Friendship has fallen on hard times. The Information Age is earmarked by loneliness, and the evangelical community has been touched by the same forces of alienation plaguing society at large. Friendship’s hardship extends to the realm of evangelical theology, which currently fails to devote much attention to the subject. This situation is especially unfortunate because … Read more
This paper traces the development of the doctrine of the Sabbath through the history of Baptist confessions, examining how theological themes surrounding the Sabbath have been articulated, maintained, and adapted over time. By analyzing a range of widely recognized confessions among English-speaking Baptists—including the Orthodox Confession, the Second London Confession, the New Hampshire Confession, The … Read more
The relationship between immigration and Christian ethics is of particular importance in the era of mass migration and debates over border policy, citizenship, societal cohesion, ethnic replacement, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Christian interactions with these issues tend to be formulated within a positive but narrow missiological framework that prioritises the potential for evangelism and … Read more
Authenticity is an oft-demanded value and practice today. Though it does, as Carl Trueman has noted, “embody the fashionable piety of the postmodern ethos,” one cannot deny its importance in Christian spirituality. Alister McGrath values authenticity in his definition of Christian spirituality: “Christian spirituality concerns the quest for a fulfilled and authentic Christian existence.” A … Read more
William Ward (1769-1823) printed the Bible into multiple Indian languages and kept the Serampore Mission organized between 1799-1823. Ward has been praised and maligned for his condemnation of sati (practice of widow burning in India) and his scathing comments on the perversion of motherhood in India evidenced by religiously motivated infanticide. No one has contextually … Read more
William Ward (1769-1823) printed the Bible into multiple Indian languages and kept the Serampore Mission organized between 1799-1823. Before becoming one of the pioneering personalities of the modern missions movement alongside William Carey, Ward used the medium of the English provincial press to voice evangelical values throughout the English Midlands and Yorkshire. One of his … Read more
There are two conversations in the studies of Jonathan Edwards that have not yet intersected. First is the conversation considering John Locke’s influence on Edwards. Few today maintain that Locke’s impact on Edwards was as thoroughgoing as Perry Miller’s portrayal: Edwards’s reading of Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding was the “central and decisive event … Read more
What led Richard Baxter (1615–1691) to formulate his unique soteriology, which the famous Kidderminster pastor promoted as a moderate “middle way” between Calvinism and Arminianism? While Timothy Cooper has rightly pointed toward Baxter’s disillusionment arising from the English Civil War as an inciting incident for this formulation, the uniqueness of Baxter’s education is just as … Read more
Church historians know little about nineteenth-century Scottish Baptists. This presentation will further acquaint hearers with the preaching of the Scottish Baptist, Peter Grant (Pàdraig Grannd), during the 1800s. Peter Grant, the hymn writer, is well-known, but his preaching is unfamiliar to most, although he was an able expositor and experienced significant revivals in Scotland under … Read more
2 Kings 22:8-11 tells a remarkable story of how the Book of the Law was found in the temple; it had been lost for many years, both literally and philosophically. As a result, Judah had been led into sin. Today, the United States—and churches in general—can be said to have “lost” the Word of God, … Read more