Piper: Christian Biography

Every Year, John Piper delivers a talk about a figure from Church History. Here is a list of most of his talks:

J.C. Ryle.
A minister in the Church of England in 1800's, prolific author

Charles Simeon
A minister in the Church of England in 1700's, often suffered opposition for preaching the gospel

Charles Spurgeon
A Baptist minister in the 1800's, powerful preacher who also dealt with depression

William Tyndale
Early translator of the Bible into English who was executed by Catholics for his efforts. 1500's

 John Owen
A Congregationalist minister in 1600's, greatest theologian in the English language

Athanasius
 A bishop who fought against Arius over the deity of Christ, in 300's

John Calvin
 Reformer in the 1500's

Martin Luther
 The monk that started the Reformation over justification by faith alone
 
Robert Murray McCheyne
 Scottish Presbyterian minister in the 1800's, died in late 20's

 Augustine
 Bishop that fought against the heretic Pelagius in 300's and 400's

George Muller
minister in 1800's

Andrew Fuller
 Baptist supporter of missions

Adoniram Judson
Missionary to Burma


George Whitefield
Church of England evangelist in the 1700's, the Spirit started the Great Awakening through his preaching, and was the actual founder of Methodism.

William Cowper
 Poet and hymn writer that suffered from Depression

J. Gresham Machen
 Founder of Westminster Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian church who fought against liberalism in the early 1900's
 
John Newton
 Minister in Church of England and hymn writer of Amazing Grace.

C.S. Lewis
 writer and author


David Brainerd
 American missionary to the Indians in the 1700's, friend of Jonathan Edwards who wrote his biography of his short life.
 
Martin Lloyd Jones
 Minister in the Church of England in the 1900's
 
Jonathan Edwards
 Congregationalist minister in the 1700's
 
William Wilberforce
 Member of Parliament that fought to end slavery in England in 1700's


John Bunyan
Baptist preacher and writer of "Pilgrim's Progress" in 1600's

John C Paton
 Presbyterian missionary in the Pacific in 1800's

Who Am I?

I was cleaning out my desk at the Hospital and looked up again at the poem I have over my desk. This past year of my life as a Chaplain has been one of considering anew my calling and role as a pastor. Bonhoeffer, when in his cell imprisoned by the Nazis, asked himself the question "Who am I?" Times of transition, of which I am in one, are often times of self-evaluation, self-doubt and reorientation. The poem particularly speaks to me now, both in the uncertainty and anxiety of change as well as the certainty within changes in life.

“Who am I?”
By Dietrich Bonhoeffer (March 4, 1945)

Who am I? They often tell me
I would step from my cell’s confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
like a squire from his country-house.

Who am I? They often tell me
I would talk to my warden
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though they were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me
I would bear the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I know of myself?
restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
trembling in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine.

Richard Sibbes on Union

I was reading Richard Sibbes and this section jumped out at me. Sibbes almost completely parrots Calvin on this point, but it is interesting how Sibbes frames the importance of Union. The Spirit in uniting us to Christ is spoken of as granting faith, assurance and making the purchased benefits of Christ's ours. For Sibbes, Union seems like another way of speaking of imputation and how imputation is a reality and not merely a legal fiction. I'm not quite sure about Sibbes' full thoughts on imputation and union, comments are welcome:

"But you will say, the liberty of justification is wrought by Christ; we are justified by the obedience of Christ; and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.

Answer: It is true that Christ is our righteousness. But what is that to us unless we have something to put it on? Unless we are united to Christ, what good do we have by Christ, if Christ is not ours? If there is not a spiritual marriage, what benefit do we have by him if we do not have him to pay our debt? For his riches to be ours and our debt to be his, there must first be a union.

Now this union is wrought by the Spirit. It is begun in effectual calling. From this union there comes a change: his righteousness is mine, as if I had obeyed and done it myself; and my debts and sins are his. This is by the Spirit, because the union between Christ and me is by the Spirit. For whatever Christ has done, it is nothing to me till there is a union.

And likewise, freedom is by the Spirit, because the Spirit of God works faith in me not only to unite and knit me to Christ, but to persuade me that Christ is mine, that all his is mine, and that my debts are his...so with this reflexive action [faith], the Spirit brings liberty in justification; just as it is a means of union by which all that is Christ's becomes mine, and mine becomes Christ's."

-Richard Sibbes. Glorious Freedom: The Excellency of the Gospel above the Law. pg 34-35

Who Said it?

Guess, without Googling: Which Dead Theologian wrote these comments from Psalm 59 on 1) The uselessness of our own righteousness, 2) the lack of anything good in ourselves to bring to God 3) the role of preaching the law in bringing us to terror?

Commenting on Psalm 53:3 "For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me"

"There are also other men strong, not because of riches, not because of the powers of the body, not because of any temporally pre-eminent power of station, but relying on their righteousness. This sort of strong men must be guarded against, feared, repulsed, not imitated: of men relying, I say, not on body, not on means, not on descent, not on honour; for all such things who would not see to be temporal, fleeting, falling, flying? but relying on their own righteousness.…“Wherefore,” say they, doth your Master eat with publicans and sinners? (Matt 9:11) O ye strong men, to whom a Physician is not needful! This strength to soundness belongeth not, but to insanity. For even than men frenzied nothing can be stronger, more mighty they are than whole men: but by how much greater their powers are, by so much nearer is their death. May God therefore turn away from our imitation these strong men.…The same are therefore the strong men, that assailed Christ, commending their own justice. Hear ye these strong men: when certain men of Jerusalem were speaking, having been sent by them to take Christ, and not daring to take Him (because when he would, then was He taken, that truly was strong): Why therefore, say they, “could ye not take Him?” And they made answer, “No one of men did ever so speak as He.” And these strong men, “Hath by any means any one of the Pharisees believed on Him, or any one of the Scribes, but this people knowing not the Law?” (John 7:45-49). They preferred themselves to the sick multitude, that was running to the Physician: whence but because they were themselves strong? and what is worse, by their strength, all the multitude also they brought over unto themselves, and slew the Physician of all.…"

And on Verse 10: Behold what is, “My strength, to Thee I will keep:” on myself I will in no ways at all rely. For what good thing have I brought, that thou shouldest have mercy on me, and shouldest justify me? What in me hast Thou found, save sins alone? Of Thine there is nothing else but the nature which Thou hast created: the other things are mine own evil things which Thou hast blotted out. I have not first risen up to Thee, but to awake me Thou hast come: for “His mercy shall come before me.” Before that anything of good I shall do, “His mercy shall come before me.”

And on the Law: "The Conscience is not to be healed, if it be not wounded. Thou preachest and pressest the law, comminations the judgment to come, with much earnestness and importunity. He Which hears, if he be not terrified, if he be not troubled, is not to be comforted."

Jaroslav Pelikan on his work

"There ought to be somebody who speaks to the other 19 centuries, not everybody should be caught in this moment. I'm filing a minority report on behalf of the past."

-Jaroslav Pelikan.
(My favorite church historian),

Chesterton Quote

"My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday."

- New York Times Magazine, 2/11/23

Peter's Denial

While preparing for a Sunday School Lesson, I found a couple of great treatments of the denial by Peter of Christ during His trial:

“As [Christ] was hanging, [the apostles] were in alarm, and the Apostles then despaired when the robber believed. Peter dared to follow, when the Lord was led to suffering, he dared to follow, who came to the house, and was wearied in the palace, and stood at the fire, and was cold; he stood at the fire, he was frozen with chilling fear. Being questioned by the maid-servant, he denied Christ once; being questioned a second time he denied Him; being questioned a third time he denied Him. God be thanked, that the questioning ceased; if the questioning had not ceased, long would the denial have been repeated.”

-Augustine of Hippo. Sermon 85 on the Gospels.

“But now our love to God is ebbing and flowing, waning and increasing. We lose our first love, and we grow again in love – scarce a day at a stand. What poor creatures are we! How unlike the Lord and His love! “Unstable as water, we cannot excel” [Gen 49:4]. Now it is, “Though all men forsake you, I will not,” [then] “I know not the Man” [Matt 26:33, 72, 74].One day, “I shall never be moved, my hill is so strong.” [Psalm 10:6], the next, “All men are liars, I shall perish.” [Psalm 116:11] Whenever was the time, wherever was the place, that our love was one day equal toward God?”

-John Owen. Communion with God

Thoughts of the Day on Union

A few quotes to contemplate this morning regarding the pecular biblical doctrine of union with Christ. This doctrine describes the nature of what it means to be "ἐν Χριστῷ" or "In Christ." Paul tells us the strange mystery that "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3:3) I've expounded on the doctrine elsewhere (Part 1, Part 2)
This is merely an opportunity to reflect on some ways others have talked about this union with Christ. Warning: Though you may have heard "union" language before, the reality of the doctrine is much more fleshly than we may be comfortable with:

"Christianity is grounded in the living union of the believer with the person of Christ" -John Williamson Nevin

"The Church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam" -Richard Hooker

Heidelberg "Q20: Are all men, then, saved by Christ just as they perished through Adam?
A. No. Only those are saved who by a true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all His benefits."

in Q49: "we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that He, our Head, will also take us, His members, up to Himself."

It is "a carnal or flesh union. By his incarnation the Son of God became one with us, sharing our nature...He came truly to brother us...Our union with Christ is therefore based on Christ's union with us." -Sinclair Ferguson

Westminster Larger Catechism "Question 69: What is the communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?

Answer: The communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and: Whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him."

"We know, moreover, that [Christ] benefits only those whose Head he is, for whome He is 'the first born brethren' and who, finally, 'have put on him'. This union alone ensures that, as far as we are concerned he has not unprofitable come with the name of Savior." -John Calvin Inst. 3.1.3

De Bres on Church Authority

Guido de Bres was one of the principle authors of the Belgic Confession. Recently, I found an excerpt on a blog from an episode of his life that bares interest. In May, Guido was tried before the Spanish Inquisition. When Guido was asked to recant his beliefs, based on the authority of the officials of the Church, Guido replied:

"I still hold the same position that I did at the time when by quick testimony from the Word of God, you made me appear to be contrary. As I have said, I am not stubborn, and do not prefer my judgment to the judgment of the Church. But I do certainly prefer with clear thinking and just cause the ancient and early Church in which the Apostles set up all things according to the ordinance of Christ. I prefer that to the church of our time which is loaded with a vast number of human traditions, and which has degenerated itself in a remarkable way from the early Church. With good reason, I say, I hold to that which the Apostles first received. For Jesus Christ, in Revelation 2, says to those in Thyatira that they should beware of the profound trickeries of Satan, to beware of false doctrine. He says, “I will put on you no other burden, only that which you have already, hold fast to this until I come.” He would not have spoken thus if it would have been necessary to receive all the novelties which the Roman church has fabricated and daily put forth as a divine commission. Indeed, I honor greatly the learned and holy persons who have preceded us, but especially the Apostles and Prophets, and their testimony is certain and indubitable."

Guido was executed by hanging on May 31, 1565.

Chesterton: Disputes about Doctrine

"Theological distinctions are fine but not thin. In all the mess of modern thoughtlessness, that still calls itself modern thought, there is perhaps nothing so stupendously stupid as the common saying, 'Religion can never depend on minute disputes about doctrine." It is like saying that life can never depend on minute disputes about medicine."

-G.K. Chesterton

The Preached Word: What is required for a sermon?

Robert L. Dabney wrote a book in the 1800s that many accepted across denominational lines as presenting what was required of all sermons preached to the church, every time a sermon was to be preached. These qualities included unity, textual fidelity, Instructiveness, Movement, Point, and Order as well as:

"The next property of the good sermon I have named evangelical tone. This is a gracious character, appropriate to the proclamation of that gospel where 'mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace kiss each other.' ... We cannot better describe it than in the words of the apostles, when they so frequently speak of their work as 'preaching Christ,' or 'preaching Christ crucified.' We do not conceive that they mean to declare, the only facts they ever recited were those enacted on Calvary, or that they limited themselves exclusively to the one doctrine of vicarious satisfaction for sin. The abstracts of their sermons, recorded in the New Testament, show that this was not true. But we find that these facts and this doctrine were central to their teachings. They recurred perpetually with a prominence suitable to their importance. More than this, they were ever near at hand, as the focus to which every beam of divine truth must converge. The whole revealed system, with its doctrines and duties, was ever presented in gospel aspects. The law, when preached as a rule of conviction, led to the cross. The law, as a rule of obedience, drew its noblest sanctions from the cross. Such being the method of the inspired men, I would willingly define evangelical preaching by the term scriptural. Let the preacher present all doctrines and duties, not in the lights of philosophy or of human ethics, but of the New Testament. And for enforcement of this quality I cannot do better than refer you to the apostle's declaration, that when he came to preach among the Corinthians (1 Cor 2:2) he 'determined not to know anything among them, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.'"

-Robert Dabney. Sacred Rhetoric (renamed in reissue: Evangelical Eloquence) pg 114-115.

Torrance on the Incarnation

T.F. Torrance went to be with the Lord over a year ago. But I just picked up an adaptation of some of his final lectures in book form called "Incarnation." In it, the learned theologian explores what to him was the highest part of theology: Christology. In my experience of learning theology with a Christological focus, I more and more sympathize with the language used by the early church that knew the doctrines surrounding salvation as implications of the Person and Work of Christ. In reading Torrance, I think I have a teacher to teach me further how to do this.

These below, are the first few lines of a "Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ," that I am starting on as my devotional reading:

"Our task in christology is to yield the obedience of our mind to what is given, which is God's self-revelation in its objective reality, Jesus Christ...We cannot compare the fact of Christ with other facts, nor can we deduce the fact of Christ from our knowledge of other facts. The fact of Christ comes breaking into the continuity of our human knowledge as an utterly distinctive and unique fact, which we cannot understand in terms of other facts, which we cannot reduce to what we already know. It is a new and unique fact without analogy anywhere in human experience or knowledge.

And yet Jesus Christ gives himself to be known as the object of our experience and knowledge, within our history and within our human existence - but when we know him there, we know him in terms of himself. We know him out of pure grace as one who gives himself to us and freely discloses himself to us. We cannot earn knowledge of Christ, we cannot achieve it, or build up to it. We have no capacity or power in ourselves giving us the ability to have mastery over this fact. In the very act of our knowing Christ he is the master, we are the mastered. He manifests himself and gives himself to us by his own power and agency, by his Holy Spirit, and in the very act of knowing him we ascribe all the possibility of our knowing him to Christ alone.

But let us note: it is only when we actually know Christ, know him as our personal savior and Lord, that we know that we have not chosen him but that he has chosen us; that it is not in our own capacity to give ourselves the power to know him...we acknowledge that in knowing God in Christ, we do so not by our own power, but by the power of God."

Bonhoeffer on Matt 5:17

When busy with classes, it is the time for quotes. I am preparing a lesson on a section from the Sermon on the Mount. This quote summarizes all I wish to communicate:


"Jesus, the Son of God, who alone lives in perfect communion with him [God the Father], vindicates the law of the old covenant by coming to fulfill it. He was the only Man who ever fulfilled the law and therefore he alone can teach the law and its fulfillment aright. The disciples would naturally grasp that as soon as He told them, for they knew who He was…The only way for Him to fulfill the law is by dying a sinner’s death on the cross. There he embodies in his Person the perfect fulfillment of the law.

That is to say, Jesus Christ and he alone fulfills the law, because He alone lives in perfect communion with God. It is Jesus himself who comes between the disciples and the law, not the law which comes between Jesus and the disciples.” – Bonhoeffer. The Cost of Discipleship. pg 123

RIP: Richard John Neuhaus

Richard John Neuhaus died today after a relapse of cancer. Neuhaus was editor of First Things Magazine and a Roman Catholic priest, a convert from Lutheranism. He was, along with Peter Kreeft, among the ranks of my favorite Catholics. I always liked the Protestant converts, perhaps because I keep seeing their old Protestantism bubble up.

Ironically, my two favorite books by him were on death: As I Lay Dying and Death on a Friday Afternoon. I will have to thumb back through As I Lay Dying today, a reflection on his first battle with cancer.

Owen on Christ

I have recently read John Owen's Communion with the Triune God. There are several rich sections within the work. One in particular, I believe is trying to answer the question: Why do I not feel a love for Christ?:

"Compare a little what you aim at, or what you do, with what you have already heard of Jesus Christ: if anything you design be like to him, if anything you desire be equal to him, let him be rejected as one that has neither form nor comeliness in him; but if, indeed, all your ways be but vanity and vexation of spirit, in comparison of him, why do you spend your 'money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not?' [Isa. 55:2]

...consider, I pray, what are all your beloveds to this Beloved? What have you gotten by them? Let us see peace, quietness, assurance of everlasting blessedness that they have given you. Their paths are crooked paths - whoever goes in them shall not know peace. Behold here a fit object for your choicest affections - one in whom you may find rest to your souls - one in whom there is nothing that will grieve and trouble you to eternity...

Pray, study him a little; you love him not, because you know him not."


After reading the book, I could recommend few better places to study Christ a little than John Owen's Communion with the Triune God.

We have not known Thee as we ought

I’ve already highlighted Thomas Pollock’s Hymn: “Jesus with Thy Church Abide.” Another Of Thomas Pollock’s hymns I’ve come to love is “We have not known Thee as we ought.” It is a hymn of confession. Typically, we like to sing songs that are victorious (“God reigns”), or dutiful (“I will praise You”), but rarely do our hymns match the diversity of the Psalms, which included hymns of praise (Psalm 67), lament (Psalm 22), longing (Psalm 13), and confession (Ps 41:4, Ps 51:4). It was not always this way. When I look at many who lived before this hollowing out of the totality of Christian experience, I find descriptions that match not just the good times of Ecclesiastes 3, but the bad as well. There is a time to be victorious, but there is a time to confess. This side of heaven, there are more times to confess than we currently give time to:


“We have not known Thee as we ought”
By Thomas Pollock, 1889 [Modern Version here]

We have not known Thee as we ought,
Nor learned Thy wisdom, grace and power;
The things of earth have filled our thought,
And trifles of the passing hour.
Lord, give us light Thy truth to see,
And make us wise in knowing Thee.

We have not feared Thee as we ought,
Nor bowed beneath Thine awful eye,
Nor guarded deed and word and thought,
Remembering that God was nigh.
Lord, give us faith to know Thee near,
And grant the grace of holy fear.

We have not loved Thee as we ought,
Nor cared that we are loved by Thee;
Thy presence we have coldly sought,
And feebly longed Thy face to see.
Lord, give a pure and loving heart
To feel and know the love Thou art.

We have not served Thee as we ought,
Alas, the duties left undone,
The work with little fervor wrought,
The battles lost or scarcely won!
Lord, give the zeal, and give the might,
For Thee to toil, for Thee to fight.

When shall we know Thee as we ought,
And fear and love and serve aright?
When shall we, out of trial brought,
Be perfect in the land of light?
Lord, may we day by day prepare
To see Thy face and serve Thee there.

Are Roman Sacraments Valid?

The Roman Church is considered by Reformed and Lutheran Confessionalists to be a "false church." Exactly what it means to be a false church remains a little cloudy. Indeed, such a designation exists for Paul as a church that does not preach the gospel. But what else does that entail? Most Protestant Churches have still recognized the sacraments of the Roman church as valid sacraments. Why is this if Rome does not preach the gospel? Martin Luther offers an explanation:

"Although the city Rome is worse than Sodom and Gomorra, nevertheless there remains Baptism, Sacraments, the Words of the Gospel, the Holy Scriptures, the Ministry of the Church, the name of Christ and the name of God . . . Therefore, the Roman Church is holy, because she has the holy name of God, the Gospel, the Baptism, etc. If these things exist among a people, the people is called holy. Thus also our city Wittenberg is a holy city, and we are truly holy because we are baptized, have received the Holy Communion and have been taught and called by God. We have the work of God among us, the Word and the Sacraments, and these make us holy."

- Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians 1535, Luther's Works, trans. by Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1963), vol. 26, pp.24-25.

A Prayer of Francis

"O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life."

-from the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Reformation Day: Thomas Cranmer

I thought I would use this opportunity to prematurely honor the church calendar of All Saints Day (which is Nov 1) and Reformation Day (October 31) in honoring a saint I have come to appreciate and love in the past year. This man was Thomas Cranmer.

Cranmer rose to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Henry VIII. Cranmer by that time had secretly married a German Lutheran girl, whose religious sympathies he shared. As Henry VIII called for a break with Rome, for fairly expedient and selfish reasons, Cranmer used the opportunity to bring Reformation principles to England. Traditionalists argued for keeping the Medieval Roman Catholic nature of doctrine in England, but Cranmer slowly and unperturbed fought for Reformation theology.

Imagine an era of the church when people came to a church service and could not read or understand the Latin service. What was worse was, these people were the clergy. It came to Cranmer’s attention how the clergy were left extremely uneducated, and he undertook the composition of the Book of Common Prayer, to educate the clergy and allow the worshippers to understand what was happening, being prayed and said in the service. Cranmer also wrote 42 articles of religion, 39 of which became the confession of the Anglican Church, including affirmation of justification by faith only, and the inefficacy of free will to save man.

After Edward VI died, Bloody Mary Tudor took the throne, and undertook her campaign to rid England of Protestantism. High on her enemies list was Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer was imprisoned and tortured until he recanted his faith, signing a document of recantation. His Catholic tormentors led him to make his recantation public. But when Cranmer was placed in front of the crowd, he instead preached salvation in Christ alone and renounced the Catholics. For reward, Cranmer was led to the stake to be burned. As the fires were lit, Cranmer extended his right hand, exclaiming that he wished it would burn first, for it had betrayed him.

Cranmer was a man that slowly plodded the soil for the gospel in England. The task required patience, diplomacy, and grace. His legacy? If you are an English speaking Protestant, beit Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, or whatever, you should take a minute to thank God for Thomas Cranmer, without whom, you may still be without the meat of the gospel.

The limits of Tradition

Custom without truth is the antiquity of error. [“Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas erroris est.”] On which account, let us forsake the error and follow the truth.

- Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258 A.D.) (Epistle 73.9)