emperor’s arrival, the Arian bishop Demophilus was expelled and Nazianzen installed as bishop in the Church of the Apostles. Theodosius was determined to establish the eastern Church on the bedrock of Nicaea. To this end he convened a council in Constantinople in the spring of 381. This council re-affirmed the Nicene Creed (in a confession of faith no longer extant), and added clauses directed against various heretics, including Eunomius, the Pneumatomachi and Apollinaris. Furthermore, the Council recognized Nazianzen as the rightful bishop of Constantinople.

But Nazianzen’s episcopacy was to be very brief, cut short by the ecclesiastical squabbles and intrigue that attended this council. The first president of the council was Meletius of Antioch, a major protagonist in a schism that had divided the Nicene community of Antioch for a number of years. When he died, shortly after the opening of the council, Nazianzen was made president, and, in an attempt to placate the two Antiochene parties, he proposed that Paulinus, Meletius’ rival claimant to the see, be recognised as Meletius’ successor.

This proposal brought a storm of criticism, in which Nazianzen’s own position as bishop of Constantinople was called into question. Timothy of Alexandria declared that Nazianzen, by transferring his see from Sasima to Constantinople, had technically violated the Nicene canon that prohibited the transference of sees. Nazianzen, wearied and disgusted by the endless intrigue and dissension, decided to quit the eastern capital and retire to his family estates at Arianzus. Now, his sole desire was to spend the remainder of his life in quiet seclusion. But the days of his pastoral ministry were not yet at an end.

Responding to Apollinaris and final days

Upon his return to Cappadocia, he had to administer the still-vacant see of Nazianzus (vacant since his departure for Seleucia in 374). This brief period of pastoral administration witnessed Nazianzen’s growing concern with the spread of the teachiong of Apollinaris—who had fought for Nicence orthodoxy alongside Athanasius, but whos understanding of the Incarnation was deeply flawed. At least two of the three Theological Letters belong to this period. Nazianzen’s great longing for permanent retirement was finally realised when Theodore, archbishop of Tyana, appointed a successor to Nazianzen, his cousin Eulalius.

On his family estates in Arianzus, Nazianzen spent the last years of his life in spiritual contemplation, in writing poetry and in an extensive correspondence with his friends. He died in 390.

Personality

For some scholars the motif of “flight from and return to the world” best characterises Nazianzen’s life. Yet, this motif is but the external form of Nazianzen’s attempt to synthesize both his longing for the contemplative life and his desire to be of practical use to the Church.

The failure to attain this synthesis is all too evident in, e.g., Nazianzen’s flights from pastoral ministry in 362 and 372, and then again in his decision to leave Constantinople in 381. On the other hand, the success of the synthesis is best seen in the classic statement on the ministry (Oration 2), in the Theological Orations and the Theological Letters, in the spiritual counsel evident in the letters of his final retirement and in his doctrinal poems. These writings show that Nazianzen, concerned for the nurture of the Church of his day, drew upon a deep well of spirituality, the source of which lay in contemplative solitude.

Denis Meehan has described Nazianzen as a man “almost abnormal in his capacity for being hurt.” It was this characteristic which was largely instrumental in provoking the argument with Basil over the bishopric of Sasima, and which, later, hastened his departure from Constantinople.

The other side of this characteristic must not, however, be overlooked, i.e., his great capacity for “filial, fraternal and friendly love.” Far from being a drawback, this characteristic enabled Nazianzen to achieve a large measure of success in his endeavour to synthesize the active and contemplative modes of life. On the one hand, his hypersensitivity prevented him from becoming enmeshed in the ecclesiastical politics of his day. On the other hand, his great need for friendship would not allow him to withdraw permanently into seclusion but gave him the desire to benefit the church with his theological learning.

ANDREW FULLER THE READER--A CONFERENCE

2006-11-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

The Andrew Fuller Works Project is pleased to announce a conference on “Andrew Fuller the Reader” to be held at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, August 27-28, 2007.

Speakers include Dr. Russell Moore, Dr. Tom Nettles, Dr. Carl Trueman, Dr. Michael McMullen, Dr. Jeff Jue and Dr. Michael Haykin.

Topics include “The contemporary significance of Andrew Fuller” (Dr. Moore); “Andrew Fuller: heir of the Reformation” (Dr. Jue); “John Owen’s influence on Andrew Fuller” (Dr. Trueman); and “Jonathan Edwards—theological mentor to Andrew Fuller” (Dr. Nettles).

Full details as to schedule, full description of topics, and cost to follow.

EMINENT CHRISTIANS. 13: GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, part I

2006-11-09T20:55:00.000-05:00

Early life

Gregory Nazianzen (c.329-390), was the eldest son and namesake of a member of the Cappadocian curial class. After he had completed his early education in the didaskaleia of Cappadocia, Nazianzen went on to study philosophy and rhetoric at the university of Athens. He had been there but a short time, when a former acquaintance, Basil of Caesarea (c.329-379), arrived. Although opposites in temperament, these two Cappadocians shared a common view about the ideal Christian life, and they became fast friends.

After his return to Cappadocia (c.356-357), Nazianzen joined Basil at the latter’s retreat at Annesoi in Pontus, where Nazianzen devoted himself, on and off for a couple of years, to the practice of coenobitic asceticism. Eventually, the literary fruit of the two friends’ endeavour was to be the Philocalia, a selection of choice passages from the works of the third-century exegete Origen. However, Nazianzen’s contemplative way of life was rudely interrupted when his father, now aged and desirous of aid in carrying out his pastoral duties, had his son forcibly ordained presbyter, c.361-362. Grieved by what Nazianzen later called “this act of tyranny” [De Vita Sua, 1ines 545-549 (PG 37.1067)], Nazianzen fled to the solitude of Basil’s Pontic retreat. He returned to his father’s diocese before Easter 362 to assume his presbyter duties and gave a lengthy sermon explaining the reasons for his flight and return, which became a classic study of the ministry.

Later forcibly compelled by his friend Basil of Caesarea to accept the see of Sasima. Nazianzen again fled this time to the solitude of a nearby mountain range. Refusing to accept the see, he returned to Nazianzus, where he remained as auxiliary bishop until his father’s death in 374. When his mother died shortly thereafter, Nazianzen, still an earnest seeker after the contemplative life, decided to retire to the monastery of St. Thecla at Seleucia in Sauria.

Called to defend the Trinity

However, eventually Nazianzen left retirement to go to Constantinople and into the eye of the theological storm that was raging regarding the doctrine of the Trinity, the great theological debate of the fourth century. Why?

In his De Vita Sua, he gives the following reasons:

“The grace of the Spirit sent us
For many bishops and sheep were calling us
To be a helper of the people and assistant of the Word…”
[De Vita Sua, lines 595-598 (PG 37.1070)].

On the one hand, he was called by the orthodox community of Constantinople, and on the other, by the “bishops.” Some scholars understand the latter to be not only the bishops of the district surrounding Constantinople, but also Basil and Meletius of Antioch. Pierre Batiffol builds on this, when he writes: “It is not improbable that he (Nazianzen) was the envoy of Meletius, the bishop of Antioch, or else that of Basil in his final days.”

X. Hürth has further asserted that Nazianzen arrived in Constantinople even before Basil’s death on January 1, 379. Both Paul Gallay and Christoph Jungck have, nevertheless, decisively shown that Nazianzen went to Constantinople only after the death of Basil, although it is probable that Basil in his final days advised him to go.

But why did the orthodox believers of Constantinople and the bishops call Nazianzen to be the pastor of the Nicene community in that city? A couple of reasons are clearly discernible. First of all, there was the death of the Emperor Valens, the protector of the Arians, in the disastrous rout near Hadrianopolis in Thrace (August 9, 378), and the succession to the purple by the orthodox Spaniard, Theodosius. The orthodox communities of the east once more began to re-assert their strength, so that by the year 379 nearly every important ecclesiastical centre, except Constantinople, was in the hands of orthodox bishops.

Second, although the Arians in Constantinople, under their bishop Demophilus, possessed authentic popular support, the orthodox community had received fresh hope with the accession of Theodosius; they lacked only a leader. Basil or Meletius of Antioch, the foremost leaders of the Nicene party in the east, would have been ideal choices, but both were attached to their respective sees, and by 379 Basil was dead. But Nazianzen, a friend of both Basil and Meletius, was as good as either of these men, and furthermore, he was not formally attached to any see.

Consequently, Nazianzen was invited, and after initial refusals, he accepted. It may be asked what was the major reason behind Nazianzen’s acceptance, for the forceful insistence of the delegation from Constantinople was certainly not the sole, nor prime, reason for Nazianzen’s acquiescence. It has been suggested that the thought of doing good was a sufficient reason for him to go. At the deeper level it is possible that after Basil’s death Nazianzen saw himself as the heir of Basil’s labours in the defence of the truth about the Trinity, and that this was the decisive factor which led him to leave his cell to go to Constantinople.

PURITAN REFORMED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

2006-11-09T04:00:00.000-05:00

I was recently at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, teaching a course on the theology of Jonathan Edwards. We did twelve hours of lectures on Edwards—on his theology of revival, on prayer and family piety, on his doctrine of the Trinity—but we could have used twelve more. I love going down to Grand Rapids and being involved in this great work. May the Lord continue to bless this school richly.

PROFILES IN REFORMED SPIRITUALITY

2006-11-09T03:46:00.000-05:00

Reformation Heritage Books (www.heritagebooks.org) is launching a new series by the end of the year entitled Profiles in Reformed Spirituality. Its editors will be Dr. Joel R. Beeke—President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and Editorial Director of Reformation Heritage Books—and myself. I am thrilled to be able to work with Dr. Beeke on this series. The first book will be on Alexander Whyte and along with an introduction to his piety, it will include selections from his works. What follows is the general introduction to the series.

Charles Dickens’ famous line in A Tale of Two Cities—“it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”—seems well suited to western Evangelicalism since the 1960s. On the one hand, these decades have seen much for which to praise God and to rejoice. In His goodness and grace, for instance, Reformed truth is no longer a house under siege. Growing numbers identify themselves theologically with what we hold to be biblical truth, namely, Reformed theology and piety. And yet, as an increasing number of Reformed authors have noted, there are many sectors of the surrounding western Evangelicalism that are characterized by great shallowness and a trivialization of the weighty things of God. So much of Evangelical worship seems barren. And when it comes to spirituality, there is little evidence of the riches of our heritage as Reformed Evangelicals.

As it was at the time of the Reformation, when the watchword was ad fontes—“back to the sources”—so it is now: the way forward is backward. We need to go back to the spiritual heritage of Reformed Evangelicalism to find the pathway forward. We cannot live in the past; to attempt to do so would be antiquarianism. But our Reformed forebears in the faith can teach us much about Christianity, its doctrines, its passions, and its fruit.

And they can serve as our role models. As R. C. Sproul has noted of such giants as Augustine and Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards: “These men all were conquered, overwhelmed, and spiritually intoxicated by their vision of the holiness of God. Their minds and imaginations were captured by the majesty of God the Father. Each of them possessed a profound affection for the sweetness and excellence of Christ. There was in each of them a singular and unswerving loyalty to Christ that spoke of a citizenship in heaven that was always more precious to them than the applause of men.” [“An Invaluable Heritage,” Tabletalk, 23, No.10 (October 1999), 5-6].

To be sure, we would not dream of placing these men and their writings alongside the Word of God. John Jewel (1522-1571), the Anglican apologist, once stated: “What say we of the fathers, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Cyprian? …They were learned men, and learned fathers; the instruments of the mercy of God, and vessels full of grace. We despise them not, we read them, we reverence them, and give thanks unto God for them. Yet …we may not make them the foundation and warrant of our conscience: we may not put our trust in them. Our trust is in the name of the Lord.” [Cited in Barrington R. White, “Why Bother with History?” Baptist History and Heritage, 4, No.2 (July 1969), 85].

Seeking then both to honor the past and yet not idolize it, we are issuing these books in the series Profiles in Reformed Spirituality. The design is to introduce the spirituality and piety of the Reformed tradition by presenting descriptions of the lives of notable Christians with select passages from their works. This combination of biographical sketches and collected portions from primary sources gives a taste of the subjects’ contributions to our spiritual heritage and some direction as to how the reader can find further edification through their works. It is the hope of the publishers that this series will provide riches for those areas where we are poor and light of day where we are stumbling in the deepening twilight.

Other books in the series that are planned include ones on Jonathan Edwards, Horatius Bonar, Thomas Goodwin, John Owen and Hercules Collins.

NEW JARS OF CLAY CD

2006-11-05T02:14:00.000-05:00

The new “Jars of Clay” CD—Good Monsters (2006) is out. It is excellent. No doubt of that. I must confess that I regularly look forward to this group’s rich—and Augustinian—musical output.

Take “All my tears” for instance.

When I go, don’t cry for me
In my Father’s arms I’ll be
The wounds this world left on my soul
Will all be healed and I’ll be whole
Sun and moon will be replaced
With the light of Jesus’ face
And I will not be ashamed
For my Savior knows my name.

A clear note of biblical truth!

TO THE NAME CONTAINING ALL

2006-10-17T23:58:00.000-04:00

And from the east a star arose,
Day-star for the uttermost lands,
And shone upon the parts that froze,
Made them one with sundered lands.

MORE ON WILLIAM CAREY

2006-10-16T02:25:00.000-04:00

The series that is appearing periodically on this blog entitled “Eminent Christians” began with William Carey. Here is another brief take on his life.

When Claudius Buchanan (1766-1815) went out to India in 1796 as an Anglican missionary, he was reluctant at first to have anything to do with William Carey (1761-1834) and the other Baptist missionaries who were already there. But John Newton, upon hearing of his attitude, promptly wrote to Buchanan, who had been converted under his ministry, a gentle letter of reproof in which he stated:

“It is easy for you... to look down upon men who have given themselves to the Lord, and are bearing the burden and heat of the day. I do not look for miracles; but if God were to work one in our day, I should not wonder if it were in favour of Dr. Carey.”

Carey’s early years

The man of whom Newton spoke with such admiration had been born in very humble circumstances in 1761 in a tiny village called Paulerspury in Northamptonshire. His father, Edmund, was the schoolmaster of Paulerspury and the parish clerk of the local Anglican church. As such, Carey was regularly in church week by week and gained what he later described as a “considerable acquaintance” with the Scriptures. But, as he also noted, he knew next to nothing of “real experimental religion” till he was fourteen.

Also living in Paulerspury was William’s uncle, Peter Carey. Peter Carey had served with General James Wolfe in Canada, and, after the capture of Quebec in 1759, had returned to Paulerspury to take up the occupation of gardener. His tales of Canada instilled in William an interest for far-off lands. Moreover, Peter implanted in the young boy a love of gardening. Years later, when Carey was established in India, he was continually asking his friends and correspondents for seeds and roots to plant in his garden at Serampore. For instance, in a letter to his friend John Sutcliff he gently chided his friend for not taking his request for seeds seriously:

“I have written for some works of science, which I hope you will send. I think your best way is to send my list of roots, seeds, etc., to some nurseryman of note in London, with orders to ship them on the Providence, directed to me. Were you to give a penny a day to a boy to gather seeds of cowslips, violets, daisies, crowfoots, etc., and to dig up the roots of bluebells, etc., after they have done flowering, you might fill me a box every quarter of a year; and surely some neighbours would send a few snowdrops, crocuses, etc., and other trifles. All your weeks, even your nettles and thistles, are taken the greatest care of by me here. The American friends are twenty times more communicative than the English in this respect; indeed, though you cannot buy a little cabbage seed here under about £2.2s., yet I have never been able to extort an ounce, or a quart of kidney beans, from all the friends in England. Do try to mend a little.”

As a young boy, Carey eagerly wanted to emulate his uncle and become a gardener. But a painful shin disease prevented him from spending any length of time in the full sun. So his father apprenticed him to a shoemaker in Piddington, a nearby village. This apprenticeship was to have truly significant consequences for William’s future. One of his fellow-apprentices, John Warr, was a Christian. Warr was a Congregationalist and Carey’s upbringing had given him a contempt for Dissenters, but in time, as Warr persistently shared his faith with Carey, Carey was won for Christ.

Becoming Baptist and mission-minded

Carey’s subsequent study of the Scriptures convinced him of the Baptist position, and in 1783 he was baptized by John Ryland, Jr. in the river Nene at Northampton, after the two had walked down from the vestry of Castle hill church, the church which Philip Doddridge had once pastored.

Around the time of his baptism, Carey came across recently published accounts of Captain James Cook’s voyages of discovery in the south Pacific. Many years later, Carey said of his reading of this volume:

“Reading Cook’s Voyages was the first thing that engaged my mind to think of missions.

Through the account of Cook’s Voyages, Carey’s eyes were opened to wider horizons than the fields of Northamptonshire. But it was the Scriptures which taught him of the deep spiritual needs of those who lived far beyond those fields.

Preaching and pastoring

A year or so before his baptism Carey had been preaching regularly at the Congregational Church in Hackleton. In the years immediately following his baptism, Carey also began to preach in other neighbouring villages such as Earls Barton, Moulton, and his own home village, Paulerspury. The Moulton Church eventually called Carey to be their pastor in 1786, and in August of 1787, he was ordained. The three pastors officiating at his ordination were Ryland Jr., Andrew Fuller, and John Sutcliff, who, in the years to come, would become his closest friends.

After two years of pastoring at Moulton, Carey moved to Harvey Lane Baptist Church in Leicester, where he served up until he left for India in 1793. Carey’s pastorates at Moulton and Leicester brought him into close contact with the pastors and churches of the Northamptonshire Association. In this ambit Carey first voiced his convictions regarding the commission given by Christ to the Church in Matthew 28:19-20. Despite some hesitation, and even opposition, on the part of his pastoral colleagues, Carey’s convictions eventually won the day.

The result was the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society, with Carey as its first missionary. Carey’s convictions were crystallized in An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, which was published in 1792. This treatise is divided into five sections. Section I discusses the implication of Matthew 28:19-20, and convincingly demonstrates that the commission to “make disciples of all nations” was binding on the Church for all time. Section II outlines the history of missions since the Apostolic era, while the third section of the treatise surveys the state of the world in Carey’s own day. Section IV answers objections to sending out of missionaries, and in the fifth and final section Carey indicates some immediate practical steps which could be taken. It is important to note that heading the list of these steps is fervent, united prayer. The book played a key role in the inception of the modern missionary era, and, as Ernest A. Payne has observed, “may rightly be regarded as a landmark in Christian history.” Moreover, Payne goes on to note, the Enquiry has a message for today, for “it presents in terse and unadorned fashion the gist of the unanswerable argument that there still rests upon Christians the obligation to use all the means at their disposal for the conversion of unbelievers, wherever they may be.”

India

Carey left for India in June of 1793; he never returned to his native England. The first six years, largely spent in northern Bengal, were years of both frustration and preparation. There were no genuine conversions among the Indians, and because financial resources were sometimes so meagre, Carey was forced to take the post of a manager of an indigo factory. Furthermore, Carey’s missionary colleague, John Thomas (1757-1801), fell into debt and proved to be more of a hindrance than a help. And on top of all this, Carey’s wife, Dorothy (1756-1807), became wholly insane.

Yet, despite these potentially debilitating events, Carey put his initial years in India to good use, acquiring a substantial grasp of Bengali, learning how to preach to Hindus and Muslims, and making the name of Christ known throughout much of Bengal.

In 1799, Carey was joined by Joshua Marshman (1768-1837) and William Ward (1769-1823). Locating their mission centre at Serampore in southern Bengal, “the Serampore Trio” evangelized, established churches, and in particular, translated the Scriptures. Carey was thoroughly convinced that effective evangelism in India necessitated the translation of the Scriptures into the many languages and dialects of the Indian sub-continent. By the time of Carey’s death in 1834, the Serampore fraternity had been responsible for the translation of the entire Bible and portions of it into thirty-four languages. While the translations were far from perfect, the work done by Carey and his colleagues was, as Stephen Neill has judged, “an astounding achievement.”

Before Carey’s death, he left instructions that there be inscribed on his tombstone the following couplet from Isaac Watts in addition to his name and the dates of his birth and death:

“A wretched, poor and helpless worm,
On thy kind arms I fall.”

JOHN PIPER ON ANDREW FULLER

2006-10-10T00:07:00.000-04:00

Recently at the 2006 Desiring God National Conference, which was on The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, John Piper commented about his biographical study for the 2007 Desiring God Pastors’ Conference.

In A Conversation with the Pastors (September 29, 2006), he said this: “I am working on Andrew Fuller for the Pastors’ Conference [2007]. Andrew Fuller was the major ropeholder for William Carey and a very shrewd “understander” of Calvinism in his eighteenth-century day.”

This is exciting and I am looking forward to hearing what Dr Piper will say about Fuller and his ministry.

JOHN SUTCLIFF, "THE PRAYER CALL OF 1784"

2006-10-09T02:22:00.000-04:00

Here is the document referred to in the previous blog, John Sutcliff’s “The Prayer Call of 1784.” It is an important text in that it was central to revival coming to the Calvinistic Baptist Churches in the UK during the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century.

Upon a motion being made to the ministers and messengers of the associate Baptist churches assembled at Nottingham, respecting meetings for prayer, to bewail the low estate of religion, and earnestly implore a revival of our churches, and of the general cause of our Redeemer, and for that end to wrestle with God for the effusion of his Holy Spirit, which alone can produce the blessed effect, it was unanimously RESOLVED, to recommend to all our churches and congregations, the spending of one hour in this important exercise, on the first Monday in every calendar month.

We hereby solemnly exhort all the churches in our connection, to engage heartily and perseveringly in the prosecution of this plan. And as it may be well to endeavour to keep the same hour, as a token of our unity herein, it is supposed the following scheme may suit many congregations, viz. to meet on the first Monday evening in May, June, and July, from 8 to 9. In Aug. from 7 to 8. Sept. and Oct. from 6 to 7. Nov. Dec. Jan. and Feb. from 5 to 6. March, from 6 to 7; and April, from 7 to 8. Nevertheless if this hour, or even the particular evening, should not suit in particular places, we wish our brethren to fix on one more convenient to themselves.

We hope also, that as many of our brethren who live at a distance from our places of worship may not be able to attend there, that as many as are conveniently situated in a village or neighbourhood, will unite in small societies at the same time. And if any single individual should be so situated as not to be able to attend to this duty in society with others, let him retire at the appointed hour, to unite the breath of prayer in private with those who are thus engaged in a more public manner.

The grand object of prayer is to be that the Holy Spirit may be poured down on our ministers and churches, that sinners may be converted, the saints edified, the interest of religion revived, and the name of God glorified. At the same time, remember, we trust you will not confine your requests to your own societies [i.e. churches]; or to your own immediate connection [i.e. denomination]; let the whole interest of the Redeemer be affectionately remembered, and the spread of the gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable globe be the object of your most fervent requests. We shall rejoice if any other Christian societies of our own or other denominations will unite with us, and do now invite them most cordially to join heart and hand in the attempt.

Who can tell what the consequences of such an united effort in prayer may be! Let us plead with God the many gracious promises of His Word, which relate to the future success of His gospel. He has said, “I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them, I will increase them with men like a flock.” Ezek. xxxvi.37. Surely we have love enough for Zion to set apart one hour at a time, twelve times in a year, to seek her welfare.

Attached to John Ryland, Jr., The Nature, Evidences, and Advantages, of Humility (Circular Letter of the Northamptonshire Association, 1784), 12.

"I WISH I HAD PRAYED MORE": JOHN SUTCLIFF AND PRAYER

2006-10-09T02:12:00.000-04:00

In 1842, on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society, the Baptist pastor and writer, F.A. Cox, reflecting on the origins of the Society, stated:

“The primary cause of the missionary excitement in [William] Carey’s mind, and its diffusion among the Northamptonshire ministers [was] ... the meeting of the Association in 1784, at Nottingham, [when] it was resolved to set apart an hour on the first Monday evening of every month, “for extraordinary prayer for revival of religion, and for the extending of Christ’s kingdom in the world.” This suggestion proceeded from the venerable [John] Sutcliff. Its simplicity and appropriateness have since recommended it to universal adoption; and copious showers of blessing from on high have been poured forth upon the churches.” [History of the Baptist Missionary Society, From 1792 to 1842 (London: T. Ward & Co./G. & J. Dyer, 1842), 1:10-11].

From the vantage point of the early 1840s, Cox saw the Prayer Call of 1784—proposed by John Sutcliff for adoption by the Northamptonshire Baptist Association and centred on the need to seek revival through prayer—as pivotal in that it focused the prayers of Calvinistic Baptist churches in the Association on the nations of the world. It thus prepared the way for the emergence of the Baptist Missionary Society and the sending of Carey to India.

Yet he also notes that the “universal adoption” of the concert of prayer by churches beyond the ranks of the Calvinistic Baptist denomination had led to rich times of revival, when God poured forth upon these churches “copious showers of blessing.” Later historians would describe this period of blessing as the Second Evangelical Awakening (1790-1830).

Some of them, like J. Edwin Orr and Paul E.G. Cook, would concur with Cox and rightly trace the human origins of this time of revival and spiritual awakening to the adoption of the concert of prayer by the Calvinistic Baptists in 1784 [J. Edwin Orr, The Eager Feet: Evangelical Awakenings 1790-1830 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1975), 95, 191-92, 199; Paul E. G. Cook, “The Forgotten Revival” in Preaching and Revival (London: The Westminster Conference, 1984), 92].

However, in one area Cox’s statement in somewhat misleading. In describing John Sutcliff as “the venerable Sutcliff” he leaves the reader with an idyllic impression of the Baptist pastor. How sobering to find that this man, who was at the heart of a prayer movement that God used to bring so much spiritual blessing to His church, also struggled when it came to prayer.

When Sutcliff lay dying in 1814 he said to Fuller: “I wish I had prayed more.” For some time Fuller ruminated on this statement by his dying friend. Eventually he came to the conviction that Sutcliff did not mean that he “wished he had prayed more frequently, but more spiritually.”

Then Fuller elaborated on this interpretation by applying Sutcliff’s statement to his own life:

“I wish I had prayer more for the influence of the Holy Spirit; I might have enjoyed more of the power of vital godliness. I wish I had prayed more for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in studying and preaching my sermons; I might have seen more of the blessing of God attending my ministry. I wish I had prayed more for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to attend the labours of our friends in India; I might have witnessed more of the effects of their efforts in the conversion of the heathen. [cited J. W. Morris, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller (London, 1816), 443].

"EVERY STEP OF MY LIFE": JAMES MURRAY'S GRASP OF REALITY

2006-10-03T03:04:00.000-04:00

A friend recently passed on to me this fabulous quote from Simon Winchester’s life of James Murray [The Meaning of Everything, p.135, from Peter Sutcliffe, The Oxford University Press, An Informal History (1978), no page given], who was one of the editors of the standard of our beloved English language, The Oxford English Dictionary. Here is the quote:

“Murray was sustained for the rest of his life by an illusion that time, however quickly it ran out, was on his side. For a moment in history the language had paused and come to a rest. It could be seized and captured forever.”

This statement was made in light of the following extract from a letter that Murray wrote to Lord Bryce on December 15, 1903. Murray was sixty-six at the time:

“I think it was God’s will. In times of faith, I am sure of it. I look back & see that every step of my life has been as it were imposed upon me—not a thing of choice; and that the whole training of my life with its multifarious & irregular incursions into nearly every science & many arts, seems to have had the express purpose of fitting me to do this Dictionary …So I work on with a firm belief (at most times) that I am doing what God has fitted me for, & so made my duty; & I hope that He will strengthen me to see the end of it …But I am only an instrument, only the means that He has provided, & there is no credit due to me, except that of trying to do my duty; Deo soli Gloria.”

GAMBLING, GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUE

2006-10-03T02:51:00.000-04:00

A mainstream philosophical perspective has long been that the government of any given society should promote moral health and virtue, or at least, legislate in such a way that society’s fabric is not undermined. In this regard, the new anti-gambling bill in the U.S. is indeed welcome news. For as U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told reporters, gambling is “a serious addiction that undermines the family, dashes dreams, and frays the fabric of society.”

Will Canadian lawmakers follow suit? We wait and see—and pray!

For the story, see “U.S. bans Internet gambling.”

READING JOHN OWEN: A NEW EDITION BY KELLY KAPIC & JUSTIN TAYLOR

2006-10-03T01:55:00.000-04:00

Like many other Evangelicals who encountered John Owen’s writings through the Banner of Truth reprint of the nineteenth-century standard edition, it was for me a literally life-changing experience. I have been intrigued by his life and erudition, as well as his friendship with Oliver Cromwell and John Bunyan (Bunyan drew upon his character for one of his heroes in The Holy War), and taught by his passionate interest in the work of the Holy Spirit that was fully biblical and balanced.

Owen on sanctification

But what especially impacted me was his view of sanctification, which I first met in the treatises The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers (1667), Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656), which were sermons he delivered in the university of Oxford; and Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It, first published in 1658, which also consists of sermon material preached during the 1650s.

Though our technological and historical circumstances are very different from those of Puritan era, the hearts of men and women have not changed. Indwelling sin, now as then, is an ever-present reality, as Owen details in The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers. Basing his discussion on Romans 7:21, Owen shows how sin lies at the heart of even believers’ lives, and, if not resisted by prayer and meditation, will slowly but surely eat away zeal for and delight in the things of God.

Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It, essentially an exposition of Matthew 26:41, further analyzes the way in which believers fall into sin. Owen enumerates four seasons in which believers must exercise special care that temptation not lead them away into sin: times of outward prosperity, times of spiritual coldness and formality, times when one has enjoyed rich fellowship with God, and times of self-confidence, as in Peter’s affirmation to Christ, “I will not deny thee.” The remedy that Owen emphasizes is prayer. Typical of Puritan pithiness is his remark in this regard: “If we do not abide in prayer, we shall abide in cursed temptations.”

The final work, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, is in some ways the richest of the three. Based on Romans 8:13, it details how to fight indwelling sin and ward off temptation. Owen emphasizes that in the fight against sin the Holy Spirit employs all of our human powers. In sanctifying us, Owen insists, the Spirit works “in us and with us, not against us or without us.” Owen would rightly regard those today who talk about “letting go and letting God” take care of the believer’s sins as unbiblical. Yet, he is very much aware that sanctification is also a gift. This duty, he rightly emphasizes, is only accomplished through the Holy Spirit. Not without reason does Owen lovingly describe the Spirit as “the great beautifier of souls.”

In a day when significant sectors of evangelicalism are characterized by spiritual superficiality and shallowness, and holiness is rarely a major topic of interest or discussion, these books are like a draught of water in a dry and thirsty land. They remind us of the great spiritual heritage that we possess as evangelicals. Even more significantly, they challenge us to recover the biblical priority of holiness.

Overcoming Sin and Temptation

Now, in the just-about-to be-released Overcoming Sin and Temptation (Crossway Books, 2006), Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor have produced “an unabridged but updated edition” of these three classic works of Owen “that preserves all of Owen’s original content but seeks to make it a bit more accessible” (p.17). Reader, buy this book and read it meditatively. It will change your life!

John Piper on why to read John Owen

John Piper has a Foreword to the work in which he writes this about Owen—and his favourite theologian Jonathan Edwards (also one of my favourites!):

“The two dead pastor-theologians of the English-speaking world who have nourished and taught me most are Jonathan Edwards and John Owen. Some will say Edwards is unsurpassed. Some say Owen was the greater. We don’t need to decide. We have the privilege of knowing them both as our friends and teachers. What an amazing gift of God’s providence that these brothers were raised up and that hundreds of years after they have died we may sit at their feet. We cannot properly estimate the blessing of soaking our minds in the Bible-saturated thinking of the likes of John Owen. What he was able to see in the Bible and preserve for us in writing is simply magnificent. It is so sad—a travesty, I want to say—how many Christian leaders of our day do not strive to penetrate the wisdom of John Owen, but instead read books and magazines that are superficial in their grasp of the Bible.

“We act as though there was nothing extraordinary about John Owen’s vision of biblical truth—that he was not a rare gift to the church. But he was rare. There are very few people like this whom God raises up in the history of the church. Why does God do this? Why does he give an Owen or an Edwards to the church and then ordain that what they saw of God should be preserved in books? Is it not because he loves us? Is it not because he would share Owen’s vision with his church? Great trees that are covered with the richest life-giving fruit are not for museums. God preserves them and their fruit for the health of his church.

“I know that all Christians cannot read all such giants. Even one mountain is too high to climb for most of us. But we can pick one or two, and then ask God to teach us what he taught them. The really great writers are not valuable for their cleverness but for their straightforward and astonishing insight into what the Bible really says about great realities. This is what we need.” (p.12).

Here is the link to the book on the Crossway site: http://www.gnpcb.org/product/1581346492

WHAT TO READ OF THE FATHERS?

2006-09-27T10:30:00.000-04:00

In the comment section on the previous post on the Fathers, I was asked about what to read of the Fathers. Everyone who has studied the Fathers will have his or her favourites. Here are some of mine.

I would say Jaroslav Pelikan’s first volume in his history of Christian doctrine, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition, is an excellent place to start. JND Kelly on Early Christian Doctrine is another excellent starter. Other secondary sources that provide a good introduction include the works by Christopher Hall (Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers and Doing Theology with the Church Fathers) and Robert Wilken’s The Spirit of Early Thought. Gerald Bray’s Creeds, Councils and Christ is also very good. I also like Henry Chadwick’s two works on the early church: The Early Church (Penguin) and The Church in Ancient Society (OUP).

For primary sources, see Henry Bettenson, The Early Christian Fathers and his The Later Christian Fathers give good overviews. Augustine’s Confessions is a natural place to start. You may not agree with all you read, but it is a gem. Also the second-century The Letter to Diognetus is a gem—the cream of second-century Apologetics. I would also strongly recommend Basil’s On the Holy Spirit.

WHY STUDY THE FATHERS?

2006-09-27T01:20:00.000-04:00

Our generation is afflicted with a kind of historical amnesia, which, unfortunately, has not left the Church untouched. For instance, Malcolm Muggeridge, who became a professing Christian after a lifetime of skepticism, in remarks made in the account of his conversion, stated that in the final analysis “history is phony.” As he went on to say: “…in the case of the greatest happenings such as Christ’s life and death, historicity is completely without importance. It is very important to know the history of Socrates because Socrates is dead, but the history of Christ doesn’t matter because he is alive.” [Jesus Rediscovered (London: Wm. Collins Sons & Co., Ltd., 1972), 204].

In such an intellectual ambience—which is nonsensical to anyone who values the historicity of Christian origins—the question, “Why study the Fathers?” must be asked again and answered afresh. Listed below are a number of reasons that can be considered an initial step in this direction.

First, study of the Fathers, like any historical study, liberates us from the present [C.S. Lewis, “De descriptione temporum” in Walter Hooper, ed., Selected Literary Essays (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1969), 12]. Every age has a certain outlook, presuppositions which remain unquestioned even by opponents. The examination of another period of thought forces us to confront our innate prejudices which would go unnoticed otherwise.

For instance, Gustaf Aulén, in his classic study of the atonement, Christus Victor, argues that an objective study of the Patristic concept of Atonement will reveal a motif which has received little attention in post-Reformation Christianity: the idea of the Atonement as a divine conflict and victory, in which Christ fights and overcomes the evil powers of this world, under whom man has been held in bondage. According to Aulén, what is commonly accepted as the New Testament doctrine of the Atonement, the forensic theory of satisfaction, may in fact be a concept quite foreign to the New Testament. As to whether he is right or not—and I think he is quite wrong—can only come by a fresh examination of the sources, both New Testament and Patristic.

Then, the Fathers can provide us with a map for the Christian life. It is indeed exhilarating to stand on the east coast and watch the Atlantic surf and hear the pound of the waves. But this experience will be of little benefit in sailing to England. For this a map is needed. A map based upon the accumulated experience of thousands of voyagers. Similarly, we need such a map for the Christian life. Experiences are fine and good, but they will not serve as a suitable foundation for our lives in Christ. To be sure, we have the divine Scriptures, an ultimately sufficient foundation for all of our needs (2 Timothy 3:16-17). But the thought of the Fathers can help us enormously in building on this foundation.

A fine example is provided by Athanasius’ doctrine of the Spirit in his letters to Serapion, bishop of Thmuis. The present day has seen a resurgence of interest in the Person of the Holy Spirit. This is admirable, but also fraught with danger if the Spirit is conceived of apart from Christ. Yet, Athanasius’ key insight was that “from our knowledge of the Son we may be able to have true knowledge of the Spirit” (Letter to Serapion 3.1). The Spirit cannot be divorced from the Son: not only does the Son send and give the Spirit, but the Spirit is the principle of the Christ-life within us. Many have fallen into fanatical enthusiasm because they failed to realize this basic truth: the Spirit cannot be separated from the Son.

Third, the Fathers may also, in some cases, help us to understand the New Testament. We have had too disparaging a view of Patristic exegesis, and have come close to considering the exposition of the Fathers as a consistent failure to understand the New Testament. For instance Cyril of Jerusalem in his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 7:5, which concerns temporary abstinence of sexual relations between married couples for the sake of prayer, assumes without question that the prayer is liturgical and communal prayer (Catechesis 4.25).

Cyril may be guilty of an anachronism, for he was a leader in “the hallowing of the time,” that is, the observance of holy seasons. Nonetheless, there is good evidence that such communal observances, in some form or other, are quite early. The liturgical life of the Church of Jerusalem in the fourth century was not that of Corinth in the first, but nevertheless there were links. Possibly it is the Protestant commentators who are guilty of anachronism when they assume that Paul meant private prayer; such religious individualism is more conceivable in the Protestant West than in first-century Corinth.

As T.F. Torrance writes, “[There is a] fundamental coherence between the faith of the New Testament and that of the early Church… The failure to discern this coherence in some quarters evidently has its roots in the strange gulf, imposed by analytical methods, between the faith of the primitive Church and the historical Jesus. In any case I have always found it difficult to believe that we modern scholars understand the Greek of the New Testament better than the early Greek Fathers themselves! [Space, Time and Resurrection (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1976), xii].

These three reasons are only a start towards giving a full answer to the question, “Why study the Fathers?” There are certainly other reasons for studying these ancient authors which may be more obvious or even more important. But these three reasons sufficiently indicate the need for Patristic studies in the ongoing life of the Church: to aid in her liberation for the Zeitgeist of the twenty-first century; to provide a guide in her walk with Christ; to help her understand the basic witness to her faith, the New Testament.

"TROUBLECHURCH" BROWNE

2006-09-27T01:07:00.000-04:00

Paul W. Martin asked for more on “Troublechurch Browne”. Here is a wee sketch.

In the latter part of the sixteenth century, a number of Puritans came to the conviction that the Church of England would never be fully reformed, and thus they decided to separate from the state church and organize their own congregations. These Puritans would be known as Separatists and they would argue for what was essentially a Congregationalist form of church government.

One of their earliest leaders was Robert Browne (c.1550–1633), who in a tract entitled A Treatise of Reformation without Tarrying for anie (1582), provided the “clarion-call” of the Separatist movement. Browne—nicknamed “Troublechurch” Browne by his opponents—came from a family of substance and was related to Robert Cecil, Elizabeth I’s Lord Treasurer and chief minister. During his undergraduate years at Cambridge University, Browne had become a “thoroughgoing Presbyterian Puritan.” Within a few years, though, he had come to the conviction that each local congregation had the right, indeed the responsibility, to elect its own elders. And by 1581 he was of the opinion that the setting up of congregations apart from the Established Church and its parish churches was a necessity for, he wrote that year, “God will receive none to communion and covenant with him, which as yet are at one with the wicked.” That same year he established a Separatist congregation at Norwich. Experiencing persecution he and his Norwich congregation left England the following year for the freedom of the Netherlands.

It was in the Netherlands that Browne published the book for which he is remembered, A Treatise of Reformation without Tarrying for anie (1582). In this influential tract, Browne set forth his views that, over the course of the next century, would become common property of all the theological children of the English Separatists, including the Congregationalists and the Calvinistic Baptists.

First of all, Browne willingly conceded the right of civil authorities to rule and to govern. However, he drew a distinct line between their powers in society at large and their power with regard to local churches. As citizens of the state the individual members of these churches were to be subject to civil authorities. However, he rightly emphasized, these authorities had no right “to compel religion, to plant Churches by power, and to force a submission to ecclesiastical government by laws and penalties.”

Then, Browne conceived of the local church as a “gathered” church, that is, a company of Christians who had covenanted together to live under the rule of Christ, the Risen Lord, whose will was made known through his Word and his Spirit. Finally, the pastors and elders of the church, though they ultimately received their authority and office from God, were to be appointed to their office by “due consent and agreement of the church … according to the number of the most which agree.”

The key principle that Browne had seen clearly was that the kingdom of God cannot be brought about by the decrees of state authorities and that ultimately Christianity is “a matter of private conscience rather than public order, that the church is a fellowship of believers rather than an army of pressed men” and women.

Browne returned to the British Isles not long after publishing this treatise. To the consternation of many of his friends he subsequently recanted his views, and rejoined the Church of England. But he had begun a movement that could not be held in check. Browne’s mantle fell to three men—John Greenwood (c.1560–1593), Henry Barrow (c.1550–1593) and John Penry (1559–1593)—all of whom were hanged in 1593 for what was regarded by the state as an act of civil disobedience, namely secession from the Established Church.

Prior to his death, Penry rightly emphasized to the state authorities that “imprisonment, judgments, yea, death itself, are not meet weapons to convince men’s consciences, grounded on the word of God.” The response of the English state was swift and brutal. In April 1593 a law was passed that required everyone over the age of sixteen to attend their local parish church. Failure to do so for an entire month meant imprisonment. If, after three months following the individual’s release from prison, he or she still refused to conform, the person was to be given a choice of exile or death. In other words, the Elizabethan church and state was hoping to rid itself of the Separatist problem by sending those who were recalcitrant into exile. But the preaching and writings of Greenwood, Barrow and Penry led a significant number in the English capital, London, to adopt Separatist principles. And as British Baptist historian Barrie White has noted: “For many it was but a short step from impatient Puritanism within the established Church to convinced Separatism outside it.”

Browne also ended up spending his final days in prison. He was arrested when a very old man for striking a village constable. His own personal walk may have been wanting—but he set in motion a train of events and ideas that could not be held in check.

NEW FRENCH BLOG

2006-09-27T00:40:00.000-04:00

Lisez-vous français? Here is a new blog by three dear brothers—but it is in French: Yanick Éthier, Stéphane Gagné, & Francois Turcotte.

BAPTISTS AND THE CONCEPT OF LIBERTY--A THOUGHT

2006-09-22T13:35:00.000-04:00

Some historians are arguing that Baptist thought about individual freedom and soul-liberty is an influence of the Enlightenment. While there are definitely some good indications of such an influence in the 19th century with Francis Wayland and his exaltation of individualism at the expense of the community, I fear this line of thought is a failure to see that the roots of Baptist convictions about individual freedom before God are rooted in the Separatist movement of the late 16th century, hardly a period of Enlightenment thinking!

Men like Robert “Troubelchurch” Browne were central in the development of thinking in this direction. And even earlier than Browne, Jean Morelli, that remarkable Huguenot author with whom Bèze clashed over church government and who defended a Congregationalist polity, developed some of these ideas. No, the roots of Baptist thinking in this regard lie in the 16th century and that because of the re-reading of Scripture in fresh ways.

ONE-VOLUME HISTORY OF THE CHURCH: ADDENDUM

2006-09-22T11:54:00.000-04:00

There is a one-volume history of the Church by a single author that I have found scintillating and that is Jeremy Jackson, No Other Foundation: The Church across Twenty Centuries. (1980). He has well captured a biblical perspective on the metanarrative of the history of the church. On details, I would differ here and there.

Jackson studied under Francis Schaeffer at L’Abri, Switzerland, and later became his assistant, editor and historical advisor. He has also taught European history at the College of William and Mary and at Syracuse University, and earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. He co-pastors Trinity Fellowship in Syracuse, New York.

A ONE-VOLUME HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

2006-09-21T20:21:00.000-04:00

Back in March of this year, Tim Challies asked me for a suggestion of a one-volume history of the Church. I am glad I am finally able to say a few words on this subject.

I am leery of one-volume histories of the church, since they tend to be written by single authors, who, no matter how gifted they are as historians in certain areas, simply cannot know the entirety of church history well enough to provide a summary of it all. One sees this, for example, in K.S. Latourette’s history of Christianity. His specialty was the history of mission. In other areas, he is so-so. Even the great historian Jaroslav Pelikan, who has recently gone to be with Christ, has his weaker moments in his five-volume magnum opus on the history of doctrine. The first volume, on the patristic era, I consider utterly splendid and standard reading for anyone studying that era. But I found his treatment of post-Reformation Puritanism, Jonathan Edwards, and the New Divinity men sadly lacking.

With that said, then what would I recommend? Well, the text that I have used consistently over the past few years is Tim Dowley, ed., An Introduction to the History of Christianity (1990 Rev. ed.; repr. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995). It has a number of advantages. It covers the entire history of the church. It has been written by experts in the numerous fields. So it capitalizes on the strengths of a number of great historians of the church. And then Dowley has good editing skills and has produced a seemingly seamless text. I also admit to loving the many pictures, maps, sidebars (the latter essential for the post-modern reader who cannot handle large blocks of text without break!), and mini-chronologies.

I may find time to make a comment or two on church history sets. But that will have to wait.

HYPER-CALVINISM IN THE SBC

2006-09-19T02:36:00.001-04:00

Nathan Finn has a wise post on Hyper-Calvinism in the SBC here.

Having spent significant time studying Hyper-Calvinism—a real-life problem in the 18th century in the UK and in parts of the South in the 19th century—I would ditto all that Nathan is asserting here: The Specter of Hyper-Calvinism.

MOHLER ON THE POPE AND HIS WORDS ABOUT ISLAM

2006-09-19T02:36:00.000-04:00

Dr. Mohler’s recent comments on the brouhaha about the Pope Benedict XVI’s words about Islam are right on: see his “The Pope, the Prophet, and the Crisis of Truth” on his commentary (see www.albertmohler.com).

CHAPEL ATTENDANCE FOR SEMINARIANS

2006-09-19T00:12:00.000-04:00

One of the constant issues of seminary life is chapel attendance by students. For some students it is irksome to be required to attend. They have other things they need to do. Some of these things are undoubtedly good things. But I for one would argue that one key difference between a seminary and other types of academic schools of higher education is that a seminary is not only a place of academics. It should be that. But it is not only that. It is also a community of men and women learning to be servants of Christ and His Church. And as such a community there needs to be times when the doxological goal of their studies finds corporate expression. And chapel is the perfect place for this.

Here is a great testimony as to why students at a theological seminary need to attend chapel: "Mother Never Told Me Not to Pee in the Neighbor's Yard".

POEM BY JOHN DONNE--A POSTING BORROWED FROM BRUCE KEISLING

2006-09-18T03:13:00.000-04:00

I have always loved the poetry of John Donne. I recently found this poem that I do not recall ever reading.

It was posted by Bruce Keisling, Librarian of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on the website/blog of Third Avenue Baptist Church, Louisville (http://www.thirdavenue.org/), a church I deeply love and admire.

XV
Wilt thou love God, as he thee? Then digest,
My soul, this wholesome meditation,
How God the Spirit, by angels waited on
In heaven, doth make his Temple in thy breast.
The Father having begot a Son most blest,
And still begetting, (for he ne’er be gone)
Hath deigned to choose thee by adoption,
Co-heir t’ his glory, and Sabbath’ endless rest.
And as a robbed man, which by search doth find
His stol’n stuff sold, must lose or buy’t again:
The Son of glory came down, and was slain,
Us whom he’d made, and Satan stol’n, to unbind.
’Twas much that man was made like God before,
But, that God should be made like man, much more.

EMINENT CHRISTIANS, YES; BUT EVERY LIFE HAS MEANING

2006-09-11T03:20:00.000-04:00

Although my list of Eminent Christians has focused on well-known figures (and some not so well-known), I would not wish to give the impression that only such are vital for the kingdom and its advance.

I take it as a cardinal rule of doing church history—see Romans 16:1-16 and 1 Corinthians 12 for corroboration—that every believer’s life is of value and has meaning and plays a role. I suspect that this is why I am just as interested in men like Eusebius of Samosata, Hercules Collins and William Fraser as I am in Basil of Caesarea, Benjamin Keach and Robert Haldane.

TEACHING HISTORY AMONG QUEBECOIS BAPTISTS

2006-09-11T03:05:00.000-04:00

I spent the weekend at a church retreat in Quebec. I have blogged before on the joy of being with Québécois brothers and sisters in Christ. Being with these brothers and sisters for the past few days was a fresh reminder of the grace of God that is at work in that province. Not that they do not have their problems—in this saeculum problems are par for the course. But there is a freshness and joy that is captivating.

I was speaking on four aspects of Baptist spirituality—persecution in the 17th century, friendship (esp. that between Andrew Fuller and John Ryland), the evangelistic piety of Samuel Pearce, and the contours of the spirituality of Charles Spurgeon. I was reminded again that basic resources in English with regard to church history, especially Baptist history, that we take for granted are simply not available in French. This is an urgent need and well worth praying about.

And while you’re at it, remember the church in Québec. Evangelicals there number 0.5%—a far, far smaller percentage than many countries in sub-Sahara Africa or the Orient.

Lord: raise up an army of witnesses for that province for your glory and honour!

EMINENT CHRISTIANS: A WORD ON PROGRESS

2006-09-04T21:59:00.000-04:00

Just a word about the series “Eminent Christians.” It started in this blog back on Janaury 30, 2006, as a response to The Church Report’s list of what they considered to be “The 50 Most Influential Christians in America.” As was said then, “It is a surprising list, to say the least, both with regard to those who made the cut and those who did not!”

Eight months later this alternative list is only up to #12. But, Deus vult, I do hope that this alternate list will be populated with 50 names of truly influential believers.

EMINENT CHRISTIANS: 12. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

2006-09-04T21:36:00.000-04:00

The facts of Augustine’s early life are well-known, because he wrote them down in his Confessions, one of the most famous of his books. Augustine was born on November 13, 354, the son—perhaps the eldest; we know of a brother Navigius and a sister—of a pagan father, Patricius, and Christian mother, Monica. The fourth century was an age of mixed marriages at this level of society, in which devout Christian women like Monica were often to be found praying for the conversion of their irreligious husbands. Her prayers were not unavailing; Patricius accepted baptism on his deathbed.

Patricius was a municipal official and small property-holder at Thagaste in Numidia. Aspiring to better his lower middle-class family, Patricius sacrificed in order to give his son the sort of liberal education that would lead him into an honoured position in Roman society.

Augustine thus studied first at Thagaste, and afterwards at Carthage, where he went to university in 371 at the age of 17. He was to remain there until 383. His father, who became a believer late in life, seems to have had little influence on his son. On the other hand, his mother Monica was a devout Christian, one whose prayers were used of God to bring her son to Christ.

Before he left for Carthage, Monica warned him earnestly not to engage in fornication and above all never to contemplate committing the sin of adultery. But, Augustine said, “I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lust… My real need was for you, my God, who are the food of the soul. I was not aware of this hunger.”

Given a love for wisdom

In his first year at Carthage Augustine led what many might regard as a typical life of a student: enjoying the bawdy theatre of the day, using sex in search of love, consorting with a group called the Eversores—“the Smashers.” Within two years all had changed though. He had taken a concubine to live with—this arrangement was not regarded as scandalous by pagan Roman society, since many pagans of the upper and middle classes would have such an arrangement with a social inferior until the complicated arrangements for a financially advantageous match with some girl of their own class could be made. He had a son by her—Adeodatus (“Gift from God”). And he had been smitten by a desire to find the truth after reading the dialogue Hortensius by Cicero. This book, since lost and known only from fragments quoted by Augustine and other ancient writers, was a protreptic, that is, a treatise designed to inspire in the reader an enthusiasm for the discipline of philosophy. Through all his other vagaries of interest and allegiance, until the time of Augustine’s conversion to Christianity Cicero would remain the one master from whom the young African learned the most in terms of literary style.

Seeking for wisdom and truth, Augustine fell prey to a cult called Manichaeism.  Founded by a Persian named Mani (216-276), who claimed that the Holy Spirit had come upon him in such a way as to reveal hidden mysteries to him and with the result that Mani was wholly united with the Spirit. The end result? Mani was the promised Paraclete of John 14-16 and the Holy Spirit spoke through him.

The views promoted by the Manichaens familiar to Augustine were very similar to Gnosticism—combining a radical cosmological dualism with ascetic practices. Little fragments of God were scattered throughout the universe, in both animals and plants, a result of the war between good and evil. Melons and cucumbers were considered to contain a particularly large amount of divinity, and were therefore prominent in the Manichaean diet. Mani, moreover, regarded the lower half of the body as the disgusting work of the devil, and thus viewed sexuality as the devil’s invention. Celibacy was encouraged, and having children frowned upon.

Augustine was a member of this cult for roughly 9 years, from 372 to 383. Augustine was too brilliant to settle for such vacuous theology for long. His most poignant moment of disillusion is recounted in the Confessions, when he finally met Faustus, the Manichee sage who would (Augustine had been promised) finally answer all the questions that troubled Augustine. When the man finally turned up, he proved to be half-educated and incapable of more than reciting a more complex set of slogans than his local disciples had known.

The impact of Ambrose’s witness

In 383, at the age of 28, Augustine moved to Rome to reach the apex of his career ambitions. Rome of the fourth century was no longer a city with political or military significance for the Roman empire, but nobody at the time dared say such a thing.

Augustine was seeking academic prestige, the emptiest of glories. But in Rome everything went wrong: his health began to suffer, his students would not pay their fees, and soon he became quite discouraged. Finally, hearing of a professorship in Milan he moved to northern Italy in 384 and rented a home belonging to a man named Verecundus. There his mother Monica joined him along with his common-law wife (whom he never names), Adeodatus, his brother Navigius, and two life-long African friends, Alypius and Evodius.

At the same time he started to go back to church. The pastor of the congregation with whom he was worshipping was Ambrose (c.340-397), the bishop of Milan and a famous preacher. Augustine found in Ambrose a man whose piety was fused with an intellect matching his own. Here Christianity began to appear to him in a new, intellectually acceptable light.

Slowly God began to bring conviction regarding his sinful ways into his heart. Describing Ambrose’s preaching, Augustine says this: “I was all ears to seize upon his eloquence, I also began to sense the truth of what he said, though only gradually. …I thrilled with love and dread alike. I realized that I was far away from you…and, far off, I heard your voice saying I am the God who IS.”

This experience, though, was not yet what we would call conversion. In Augustine’s own words: “I was astonished that although I now loved you…I did not persist in enjoyment of my God. Your beauty drew me to you, but soon I was dragged away from you by my own weight and in dismay I plunged again into the things of this world.”

Wrestling with sin

The central thing in what Augustine calls “the things of this world: was his relationship with his concubine/common-law wife. Now, Monica, his mother, had come to Milan with the express purpose of persuading her son to give this woman up and preparing for a proper marriage with a well-to-do Christian woman. Augustine gave in to his mother’s sinful suggestion and sent his concubine of fifteen years back to Africa. “The woman with whom I had been living,” Augustine later wrote in his Confessions, “was torn from my side as an obstacle to my marriage and this was a blow which crushed my heart to bleeding, because I loved her dearly. She went back to Africa, vowing never to give herself to any other man. …But I was too unhappy and too weak to imitate this example set me… I took another mistress, without the sanction of wedlock.”

This is the immediate background to Augustine’s conversion in 386.  One day in August of that year, while Augustine was labouring under deep conviction of sin, a fellow North African, Ponticianus, came to see him. In his Confessions 8.6-12 he tells the story of what transpired that day as God converted him to himself (Confessions 8.12). It really needs to be read entire, for no adequate summary can do it justice.

In the spring of 387, at the Easter vigil service on the night of Holy Saturday, Augustine was baptized by Ambrose. Many people at that time, when Christianity was the fashionable road to success in the Christian empire, may have taken such a step casually and returned to their old ways, but Augustine was not one of them.

Presbyter and bishop

That autumn Monica died at Ostia, rejoicing in the knowledge that her son was safe in Christ. In 388 Augustine made his way back to Africa, hoping to establish a kind of philosophical monastery for himself and his friends at Thagaste.

But God had quite different plans. When, in 391, he was visiting the coastal town of Hippo Regius, some 150 miles from Thagaste, he was grabbed by the congregation and ordained as elder/presbyter. In a sermon that he preached in the city much later, Augustine recalled this important event:

“A slave may not contradict his Lord. I came to this city to see a friend, whom I thought I might gain for God, that he might live with us in the monastery. I felt secure, for the place already had a bishop. I was grabbed. I was made an elder…and from there, I became your bishop.”

He broke into tears as they laid hands on him in the church and his calling became clear. Agustine asked his new bishop, Valerius, for a little time to prepare himself for his duties. Now, he devoted himself to the mastery of Scripture that made him a formidable theologian in the decades to come. His abilities were quickly recognized, and by 393 he was being asked to preach sermons in place of his bishop, who was a Greek speaker by birth. The old man died in 395 and Augustine assumed responsibility for the church at Hippo the following year. He would remain at this post until his death thirty-four years later.

Augustine the author

Conventional accounts sketch Augustine’s career in terms of the controversies in which he took part. But at the centre of his ministry was daily preaching; presiding at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper; the leadership of elders and other clergy in Hippo; extensive travel in North Africa to minister to Christians and debate with heretics; copious correspondence with Christians throughout the Empire; and a life-time of writing and commenting on Scripture. He produced the largest corpus to survive of any ancient author. This corpus was catalogued a few years before Augustine’s death by Augustine himself in his Retractiones, best translated Reconsiderations. As Otto Bird has noted:   “Augustine was…a very bookish person. Reading and writing meant a great deal to him. [“Saint Augustine on Reading”, The Great Ideas Today (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1988), 135].

Of his vast amount of books, three are central to understanding his thought and the impact of that thought upon the history of the West: the Confessions (397-401), the City of God (413-426) and On the Trinity (399-419). Outside of Scripture, the books of no other figure had a greater impact on Christian thought down to the time of the Reformation than Augustine. It can be said of him with regard to the realm of theology what Cassius says of Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar: “he doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs” [Julius Caesar Act I, Scene 2, lines 135-137].

Augustine died on 28 August, 430, with the city of Hippo Regius being besieged by a Germanic people known as the Vandals, who were originally from the region of the Baltic Sea. We are thankful to God that they did not destroy the greatest North African theologian’s library in their sack of the city.

NEVER BLINK IN A HAILSTORM by McKENNA

2006-09-02T16:31:00.000-04:00

Leadership studies have become a significant sub-discipline in recent years and rightly so. Leadership is absolutely central to the success of any organization or endeavour. The danger of some of these studies is that they emanate from a purely theoretical perspective. Only those who have known the rigours of leadership are really qualified to talk about it.

David L. McKenna’s Never Blink in a Hailstorm and Other Lessons on Leadership (Baker, 2005) is by a man who knows the contours and challenges of leadership. McKenna was the youngest college president in the United States of his day and later served as the president of a number of other schools in his career, including Asbury Theological Seminary. In total, he has spent fifty years in education and leadership ventures.

The fourteen chapters are organized around time-tested maxims—such things as “Never Go Solo,” “Never Steal a Paper Clip,” “Never Expect Thanks” and the title of the book—and purposely seek to be a means of mentoring leaders. McKenna rightly states that by “recognizing that past leaders have something unique to contribute to future leaders, mentoring is a direct repudiation of a secular and postmodern mind-set” (p.12). He also acknowledges memory as a motive for writing the book: “the record of the past needs to be preserved for the time when sound bites fade and celebrities fail” (p.11).

Like every good writer, McKenna has a knack in expressing himself in rich aphorism:

“Management is a science of learned skills; leadership is an art of intuitive sense” (p.15).

“Dependence upon competency is my temptation; dependence upon God is my thirst” (p.29).

“Human beings make symbols; great leaders master them” (p.113).

And while willing to learn from secular discussions of leadership—McKenna can say “astute leaders are students of culture” (p.113)—he unabashedly gives the reader a Christian model of what leadership is about. Thus, he can affirm, for example: “Unconditional love is the ultimate competency for Christian leadership. It cannot be earned by degrees, conferred through titles, given with awards, or written in books. Competency in unconditional love comes only through utter dependence upon God” (p.29).

After perusing a lot of secular material on the art of leadership, I found the book a refreshing read and a powerful encouragement to model my leadership on the principles for such found in Holy Writ.

"WE SEE IN A MIRROR DIMLY": THANKING GOD FOR THE LIFE OF DR. GEOFF ADAMS

2006-08-15T22:56:00.000-04:00

Our dear brother and colleague, Dr. Geoffrey Allan Adams, the beloved husband of Betty, went to be with his Lord last week on Wednesday August 9, 2006. Dr. Adams had served during the Second World War in the Royal Navy aboard H.M.S. Indomitable during which time he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour.A funeral service was held for him at Jarvis Street Baptist Church, Toronto, today at 11:00 a.m. It was a time in which Christ was truly glorified.

Dr. Adams had requested that something be said about Toronto Baptist Seminary, to which he had devoted so much of his life. What follows are some words given at the funeral.

How applicable are the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:12—“we see in a mirror dimly”—to all things historical. Some of the most important aspects of the history of this world will only be known in the light of eternity.

When our dear brother, Dr. Adams, started teaching at Toronto Baptist Seminary in 1954, the Korean War had just ended. Five years later he was appointed Principal, a position he faithfully exercised for thirty-five years, until 1994. How tumultuous those years were with such things as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the student revolts of the 1960s, the FLQ crisis, Watergate, the Iran crisis during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the horrors of civil war in the Balkans and of the massacres in Rwanda, and the first Gulf War. Yet, alongside all of these events that loom so large in the telling of the history of this period by earthly historians another history was being written. This one concerned the advance of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Penned in the annals of heaven, ultimately it will prove to be the far more important of the two histories. And in this latter history our brother had a part to play as the Principal of Toronto Baptist Seminary.

During his thirty-five years as Principal he faithfully led those who trained men and women for the Kingdom work of Christ. Many of the students who sat under his teaching and who are now scattered around this globe will never forget the rich vision of the history of redemption that Dr. Adams gave them in what were his favourite courses, namely those in biblical theology. From the Word of God itself Dr. Adams laid out for these students the essential unity of the Scriptures in their focus on the Messiah—in the Old Testament they saw the Messiah prefigured, foreshadowed, and whose coming was longed for; and in the New Testament they saw the refulgent glory of the Christ who is our Saviour, Jesus the Lord. A favourite image, the growth of the mighty oak tree from the tiny acorn, was frequently used by Dr. Adams to set forth the progressive and unified nature of God’s work as recorded in the Scriptures. Of course, like all seminary teachers, he taught other courses—in such things as English Literature and Baptist Distinctives—but his great delight was in teaching biblical theology and the Scriptures.

It needs to be noted that when he came to retire as Principal in 1994, he continued to be vitally involved in the life of the school, teaching, spending time with the students and alumni, sharing wisdom and giving advice at faculty meetings. For me, I count it a great privilege to have known him, to have had him as a fellow teacher, and especially for setting me a model of what faithful Christian leadership looks like.

Why did he invest the better part of fifty-two years in this school? It was because he knew from the Scriptures that leadership is vital to the local church and that in the providence of God this Seminary had come into being to provide such leadership. The days in which Dr. Adams led the school are past, but the need is still the same and still pressing.

Today our Canadian society and culture finds itself in sorry shape, hollow and empty. Men and women are spiritually hungry and we need churches that can fill their souls with the Bread of life, the Lord Jesus. Dominating the headlines is a resurgence of Islam, which offers a spiritual answer to the heart-needs of the West, Canada included. But it is not an answer founded on truth, for it misses the mark about the most important matter in this universe: God’s utter determination that his Son, Jesus the Christ, be glorified and worshipped and adored.

Where then will men and women be trained to share the riches of Christ with those outside of the Church? Where will men be trained to preach the Word in all of its fullness and riches? Where will they be taught to stand Daniel-like for biblical orthodoxy? Where will church-planters with the passion of Paul to see Christ exalted be nurtured and mentored? Where will potential pastors learn how to lead God’s people in all of the areas of church life? Where will they—and the women whom God calls to give leadership to other women—learn the disciplines of walking with God?

In God’s providence, in the heart of this province of Ontario, God has provided a school, Toronto Baptist Seminary. It would be sheer arrogance to think that TBS alone is doing these tasks. But we are seeking to build on the foundations laid by Dr. Adams and be found faithful as he. And if you would honour the memory of our dear brother, may I encourage you in three things:

1) To pray regularly for TBS.
2) To encourage those in your churches whom God has gifted for ministry and leadership to come to TBS.
3) To think about giving to a foundation that we are setting up: The G.A. Adams Foundation in Biblical Theology, that will provide the resources to fund a Chair in Biblical Theology.

BASIL OF CAESAREA & LETTER-WRITING

2006-08-15T01:03:00.000-04:00

Following in the train of the New Testament authors, and early Christian writers from the second century to fourth centuries, Basil of Caesarea (c.330-379), according to P.J. Fedwick, was convinced that letter-writing was an important way of exercising leadership when one could not be present in person. [The Church and the Charisma of Leadership in Basil of Caesarea (Toronto: Pontifical Institute Of Mediaeval Studies, 1979), 169-173].

This is quite different from the classical Greek suspicion of the written word. Of course, Basil was aware of the problems of written words: they seem to lack life and warmth. Thus, he could write to a philosopher named Maximus: “why do you not visit us, my noble friend, so that we may speak with each other personally and not entrust subjects of such importance [how to discourse about the Trinity] to lifeless letters…?” [Letter 9.3, trans. Agnes Clare Way, Saint Basil: Letters (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1951), I, 43].

Nevertheless, Basil had a deep—and biblical—appreciation of the way that letters can overcome various barriers, such as those of space and time. Basil thus resorted to the ministry of letter-writing to overcome these, and other, hindrances to his wider ministry.

Moreover, Basil expected those to whom he wrote to return letters to him. Thus, he could say to one person to whom he had written: “Write me, at least in the future, with pen and ink and a short piece of paper, loving us who love you.” [Letter 330 (trans. Way, Saint Basil: Letters, II, 315-316)].

And to another who also failed to respond to Basil’s letters: “One indication of life is speech. How, then, could you be considered to be upon earth, since you never speak? But put aside your silence, writing to us and making it evident that you are living.” [Letter 332 (trans. Way, Saint Basil: Letters, II, 316)].

A NEW TEMPLATE

2006-08-14T23:54:00.000-04:00

Last night I nearly switched from Blogger to another blog engine called Type Pad. What was attractive about Type Pad were some of the templates. One called Beckett particularly intrigued me. Imagine my surprise to see something almost identical to it at the blog by Nathan Finn. And he got his through a blogger template. I tracked it down and made the switch (hope that’s ok Nathan). I think it is a much better-looking blog. The light blue one I had before was too “sweety”—in the bad sense of that term!

SWEET--A REFERRAL

2006-08-07T02:01:00.000-04:00

I have long been interested in the use of the adjective “sweet” and its derivatives by Christian authors. As a taster (!) of how this word was used, see this post by Nathan Eshelman: Living the Sweet Life!

LADY IN THE WATER

2006-08-02T03:40:00.000-04:00

My wife, daughter and I saw the movie Lady in the Water, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, last night. Briefly I thought it was brilliant. With respectful disagreement with Ian Clary’s views of the movie—“Water Not Too Deep”—I am not sure where he found each of the following in the movie: “Buddhism, existentialism, postmodernism, etc. I even caught of hint of Heidegger’s dasein.” Postmodernism, to be sure, with the fascination with spirituality—certainly vague and somewhat confused—but “Heidegger’s dasein”? And existentialism, which Ian mistakenly equates with the absurd, I am not sure was anywhere to be found. Unless the five smokers were existentialists—or were they simply comic relief?

I would agree with Ian that the acting was very good and the “directing was spot on and the camera angles were classic Shyamalan.” But when he complains that “the invented terminology was too cheesy,” I would hasten to note that it was, after all, a bedtime story—hence the names, “narf,” “scrunt,” etc. Ian was also critical of the “mediocre story line” that was all “too typical,” and complained about the high level of “suspension of disbelief.” The latter was no higher than in LOTR or Narnia—by the way LOTR is not an allegory. And as for the story line, I found it intriguing and kept waiting for some sort of “natural explanation” as in Shyamalan’s The Village. The story did draw me in and kept me on the edge of my seat at times. And it succeeded in evoking a sense of wonder and joy in the ending, which C.S. Lewis would have said qualified it for a good read (or in this case, a good view).

There were also some great lines—redolent of postmodern spirituality—such as Mr. Leeds’ “Does man deserve to be saved?” Shyamalan certainly believes he should be—hence Cleveland’s last line to Story, thanking her for saving him.

All in all, an excellent film.

PRECISION WITH REGARD TO THE SMALL THINGS AND BEING AN HISTORIAN

2006-08-02T01:27:00.000-04:00

How does one become an historian? Well, the path is not an easy one. But then the learning of no skill or art is easy. It does not come through merely much reading. Nor does it come through merely much writing. There have been all kinds of journal-writers—currently prolific bloggers—but neither much writing nor much reading in themselves doth an historian make. There must be reading and there must be writing, but being prolific in either or both does not guarantee good history.

There must be discernment. There must be reflection. But before anything else there must be an attitude that takes time to be careful and precise, an attitude that is revealed in the small things of the craft. In fact, how one tackles those small things reveals the ability to handle the larger. If, with regard to the small things, the seemingly unimportant things, there is simply the desire to get them out of the way as soon as possible to make way for the truly “significant things,” the faculty of a good historian is lacking. Such an attitude is not perfectionism—an impossibility in this life for fallible humanity—though it is the desire to make everything written the best and most precise it can be.

Without precision, the faculty of taking care to be exact and right, the interest in details, there can be no good history-writing. If such a faculty is naturally present, it must be honed. If it be not present, it must be learned.

HORATIUS BONAR'S BIRTH DAY INTO GLORY

2006-07-31T15:42:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Darrin Brooker for remembering that this is the day, 117 years ago, when Horatius Bonar entered into his eternal reward (July 31st, 1889)—he followed the Lamb who had conquered—let us do likewise.

SOME SORT OF GAME ABOUT BOOKS READ

2006-07-31T15:30:00.000-04:00

Not sure what this game is called, but I was asked by two individuals—first Darrin Brooker and then Jenson Lim—to participate in this. They “tagged” me, which sounds somewhat ominous at first hearing—almost like being pulled over when speeding or even worse getting the mark of the Beast placed on one!

Since I have been talking about what I have not read (for links, see my answer to the last question below) I am quite game to play along—though the idea of “tagging” another militates ‘gainst some deep personality structures! I have always hated being coerced to do something that everything in me revolted ‘gainst, so I shall let that aspect of the game pass. Of course, some might say, I wasn’t really playing the game—but then…

1. One book that changed your life (other than the Bible):

Mortification of Sin by John Owen

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:

Augustine of Hippo, Confessions.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
There are far too many to choose from—maybe if the question was “twenty-one books you’d want on a desert island”—after all, if I was able to carry one, I would be just as able to carry twenty-one—it is very unlikely that I would not be carrying a briefcase in which I would have these books—now if that was the question, here’s my answer (by the way, why twenty-one? Because it is the sum of three times seven!)

a. Augustine, Confessions
b. Basil of Caesarea, De spiritu sancto
c. The letter to Diognetus
d. Patrick, Confessions
e. Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian
f. John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion
g. John Owen, Mortification of sin
h. John Bunyan, Grace abounding to the chief of sinners
i. Blaise Pascal, Les Pensées
j. John Newton, Cardiphonia
k. Andrew Fullers, Works (the one-volume edition from the 19th century)
l. The Olney Hymns
m. The hymns of Charles Wesley
n. The hymns of Ann Griffiths
o. Adolphe Monod, Les adieux
p. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
q. The poems of Edward Taylor
r. C.S. Lewis, The weight of glory (the small book of essays)
s. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life together
t. Iain Murray’s life of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (yes I know it is two books—but it is a two-volume work)
u. Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

4. One book that made you laugh:
G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who was Thursday

5. One book that made you cry [or feel really sad]:
Lady de Lancey, A week at Waterloo in June 1815

6. One book that you wish had been written:
The Complete Exegetical Handbook of the Calvinistic Baptists, 1638-1892

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Too many to name here!!!!

8. One book you’re currently reading:
John Lukacs, Democracy and Populism

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
See my WHAT I HAVE NOT READ & MORE STUFF NEVER READ.

THE NETUREI-KARTA AND THE FIGHTING IN LEBANON

2006-07-27T22:16:00.000-04:00

In a comment on my most recent post about Romans 11:26 and the fighting in Lebanon, my friend Reid Ferguson offered a fascinating sidelight on a group of Orthodox Jews who do not believe Israel should have been granted nation status and that is because in their thinking Israel is still in exile because of her sins. They are called Neturei-Karta, “guardians of the city.”

Check out his blog at: Responsive Reiding: see http://ecfnet.org/my-journal/archives/000003.html.

PURE CHURCH--A BLOG TO READ REGULARLY

2006-07-27T19:45:00.000-04:00

Here is a really good blog that I have been reading recently: “Pure Church.” It is written by Thabiti Anyabwile, who was on staff at Capitol Hill Baptist Church with Mark Dever, and who is now on his way to pastor in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

ROMANS 11:26 AND THE FIGHTING IN LEBANON

2006-07-27T18:50:00.000-04:00

My Puritan forebears had a great love for the Jewish people. Many of them, like Oliver Cromwell and Henry Jessey, cherished the great hope that Romans 11:26 was to be understood literally, and that there would be a great outpouring of the Spirit upon Israel in the last days. I personally share this hope and would read Romans 11:26 as speaking of literal Israel, that is, the Jewish people.

But, and this point is vital, “Israel” in Romans 11:26 is not to be identified with the actual land of current Israel nor with the Zionist state of current Israel. Yes, Christians ought to love God’s Ancient people, as Paul did (see Romans 9:1-3; 10:1). Paul’s revelation of his heart’s desire—that Israel might be saved—is God’s desire. God desires the salvation of the Jews in Israel—that, they like the Jewish rabbi Paul would come to living faith in Jesus Christ, God’s final Word, the radiance of His glory and the only Saviour (Hebrews 1:1-3).

But the text of Romans 11:26 is speaking of the Jewish people not the land. The land has ceased to have any theological significance since the coming of Messiah. Like Abraham, we now look for a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). Our future is not tied to a physical spot of land, but to the new heavens and new earth.

What this means is that we are free, as Christians, to be critical of the policies of Zionist Israel. We love the Jewish people and seek their salvation, but this does not mean a carte-blanche endorsement of all current Israeli foreign policy. Israel, to be sure, has a right to protect her borders as a nation. But does the systematic destruction of the infrastructure of south Lebanon fall within that right? Yes, the Hezbollah has done wicked things—the use of the sort of random terrorism that they have done in the past condemns them as being wicked. Clearly many of those in this organization are men—and women—whose minds are shaped by hate. Since the coming of the Prince of Peace—our Lord Jesus—the idea that killing innocent human beings can be in the service of the living God is utterly repulsive! Oh that God would enlighten them as He did to Saul the man of hate on the Damascus Road and save them through faith in Jesus Christ.

But does Hezbollah violence justify the sort of destruction of life and society that we are seeing in south Lebanon? Without wanting to appear as a supporter in any way, shape or form of any sort of Muslim terrorist organization, I do wish to register a concern that Christians not blindly assume that right is only on the side of Israel.

Abraham Lincoln was very wise when he said in the American Civil War that the claim by both sides that God was on their side cannot be right, though both might be wrong. In the present struggle, the Hezbollah and Zionist Israel both cannot be right, though both might be wrong.

"SURELY, IRISH ZION DEMANDS OUR PRAYERS"

2006-07-26T01:37:00.000-04:00

Please see my most recent post at irish-reformation: “Surely, Irish Zion demands our prayers."

READING FLANNERY O'CONNOR

2006-07-24T02:55:00.000-04:00

I have been reading Flannery O’Connor. In a fascinating essay entitled “The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South” [Mystery and Manners, selected and eds. Sally and Robert Fitzgerald (London: Faber and Faber, 1972)], she makes this extremely revealing remark about how a Catholic writes fiction:

“The Catholic novel…cannot see man as determined; it cannot see him as totally depraved. It will see him as incomplete in himself, as prone to evil, but as redeemable when his own efforts are assisted by grace” (p.196-197).

She goes on to talk about the centre of meaning of the Catholic novel being Christ—but the above quote is so quintessentially Roman Catholic.

"NOT ABSOLUTELY DEAD THINGS"

2006-07-22T00:14:00.000-04:00

Speaking of books, it was John Milton who said this gem in his Areopagitica:

“Books are not absolutely dead things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them to be as active as that soule was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a violl the purest efficacie and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous Dragons teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men.”

WHAT I HAVE NOT READ

2006-07-22T00:09:00.000-04:00

As somebody like myself, an obvious bibliophile, looks back on a lifetime of reading—around forty-seven years if I began with age-appropriate material when I was five or so!—it is interesting to note what I have not read. Here is a small sampling—with the stress on small. There are many others I could note!

I have not read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress—cannot warm up to the notion of allegory. I have read very little of the Russians like Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, though I do like Solzhenitsyn.

I have hardly touched Aquinas or the late Patristic author John of Damascus.

And as for the Germans of the 20th century like Tillich (ugh!) or Moltmann or Pannenberg, I have read very little. I have read Bonhoeffer—whom I deeply admire despite some evident doctrinal flaws in his thinking—I have read through some Barth and Brunner. Of Bultmann I have only touched his commentary on the Johannine Epistles.

I am amazed I have not really read Van Til, or Bahnsen or Rushdoony.

So many books, so little time was what C.S. Lewis once said, or something like that.

EMINENT CHRISTIANS: 11. ISAAC WATTS

2006-07-19T21:37:00.000-04:00

Pick almost any recent hymnal, look in the index that lists the authors of the hymns, and the name “Isaac Watts” will usually have a long list of hymns beside it. During his life, Watts penned over 600 hymns, and through them has powerfully shaped the way English-speaking Evangelicals worship God.

Early years

Watts was born to Christian parents in Southampton, England, on July 17, 1674. His father, who was also named Isaac, was a prosperous clothier as well as being a schoolmaster. A deacon in the local Congregationalist church, later known as Above Bar Congregational Church, the elder Watts suffered imprisonment at least twice for refusing to give up worship with this church. From 1660 to 1688 the Congregationalists, along with other groups outside of the Church of England, found themselves in the fierce fire of persecution, when a series of laws were passed which made it illegal to worship in any other setting but that of the Church of England. Of Watts’ mother, Sarah Taunton, we know little beyond the fact that she was of French Huguenot descent and after Isaac’s birth would nurse him while visiting her husband in prison.

The younger Watts experienced what he later described as “considerable convictions of sin” when he was fourteen. Happily, they issued in a sound conversion in 1689. The following year he went to London to spend four years studying in a theological seminary. After graduation in 1694 he went back to live with his parents in Southampton for two years or so. Apparently it was during this time in Southampton that he began to write hymns.

London pastor

In October of 1696 he took a position as the tutor of the household of a wealthy Nonconformist by the name of John Hartopp (d.1722), one of the most eminent English Congregationalists during that era. Watts preached his first sermon in 1698 and four years later was called to be the pastor of what was the most influential and wealthiest Congregationalist church in London, Mark Lane Congregational Church, which he served for the rest of his life.

A serious illness in 1712 brought Watts to the home of Sir Thomas and Lady Mary Abney, at Theobalds, near Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. Watts had intended on staying only until he recovered his health, but he ended up remaining with this family till his death thirty-six years later, tutoring the children and pastoring his nearby church when he was physically able.

An assistant minister, Samuel Price, was appointed early on in Watts’ pastorate, enabling Watts to give significant amounts of time to study and writing when he was not ill. Watts never married. After a proposal of marriage was turned down by Elizabeth Singer (d.1737), also an accomplished poet, he never again seriously contemplated the married estate.

Writing hymns

Watts’ literary activity up until around 1720 was primarily in the realm of poetry. By way of contrast, during his final twenty-eight years Watts almost exclusively devoted himself to writing prose. According to reliable tradition, his first incentive to write hymns came when he complained to his father of the general poverty of the psalmody in their Southampton church. His father’s response was a challenge to his son to do better. As history attests Watts did indeed do better, so much so that he is often called “the Father of English hymnody.”

In 1707 Watts published his first collection of hymns, entitled Hymns and Spiritual Songs, one of the earliest English hymnals. It was in this collection that such great hymns as “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” first appeared. Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, a recasting of the psalms in the light of the New Testament for the purpose of public worship, came in 1719. In Watts’ words, in this particular book he chose not “to express the ancient Sense and Meaning of David, but have rather exprest myself as I may suppose David would have done, had he lived in the Days of Christianity.” Good examples of such “Christian paraphrases” of the Psalms would include “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” based on Psalm 90 and “Jesus Shall Reign,” drawn from Psalm 72.

Watts & George Thomson

A small idea of the impact of Watts can be found in a letter written to him by a certain George Thomson (1698-1782), the Anglican vicar of St. Gennys, a windswept village in North Cornwall perched atop cliffs overlooking the Atlantic. Writing to Watts in 1736, Thomson said:

“Poet, Divine, Saint, the delight, the guide the wonder of the virtuous world; permit, Reverend Sir, a stranger unknown, and likely to be for ever unknown, to desire one blessing from you in a private way. ’Tis this, that when you approach the Throne of Grace, and lift up holy hands, when you get closest to the Mercy-seat, and wrestle mightily for the peace of Jerusalem, you would breathe one petition for my soul’s health. In return I promise you a share for life in my unworthy prayers, who honour you as a father and a brother (though differently ordered) and conclude myself,

Your affectionate humble Servant,
George Thomson.”

[Cited Donald Davie, The Eighteenth-Century Hymn in England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 49].

It may well have been something of a surprise to Watts to have received this letter of adulation from an Anglican minister. Thomson’s remark about his being “differently ordered” reflects this ecclesial difference between writer and recipient. As such, the effusive, and by our standards far too flowery, praise that Thomson lavishes on Watts is particularly noteworthy. In fact, Thomson confesses, Watts’ hymns were the medium by which God made him a “father” and mentor in the Christian life for the Anglican vicar.

EVANGELICAL FREE FALL

2006-07-17T17:31:00.000-04:00

Ours is a day of crisis—on the international political scene, throughout Canadian and American culture at large and also within the inherited structures of North American Evangelicalism. The latter is currently going through a time of enormous dislocation and alienation from its past. Certain sectors of Evangelicalism think and act as if Evangelicalism came into being yesterday and that therefore only the present and future matter. In so thinking and acting, these sectors are cutting themselves off from the rich resources located within their own history that reaches back to the period of the 16th-century Reformation and beyond to the Ancient Church in the Apostolic and Patristic eras. The result of this willed amnesia is significant disorientation as to where the church must head since there is no idea as to where the church is coming from. This way of dealing with the past also leaves the church completely at the mercy of the winds of the current culture and the long-term result is a situation of drastic compromise where the church is in bondage to the zeitgeist.

In response to this conscious—or as it may be in some cases, unconscious—rejection of the past, other sectors of Evangelicalism are all for recovering the past, but not through the medium of their specific heritage. These Evangelicals are rightly tired of the baptized version of 21st-century North American culture that is being passed off as biblical Christianity. They want to be in touch with their roots, but seem to have lost the power to discern which roots with which to reconnect. The long-term result of this second option is a widening of the boundaries of Evangelicalism to the point that whatever might have been distinctive of the Evangelical position is in danger of being lost.

No wonder a recent observer of the scene of worldwide English-speaking Evangelicalism has said that it appears to be in free fall!

THE DYNAMISM OF CALVIN'S TEACHING

2006-07-10T23:30:00.000-04:00

A frequent theme in Calvin’s writings and sermons is that of the victorious advance of Christ’s kingdom in the world. God the Father, Calvin says in his prefatory address to Francis I in his theological masterpiece, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, has appointed Christ to “rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the ends of the earth.” In a sermon on 1 Timothy 2:5-6, Calvin notes that Jesus came, not simply to save a few, but “to extend his grace over all the world.” Similarly, Calvin declares in a sermon on Acts 2 that the reason for the Spirit’s descent at Pentecost was in order for the gospel to “reach all the ends and extremities of the world.”

It was this global perspective on the significance of the gospel that also gave Calvin’s theology a genuine dynamism and forward movement. It has been said that if it had not been for the so-called Calvinist wing of the Reformation many of the great gains of that era would have died on the vine. While this may be an exaggeration to some degree, it does illustrate the importance of the Reformed perspective. [Jean-Marc Berthoud, “John Calvin and the Spread of the Gospel in France” in Fulfilling the Great Commission (Westminster Conference Papers; [London]: Westminster Conference, 1992), 44-46].

Calvin, moreover, was not satisfied to be involved in simply reforming the church. He was tireless in seeking to make the influence of the church felt in the affairs of the surrounding society and thus make God’s rule a reality in that area of human life as well. It was this conviction that led Calvin to be critical of the Anabaptists, the radical left-wing of the Reformation. From his perspective, the Anabaptist creation of communities that were totally separate from the surrounding culture was really a misguided attempt to flee the world. Their spiritual forbears were medieval monks, not the early Christians who had been obedient to Christ’s words in Matthew 28:19-20. In Calvin’s view, they should be seeking positive ways in which they could be used by the indwelling Spirit to impact society in general and reform it, and so advance the kingdom of Christ.

JOHN CALVIN ON HIS 497TH BIRTHDAY

2006-07-10T23:04:00.000-04:00

I had forgotten that today is John Calvin’s birthday—July 10, 1509. Glad I stopped by Darrin Brooker’s blog to be reminded of this (see his Commemorating John Calvin’s Birth and The Person of John Calvin).

Like all great men and women in the history of the Church he had his faults, but oh the strengths of his teaching and walk with Christ that need to be remembered. His self-sacrificial life for the Church and his willingness to give up the pursuit of an academic career to benefit the people of God needs to be highlighted. The piety so evident in his Institutes needs to be recalled—not for nothing is he remembered as the theologian of the Holy Spirit. And then his understanding of biblical theology in terms of the glory of God and his sovereignty needs to be re-highlighted in our day.

To be honest, if it had not been for the Reformed wing of the Reformation, of which Calvin is a prominent figure, the gains of the Reformation would have been far less. Of course, the attention that has been paid to Calvin over the centuries would not have been to his liking. His request to be buried in an unmarked grave was honoured by his friends and co-workers, but the spirit behind the wish—that he be forgotten—has not been. And may I say, rightly so. His life and teaching sparkles with the glory of Christ and that should be seen afresh in every generation.

NEW BLOG BY JANICE VAN ECK

2006-07-09T02:02:00.000-04:00

It is great to see that a good friend Janice van Eck has a blog. Do check it out.

WHY CH SPURGEON SO ADMIRED ANDREW FULLER

2006-07-08T14:51:00.000-04:00

Ever since Eustace Carey, the missionary nephew of William Carey (1761-1834), brought out his biography of his famous uncle two years after his death [Memoir of William Carey, D.D. (London: Jackson and Walford, 1836)], there has been a never-ending stream of books and articles about the man who has been hailed as “the father of modern missions.” Far too many of these studies, though, have been simply interested in Carey the missionary activist and have really done very little to probe the theological taproot from whence sprang his missionary endeavours, namely his evangelical Calvinism. If they had done so, the name of Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), his close friend and life-long supporter, would be much better known, for, as missiologist Harry R. Boer has observed, “Fuller’s insistence on the duty of all men everywhere to believe the gospel…played a determinative role in the crystallization of Carey’s missionary vision” [Pentecost and Missions (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1961), 24].

While there were a handful of biographies of Fuller in the nineteenth century—mostly written by friends, colleagues and family members—there was only one of any substance in the twentieth century [Gilbert Laws, Andrew Fuller: Pastor, Theologian, Ropeholder (London: Carey Press, 1942)]. Thus, in an 1991 article entitled “Where Would We Be Without Staupitz?,” which appeared in Christianity Today and which looked at five unsung heroes behind five great church leaders, American church historian Bruce Shelley rightly included Fuller as “the unsung hero” behind Carey’s “pioneering missionary career in Asia.” [“Where Would We Be Without Staupitz?”, Christianity Today, 35, no.15 (December 16, 1991), 31].

Things have begun to change, though, and within the past three years there has been a fresh biographical study of Fuller and a collection of essays exploring Fuller’s apologetical works. See Peter J. Morden, Offering Christ to the World: Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) and the Revival of Eighteenth-Century Particular Baptist Life (Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K./Waynesboro, Georgia: Paternoster Press, 2003) and Michael A. G. Haykin, ed., ‘At the Pure Fountain of Thy Word’: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist (Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K./Waynesboro, Georgia: Paternoster Press, 2004).

There is also a project underway that hopes to see all of Fuller’s works, both previously published and unpublished, printed in a critical edition of some twelve volumes with the first volume to appear in December of this year. For more details, see my “THE ANDREW FULLER WORKS PROJECT” [Historia Ecclesiastica (http://mghhistor.blogspot.com) October 17, 2005]. Paternoster Press is planning on publishing this series in both cloth and paperback.

Hopefully, these new studies and fresh edition of his works will provide the basis for a growing interest in Fuller and his theology, and we will understood better why Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), no mean judge of Christian writers and theologians, once described Fuller as “the greatest theologian” of his century (cited Laws, Andrew Fuller, 127).

MONTY PYTHON'S INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHY!

2006-07-04T12:13:00.000-04:00

I have always loved football, having played on teams all the way through university. And since it is very much on everyone’s mind at present—oh that England had gotten into the final! I can still remember the thrill of the 1966 win—here is a brilliantly done piece by Monty Python on a football match between the philosophers of Germany and those of Greece. It is on Cynthia Nielsen’s blog: “Monty Python’s International Philosophy”.

FREE ST. GEORGE'S ON TOM NEFYN

2006-07-01T19:17:00.000-04:00

There is an excellent series going on over at Free St. George’s by “Hiareth,” a research student in Welsh History and Calvinistic Methodism. It is on Tom Nefyn, a liberal minister: see the series beginning Tom Nefyn Williams: A Warning from History 1.

THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS

2006-07-01T18:22:00.000-04:00

Here is a lovely anecdote about Rowland Hill (1744-1833) by Darrin Brooker: The Fruit of His Labours.

It is so good to read items like this, because it is so encouraging, especially after experiencing discouragement. To prepare to speak, to pray over one’s talk, and sense God’s direction and leading in the arrangement of the material and the ideas in it, and then to come to the time of delivery and find little freedom and stumbling and difficulty can be so discouraging. But who knows what God will do with such? Who knows? Our call is to be faithful in the midst of our stumbling and halting words.

Then, how foolish we speakers/teachers/preachers are. We think we have an area sewn up and know it back to front and then the Lord lets us fall on our faces. It is so good for the soul—for it builds humility and confidence in God alone. “Without me ye can do nothing.”

AT THE CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION

2006-06-30T18:37:00.000-04:00

I went with Nigel Pibworth today to Cambridge, England, one of my favourite cities. Saw a number of things that I hope to blog about: most deeply impressed with seeing Hugh Latimer’s pulpit in the church where Thomas Bilney and Robert Barnes began to proclaim Reformation truth. According to the website of this church, St Edward King and Martyr:

“The church played a unique role in the early days of the Reformation. A group of evangelicals in Cambridge, of whom Thomas Bilney was the first, had been meeting regularly in the early 1520s. They were influenced by a fresh translation of the New Testament by Erasmus and by the ideas of Luther, and believed passionately in the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ.”

“At the Christmas Midnight Mass at St Edward’s in 1525 one of them, Robert Barnes, preached what was probably the first openly evangelical sermon to be preached in any church in the country, proclaiming the Christian gospel and accusing the Church of its heresies. St Edward's can thus claim to be ‘the cradle of the Reformation’ in England. Other reformers preached regularly at St Edward’s, including Hugh Latimer until he left Cambridge in 1531. Some of his sermons preached here have been preserved, and the pulpit from which the reformers preached is still in use.”

THOMAS CHALMERS ON THE IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST

2006-06-30T18:22:00.000-04:00

The doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ is being challenged today by some Evangelicals. They are far are not only from Scriptural truth but also our Evangelical heritage rooted in that truth.

Here is Thomas Chalmers, from his introduction to Abraham Booth’s The Reign of Grace from its Rise to its Consummation (1768):

“Had we fulfilled the law of God, heaven would have been ours, and it would have been given to us because of our righteousness. We have broken that law, and yet heaven may be ours, not because of our righteousness, but still because of a righteousness; and the honor of God is deeply involved in the question, What and whose righteousness this is? It is not the righteousness of man, but the righteousness of Christ reckoned unto man. The whole distinction between a covenant that is now exploded, and the covenant that is now in force, hinges upon this alternative. If we make a confidence of the former plea, we shall perish; and if of the latter, we shall have everlasting life.

“The merit of His well-beloved Son is to Him the incense of a sweet-smelling savor, so that the guiltiest creature who takes shelter there, has posted himself on the very avenue, along which there ever rolls the tide of divine complacency. We should invest ourselves then with this merit, and wrap ourselves firmly in it, as in a covering. We should put on Christ, who is offered to us without money and without price. We should present ourselves before God, with His invitation as our alone warrant, and the truth of His promises, which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, as our alone confidence. His place in the new covenant is to declare our forgiveness, through the blood of a satisfying atonement. Our place in the covenant, is to give credit to that declaration.”

Reader: is what is delineated in the second paragraph a reality in your life?

SEEING THE 1526 TYNDALE NEW TESTAMENT

2006-06-29T21:54:00.000-04:00

I must admit I do love large metropolitan areas: the life and energy, the bookstores and libraries, the variety of people, the press of life and the urgency of reaching them for Christ... I love Manhattan for all of this. And London where I went today.

Spent some time at the THE BRITISH LIBRARY - The world’s knowledge. Awesome to see Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus, two of the most precious Biblical codices.

Also thrilling was seeing the book for which the British Library paid the equivalent of well over two million dollars in 1994. Dr. Brian Lang, the chief executive of the Library at the time, described it as “certainly the most important acquisition in our 240-year history.” The book? A copy of the New Testament. Of course, it was not just any copy. In fact, at the time it was purchased there was only one other known New Testament like this one in existence, and that one, which is in the library of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, is lacking seventy-one of its pages.

The New Testament that the British Library purchased was lodged for many years in the library of the oldest Baptist seminary in the world, Bristol Baptist College, Bristol, England. It had been bequeathed to the College by Andrew Gifford (1700-1784), a London Baptist minister. It was printed in the German town of Worms on the press of Peter Schoeffer in 1526 and is known as the Tyndale New Testament after its remarkable translator—William Tyndale. It was the first printed New Testament to be translated into English out of the original Greek, and is indeed an invaluable book. Since then a third copy has been found in a German library.

But what a thrill to see it. How much we owe, under God, to Tyndale.

ADVOCATING CLOSED COMMUNION--BEING A CONSISTENT BAPTIST

2006-06-29T21:42:00.000-04:00

Nathan Finn has been blogging about closed communion. Some good stuff here, check it out. Also he has a very interesting post on Baptism, Church Membership, and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. I too think that the slippery slope argument can be overworked in terms of historical precedent, but this is a very sobering post. Read it.

KIRK WELLUM JOINS TBS FULL-TIME

2006-06-28T19:08:00.000-04:00

Here is an important announcement from my dear friend and now full-time colleague Kirk Wellum: A Time of Change.