The state of Maine made national headlines earlier this summer when the Supreme Court decided by a 6–3 vote that residents could apply vouchers for private Christian schools, not only secular ones. Religious liberty advocates praised the ruling in Carson v. Makin, though its greatest impact will be felt in states with larger Christian populations.
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A Long Day for the High Priest: Finding John 17 from Leviticus 16
John 17 is a prayer by Jesus in an upper room in a house in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. That is, the setting is alive with elements of Jesus’s own Jewish roots. The chapter is known as the “High Priestly Prayer” because in it, Jesus intercedes for His disciples and for the soon-to-be established church. As He prays, He knows He’ll soon suffer physically as only those who were crucified could ever comprehend. In addition to that, and far worse, He knows He’s about to undergo agony on a spiritual level beyond anything you and I can imagine.
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Help! I’m Preaching Through Esther.
Rather than a story of how things ought to be, Esther shows us how someone was faithful in the world as it is: painful, fear-filled, and potential hopeless. Only God offers a way out. Perhaps He has us right where He wants us to be a part of His bigger redemption story.
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A Missionary Kid, a President, and the Challenger Tragedy
To summarize the national pain, the president quoted from a poem written by a Canadian fighter pilot who had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Born in Shanghai, China in 1922, John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was the son of Canadian and American parents serving as Anglican missionaries to the region.
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Watts and Wesley: A Tale of Two Hymn Writers and the Christmas Carols that Remain with Us
As a general rule, those who study Christianity’s growth and expansion—missiologists—know that a given culture has truly embraced the faith when its people compose their own songs for worship. Similarly, hymns that remain popular centuries after their composition are often traced to times of reformation and revival. Two well-known Christmas carols in the English language are Joy to the World, written by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), and Hark the Herald Angels Sing, by Charles Wesley (1707-1788).
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A Friend Who Sticks Closer than…a Hobbit? What the Inklings Teach Us about Friendship
In the age of social media, the notion of friendship has taken on new meanings. Many people have "friends" whom they have never met, nor do they know them on any personal level. While most of us would agree that such a relationship does not constitute a friendship in the true sense of the word, the term itself has broadened in application over time to now include nearly any individual one has met and not found deplorable. This expanded use is not necessarily a bad thing, provided one understands varying degrees of friendship.
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Summer Reading Recommendations
Summer is here and the HistoricalTheology.org crew has book recommendations to add to your summer reading list. Here’s something for all the historians and theologians in your family!
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The Old Redemption Story: Illustrations from the Book of Ruth
The book of Ruth begins in brokenness. The time of the Judges had seen people go from obedient and devoted followers of God to fickle and nameless wanderers who came to Him temporarily in their times of greatest distress. The first chapter records how one family even leaves God’s “Promised Land” to seek life elsewhere. The book of Ruth is short but deep. We see suffering, but we see restoration. The hope of the Gospel is very much alive even centuries before the arrival of the Messiah. This outsider and foreigner teaches us what it’s like to be an insider with God. In the midst of broken times, we are reminded that God knows us by name. When we are tempted to look back at how things used to be, we learn that there is nothing better behind us than the God before us. For all of us whose paradise has ever been broken, let’s make Ruth’s God of restoration our God too! Where He goes, we go.
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A Singing People
I recently read a chapter that left an imprint on me both academically and personally, and I knew it was happening in real-time. It brought together numerous threads in a clear way that helped make sense of various discussions in my research field. But, more importantly, it left me in a spirit of worship as the words that echoed in my mind were not those of the author, but of others you might be familiar with.
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Church Covenants, not Baby Dedications: A Lesson From Baptist History
Who doesn’t love a baby dedication service? Cute babies wiggle, cry, and coo while their parents self-consciously attempt to maintain a level of decorum. After the parents utter a brief vow filled with biblical language, they all scurry back to the nursery. Though mom and dad appreciate the communal recognition, most parents would confess that the blue Bibles, pink flowers, and paper certificates that mark the day lacked transformational power. So why do Baptists do the dedications?
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Alcohol and Christian Liberty: Pastoral Lessons from C. H. Spurgeon
Starting in America in 1826 and quickly exported to England, the temperance movement began as a reaction against alcohol excesses. In the coming decades, two camps emerged. The moderates advocated for responsible drinking, while the teetotalers called for complete abstinence. In 1855, public perception moved from the moderates to the teetotalers, because Anglican priests shifted from backing the former to the latter. Moreover, supporters began the Band of Hope in 1846 to convince juveniles to abstain from alcohol for life. By 1887, the youth societies grew to a million members.
In this context, Spurgeon navigated the controversial waters between the moderate and teetotaler camps, both of whom sought relief from the societal ills caused by drunkenness. As pastors, we can glean four lessons from how Spurgeon reacted to the debates on Christian liberty and alcohol consumption.
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Reflections from W. B. Hinson during the Cancelation of Services at East Side Baptist Church
During the fall of 1918, church services throughout Portland, OR were canceled in response to restrictions placed by the city on large gatherings because of the Spanish flu epidemic. Beginning on October 13, 1918, East Side Baptist Church was unable to gather together for worship. This timing was particularly difficult because the church had just purchased a new building on the corner of SE 20th & Salmon and gathered for worship in it for the first time on October 6. Not allowed to meet with his congregation, Pastor W. B. Hinson agreed to preach at a church in Hillsboro on October 13. But still, he longed to be with his congregation. In the following weeks, Hinson would send out weekly bulletins at his own expense in order to remain in contact with his people and encourage them in the faith.
In the bulletin for October 20, Hinson shared the following comments. Here was an opportunity for them to stop and reflect on the privilege and responsibility of worshiping as a church.
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"The Best of Christianity Today" from Lexham Press: A Review
While there is no shortage of resources both by and about Stott and Henry, what Lexham Press has done with these books is new, and their value cannot be overstated.
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Sovereignty alongside Responsibility: Revival in the Theology of Andrew Fuller
“Revival” is a loaded word that evokes a variety of divergent images. For the historically-inclined, Jonathan Edwards’ (in)famous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon may come to mind. Contemporary readers may recall Billy Graham’s evangelistic crusades as a 20th-century image of revival. Though revival has maintained dominance in American religious life even to the present, it was equally formative for evangelicalism in Britain from the 1730s extending into the 19th century.
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Alexander MaClaren
“Let me remind you of some instances and illustrations”: Alexander MaClaren on Matthew 24:28
In the years when men’s beards resided like manes upon their necks for fear of their chins, Alexander MaClaren (1826-1910) preached the Gospel in the British Isles. Scottish by birth, Londoner by raising, he was a prolific Non-Conformist minister of the Baptist persuasion. Of his many accomplishments, one worth highlighting is his ability and willingness to connect theological truth to understandable events in history. One particular sermon demonstrates this to the maximum as the illustration virtuoso launches into a tour de force of no less than five stories back to back to make his point. The selected text? The single, enigmatic verse of Matthew 24:28.
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"The Song in the Night": A Christmas Reflection from Carl Henry
That night the angel echoed over the Judean hills a song, gladder tidings than which man will never hear. The words were the first evangelistic sermon of the gospel era, and the preacher was an angel. The pulpit was historic ground. On those Bethlehem slopes, on those same hillsides, David of old had fed his father’s flocks, and from those same fields he went forth at God’s command to exchange his shepherd’s crook for the royal scepter, and his lowly dress for the purple of a king. In those shaggy woods and grassy vales, where the pale moon cast its glow over the solemn hills, there rang forth the good news of God’s coming in the flesh:
“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
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Ask Pastor Charlie - On Congregational Singing
In this episode of Ask Pastor Charlie, we focus on questions related to congregational singing. Churches these days have more access to technology, resources, media, and all kinds of other enhancements to our worship services. But are our churches singing better? How do we get our people to sing? What’s the job of the worship leader? What kind of songs should we sing? Let’s listen in:
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Adoniram Judson's First Missionary Test
What does someone need before being sent out by the church to serve in cross-cultural missions? Certainly, one should have a clear profession of faith and give some evidence of fruitfulness in evangelism and discipleship. One should have a sense of calling for the work, both subjectively and objectively. There will need to be a team of financial and spiritual supporters. Anything else?
Here’s something that often gets overlooked: Ecclesiology! Before being sent out, they should have a biblical, convictional understanding of the church. This was a lesson that Adoniram Judson learned the hard way.
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The Praying Ones
John Piper has said that, “Books don’t change people, paragraphs do—Sometimes sentences.” I’ve certainly read paragraphs that are forever seared into my mind (like this one from C. S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory) and I know what it’s like to have a single verse from Scripture captivate me. But I hadn’t experienced (as far as I can remember) that same feeling from a sentence in a book other than the Bible. That is, until I read a sentence from 12 Faithful Men: Portraits of Courageous Endurance in Pastoral Ministry.
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Why the Church Still Needs Malachi (and not just for the tithing verse)
Malachi is a book about corruption and justice. Corruption still lives today as we find ourselves standing on the brink of forgetting the final covenant between God and mankind. We must learn from the last precipice as the prophet of a dying age leaned over his own Nebo to glimpse the coming Messiah. Today’s church still needs Malachi. Your church still needs Malachi.
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