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On Saturday, May 16th, Dr. Michael Haykin will lead a morning conference on the Holy Spirit at Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. This free conference will last from 9 am - Noon (EST). Conference Sessions are as follows:
For directions to Farmdale Baptist Church, click here.
A couple of days ago I mentioned my discovery of an hitherto unknown sermon by Abraham Booth--at least unknown to me. Here are a few quotes from the sermon, which is based on 2 Cor 4:2, in which Booth deals with the manner and aim of preaching: "When I contemplate the Apostle Paul, as the most honoured and useful servant of the Lord Jesus, in spreading the glories of divine grace, I can hardly forbear wishing, like Augustin, to have beheld him in the pulpit; if, thereby, I might form a more correct idea of his doctrine and manner of preaching. Yet such a wish is quite unavailing; and indeed, the gratification of it quite unnecessary. For that incomparable man, in his several epistles, has drawn his own character both as a Christian and as a minister of Christ. In the words of our text, we have the representation of Paul in the pulpit. His grand business is, to manifest the truth."
"Take care, that under pretence of being open and explicit, you do not degenerate into dogmatism, or become personal in your, addresses. In the pulpit, you have to do rather with characters than with persons. You are bound, in faithfulness and in duty, to declare, that drunkards, covetous, self-righteous men, shall not inherit the kingdom of God: but you must not single out any particular person before you; for you will then become ungenerous, and the consequences will be injurious."
"The more you keep the approbation of conscience, and the favour of God, in your eye, the more careful will you be to study your text and to manifest the truth which it contains; that the understanding and the conscience of your hearers may be duly enlightened, feel its authority, and God himself approve your labours. My brother, you have first of all to do with the understanding of your hearers, and as there is a glorious harmony and influence in divine truth, it must certainly operate on the will.
“If you preach the whole counsel of God faithfully, you must expect to be treated by some as an Arminian—if you assert the unchangeableness of salvation for those who, though undeserving, yet believe in Christ, you must expect to be reproached by others as an Antinomian."
Clothing is far more important than our “casual” culture would like to admit. Clothing can never be equated with piety (1 Peter 3:3-4), but nor is it negligible, as the New Testament indicates (see 1 Timothy 2:9-10). It reflects inner attitudes. For ministers and pastors, my dear friend Don Whitney has some excellent advice. See his article "Clothing Tips for Ministers" here.
A video of Dr. Haykin being interviewed at ETS last November about his recent work published by Broadman & Holman Academic, The Advent of Evangelicalism is now available online.
The Advent of Evangelicalism: Exploring Historical Continuities is a thorough analysis of David Bebbington’s 1989 book, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s which put forth the idea that evangelical religion is the result of transatlantic revival in the 1730s, and that it took a working together attitude toward the Enlightenment rather than a contradictory one. Today, Bebbington’s thesis has gained international acceptance, and scholars from Europe and North America present a review of its primary arguments and conclusions here in The Advent of Evangelicalism (B&H Academic, 2008).
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.
Working yesterday on a title for the forthcoming book by Dr. Raymond A. Coppenger, the father of Dr. Mark Coppenger, on Abraham Booth—it will be entitled “A messenger of grace”: A study of the life and thought of Abraham Booth (1734–1806) (Joshua Press, 2009)—I found a hitherto unknown sermon by Booth, an ordination sermon for Dr. John Stanford, who eventually came to the United States. It is a meditation on 2 Corinthians 4:2, and quintessential Booth. He argues that Paul, as one who sought to make known the truth, is a pattern for imitation. There is hope that this new sermon will be included in a future volume of the collected works of Booth, currently being published by Particular Baptist Press—see The Works of Abraham Booth, Volume I. (Springfield, Missouri: Particular Baptist Press, 2006). In the course of this discovery I also came across a remark Booth makes vis-à-vis a quote from his favourite author, John Owen (1616-1683). Booth is speaking about his dislike of the use of the title “Reverend,” a disapprobation common to Baptists of his day, and he quotes Owen quoting Martin Luther (1483-1546): Nunquam periclitatur religio nisi inter Reverendissimos (“Religion is never in any danger except among the most Reverend gentlemen”!). Of course, dangers have arisen from other quarters, but how often in the history of the church has it been ordained ministers who have sought to destroy the very faith they were commissioned to protect. May God enable all who have pledged themselves to be servants of the Word to be faithful to that trust.
This Wednesday my dear friend and brother Stéphane Gagné will be formally examined with regard to his ordination as a “servant of the Word,” to use the Lukan terminology. Those of you who pray for the Francophone world, do remember this brother at this important time in his life.
What a weight there is, though, to such a calling. All Christians have a calling, but not all have such a weighty calling. Who is sufficient to preach the gospel? Among those called to this service, none, not one. And even when we are conscious of our need of God’s help by the Spirit to fulfill this calling and rely upon the blessed Spirit of Jesus, what insufficiency marks our discourse!
But we are in good company: the Apostle Paul himself knew such weakness. As did God’s servants down through the years. And we can derive this comfort from the witness of the past: God enabled them, weak though they were, and his arm of strength is still mighty.
Baptists have excelled at emphasizing the biblical requirements for a true baptism, namely baptism should be by immersion and believers only are the proper subjects of baptism. What they have not always been equally adept at is explaining the answer to this question: what does baptism mean? Yesterday evening when I got home from Quebec I watched a baptism via the wonder of the internet and heard a relatively extensive discourse about what baptism is not: it is not a saving event, the water is not important (by which I gather the baptizer meant that the water contains no “sacramental” properties—surely he could not have meant that baptism does not require water, which would be very odd for a Baptist to assert), and that baptism is merely a symbol.
Listening to this largely negative explanation of what baptism is not, I was struck by the fact that our Baptist forebears in the defining eras of Baptist thought—the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—would have had some concerns about these remarks. They had a rich baptismal theology. The remarks that I heard yesterday preceding the baptisms were wafer-thin in real theological reflection and stemmed more from the nineteenth-century Baptist reaction to the genuine theological errors of Campbellism than the biblical witness.
For instance, what does one make of this remark by the venerable Andrew Fuller: “The immersion of the body in water, which is a purifying element contains a profession of our faith in Christ, through the shedding of whose blood we are cleansed from all sin. Hence, baptism in the name of Christ is said to be for the remission of sins. Not that there is any virtue in the element, whatever be the quantity; nor in the ceremony, though of Divine appointment: but it contains a sign of the way in which we must be saved. Sin is washed away in baptism in the same sense as Christ’s flesh is eaten, and his blood drank, in the Lord’s supper: the sign, when rightly used leads to the thing signified” [The Practical Uses of Christian Baptism (Complete Works, III, 341)]. This statement “leads to the thing signified” seems to mean that when the person being baptized has such a faith as Fuller describes, then baptism confirms this faith and the individual’s share in the benefits of the gospel.
In other words, baptism is the place where conversion to Christ is ratified and, to borrow a phrase from another great Calvinistic Baptist theologian of the eighteenth century, John Gill, “faith discovers itself.” [An Exposition of the New Testament (1809 ed.; repr. Paris, Arkansas: The Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc., 1989), I, 495, commentary on Mark 16:16].
We need to recover this rich baptismal thought of our forebears that was drawn from the extensive discussion of baptism in the New Testament, and move beyond the largely negative picture of baptism I heard yesterday on the internet.
I have returned from a long week (nine days in total) away from home with ministry and teaching as far afield as Florida, Southern in Kentucky (classes ended this past week), and Sherbrooke in Québec. Not surprisingly, I was tired when I flew into Montréal last Friday. But oh what refreshment time among the French Baptist brethren proved. I never spend time with my French brothers (this time, especially with Stéphane Gagné and François Deschamps—two very dear brothers and good friends) without coming away refreshed, humbled, challenged, and thankful for the wonder-working grace of God among these brothers and sisters. The Lord is doing a great work in la belle province—unnoticed by much of the Anglophone Evangelical world (this should not surprise, for that world has largely forgotten—Calvin excepted—the great French Evangelical heritage). And this English-speaking Christian wants to go on record that I am deeply in the debt of these French-speaking Christian heirs of Calvin. Some of the happiest hours as a Christian I have spent among these believers. One of them, Jacques Alexanian, a key figure among the pioneers of the present work in Québec, I consider and honour as a father in Christ. Others of them are among my closest friends. Yet others have touched me deeply by their zeal, their worship and love for Christ and his kingdom. May God continue to bless these churches for the glory of his Son, the Lord Jesus.
Historically, one of the key differences between Baptists and Presbyterians—fellow Kingdom-sojourners for much of their respective histories (one thinks of the friendship of Andrew Fuller and Thomas Chalmers, for example)—is an area that is rarely discussed, namely, the concept of a learned ministry. Far more Baptists than Presbyterians have recognized that God can and does call to pastoral ministry men who have not had formal theological education. In Baptist history, one thinks of John Bunyan, for example, or John Gill, that indefatigable commentator, or Fuller, the theological father of the modern missionary movement, or William Carey or those remarkable preachers C.H. Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones (yes, the “Doctor” was a Baptist—read his lecture on baptism in his three-volume study of Christian doctrine). To be sure, these men read and studied and were self-educated, but they lacked formal credentials.
Having spent twenty-seven years in formal theological education, I am more than ever conscious that while such an education is extremely desirable for an effective ministry, it is not indispensable. And I am ever so glad that my Baptist forebears made room for men like those listed above, some of whom are among my theological mentors as a Christian. To think that because a man lacks formal credentials, he cannot reason and write with powerful acumen and insight is simply a species of arrogance.
Andrew Fuller, by trade a farmer, by calling one of the profoundest theologians of the Baptist profession, surely had it right when he said:
As to academical education, the far greater part of our ministers have it not. [William] Carey was a shoemaker years after he engaged in the ministry, and I was a farmer. I have sometimes however regretted my want of learning. On the other hand, brother [John] Sutcliff, and brother [Samuel] Pearce, have both been at Bristol [Baptist Academy]. We all live in love, without any distinction in these matters. We do not consider an academy as any qualification for membership or preaching, any further than as a person may there improve his talents. Those who go to our academics must be members of a church, and recommended to them as possessing gifts adapted to the ministry. They preach about the neighbourhood all the time, and their going is considered in no other light than as a young minister might apply to an aged one for improvement. Since brother [John] Ryland has been at Bristol, I think he has been a great blessing in forming the principles and spirit of the young men. I allow, however, that the contrary is often the case in academies, and that when it is so they prove very injurious to the churches of Christ. [“Discipline of the English and Scottish Baptist Churches”, Works (Sprinkle Publications, 1988), III, 481].
This mini-conference celebrating the 500 year anniversary of John Calvin’s birth was held on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 from 9am - Noon. There were three lectures by Dr. Shawn Wright, Dr. David Puckett, and Dr. Michael Haykin focusing on various aspects of Calvin’s life and thought. You may now download the MP3s of the conference below:
Like many great men—one thinks, for example, of the big name this year, John Calvin—the name of Andrew Fuller has aroused—and still does arouse—deep feelings pro and con. Reading a new ms on Lemuel Haynes by Thabiti Anyabwile (which we hope to publish in the Reformation Heritage Books’ series on spirituality), I noticed one remark by Haynes in which he said that the “memory of a Patrick, a Beveridge, a Manton, a Flavel, a Watts, a Doddridge, an Edwards, Hopkins, Bellamy, Spencer and Fuller is precious to us.” And in a letter dated October 3, 1802, he told his correspondent Timothy Cooley, “I have this day finished reading a fourth volume of Mr. Fuller, an ingenious European writer. You have doubtless read his “letters to the Calvinists,”—“The Gospel its own Witness,”—“The Gospel a Faithful Saying,” and the “Backslider.” They are admired by the serious; and, I think, are worthy of a place in every minister’s library.”
Yet, a day or so before reading this I read a remark made by the unorthodox Welsh Baptist minister William Richards (1749–1818) that he had been “stigmatized with Fullerism (than which nothing this side [of] hell can be worse in the estimation of some good folks)” [The Writings of the Radical Welsh Baptist Minister William Richards (1749–1818) , selected and edited John Oddy (Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), 64]. The charge was not true, but it gives a good insight into the way some viewed Fuller and his theology.
My sympathies are with brother Haynes!
By the way, look for Thabiti’s book, it is a rich feast from an Edwardsean African-American pastor.
During the French Reformation, around 10% of the population embraced Evangelical Protestantism—this entailed close to 50% of the upper and middle classes. These two million flooded into the church during a time of a great outpouring of the Spirit between the 1520s and the 1560s. Those stirring days will be remembered frequently this year when many celebrate the qunicentennial of the birth of John Calvin (born 1509). As an historian I am thrilled to read of those days and very thankful for the life and ministry of Calvin (though not without some reservations about certain aspects of his ministry).
But as a Christian, living in the early twenty-first century, what stares me in the face is the enormous spiritual need of France. I just got this statement sent to me today in an e-mail from a dear brother and sister, both of whom I taught in the 1980s at Central Baptist Seminary, Toronto, and who have served in France for nearly twenty years. They wrote:
“We have seen very few French people turn to the Lord and remain attached to Him over the past 19 years.”
Should this not be a matter for great prayer? Especially by those who honour Calvinistic theology? Calvin gave much of his life to see the gospel planted in France. If we honour his memory, should we not share something of his concern and desire?
Brothers and sisters, those of you love the doctrines of grace—yea, all who love the Lord Jesus and long for his appearing, pray for France and her people!
Dr. Stephen Nichols recently offered a brief review of Dr. Michael Haykin's recent book The Christian Lover on the Reformation 21 blog.
I just received word that a very dear brother, Pastor Randy Singbeil, of Alliston, Ontario, died last night quite suddenly from a previously undiagnosed brain tumor. Randy was a lover of the doctrines of grace, and a graduate from Knox Theological Seminary (D.Min.). I counted Randy among my good friends and esteemed him as a colleague in ministry. I first met Randy about twelve years ago when he was pastoring at Walsh, here in Ontario. What drew us together was a shared love for the same historical figures—men like the Puritans and Jonathan Edwards, Calvinistic Baptists like Andrew Fuller and Charles H. Spurgeon, and that remarkable Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones—and a great desire to see revival and reformation here in our Baptist churches of Ontario.
It was a privilege to get to know Randy even more as he studied at a seminary with which I am very familiar, Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, where he graduated with a D.Min. I remember reading over portions of his well-executed thesis "Can These Dry Bones Live? Church Revitalization in the Cultural Mosaic of Canada (2004)". And when I came to Toronto Baptist Seminary as Principal in 2003, and was seeking for pastoral leaders who would support the work at Toronto Baptist Seminary, I turned to Randy, among a few others. By that time, he and his dear wife Crystal had moved to Toronto to pastor Long Branch Baptist Church. Randy, and Crystal as time allowed, was always present and supportive at our seminary functions and showed a great interest in what we were doing.
I last saw him, I believe, at the Sola Scriptura conference in London, Ontario, last November, though we had ongoing contact through e-mail since then. He and Crystal were there, and we talked about a possible trip to Geneva this summer to celebrate the quincentennial of John Calvin’s birth. Randy was his usual outgoing, warm self, that I always deeply appreciated.
One of our mutual heroes, the Baptist pastor Andrew Fuller often resorted to poetry and hymnody when overwhelmed with emotion. Shortly after getting the news about Randy I was led to think of this hymn by D.A. MacGregor, the nineteenth-century Canadian Baptist, who also died quite young. These are stanzas 5-6:
Life is death if severed From Thy throbbing heart. Death with life abundant At Thy touch would start. …
Jesus! all perfections Rise and end in Thee; Brightness of God’s glory Thou, eternally. Favour’d beyond measure They Thy face who see; May we, gracious Saviour, Share this ecstasy.
We trust and confidently believe that Randy is now seeing the face of his and our Saviour, and rejoicing perfectly in God’s mercy in Christ.
Please remember his wife Crystal and his and her families in prayer. The funeral will be Saturday in Alliston, Ontario.
PS See the tribute to Randy by my dear friend Heinz Dschankilic on the Sola Scriptura website: "Today We Grieve at the Loss of a Dear Friend."
Registration is now open for the 3rd Annual Conference of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at Southern Seminary (August 24-25, 2009). The theme this year is "Baptist Spirituality: Historical Perspectives". Featured speakers will include: Crawford Gribben, Robert Strivens, Greg Thornbury, Kevin Smith, Tom Nettles, Greg Wills, Gerald Priest, Jason Lee, and Malcolm Yarnell. Other established Baptist History scholars, as well as several Ph.D. students will be presenting papers on the conference theme during the parallel sessions. A special early conference rate is now available through the end of May. For more information about the conference, including schedule, registration costs, and the opportunity to register online, click here.
Dr. Haykin has written a short review of John Buchan's classic tale of intrigue featuring his famous character, Richard Hannay. To read Dr. Haykin's recent reflections on this work click here. For other "Book Reviews" click here.
(Click image to enlarge.)
This mini-conference celebrating the 500 year anniversary of John Calvin’s birth will be held on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 from 9am - Noon. There will be three lectures by Dr. Shawn Wright, Dr. David Puckett, and Dr. Michael Haykin focusing on various aspects of Calvin’s life and thought. The lectures will be followed by a panel discussion with the participants.
No Registration Required!
FREE BOOKS! The first 50 in attendance will receive complimentary copies of John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God by John Piper and The Soul of Life: The Piety of John Calvin edited by Joel Beeke. We will also randomly give away several copies of Steven Lawson’s The Expository Genuis of John Calvin.
Dr. Haykin recently wrote a book commendation for Glory in the Glen: A History of Evangelical Revivals in Scotland, 1880-1940. It is posted below:
The great need of the Church in the West is for God the Holy Spirit to come in power as he has done so often in the past—ravishing hearts, enlightening minds, inspiring purity of worship, sending out into mission, mollifying hardened souls. Contrary to the wisdom of the age, it is not new techniques or new schemes we need with pastors masquerading as CEOs. Nor is the solution to our spiritual dearth a turning to ritual or even I dare say the return of charismatic spectacle. It is what many nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Scottish Christians, whose experience of true revival is set forth in this well-documented book, knew: the awesome God of holiness himself drawing near to his people and setting mind and heart ablaze with glorious light. Read—and pray!
Dr. Haykin is currently leading a reading circle group through C.J. Mahaney's Humility: True Greatness. I had previously posted the study questions for chapters 1 & 2 and I have recently posted the questions for chapters 3-6. These are and all future questions will be posted online on the Books & Papers page, under Study Guides.
Southern Seminary's pioneering new PhD program in Biblical Spirituality is gaining attention nationally through the mainstream news media. An Associated Press article by Dylan T. Lovan was picked up by USA Today yesterday and has also been published and it is also popping up in various places across the nation. For more information about the Ph.D. in biblical spirituality, call 502-897-4119 or email thmphd@sbts.edu. For more information about the D.Min. in biblical spirituality, call 502-897-4113 or email dmin@sbts.edu.
