Luther’s Stand
“Luther understood what was at stake.
He mentioned to a friend in advance, ‘Unless I am restrained by force or the emperor rescinds his invitation, I will enter Worms under the banner of Christ against the gates of hell…. I have had my Palm Sunday. Is all this pomp merely a temptation or is it also a sign of the passion to come?’
In just over 24 hours Luther would receive the answer to his question.”
– While this weekend is the anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing of the 95 Theses to the castle church door in 1517, it led to his crucial stand at the Diet of Worms in April 1521. Chris Castaldo has written a gripping account of the events.
(Chris serves at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. h/t Tim Challies.)
Carl Trueman on the 95 Theses — for Reformation Day
“This Sunday is Halloween. But more importantly, it’s Reformation Day—when the church celebrates and commemorates October 31, 1517.
It was on this day (a Saturday) that a 33-year-old theology professor at Wittenberg University walked over to the Castle Church in Wittenberg and nailed a paper of 95 theses to the door, hoping to spark an academic discussion about their contents. In God’s providence and unbeknownst to anyone else that day, it would become a key event in igniting the Reformation.”
– Justin Taylor asks Carl Trueman about Martin Luther’s 95 Theses – at Between Two Worlds.
Who is Arthur Bennett?
At Between Two Worlds, Tony Reinke shares his research on the author of the much loved collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, The Valley of Vision.
Richard Baxter’s account of the Restoration
“Not only was Baxter a major player, he was, like Pepys, also a meticulous and disciplined administrator and writer. He records many details from events he experienced first-hand, and his account includes a wealth of valuable documentation.”
– Lee Gatiss wrote this interesting article for Churchman in 2008. It’s just been published online by Church Society. (PDF file.)
In Memoriam, James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000)
“June 15 marks the tenth anniversary of the death of James Montgomery Boice, who was for thirty-two years the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, the dean of Reformed pastor-scholars in his generation…”
– At Reformation21, Rick Phillips gives thanks for James Montgomery Boice, who died ten years ago. (Photo: Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia.)
J.C. Ryle’s legacy — 110 years on
“110 years ago today [well, yesterday – ed.], June 10th, 1900, the prolific writer, vigorous preacher and faithful pastor, John Charles Ryle died in England at the age of 83. Here are some quotes surrounding Ryle’s death and his legacy in Christian history…”
– from J.C. Ryle quotes.
John Newton to Richard Johnson
John Newton to Richard Johnson (first Chaplain to New South Wales):
“I have not been disheartened by your apparent want of success. I have been told that skillful gardeners will undertake to sow and raise a salad for dinner in the short time while the meat is roasting. But no gardener can raise oaks with such expedition.
You are sent to New Holland, not to sow salad seeds, but to plant acorns; and your labour will not be lost, though the first appearances may be very small, and the progress very slow. You are, I trust, planting for the next Century.
I have a good hope that your oaks will one day spring up and flourish, and produce other acorns, which, in due time, will take root, and spread among the islands and nations in the Southern Ocean.”
– Craig Schwarze, who is researching Richard Johnson, posted this on his website. There’s another great quote from John Newton here.
(Photo © Marylynn Rouse / The John Newton Project, used with permission.)
Thomas Cranmer’s ‘True and Catholick Doctrine of the Sacrament’
In 1990, D A Scales wrote a paper for Churchman on Cranmer’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Church Society has just republished it.
“The doctrine of the Lord’s Supper was not unimportant in Cranmer’s eyes, because that Sacrament speaks of the central doctrines of the Christian faith—of salvation through the atoning death of Christ. It was instituted, in St. Paul’s words, to proclaim the Lord’s death till he come: right views of the death of Christ and right views of the sacrament will tend to go together; false views of the sacrament will tend to obscure an understanding of our salvation through the finished work of Christ…”
See it here – PDF file.
Remembering B. B. Warfield
“At important moments in the history of the church God, in kind providence, has raised up men to give voice to His Word. And so there is Augustine, the theologian of sin and grace. He did not invent these doctrines, of course. But in his battle with Pelagius he gave them such clear and cogent articulation that forever since he has been recognized as the one who gave these doctrines to us. He was the high water mark. So also there is Anselm, the theologian of the doctrine of the atonement. And there is Luther, the theologian of justification. And Calvin, the theologian of the Holy Spirit.
In this sense exactly Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield of Old Princeton is the theologian of the doctrine of inspiration…”
– At Between Two Worlds, Fred Zaspel writes on the significance of B B Warfield, who was born 158 years ago today.
Keith Condie on Richard Baxter
Earlier this year, David Höhne and Michael Jensen interviewed Moore College Dean of Students Keith Condie about his research on Richard Baxter.
It’s a light-hearted but very interesting introduction to one of the key English Puritans – at The Common Room.
William Tyndale and his New Testament
Church Society has republished a 1976 Churchman article by Gervase Duffield on Bible translation pioneer William Tyndale. (PDF file.)
As Reformation Sunday approaches (most observe it on the Sunday closest to October 31), it’s a good time to give thanks for the New Testament in English and those who helped make it possible.
Related: The open Bible in England, by F.F. Bruce.
John Wycliffe’s Work and Worth
“It was not by accident that Archbishop Arundel chose Oxford for the scene of the prohibition of English Bibles. In his letter to John XXIII in 1412 he describes our Reformer [John Wycliffe] as ‘that wretched and pestilent fellow, of damnable memory, that son of the old serpent, the very herald and child of Antichrist,’ who ‘to fill up the measure of his malice, devised the expedient of a new translation of the Scriptures into the mother tongue.’…”
– In 1933, R. M. Wilson wrote this fascinating article about John Wycliffe, ‘the morning-star of the Reformation’. It was published in Churchman and has just been republished on Church Society’s website (PDF file).
Related: John Wycliffe and the English Bible – by F F Bruce.
ACL Centenary Dinner Address
The Rev. Ed Loane gave this reflection on the history of the Anglican Church League at the ACL’s Centenary Dinner on Thursday 3rd September 2009:
I’ve been asked this evening to offer some account of the work of the ACL over the last 100 years. So I humbly put on my amateur historian hat – and amateur should be read in capital letters in light of present company – and I offer these reflections…
It has often been claimed that Sydney Diocese, with its pervasive and dominant conservative evangelicalism, is unique within the Anglican Communion – particularly within western Anglicanism. One of the chief questions that this situation raises is ‘how did this come to be?’ Read more
The Antioch dimension
“If there is to be long-term church growth today, there must be a regular, considerable amount of Christian teaching, as well as extensive evangelism. How else can the Lord’s commission of Matthew 28:19, 20 be fulfilled, if there is not a comprehensive explanation and application of the Lord’s doctrinal and moral teaching?…”
– In the last issue of Cross†Way, David Hilton reflects on how followers of the Way became to be known as ‘Christians’. PDF file from Church Society.
Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls?
What happens when, in the Lord’s providence, his people long for others to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? What happens when his people work together for this end?
In May 1787, the First Fleet set sail from Portsmouth, carrying 1,400 officers, ships’ crew, marines and their families, convicts – and the Chaplain, Richard Johnson and his wife Mary. They were bound for New South Wales, on the other side of the world.
John Newton was one of the key men who had worked to have a minister of the gospel on the First Fleet.
We get a glimpse into his motivation in this previously unpublished extract from his 1777 diary. It was written seven years before he helped found The Eclectic Society, ten years before the Fleet sailed, and twenty-two years before he helped found CMS. –
8 July 1777
My leisure time and rather more than I can well spare taken up with reading the accounts of the late voyage of Capt. Cook in the Southern Ocean and round the Globe.
Teach me to see thy hand and read thy name in these relations. Thy providence and goodness are displayed in every clime. May I be suitably affected with the case of the countless thousands of my fellow creatures, who know thee not, nor have opportunities of knowing thee.
Alas that those who are called Christians, and who venture through the greatest dangers to explore unknown regions, should only impart to the inhabitants examples of sin and occasions of mischief, and communicate nothing of thy Gospel to them. Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls, when thou wilt arise and shine upon them?
Give thanks for John Newton, and men and women like him.
Special thanks to Marylynn Rouse of The John Newton Project, who found this entry in Newton’s diary from his time in Olney and passed it on to us.
The painting of John Newton by John Russell hangs in the CMS building in Oxford. Photo © Marylynn Rouse / The John Newton Project, used with permission.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…