The Reformation and the men behind it

“The Protestant Reformation stands as the most far-reaching, world-changing display of God’s grace since the birth and early expansion of the church. It was not a single act, nor was it led by one man. This history-altering movement played out on different stages over many decades. Its cumulative impact, however, was enormous…”

– Over at R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier Ministries website, they’re posting excerpts from the book Pillars of Grace by Steven Lawson, in the run up to Reformation Day (usually observed on October 31). h/t Tim Challies.

Remembering with gratitude Sir Marcus Loane, on the Centenary of his birth

Marcus Loane was born in Tasmania one hundred years ago – on 14 October 1911.

He grew up in Chatswood in Sydney, becoming a Christian at the age of thirteen. After completing school, he worked as a shipping clerk while studying at Sydney University in the evenings.

In 1932, he entered Moore Theological College, with a view to ordination for parish ministry. He excelled academically in the Th.L and also earned an MA in English from Sydney University.  Read more

Paul, Chronology and the Unity of 2 Corinthians

“It is generally agreed that Paul’s engagement with the church in Corinth was extensive and intensive, more so than with any Pauline congregation. This short paper addresses the question of the chronology of Paul’s relationship with the church in Corinth and the related issue of the unity of Second Corinthians. …”

– Bishop Paul Barnett has posted a very interesting and helpful paper he presented at the Society for the Study of Early Christianity at Macquarie University in August.

(Related: Society for the Study of Early Christianity website.)

Holding the Word of God in your hands

A few weeks back, Crossway, the publishers of the ESV, hosted a dinner at a Christian booksellers’ convention in Atlanta, Georgia. They asked someone who loves God’s word to give the keynote address.

John Piper spoke about William Tyndale, the 400th anniversary of the AV, the RSV, the NRSV, the rationale for the ESV – and the incomparable worth of God’s word. You can watch his 31 minute address on Vimeo. h/t Dane Ortlund.

Idea: Registered Vimeo users can download the 175MB file. Have a big TV? Invite your Bible Study group around to watch.

Iain Murray on reading church history

“The reason church history is not always thrilling is that people do not read it around the flesh-and-blood figures of men and women whom God used to shape its course.

Biographies raise the questions: Why were individuals so used? What made Mary Slessor or William Carey? What are the abiding spiritual lessons? Biographies show that doctrinal belief is not a secondary or theoretical thing; rather, it has vital consequence in the way Christians live. Weak doctrine produces weak lives. Those who ‘turn the world upside down’ are always those ’mighty in the Scriptures.’…”

– from an interview with Iain Murray (the Banner of Truth founder) at Ligonier Ministries.

Anglican Evangelism and Evangelical Anglicanism, 1945-2011 — the challenge we face

This week John Richardson spoke at the Evangelical Anglican Junior Clergy Conference in the UK, and he’s posted the text of his first address online. It’s a very interesting overview of Post-war UK evangelical Anglicanism. He includes mention of some help, in the Lord’s providence, from the colonies –

“Many in the Evangelical Anglican constituency were therefore increasingly uncomfortable with the direction being taken by the movement, and in the mid-1980s, under the leadership of Dick Lucas, the Evangelical Ministry Assembly and the Proclamation Trust struck out in a different direction.

The Proclamation Trust aimed unashamedly, and in its own mind principally, at a recovery of preaching. Nevertheless, this inevitably entailed a recovery of theology, and so the speakers invited to address the EMA were often men of theological acumen as well as skilled communicators.

Notably, however, most of them came from abroad — it seemed that in the UK they were in short supply. Many were from America but some, and in the end the most influential, were from the Diocese of Sydney in Australia.

Two key English Evangelicals made some revealing comments about the impact of just one of these visitors, John Chapman, who then headed the Department of Evangelism in the Diocese of Sydney. …”

– Read it all at The Ugley Vicar. (Photo of John Chapman, courtesy of AFES.)

The Great Creeds

“The earliest function of the creeds was baptismal, that is for instruction beforehand and interrogation of the candidate at the baptism itself. Between their embryonic beginnings and ultimate finalization of the creed in the forms we have them further elements were added.

This was because the era between the New Testament and the finalization of the Creeds in the fourth century was chaotic, with the intrusion of serious doctrinal errors threatening the survival of apostolic truth and the unity of the church. …”

– Bishop Paul Barnett is continuing to post some of his writings online.

Related: J.I. Packer: More Catechesis, Please.

Simplicity and Integrity: the KJV in the church and the world

A Conference to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible.

Thursday July 7th 2011, 9.30am – 4:00pm at Moore College in Newtown.

Details here.

The Power of the Original: Beyond the King James Bible

“When Scripture is translated into any language, it has the power of incarnation. Often it proceeds to shape the language of its host culture. The danger is that we can then treat the Bible as though it were a product of our own history and culture and forget that its origin and world is distant. The KJV was English, but it was not quite my English. …”

– Archbishop Peter Jensen writes on the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible, on the ABC’s Religion & Ethics pages of its website.

The Sydney Family Album — 6

“Thomas Moore came to Australia from England at the age of thirty. Until recently, little was known of Moore’s origins.…”

– In a guest post at Theological Theology, Peter Bolt introduces us to Thomas Moore, after whom Moore College is named.

The Father-in-law I never knew: Alec Simpson

“His epitaph could have been, ‘his deeds follow him ’ (Rev 14:13). Fifty-five years later Alexander Simpson’s deeds do follow him, ‘embodied’ in the older Brazilian believers converted through him and the younger ones converted through them.

Alec was forty when he died 1950 in Uberaba in the interior of Brazil having come there as a missionary from Scotland with his wife Janet in the late thirties. …”

– Bishop Paul Barnett shares this story about a life not wasted.

Dr Garry Williams on William Tyndale

Dr Garry Williams, Director of the John Owen Centre at London Theological Seminary, recently spoke at Ballymoney Baptist Church in Northern Ireland. His topic: “The Life and Death of William Tyndale: Loving God’s Word”.

The 49 minute (14MB mp3 file) talk gives an excellent insight into Tyndale’s passion to see God’s Word translated into English. Most encouraging. (via Colin Adams at Unashamed Workman.)

More from the Sydney Family Album

Over the last few weeks, more has been added to the ‘Sydney Family Album’ at Theological Theology –

Learn about William Cowper, and his son William Macquarie Cowper (guest posts by Peter Bolt), and Frederic Barker.

Illustrations of Compromise in Church History

Church Society has republished an important 1988 Churchman paper by D A Scales. He looks at –

The Arian Controversy, The Colloquy of Ratisbon of 1541, The Evangelical C of E bishops debate about sacerdotal vesture in 1912, the 1922 debate about Liberalism within the Church Missionary Society in Britain, and the ‘new evangelicalism’ at Keele, 1967.

If you don’t normally think much about Christian history, this would be a good article to read to be alerted to the ever-present danger of losing the gospel.

Download it here as a PDF file.

The Sydney Family Album — 2

“The Rev. Samuel Marsden, second Chaplain to the Colony of NSW, was born in Farsley, Yorkshire on 25 June 1765. He was brought up under a Methodist and Evangelical influence and came under the patronage of the evangelical Elland Society which provided for his education from Grammar School to Magdalene College, Cambridge University, the centre of Evangelical influence at the time.

He was appointed second Chaplain to the Colony of NSW, arriving in 1794 with the backing of the Rev. Charles Simeon, William Wilberforce and the Rev. John Newton…”

– in a guest post at Theological Theology, David Pettett reminds us about Samuel Marsden.

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