No More Authentic Than Your Ancestors
We are a people consumed with the idea that we have courageously exceeded our ancestors’ meager attempts at freedom, honesty, and authenticity. Richard Weaver critiques such notions in Ideas Have Consequences (1948): Every group regarding itself as emancipated is convinced that its predecessors were fearful of reality. It looks upon euphemisms and all the veils of decency with which things were previously draped as obstructions which...
Revelation Does What Philosophy Cannot
Thomas Paine, who famously wrote Common Sense and The Rights of Man, also wrote The Age of Reason. It was in The Age of Reason that Thomas Paine sought to undermine historic Christianity in favor of Deism, or, as he saw it, “pure religion”. Calvinist Baptist pastor Andrew Fuller responded to Paine’s work. In this quote, Fuller says that philosophy (or reason) can only take one so far. [I]t might be proved that every...
J. Gresham Machen: Christianity & Liberalism
“Christianity is a way of life—not a religion.” This is the mantra of many Christians today. Some prefer a tame, non-doctrinaire Jesus—one who is more akin to a teenage boyfriend than a suffering servant or a conquering king. Maybe this is overstated, but it certainly rings true that there is a modern tendency to sentimentalize Christianity by acting as if it has been resurrected from an ancient time capsule and is of no import to...
Andrew Fuller Ridiculed for His Baptism
Eighteenth Century Baptist Andrew Fuller movingly recounts being ridiculed for his baptism: “Within a day or two after I had been baptized, as I was riding through the fields, I met a company of young men. One of them, especially on my having passed them, called after me, in very abusive language, and cursed me for having been ‘dipped.’ My heart instantly rose in a way of resentment: but, though the fire burned, I held my peace; for,...
Preachers and Preaching Books: 12 Essential Books
Because of the immense importance of Christian preaching, this week we have closely examined a couple of modern classics on preaching. Today’s post is a list of twelve books written to aid pastors in their preaching. Some of the books are modern classics while others are newer texts on preaching. We’ve asked a variety of faithful, trustworthy pastors to tell us something about each book, and how it can aid you in your preaching...
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