The Kosmos and the Logos
Christians hold to a persuasive argument for what living the good life means. We believe that God has created all things through His ordered thought, the Logos (Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:16). When we conform ourselves to the image of the Logos, we are most fully alive. The ancient Greeks also held a belief in a transcendent order embedded in the universe. In an earlier essay, I explained that the early church recognized the truth of this...
“A Critical Place”: Hannah Dow and the Memoirs of Nineteenth-century Women Missionaries
The first entry in Hannah Gould Dow’s journal records her decision to enter the mission field. On June 17, 1843, having found out that her fiancé J. C. Dow had been approved by the Freewill Baptist Board of Foreign Missions (Randall Movement) to serve as a missionary in India, she wrote, “I am now placed in a critical place. The question is, ‘Shall I go or not?’”[1] Like a growing number of young New England women, she answered in the...
A Band of Sisters: The Early Years of the Cumberland District Ladies Aid Society
The Women Nationally Active for Christ serves as the national organization for women’s ministry among Free Will Baptists. The organization was formed in 1935 in conjunction with the founding of the National Association of Free Will Baptists (NAFWB). The diligent work of many women from states like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas culminated in the formation of this organization. But no group had a larger influence than the women...
“The Teaching of the Creatures”: An Early English Free Will Baptist Appeal for a “Serious” and Thoughtful Christian Worldview
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (NASB) In 1651, sixty-one men, representing thirty General-Free Will Baptist congregations in England, gathered together to commit to paper a formal statement of their beliefs and practices. Appropriately named The...
Preserving Free Will Baptist History
The Historical Commission of the National Association of Free Will Baptists is charged with preserving and promoting the denomination’s history. The Free Will Baptist Historical Collection housed at Welch College fulfills a key aspect of this duty by housing the many records Robert E. Picirilli has spent decades collecting, organizing, and preserving. For the past three years, I have served as his assistant. The Collection contains a...
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