Adoniram Judson biography — free eBook
Originally an address to pastors, John Piper’s biography of Adoniram Judson, pioneer missionary to Burma, is now available in a short e-book from Desiring God.
The evangelistic strategy of the Book of Common Prayer
Lee Gatiss writes:
“It’s not entirely a Puritan thing. But it is very much a seventeenth century thing. Last week I gave a talk to a bunch of Anglicans at a clergy conference all about the evangelistic strategy of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.” – Download the audio file from Meet the Puritans.
Mentioned in the talk: An English Prayer Book – free resource from Church Society.
Remembering a Pioneer
“On 13 July each year we remember Bishop Sydney Kirkby, a pioneer missionary for Rural Australia and the Bush Church Aid Society.”
– The Diocese of Perth website gives thanks.
Read more about Bishop Kirkby (1879–1935) at The Australian Dictionary of Biography.
The Venus Transit: A Monumental Missions Anniversary
“Cook rounded Cape Horn in time to observe the transit from Tahiti. He then continued from east to west across the largely uncharted Pacific Ocean, mapping it and claiming islands for England including Terra Australis Incognita.
An account of Cook’s voyage was published in 1773 and was read by, among many other people, a cobbler and lay pastor in the Particular Baptist Church, named William Carey. …
In 1792 Carey published his missionary manifesto, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, which included a theological justification for missions based on Matthew 28:18-20 and an analysis of the world’s countries and religious situation based largely on Cook’s journals.”
– Tom Richards, on Tanna in the Vanuatu group, gives thanks for Captain James Cook’s voyage to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus. (Photo: Bill Mellberg.)
Too much singing?
Over at Meet the Puritans, Lee Gatiss has been sharing some wisdom from 16th century reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli. Here’s his latest observation:
“In his commentary on Judges, Vermigli has this arresting application concerning music and singing in church. He writes:
Almost everywhere in the papal religion they think they have worshipped God sufficiently in the Church when they have sung and shouted loud and long… There are many priests and monks who think they deserve well of God because they have sung many psalms… Another vice to be removed is that there should not be so much singing in church as to leave almost no time for preaching the Word of God and holy doctrine. We can see this happening everywhere in a way, for everything is so noisy with chanting and piping that there is no time left for preaching. So it happens that people depart from church full of music and harmony, yet they are fasting and starving for heavenly doctrine.
This reminded me of an article by my friend Vaughan Roberts on the same subject, here. Though it is interesting that Vermigli was writing well before the modern charismatic movement. That, it seems, has more in common with early modern Roman Catholicism than we might have thought. How interesting too that Vermigli had such an influence over Cranmer and the composition of the English Book of Common Prayer which like Vermigli (died 1562) is celebrating an anniversary this year (1552, 1662).”
– from Meet the Puritans.
Things which ought to be better known about the Resurrection of Jesus
At Easter 2012, Dr Peter Williams, Warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge, gave a public lecture at Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston.
Presented by the Lanier Theological Library, his topic was “Things which ought to be better known about the Resurrection of Jesus”.
Fascinating and very helpful. The lecture is 60 minutes in length, followed by 40 minutes of responses and questions. Watch it on Vimeo.
(Related: New Evidences the Gospels were Based on Eyewitness Accounts.)
BCP’s 350th!
“I love my historical anniversaries. (Regular readers will know this, as do members of my church!) Anyway, 350 years ago today, on 19 May 1662, The Act of Uniformity received the royal assent in England. This enforced use of the Book of Common Prayer. … Today I want to share a little about the famous 1662 BCP, as it’s often called for short.”
– Sandy Grant gives thanks for the BCP – at The Briefing.
1662 and all that
A talk given by John Richardson –
“1662 and all that: How the Prayer Book changed the Church of England, and how the Church of England Changed the Prayer Book
An address given in our Benefice to mark the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
On March 21st 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake in Broad Street, Oxford. A metal X still marks the spot where you can, if you’re very careful, briefly pause in the middle of the traffic. The charges against him of treason and heresy both merited the death penalty…”
Nehemiah Found!
“Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars found fragments (and, in some cases, fuller scrolls) of every biblical book except for Esther and Nehemiah. Until now…”
– George Athas at Moore College has news of an interesting find.
Happy Birthday, New Bible Dictionary
“This month marks the 50th anniversary of The New Bible Dictionary, first published by IVP back in May 1962. Initially edited by James D. Douglas, it featured contributions from a host of evangelical scholars, including Australians like Leon Morris, Donald Robinson, Edwin Judge, Alan Cole, Broughton Knox, and more recently, Peter Jensen and David Peterson…”
– Over at The Briefing, Sandy Grant gives thanks for a most significant and enduring resource.
Is the Reformation over?
At last month’s Together for the Gospel conference, Carl Trueman spoke at a breakout session on ‘Why the Reformation isn’t over’. He gives five reasons why the Reformation matters in our churches today –
“The Centrality of the Cross, the Centrality of the Word, the Centrality of Assurance, the Centrality of the Pastor, and the Centrality of more than just the gospel.”
Titanic: A Glasgow church recalls Pastor John Harper
In the icy water, Pastor John Harper asks a man if he is saved, and gives him his life jacket.
And more details from Baptist Press.
7 Lessons from the German Liberal Theologians
“Despite standing in the shadow of the Reformation, many German Protestant theologians abandoned the historic truth claims of biblical Christianity due to the mounting popularity of Enlightenment rationalism.
In so doing, they shipwrecked their own souls while simultaneously devastating the faith of millions of others…”
– Nathan Busenitz draws some sobering lessons from the German Liberal Theologians –
- The way to reach skeptics with the gospel is not by watering down the gospel.
- True religion can be lost in just one generation.
- German liberalism does not represent merely a divergent form of Christianity, but – in actuality – a completely new religion.
- The liberals honoured doubt as being noble and intellectually honest. In reality, doubting God’s word is a heinous sin.
- German liberalism teaches us that ideas have consequences, and that bad ideas have very bad consequences.
- The social gospel of the liberals is still alive and well in many mainline Protestant churches.
- Higher criticism, in particular, is built on the notion that the wisdom of man trumps the revealed wisdom of God.
– Very relevant to the Anglican Communion. Read it all at The Cripplegate. (h/t Tim Challies.)
A significant anniversary
February 19th marks the 200th anniversary of the departure from Massachusetts for Burma of Adoniram and Ann Judson. Sandy Grant has the story at The Briefing. (Image via Mission Partners.)
Earliest New Testament fragment discovered?
Dr Daniel Wallace, at Dallas Theological Seminary, offers a little tantalising information about a recent manuscript discovery –
“It was dated by one of the world’s leading paleographers. He said he was ‘certain’ that it was from the first century. If this is true, it would be the oldest fragment of the New Testament known to exist. …
Not only this, but the first-century fragment is from Mark’s Gospel.”
– Read his post here. (h/t Tim Challies.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…