New Feature on AFC Site: "A few acres of snow"

Dr. Haykin has decided to add a new feature to this page.  It will be called "A few acres of snow."  The title of this new feature comes from Voltaire's evaluation of Canada as “a few acres of snow." This new feature can be accessed by clicking on the title in the left sidebar.  The most recent posting will be visible underneath the heading "A few acres of snow."

This new page will allow Dr. Haykin the opportunity to reflect as a Canadian Christian on his nation’s history. It is hoped that this feature will benefit Canadians and American readers of this site to learn more about Canada's rich history and serve as a means of stimulating prayer for the nation.  To read more about Dr. Haykin's desires for this endeavor, please visit the main page of "A few acres of snow." From there you will be able to access all the posts in this series by the list on the right sidebar of that page.  The first post is already up, Claire Welch's Ontario.  Please check this site often for updates to this page, and . . . Enjoy!

Dr. Haykin on the Relationship between Biblical Spirituality & Church History

While Dr. Haykin was at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to speak in chapel for Radical Reformation Day, he also participated in a student forum called "The Grindstone."  The topic for discussion was "What is true Biblical spirituality and how can church history inform us?"  To listen 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.

Dr. Haykin at SWBTS for Radical Reformation Day

Last week, Dr. Haykin spoke at the annual Radical Reformation Day at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX.  Radical Reformation Day remembers the baptism of George Blaurock by Conrad Grebel and the baptism of others subsequently by Blaurock on January 21, 1525.  Dr. Haykin spoke on the subject of friendship using the example of Andrew Fuller, John Sutcliff, William Carey, Samuel Pearce and John Ryland, Jr.  To watch the video, click here.  To download a MP3 of the talk, 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.

John Clark Marshman's two-volume life of Carey, Marshman, and Ward reprinted

I just received today three volumes from India through the kindness of Pastor Jack Chen, of Carey Baptist Church, Kolkata (see here for a picture) and Pastor John Mahaffey of West Highland Baptist Church, Hamilton, Ontario who was just there teaching. My brother-in-law, Graham Lowe, is a member of West Highland and he dropped off this morning some books that Pastor Mahaffey brought back for me from Jack Chen: a small volume of Carey’s letters that I shall post on later and a two-volume reprint in hardback of John Clark Marshman’s The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward (London 1859 ed.; repr. Serampore: Council of Serampore College, 2005). Needless to say I was thrilled to get these and am very thankful to Pastor Chen for remembering me in this regard—and my love for “Careyana.” J.C. Marshman (1794-1877) was born in England to Joshua and Hannah Marshman, Carey’s beloved co-workers. He came out to India with his parents in 1799 on an American ship. In short order he became a fluent Bengali speaker, and in his adult years was a tremendous aid to the ministry of his parents and Carey. When they all died he continued to be deeply involved in Serampore College, spending a small fortune of his own to keep the school solvent. He returned to England in 1855. Four years later he published what is still the major life of his father and the other member of the Serampore Trio, William Ward.

It was Marshman who recorded the famous outburst of the senior Ryland when Carey first broached the idea of missions as “Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine” (I:10) The questions surrounding the historicity of these very words and of the event itself are still being asked—and cannot be solved here. Suffice it to say that the reprinting of these two volumes by the Council of Serampore College is a great help to the recovery of the tremendous ministries of Marshman and Ward, a work that still awaits an author or authors.

Honouring my father, Simon Haykin, on his 80th birthday

Yesterday, driving into Toronto to teach a course on Andrew Fuller and William Carey at Toronto Baptist Seminary, I fell to thinking about the sovereignty of God in my life: here I am a Christian historian, one of the "Lord's remembrancers," whose paternal grandparents were Kurdish Muslims and whose maternal grandparents were Irish Roman Catholics. If that is grace undeserved, I do not know what is! Then, along the same vein, today is the eightieth birthday of my father, Simon Haykin. I wish to go on record to say that I am forever indebted to his courage and integrity. He came from Iraq and decided at great cost to stay in England and then later brought my sister and I to Canada, for which I am forever grateful. He raised me in the West, gave me Western values and a Western education, for all of which I am deeply grateful. How different life would have been had he gone back to Iraq as he was planning when I was two or so!

Lord thank you that you gave me such a father.

Two simple questions

Here is a simple question: If a Christian community is regularly speaking of reconciliation to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that by sovereign grace alone, but is rent by divisions with little or no actual reconciliation between the various groups within this community, what should we say about this community? Here is another: If a Christian community is passionate about truth but has no obvious relish for unity with others who preach the same fundamental truths, and if they never speak about these others, let alone pray for them, what does this say about this community?

A summary of Patristic thought

Here is an excellent summation of the piety and theology of the Fathers: "To receive mystically the Trinity and share in God's own triune life by following the commands of Christ, was for the Church Fathers the very purpose of human existence." [A. Edward Siecienski, The Filioque (OUP, 2010), vi].

Rightly Augustine would want to add the phrase "by grace" to this statement: "by grace share in God's own triune life."

"How To Make a Decent Cup of Tea"

Normally I would not cite Christopher Hitchens with approval, but I must say this recent piece by him is superb: "How To Make a Decent Cup of Tea: Ignore Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and heed George Orwell's tea-making advice" (http://www.slate.com/id/2279601/). Highly recommended for nearly all of my American (and most of my Canadian friends) who have me over for a cuppa! HT: Jim Parker (my Texan friend).

PS: Had trouble to know how to tag this entry. Maybe I need to start another category and entitle it "Tea"!