As we come to this subject, the Evangelical Cause from the Reformation to the Great Awakening, it would be right, firstly, to ask the question, why start with the Reformation and why end with the Great Awakening? Surely, Evangelicals existed before and after such great events. The answer is, of course they did and still do. So why these two as starting point and end? The answer is, because these two events (the Reformation and the Great Awakening) were events of such singular magnitude. There have simply been no other events like them in the history of the Christian Church. Second, why is it necessary to speak about the Evangelical cause? Surely, Evangelicals know who they are and what they believe. It is sad to have to remind ourselves that this is no longer true. Most Christians do not know who they are or what they believe or where they have come from. This was not the case during the Reformation, through the Puritan Age and on to the Great Awakening. The Christians of those times knew precisely who they were and what they believed. The word evangelical has come under scrutiny for good and for bad in recent times. In fact, more than any other time, Evangelicals themselves, do not seem to know what it means to be evangelical. If this is the case, and I am convinced it is, then this is a very important issue. [Read more…]
The Big Cleaver
Genesis 2:24 speaks of leaving & cleaving as a man’s responsibility when he takes a wife to himself. It is interesting to note from the English perspective that the word “cleave” offers two distinct meanings. Both are verbal: one means to adhere to and the second means to divide or split asunder. The Hebrew word “dabaq” signals “to cling to”, “to be joined to” and the Latin “adherebit” confirms this. The second English meaning apples to the “leaving” part – for a man does divide from his father and mother to form a new union. Marriage really is the Big Cleaver and thank God for it.
Spurgeon on War
“Long have I held that war is an enormous crime: Long have I regarded all battles as but murder on a large scale” (from – “India’s Ills and England’s Sorrows,” September 6, 1857, Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens).
Real Pulpit Power
It is not enough to have light & knowledge – We must have the Holy Spirit & his power. We must never settle for less than this, both in our private personal lives, and in the public pulpit.
War Insanity
If we take away justice, what then are kingdoms, but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.”
Augustine, City of God, Book IV, Chapter 4.
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