REVIEW :: Ligonier iPhone App
Some great ministries have entered iPhone App world and I want to take a moment to share my thoughts on the Ligonier App. Simply, it is awesome. This app is superior to anything else in its genre and it is also free. Compared to Southwestern Seminary’s App, you can’t quickly exhaust the material. I am … Read more
BOOK REVIEW :: English Baptists of the 17th Century
This small volume, originally published in 1983, remains the standard of introductions into the history of English Baptists from the 17th century. B. R. White’s text is especially strong in comparing the General Baptists with the Calvinistic Baptists. He shows how both movements have Soteriological differences, yet share many Ecclesiological similarities. White argues the Baptists … Read more
BOOK REVIEW :: Stop Dating the Church
Joshua Harris gives our generation a clear challenge to reject our typical isolationist and many times selfish spirituality and replace it with a more mature community spirituality. Stop Dating the Church is a call to love the Bride even though she is far from perfect. Young men of my generation tend to still be boys, … Read more
BOOK REVIEW :: When the Darkness Will Not Lift
This is an excellent little read by one of our great “doctors of the soul.” The Puritans are wrongly portrayed as stuffy and irrelevant. In the vein of the old Puritans, like John Owen, this book is soundly Biblical and refreshingly practical. Unlike the old Puritans this little volume is easy to read at only … Read more
BOOK REVIEW: Kiffin, Knollys, and Keach
This is a great introduction for church leaders to the first generation of Calvinistic Baptists, and certainly highlights the “rich heritage that the Calvinistic Baptists of the seventeenth have bequeathed to those in the modern day who share similar convictions” (pg103). Michael Haykin concludes that this first generation was confessional, congregational, and Calvinistic in their … Read more
ARTICLE REVIEW: “The Origins and Convictions of the First Calvinistic Baptists”
I am beginning my readings for my Fall course on the British Baptists with Dr. Haykin and wanted to share some thoughts on a helpful article. I know a course like this is pretty weird for most, but I find this area of Church History and Historical theology very helpful especially for Elders and Pastors … Read more
BOOK REVIEW: The British Particular Baptists, 1638-1910, Vol. 1
This is an enjoyable series of books by a diverse collection of faithful pastors and accomplished scholars. The book accomplishes the difficult task of being both easy to read for a popular audience as well as adding new academic insights. This Particular Baptist Press text is a great introduction into this fascinating period of Church … Read more
BOOK REVIEW: Luther: Man Between God and the Devil
Heiko Oberman provides an exciting study of Luther that appreciates him within his age and within his hard-fought theology. The author’s position is that Luther should be treated as a man of his age, caught between the Medieval era and the Reformation/Renaissance era. Oberman’s method is to understand Luther as a man who seriously believed … Read more
BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Cranmer
MacCulloch’s work walks a historical tightrope showing Thomas Cranmer as neither villain nor hero. Past historical works on the English Reformer oversimplifies this complex figure in order to advance a political or ecclesiastical agenda (c.f. Foxe’s Book of Martyr’s and Harpsfield’s Cranmer’s Recantacyons). Diarmaid MacCulloch’s approach is exhaustively historical yet commendably sympathetic. MacCulloch is especially … Read more
Great Quote
The holy anointing oil was all poured on the head of Aaron (Ps. 133:2); and thence went down to the skirts of his clothing. Love is first poured out on Christ; and from him it drops as the dew of Hermon [Ps. 133:3] upon the souls of his saints. John Owen, Communion with the Triune … Read more
