I have the joy of teaching a class at my church through the Apostolic Fathers. This has been a real treat for us, especially since post-New Testament history is very foreign to many people. Other than a few names from the reformation, many church-goers can’t name too many other figures from church history, let alone…
My Most Important Other Piece of Advice to Young Seminarians
,Every new school year there seems to be published several articles (e.g., here and here) with lots of very good advice for new seminarians (or college students in general). I heartily affirm everything in those posts. However, I do have one other piece of advice that I was given in my first semester of seminary…
Man-fishing, Despair, and Pride
,Benjamin Beddome was a Particular Baptist minister in England in the 1700’s. He is known also as an able hymn writer. In this post I would like to highlight one of his sermons on evangelism, or “man-fishing,” that was preached from Matthew 4:19, where Jesus said: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of…
Book Review: Baptist Foundations ed., Dever and Leeman
,Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman have edited a new ecclesiology volume titled Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age. This collection of interrelated chapters is intended to be a “distinctly Baptist volume good for seminarians, church leaders, and interested members” (xxi). They have assembled a solid list of contributors, representing three of the major baptist seminaries in…
Book Mini-Reviews
,The Objectivity of Christ’s Atonement
,We live in an age that militates against the idea of God’s absolute holiness. Combined with a denial of the sinfulness of man, the rejection of God’s moral character results in a necessary de-valuing, or even denial, of the atonement. A crucial piece of a biblical understanding of Christ’s work is the objective nature of Christ’s…
Patristic Wisdom on the Focus of Pastoral Ministry
,I am working my way through Christopher Beeley’s recent book Leading God’s People: Wisdom from the Early Church for Today, and have enjoyed it immensely. One particular section was very good and I wanted to share it with you. Beeley discusses the focus of pastoral ministry. He highlights the others-centered nature of the pastoral vocation: “At…
Sabbath Rest, Human Embodiment, and 1 Cor. 15
,*This post is the latest in a series looking at the Sabbath. Previous posts include: Sabbath Rest and Human Embodiment, Sabbath Rest and Faith, Early Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 3), Early Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 2), Early Puritan Sabbatarians, Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? Martin Bucer’s De Regno Christi, Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 3), Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? (Part 2), Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? Henry Bullinger on the Sabbath (Part 1), Where…
Sabbath Rest and Human Embodiment
,*This post is the latest in a series looking at the Sabbath. Previous posts include: Sabbath Rest and Faith, Early Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 3), Early Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 2), Early Puritan Sabbatarians, Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? Martin Bucer’s De Regno Christi, Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 3), Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? (Part 2), Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? Henry Bullinger on the Sabbath (Part 1), Where is the Sabbath in the…
Sabbath Rest and Faith
,*This post is the latest in a series looking at the Sabbath. Previous posts include: Early Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 3), Early Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 2), Early Puritan Sabbatarians, Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? Martin Bucer’s De Regno Christi, Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians (Part 3), Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? (Part 2), Pre-Puritan Sabbatarians? Henry Bullinger on the Sabbath (Part 1), Where is the Sabbath in the Early Church…