The Puritanboard Most of my readers will be familiar with the on-line web-site The Puritanboard. The site often carries good, general articles of instruction and edification. At times, however, the contributors seem to be very strict and particular in their ecclesiastical views and their narrow understanding of church and denominational history. I have striven from time to time to visit their site, to offer praise and encouragement for certain positions they represent and to suggest solutions to some of their ingrained problems caused mostly through lack of background knowledge. However, I found entrance into their discussions technically extremely difficult, so I gave up trying. A couple of years ago, I had another go and… Full Article
Posts Tagged Calvinism
An uninformed know-all seeks to suppress the truth concerning Augustus Toplady. This letter was written to an enemy of the Church of England Reformers who wished to censor and suppress the publication of my Augustus Toplady biography. He maintained that my work was that of a Roman Catholic and an enemy and that I had defended ‘malignants’ and ‘drunkards’. Mention is made of two books in the letter but the biography and anthology were eventually printed together in one large volume. The criticisms of my correspondent were based on secondary and tertiary literature without my critic being aware of the original documents needed in forming an opinion. Sadly, most of theological discussion nowadays has become a rabies… Full Article
Letter to the Evangelical Times claiming that later Puritans and Dissenters were sounder than our Reformers in their understanding of Scripture – The letter was not published. Sir: Towards the end of the nineteen fifties, several Christian magazines served their readership well by re-introducing the teachings of the long-neglected Puritans. Subsequently, the Puritans have become the staple reading of Reformed men. Sadly, however, this has led to a great neglect of our first generation Reformers whose works were used as a basis for Puritan teaching. Reformers such as Jewel, Lever, Latimer, Coverdale, Cox, Grindal, Bullinger, Bucer and Peter Martyr, pillars of the Church of England, were most strong on doctrine,… Full Article
Like John Harding in his candid review of Iain Murray’s new book on Wesley, I was alarmed at the author’s exodus from Reformed doctrines. Could he not praise Wesley objectively for the good he did without having to side with him in his errors? Murray has lost his balance. Formerly he was pro Whitefield and contra Wesley, now he is pro Wesley and Whitefield is forgotten. Forgotten, too, are the adverse teachings of Wesley on the doctrines of grace, his extraordinary superstitions such as his belief in ghosts and his shocking treatment of sound men such as Hervey, Toplady, Erskine, Cennick, Cudworth and the Hill brothers. Murray tells us that it is not his task to enquire into these things. Thus we are only permitted to see Wesley at his… Full Article
A Response to remarks of Dr. Frank Page made in the English Churchman SB origins were Calvinistic It was encouraging to read in No. 7732 concerning Reformed Southern Baptists and the Reformed faith. On April 30, 1858, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary drew up a charter which they called the ‘Fundamental Law’ of the SB churches and which stated that every Professor in the seminary and student for the SB ministry must believe the twenty principles outlined. These were all soundly Reformed (Calvinistic). Modern critics of the SB’s credal stance, complain that the principles were thrust on the movement by James P. Boyce and were not representative of the Southern Baptists. SB-rebel Jeff Pool in his Against… Full Article
Part One: The Ejection of the ‘Scandalous Ministers’ The problem outlined Having spent all my life in Free Church circles, I learnt very early of the severe persecutions meted out in England during the 17th century to Dissenters, Non-Conformists and Non-Jurors who wished to preach, teach and witness in Anglican parishes. Two books which became of special influence in forming my judgement were Thomas Coleman’s The Two Thousand Confessors of Sixteen Hundred and Sixty-Two and Edmund Calamy’s The Nonconformist’s Memorial, a three-volumed work on the same period. I treasure these works which served under God to cause me to abhor any form of religious, political and social persecution. As a result… Full Article
A Review Article The news that Carey Publications were to publish the lives of these three 17th century Baptists filled me with a feeling of hopeful expectancy. The three Ks have aided my own understanding of the ways of God immensely and I know from my correspondents that there is an awakened, wide-spread interest in them. Michael Haykin’s book thus comes at a most appropriate time. My expectancy was dampened by Robert Oliver’s foreword in which he takes up his pet theme, Hyper-Calvinism, and back-projects it onto the teaching of Kiffin and Co., arguing that they were against it, whereas they had nothing to do with it, or rather, nothing to do with this modern controversy which is forced onto the churches,… Full Article
Irresistible Grace
Sep 21
A lecture given at the Protestant Reformation Society, August 27th, 2009, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England Irresistible grace represents the traditional ‘I’ in the acronym ‘TULIP’. So now I shall tease you a little. The name ‘Tulip’ comes from the same Turkish root as ‘turban’ and the flower of that name was introduced by the Turks to Europe as a symbol of the spreading Ottoman Empire, or the TULIP ERA as the Islamising of Europe was called. The popular strains Tulipa turkestanica and Tulipa kurdica point to this. Why the Turkestan turban-shaped talismanic Tulip and Turkoman black merchants robes were chosen as Christian symbols of faith and ministry by post-Reformation parties, must be the subject of… Full Article
Each period in the history of the Church has its controversies. It is part of the Kingdom of Heaven exerting itself against the powers of darkness. God in His grace gives succeeding ages special glimpses of His Word so that these controversies may be resolved and settled. Since the Reformation, men who believe in the doctrines of grace have found themselves united in the common cause against Arminianism. Doctrinal differences amongst themselves have scarcely arisen except for matters relating to church order and baptism. Nowadays most Reformed men feel that the battle against Arminianism has been won clearly and Scripturally. Consequently they feel themselves ´at ease in Zion` regarding Free-willers never with fear and hardly… Full Article
