Book Review of Return to Rome by Francis Beckwith

Michael Haykin has written a review of Francis Beckwith's new book, Return to Rome: Confessions of An Evangelical Catholic.  Dr. Francis Beckwith was the president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), until he resigned last year due to his conversion to Roman Catholicism.  This review is very timely, as this book has just been released this week in advance of this year's annual meeting of ETS. To find this review and others which might be of interest to our readers, please visit the Book Review page of this site.

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research and Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

“Love for the Brothers”: A Message by Dr. Michael Haykin

Today in chapel at SBTS, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin preached from 1 John 3:11-24 on the theme of "Love for the Brothers."  It was an excellent and challenging message that features faithful exposition of the text elucidated by fascinating accounts from the history of the church.  In this message, Dr. Haykin argues that "love for the brothers" (along with the preaching of the Word, the administration of the ordinances, and church discipline) constitutes a clearly biblical mark of the church.  To hear the message or to download the MP3 click here.

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research and Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

New Audio Posted

Over the last week or so I've posted three new MP3s on this site's Audio page.  The MP3s are of lectures given by Dr. Michael Haykin at a variety of venues.  These include a lecture on William Tyndale given on behalf of Southern Seminary's Bible Translators in Training student society.  Another lecture on spiritual disciplines for pastors was given at a recent meeting of the Toronto Pastor's Fellowship.   A final new posting is actually the posting of a lecture from last year's conference on Islam held by Sola Scriptura Ministries.  Dr. Haykin's session covers the historical background of Islam. For more audio by Dr. Haykin visit the Audio page where new MP3s are posted regularly.

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research and Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

Fabulous discovery about Thomas Wilcox (1622-1687), author of a minor spiritual classic

“Praying will make thee leave sinning or sinning will make leave praying.” [1] This well-known saying may well have originated with Thomas Wilcox (1622-1687), the author of the minor spiritual classic A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ, which was published before the Great Fire of London in 1666. When I first wrote my Kiffin, Knollys, and Keach in the early 1990s, I included this spiritual classic as an appendix. It was excluded by the publisher, which was providential, for although I knew Wilcox wrote a number of tracts, I thought the above book was the only one extant. Today, my assistant Steve Weaver kindly got for me a PDF of a 1699 edition of Wilcox’s classic work (published then under the title of A Guide to Eternal Glory). It was attached to nine other tracts (the whole being published by Nathanael Crouch, who was a printer near Cheapside, London) and in the preface “To the Christian Reader” that preceded all of the tracts, Wilcox noted that he had “subjoined some other brief tracts” (p.6), which definitely seems to indicate he is the author, especially since no other names appear with the various tracts. [2] This is a fabulous discovery because it gives us some other material by the author of a remarkable tract that by the 1840s had gone through at least sixty printings and had been translated into numerous languages, including Welsh, Irish Gaelic, French, German, and Finnish. In light of such a printing record, it is no exaggeration to describe it as a minor classic from the late Puritan era. [3] It is currently available from Chapel Library. The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies hopes to include a fresh edition and textual commentary on it by Dr Stephen Yuille in its Occasional Monographs series, which is to be launched in the near future.

Of the numerous Calvinistic Baptist authors of the seventeenth century, there were really only three who were being read extensively a century or two later. John Bunyan was, of course, one. Another was Benjamin Keach. And the third was Thomas Wilcox, about whom we really know very little. [4] We know that he was born in 1622 at Lyndon, then in Rutland. His early career, though, is shrouded in obscurity. By the 1660s he was living in London on Cannon Street, where a congregation of believers that he pastored met regularly in his home to worship the Lord. During the following decade Wilcox preached to this congregation at the Three Cranes, a wooden building on Tooley Street in Southwark.

Though a convinced Baptist, Wilcox was catholic enough in his sentiments to be invited frequently to preach among the Presbyterians and Congregationalists. He also courageously endured imprisonment a number of times rather than sacrifice his convictions as a Dissenter. He hoped, we are told, that his death might be a sudden one, a hope that was apparently realized when he died in May, 1687. The epitaph on his tomb in Bunhill Fields, the Nonconformist burial ground in London, was a remark that he often made in this regard, “Sudden death sudden glory.” After his death the members of his congregation appear to have joined other Calvinistic Baptist causes in the city.

Do look for Stephen Yuille’s edition of A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ in our monograph series. The work is based on a phrase from Psalm 81:16 [“He should have fed them also with the finest of wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee” (KJV)], and it well captures the Christ-centred piety of the early Calvinistic Baptists and the way in which their piety was nourished by those central themes of the Reformation, solus Christus and sola fide.

[1] The Serephick [sic] Soul’s Triumph in the Love of God in Thomas Wilcox, A Guide to Eternal Glory. Or, Brief Directions to all Christians how to attain Everlasting Salvation. To which are added, Several other excellent Divine Tracts (London: Nath. Crouch, 1699), 124.

[2] In a 1676 edition of this classic, there is an appended work, Spiritual Hymns Used by Some Christians at the Receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, with some others (London: Nath. Crouch, 1676). The use of the term “sacrament” by this Calvinistic Baptist is noteworthy, it being a term commonly used by Baptist at this time.

[3] In this regard, see Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, “The Spirit of the Old Writers: The Great Awakening and the Persistence of Puritan Piety” in Francis J. Bremer, ed., Puritanism: Transatlantic Perspectives on a Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Faith (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1993), 281.

[4] Our principal source of information about Wilcox is Thomas Crosby, The History of the English Baptists (London: 1740), III, 101. See also Joseph Ivimey, A History of the English Baptists (London: 1814), II, 465; W. T. Whitley, The Baptists of London 1612-1928 (London: The Kingsgate Press, 1928), 120.

A church historian's brief take on The Shack

Tonight I was with a good friend, Scott Dyer (whom I have known since 1982 when he took a class with me on 1 Corinthians, and which I have been teaching at TBS this term on certain Saturdays), and we chatted a little about the recent bestseller The Shack. Scott rightly pointed out how nervey it is to put words in the mouth of our holy Lord--and such words too! When one thinks of recent reading material in Evangelical circles it makes anyone concerned about biblical fidelity and solid theology wince and blush! To think that later generations will judge this day by such wretched theological pablum! Or maybe it and other pieces of literature like it will simply sink into oblivion so that only those church historians who are experts in the theological quirkiness of the early 21st century will know about it. Let's hope so! Another good friend, Dr Stephen Yuille, who blogs at Deus pro nobis (love that Latin!), has written a fine review here of The Shack.

Senator Obama on abortion: a view from the North

I am not an American, but as a Canadian who believes that our nation is intimately tied to the United States--which to my mind makes some of the remarks by the Liberal Party and the NDP in the most recent election about what they would do for the economy simply pie in the sky (thankfully many Canadian voters saw the inadequacy of the Liberals' platform in the most recent election)--I am convinced that the American election should be of deep concern to us and be a matter of real prayer. Here is a disturbing article by Robert George and Yuval Levin that clearly reveals Senator Obama's position on abortion: Obama and Infanticide. As Dr Russell Moore made plain in Thursday's chapel at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, this issue of abortion is the critical issue of our day (see his powerful message, "Joseph of Nazareth Is a Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father of Jesus, the Cries of the Helpless, and Change You Can Believe In" (Matt 2:13-23) ), and Christians must make this the critical factor in voting. Otherwise, how can we condemn the Nazi regime for its murderous brutality?

HT: Justin Taylor.

New Release: The Advent of Evangelicalism

Dr. Haykin has edited another book which is soon to be released by B&H Academic.  The volume is titled The Advent of Evangelicalism and was co-edited with Kenneth Stewart.  This volume is offers a scholarly interaction with David Bebbington's widely acclaimed 1989 book, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s by scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. Contributors include: David W. Bebbington, Joel R. Beeke, John Coffey, Timothy George, Crawford Gribben, Michael A. G. Haykin, Paul Helm, D. Bruce Hindmarsh, David Ceri Jones, Thomas S. Kidd, Timothy Larsen, Cameron A. MacKenzie, A. T. B. McGowan, D. Densil Morgan, Ashley Null, Ian J. Shaw, Kenneth J. Stewart, Douglas A. Sweeney, Garry J. Williams, and Brandon G. Withrow.

From the Publisher:

In this critically acclaimed book edited by Michael A. G. Haykin and Kenneth J. Stewart, esteemed contributors address the origins and interpretation of evangelicalism as they make a fresh and critical assessment of David Bebbington’s work, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730’s to the 1980’s (London: Unman Hyman, 1989).

Recommendations:

“This book is a must read for those interested in understanding evangelical identity, past and present”. – James A. Patterson, Union University

“David Bebbington in his magisterial Evangelicalism in Modern Britain is the object of both panegyric and protest in this collection of essays by his colleagues in the discipline of Christian history. The praise is properly profuse, even as the criticism, especially with regard to the source of evangelicalism, is properly profound. Critically, the essayists contend that evangelicalism is a phenomenon that extends geographically beyond Great Britain and that existed chronologically prior to the 1830s. Evangelicalism did not arise creatio ex nihilo; rather, evangelicalism developed within a particular, though broad, social context. Finally, in light of evangelicalism’s current crisis in doctrinal identity, this book may be especially timely.” – Malcolm B. Yarnell III, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

“The Advent of Evangelicalism makes for clearer thinking about the origin and developments of evangelicalism for a new generation. The range of scholars involved in this work is impressive, and I believe The Advent of Evangelicalism will hold the attention of many scholars and readers for years to come”. – Dr. Jack C. Whytock of Haddington House, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

“The Advent of Evangelicalism is an important series of reflections on David Bebbington’s significant work, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain. This book provides an excellent case study on the development of historiography around the organic nature of the generational changes in the church”. – Robert S. Wilson, Acadia Divinity College

Format: Paperback Page Count: 432 Retail: $24.99 ISBN-13: 9780805448603

To view the Table of Contents and Editor's Preface click here (pdf).

To preorder from Amazon.com click here ($16.49!).

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research and Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

Oliver Cromwell, Crawford Gribben & a quick reply

In my previous post on Cromwell and the current elections in Canada and the United States I didn't think that my remark about having admiration for Cromwell would be the controversial remark, but what I said about developing a Christian maturity when it came to politics. But since my remark about Cromwell elicietd three strong responses, permit me to make a quick reply in a few points.

1. First, I am an Irish Canadian, raised in England in a traditional Irish Catholic home, and proud of my heritage as an Irishman. But I am well aware that in the seventeenth century far too few Emglishmen, Anglican or Puritan, Royalist or Parliamentarian, regarded the Irish with any love or concern. One has to move beyond ethnicity in historical judgments.

2. I was referred to the great scholarly work of Crawford Gribben. Crawford is a close friend for whom I have a deep admiration. I have read most of his work, and agree with his emphases. In making the statement that I admire Cromwell, I am not also saying he was completely innocent when it came to the slaughter at Drogheda and Wexford. But, and this is important, those were the exceptions rather than the rule. He was, as Tom Reilly has put it in his history of the Cromwellian campaigns in Ireland, "an honourable enemy." And those words are from a Catholic historian from Drogheda.

3. If Cromwell did fail, are we then to resort to a "black and white" interpretation that depicts him as an utter scoundrel? That also would fail to do justice to the historical record. He was a touchstone of controversy in his day--but there must be something of value in his life when men as far afield as James Ussher, John Owen, Roger Williams, William Kiffin, and John Milton regarded him with admiration.

4. Finally, I am personally delighted at the responses--thank you for posting--it shows that concern about historical interpretation is still a vital concern to some.

Oliver Cromwell & the current elections

I must confess to having enormous admiration for that most controversial of figures, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), about whom two or three new books have appeared this year. The reason for my admiration will become plain in part from the following extract from A Declaration of the Army of England upon their March into Scotland To all that are Saints, and partakers of the faith of God’s Elect, in Scotland, which was issued July 19, 1650. In it Cromwell made this excellent statement: "Is all religion wrapped up in that or any one form? Doth that name, or thing, give the difference between those that are the members of Christ and those that are not? We think not so. We say, faith working by love is the true character of a Christian; and, God is our witness, in whomsoever we see any thing of Christ to be, there we reckon our duty to love, waiting for a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of God to make all those Christians, who, by the malice of the world, are diversified, and by their own carnal-mindedness, do diversify themselves by several names of reproach, to be of one heart and one mind, worshipping God with one consent."

With elections facing both Canada and the United States, some bitter words are being uttered by adherents of the different political persuasions. And even Christians have allowed what Cromwell here calls “the malice of the world” to influence them in harsh remarks about political opponents. I suppose this is a danger to which young men are prone and some of the comments I have read that have deeply disturbed me by their attitude have been written by younger brothers. But folly and malice are no respecters of age!

There are Christians today who make the heart of the gospel a political position or an economic perspective. Surely Christians may differ on such issues. As Cromwell rightly says: “Is all religion wrapped up in that or any one form?” He was talking about making ecclesial issues the heart of the gospel. In our day, some, and some who should know better, are making this political policy or that economic strategy essential to gospel truth.

The gospel touches on political and economic realities for sure—not one square inch of this universe is not owned by King Jesus, and we look forward to a glorious theocracy one day in the new heavens and the new earth in which there will be true liberty—but till then, we must learn as Christians to disagree in love on such secondary issues. Yes, have convictions; but love all who love the Lord Jesus.

If we cannot love our brothers and sisters who disagree with us in this and must hit them verbally with invective and name-calling, how on earth will we ever love those that reject the gospel and take very contrary positions to ours on matters far more weighty?

John Newton on the vocation of a gospel minister

Before John Newton (1725-1807) was called to the Anglican ministry he described what he understood his calling to be to a friend, Harry Crooke of Hunslett, Leeds, in these words:

"The message I would bear is Jesus Christ and him crucified and from the consideration of the great things he has done, to recommend and enforce Gospel holiness and Gospel love, and to take as little notice of our fierce contests, controversies and divisions as possible. My desire is to lift up the banner of the Lord, and to draw the sword of the Spirit not against names, parties and opinions, but against the world, the flesh and the devil; and to invite poor perishing sinners not to espouse a system of my own or any man’s, but to fly to the Lord Jesus, the sure and only city of refuge and the ready, compassionate and all sufficient Saviour of those that trust in him."

[Cited Marylynn Rouse, “An important turn to my future life”, The John Newton Project Prayer Letter(October/November 2008), p.1].

In some ways, a better description of the vocation of a Gospel minister would be hard to find.

Samuel Pearce: a call to submission to the will of God

I have spent most of this week working on the critical edition of Andrew Fuller's life of his dear friend Samuel Pearce (1766-1799). There is so much instruction in the life of that dear man. Like this one line when he was dying, from a letter to Fuller: "how can I be a Christian, and not submit to God?" (April 18, 1799) Think: a seemingly random line written by a dying man over two hundred years ago has such profound meaning for us today. In one line he captures a key aspect of the heart of our faith.

"Coming to Truth" Audio Now Available

On Wednesday, the Center for Worldview and Culture on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary sponsored a “Coming to Truth” discussion with Dr. Michael Haykin. This was the first of what promises to be a series of conversations in which faculty members will describe their intellectual journey, including their thoughts, events, and processes, that led them to conclude that Christianity is the universal truth. This first lecture/testimony was by Dr. Michael Haykin.  The audio for this lecture is now available for download. To read an article from the Fall 2007 TIE (SBTS alumni magazine) describing Dr. Haykin’s conversion to Christ click here.

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research and Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

"Coming to Truth": A Conversation with Dr. Michael Haykin

The Center for Worldview and Culture on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is sponsoring a "Coming to Truth" discussion on Wednesday, September 24 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. in Norton Hall Room 195. This is the first of a series of conversations in which faculty members will describe the intellectual journey, including their thoughts, events, and processes, that led them to conclude that Christianity is the universal truth. This first conversation will be with Dr. Michael Haykin, a former Trotskyite Communist Marxist and former Black Panther sympathizer. To view a promotional poster for this event click here.

To read an article from the Fall 2007 TIE describing Dr. Haykin's conversion to Christ click here.

Posted by Steve Weaver, Research and Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin.

A research topic in Baptist piety worth pursuing

Here is a possible research topic: What was it like to sit in a Baptist church in the days of Spurgeon and Broadus, Boyce and Wayland? What would you see? What would you hear? How would it feel? How did these dynamics relate to the message being preached and how truth was received? What was it like to sing in their chapels and to experience the Lord's Supper?

Some readers might think these questions trite and silly. They aren't at all!

Reception of truth always takes place in a certain ambience and space. How was truth experienced in that space? The answers to these questions and others like them would help enormously towards crafting the way spiritual life occurs and is experienced.

This would take a lot of digging but it relates to new historical studies based around our senses of sight, smell, feel, hearing and even taste. As yet, no one that I know of has been working on the history of such matters as it relates to Baptist piety.

Maybe, there are some scholars out there who would be interested in doing a concerted team research on this idea and produce together a history of Baptist sensory experience.

Comments and thoughts welcome!

Jim Davison on Jeremiah Burroughes

The following post is from a close friend, Jim Davison of Northern Ireland, who did his PhD thesis at Queens Belfast on Jeremiah Burroughes. A comment on Jeremiah Burroughes’ Gospel Worship:

Jeremiah Burroughes (c.1600-1646) has been a constant companion of mine for the past seven or eight years, through the study of his printed sermons and other works.  He more than any other puritan preacher has warmed my soul and encouraged me to seek what he sought to preach a life lived to the glory of God.  In Gospel Worship the emphasis is on the privilege and awesome responsibility of drawing near to God, for He has said: ‘I will be sanctified in them that draw nigh Me’ (Exodus 10:3).

How this is to be done is set out by Burroughes by way of three topics, each of which have many headings and sub-headings.  The subjects are Hearing the Word, Receiving the Lord’s Supper, and Sanctifying the Name of God in Prayer.  Each of these duties is unfolded for us with the aim of better equipping us to worship God in a proper manner, e.g., with reverence and awe.

In regard to hearing the Word as part of worship we are reminded by Burroughes that while it is good to hear the Word it is more important how we hear it, by which he means, not only as ‘an ordinance appointed by God,’ but in such a way that at the last day we will be able to say: ‘This is the Word that I reverenced, that I obeyed, that I loved, that I made the joy of my heart.’  Here we find Burroughes at his best as he unfolds the importance of preparation of heart to hear the Word preached.

In regard to the Lord’s Supper, Burroughes makes it clear that in keeping this ordinance ‘you will find a greater beauty … than you ever found in all your lives.’  Surely this is a message we need to get across to the many in each congregation who ignore the ordinance time after time.  Burroughes follows his exposition of the importance of this ordinance with ten mediations ‘by which we should labour to sanctify our hearts,’ as we ‘come to sanctify the name of God when we are drawing nigh to Him’ in this holy ordinance.

The third subject handled by Burroughes is prayer as a means of worshiping God.  Here Burroughes shows that prayer is ‘that which sanctifies all things to us’ - ‘Everything is sanctified by the word of God and prayer’ (1 Timothy 4:5).  Prayer is also that which ‘would help us against many temptations to evil.’  This leads Burroughes to exhort believers to ‘the preparation of heart unto prayer.’  This preparation is to be done in the course of one’s life,’ by which Burroughes means the way we live: ‘keep all things even and clean between God and your souls’ and ‘keep our hearts sensible of our continual dependence upon God.’

In many ways these fourteen sermons, now printed in a modern format by Soli Deo Gloria Publications, seek to emphasis the need for preparation of heart and soul as a prelude to participating in these three great ordinances of worship.  It is a masterful treatise on a subject that is foreign to many today; but one that is surely needed.  Burroughes is right when he says, ‘The reason why we worship God in a slight way is because we do not see God in His glory.’  But, one cannot read these sermons without appreciating that God is glorious in holiness.  It is also true that ‘If in the duties of worship we are near to God, then hence appears the great honour that God puts upon his servants that do worship him.'