DOCSLIB.ORG

Benjamin Keach and the Baptist Singing Controversty

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Benjamin Keach and the Baptist Singing Controversty Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2006 Benjamin Keach and the Baptist Signing Controvery: Mediating Scripture, Confessional Heritage, and Christian Unity James C. Brooks Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES BENJAMIN KEACH AND THE BAPTIST SINGING CONTROVERSY: MEDIATING SCRIPTURE, CONFESSIONAL HERITAGE, AND CHRISTIAN UNITY By JAMES C. BROOKS A Dissertation submitted to the Program in the Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006 Copyright © 2006 James C. Brooks All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of James C. Brooks defended on March 27, 2006. _________________________________ Charles Brewer Professor Directing Dissertation _________________________________ Walter Moore Outside Committee Member _________________________________ David Darst Committee Member _________________________________ Michael Corzine Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii To Mary Alice, without whose undying love and unwavering support this project would not have been possible iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A project of this magnitude is impossible to complete without the assistance of many others along the way. I have had the privilege of corresponding with others who have researched Keach and learning more about what shaped the thinking that produced their written projects. In this regard, I am grateful for the collegiality shown to me by David Copeland, Barry Vaughn, David Riker, and Austin Walker. Also, at a very late stage in the dissertation, James Renihan of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies at Westminster Seminary California entertained questions and provided me with facsimiles of two original documents that I had not seen. These documents are not widely available, but their content significantly shaped the direction of Chapter 3, and I have included transcripts of them in Appendices A and B. I am also indebted to the Office of Graduate Studies at The Florida State University for providing me with a Dissertation Research Grant. Many of the necessary sources for my dissertation were held in collections of rare copies or on microform at various locations, and these funds greatly offset the cost of acquiring my own copies. The many reproductions of sources that I obtained, however, could not have been achieved without the excellent professional assistance of librarians at several research libraries and archives. I am deeply grateful to the following individuals: Susan Harris, Bodleian Library; Susan Mills, Regent’s Park College; Hazel Robertson and Pamela MacKinnon, Edinburgh University Library; Bill Sumners, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives; and Helen Bernard, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Without their help, I could not have viewed many of the primary sources that have shaped the writing of this dissertation. Deron Smith, a friend who was pursuing his own doctoral studies in Bristol at the time I was acquiring my materials, assisted in the logistics of paying for the materials received from Edinburgh, and for his help I am thankful. Finally, I am appreciative for the kindness of the library staff at the Heard Library of Vanderbilt University, who relaxed the rules on reading privileges for the general public and granted me access to primary source materials as I drove through Nashville one rainy November evening. My committee members have always been available as needed for consultation, and their accessibility has eased some of the challenges that a project of this nature entails. Professors Charles Brewer, David Darst, Walter Moore, and Jeffrey Kite-Powell iv have always treated me with respect and collegiality. During my final semester, Professor Jeffery Kite-Powell was on research leave and unable to participate in the oral defense, and I am especially thankful to Professor Michael Corzine for stepping in as a substitute at such late notice. Additionally, although no way connected to my graduate program, Professors Edward Myers of Harding University and John Mark Hicks of Lipscomb University have each suggested source material and also have availed themselves for occasional questions, and I appreciate their assistance. Finally, just a few weeks before I completed the dissertation, Dr. Alice Jewell of Harding University graciously took time to review some Latin texts and answer questions that were beyond my learning or skills, and I am thankful for her assistance on short notice. While there are many who have provided help, from the inception of this project to its completion, no one could have been blessed with more devoted personal support from friends and family. We made many friends in Tallahassee, both through our church and through the home-schooled community with which my wife worked for three years. These friends provided constant support and encouragement, and our association with them is one of the highlights of our years in Tallahassee; we are thankful that many of these relationships still continue. The greatest support, however, has come from family. I am deeply blessed to have had the emotional love and encouragement of my parents, Cleve and Deanna Brooks, and my grandmother, Jimmie Lee Mills, to sustain me in times of joy and struggle as I completed my graduate studies. And to my wife, Mary Alice, herself a scholar and teacher, for the many hours of proofreading, dialogue, and persistent confidence, I will forever be grateful. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations............................................................................................................. vii Abstract....................................................................................................................................ix 1. ENVISIONING A NEW TYPOLOGY FOR EVALUATING BENJAMIN KEACH ................................................................................................................1 2. CAPTURING THE ENERGY OF THE REFORMATION ..............................................27 3. REFOCUSING THE CONTROVERSY ............................................................................47 4. RESPONDING TO SCRIPTURE: REFORMATION PRINCIPLES SHAPE THE SINGING CONTROVERSY............................................................................80 5. EVOLVING RESPONSES TO SINGING IN WORSHIP THREATEN CHRISTIAN UNITY........................................................................................99 6. LASTING IMPRESSIONS OF BENJAMIN KEACH AND ISAAC MARLOW......................................................................................................122 APPENDIX A .......................................................................................................................132 APPENDIX B ........................................................................................................................138 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................144 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.................................................................................................166 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AFD Isaac Marlow, An Appendix to the Former Discourse. (London: 1691) BD Isaac Marlow, A Brief Discourse Concerning Singing. (London: 1690) BR Benjamin Keach, The Breach Repaired in God’s Worship. (London: 1691) CC Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, 6th ed., 3 vols. (New York: Harper and Row, 1931; reprinted Baker Books, 1998) Crosby Thomas Crosby, The History of the English Baptists, 4 vols. (London: 1738-1740) CSBE Isaac Marlow, The Controversie of Singing Brought to an End. (London: 1696) CSPD Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles II. (London: Public Records Office, 1860-1947) DNB H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) Institutes (HB) John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), 2 vols. Trans. Henry Beveridge. (London: James Clarke and Co., 1949) Institutes (FLB) John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), 2 vols. Trans. Ford Lewis Battles. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960) NP-1689 A Narrative of the Proceedings of the General Assembly . of the Baptized Churches . (London: 1689) vii NP-1690 A Narrative of the Proceedings of the General Assembly . of the Baptized Churches . (London: 1690) NP-1691 A Narrative of the Proceedings of the General Assembly . of the Baptized Churches . (London: 1691) NP-1692 A Narrative of the Proceedings of the General Assembly . of the Baptized Churches . (London: 1692) Tappert The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, trans. and ed. Theodore G. Tappert. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959). All quotations from the Augsburg Confession are from the Latin translation. TSD Isaac Marlow, Truth Soberly Defended. (London: 1692) viii ABSTRACT Benjamin Keach (1640-1704) was an influential leader among Particular Baptists throughout the seventeenth century. As a prominent nonconformist leader and a prolific writer, he helped shape the theological development of the Particular Baptists as they struggled through persecution and finally emerged under legal toleration near the end of the century. He did not
Load more

Recommended publications
  • In the Mid-1630S, a Teenager of Welsh Descent by the Name of William Kiffin
    P a g e | 1 “AN HONOURABLE ESTEEME OF THE HOLY WORDS OF GOD”: PARTICULAR BAPTIST WORSHIP IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY “I value not the Practice of all Mankind in any thing in God’s Worship, if the Word of God doth not bear witness to it” Benjamin Keach 1 In the mid-1630s, a teenager of Welsh descent by the name of William Kiffin (1616-1701), who had been orphaned as a young boy and subsequently apprenticed to a glover in London, became so depressed about his future prospects that he decided to run away from his master. It was a Sunday when he made good his escape, and in the providence of God, he happened to pass by St. Antholin’s Church, a hotbed of Puritan radicalism, where the Puritan preacher Thomas Foxley was speaking that day on “the duty of servants to masters.” Seeing a crowd of people going into the church, Kiffin decided to join them. Never having heard the plain preaching of a Puritan before, he was deeply convicted by what he heard and was convinced that Foxley’s sermon was intentionally aimed at him. Kiffin decided to go back to his master with the resolve to hear regularly “some of them they called Puritan Ministers.”2 1 The Breach Repaired in God’s Worship: or, Singing of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, proved to be an Holy Ordinance of Jesus Christ (London, 1691), p.69. 2 William Orme, Remarkable Passages in the Life of William Kiffin (London: Burton and Smith, 1823), p.3. In the words of one writer, St.
    [Show full text]
  • Serampore: Telos of the Reformation
    SERAMPORE: TELOS OF THE REFORMATION by Samuel Everett Masters B.A., Miami Christian College, 1989 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religion at Reformed Theological Seminary Charlotte, North Carolina December, 2010 Accepted: ______________________________ Dr. Samuel Larsen, Project Mentor ii ABSTRACT Serampore: the Telos of the Reformation Samuel E. Masters While many biographies of missionary William Carey have been written over the last two centuries, with the exception of John Clark Marshman’s “The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward: Embracing the History of the Serampore Mission”, published in the mid-nineteenth century, no major work has explored the history of the Serampore Mission founded by Carey and his colleagues. This thesis examines the roots of the Serampore Mission in Reformation theology. Key themes are traced through John Calvin, the Puritans, Jonathan Edwards, and Baptist theologian Andrew Fuller. In later chapters the thesis examines the ways in which these theological themes were worked out in a missiology that was both practical and visionary. The Serampore missionaries’ use of organizational structures and technology is explored, and their priority of preaching the gospel is set against the backdrop of their efforts in education, translation, and social reform. A sense is given of the monumental scale of the work which has scarcely equaled down to this day. iii For Carita: Faithful wife Fellow Pilgrim iv CONTENTS Acknowledgements …………………………..…….………………..……………………...viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………….9 The Father of Modern Missions ……………………………………..10 Reformation Principles ………………………………………….......13 Historical Grids ………………………………………………….......14 Serampore and a Positive Calvinism ………………………………...17 The Telos of the Reformation ………………………………………..19 2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Representation of Puritans in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
    AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume2, Number 1, February 2018 Pp. 97-105 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol2no1.7 The Representation of Puritans in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Rachid MEHDI Department of English, Faculty of Art Abderahmane-Mira University of Bejaia, Algeria Abstract This article is a study on the representation of Puritans in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; or, What You Will, one of his most popular comic play in the modern theatre. In mocking Malvolio’s morality and ridiculous behaviour, Shakespeare wanted to denounce Puritans’ sober society in early modern England. Indeed, Puritans were depicted in the play as being selfish, idiot, hypocrite, and killjoy. In the same way, many other writers of different generations, obviously influenced by Shakespeare, have espoused his views and consequently contributed to promote this anti-Puritan literature, which is still felt today. This article discusses whether Shakespeare’s portrayal of Puritans was accurate or not. To do so, the writer first attempts to define the term “Puritan,” as the latter is quite equivocal, then take some Puritans’ characteristics, namely hypocrisy and killjoy, as provided in the play, and analyze them in the light of the studies of some historians and scholars, experts on the post Reformation Puritanism, to demonstrate that Shakespeare’s view on Puritanism is completely caricatural. Keywords: caricature, early modern theatre, Malvolio, Puritans, satire Cite as: MEHDI, R. (2018). The Representation of Puritans in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies, 2 (1). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol2no1.7 Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 97 eISSN: 2550-1542 |www.awej-tls.org AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Volume, 2 Number 1, February 2018 The Representation of Puritans in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night MEHDI Introduction Puritans had been the target of many English writers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Hazarding All for God at a Clap': the Spirituality of Baptism Among British
    185 'HAZARDING ALL FOR GOD AT A CLAP' The Spirituality of Baptism among British Calvinistic Baptists! One of the perennial debates of Baptist historiography is how to describe the churchmanship of the well-known Puritan, John Bunyan (1628-1688). British historian B.R. White, in his superb study The English Baptists of the Seventeenth Century, describes Bunyan's Bedford congregation as an Independent, or Congregationalist, church which 'tolerated the practice of both forms of baptism - of infants and of believers. ,2 Similarly Canadian Baptist historian, David T. Priestley, finds it 'impossible to view Bunyan or his Bedford congregation as Baptist, given the definition of terms in effect in the early Restoration and Bunyan's explicit rejection of Baptist membership criteria. ,3 Earlier Baptist authors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, on the other hand, were wont to regard him as a vital part of their tradition. Well aware that Bunyan's open membership/open communion principles put him at odds with most of them, they considered him nevertheless to be 'an open communion Baptist', to use the words of the Ontario Baptist, Thomas L. Davidson. 4 Major reasons why Baptists longed to have Bunyan in their pantheon of worthies would include such things as his literary genius, his Christocentric piety - well illustrated, for instance, in the posthumously published The Saints' Knowledge of Christ's Love - and his radical Nonconformity, which was immortalized in his Pilgrim's Progress. The last of these items was especially appealing to a community that, throughout the eighteenth century and for much of the nineteenth century, was subjected to extensive legal discrimination, which basically rendered them second­ class citizens.
    [Show full text]
  • VU Research Portal
    VU Research Portal "All Who Love Our Blessed Redeemer" Graham, L.A. 2021 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Graham, L. A. (2021). "All Who Love Our Blessed Redeemer": The Catholicity of John Ryland Jr. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT “ALL WHO LOVE OUR BLESSED REDEEMER” The Catholicity of John Ryland Jr ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor of Philosophy aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. V. Subramaniam, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de Faculteit Religie en Theologie op dinsdag 19 januari 2021 om 13.45 uur in de online bijeenkomst van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Lon Alton Graham geboren te Longview, Texas, Verenigde Staten promotoren: prof.dr.
    [Show full text]
  • PROGRESSIVE COVENANTALISTS AS REFORMED BAPTISTS Daniel Scheiderer
    WTJ 82 (2020): 137–52 PROGRESSIVE COVENANTALISTS AS REFORMED BAPTISTS Daniel Scheiderer At least three new systems of covenant theology have arisen in Calvinistic Baptist circles in recent decades: new covenant theology, progressive covenantalism, and 1689 Federalism (Reformed Baptists). Each group has its own proponents and its own circles of influence, but churches impacted by each proposal are generally familiar to one another. Because progressive covenantalists initially described themselves as a subset of new covenant theology, arguments against new covenant theology were often simply co-opted for use against progressive covenantalists. This article aims to demonstrate that progressive covenantalists have significant points of continuity with their Reformed Baptist brothers that facilitate mutual benefit between the two camps. To demonstrate this continuity, the cov- enants of works and grace and the new covenant are examined in the two systems alongside their Particular Baptist forefathers to show that all three groups operate with a basically continuous infrastructure. The benefit of such a study is that it distinguishes the progressive covenantal proposal from the proposal of new covenant theology while avoiding simplistic read- ings that deny the real differences between progressive covenantalists and Reformed Baptists. The study does not deny the real tension that exists in progressive covenantalists’ reinterpretation of the fourth commandment, but it sets aside that debate so that points of clear commonalities may be seen for what they are. Too often conversations about covenant theology have passed one another, and so this article aims to initiate a conversation between two groups that ought to be the nearest allies. “ rogressive covenantalism” broke onto the scene in 2012 with Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum’s book Kingdom through Covenant.
    [Show full text]
  • English Baptist Piety and the Means of Grace in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Michael A
    “Draw Nigh unto My Soul”: English Baptist Piety and the Means of Grace in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Michael A. G. Haykin Michael A. G. Haykin is Principal Among the foremost examples of vital ily men and women intensely passionate of Toronto Baptist Seminary in Toronto, Christianity found in the history of the about piety and Christian experience, Ontario, Canada, and a Senior Fellow of church are the Puritans, those godly so spirituality lies at the very core of the The Andrew Fuller Centre for Reformed Christians who lived in Great Britain and English Baptist movement during the Evangelicalism. He also serves as Visit- New England between the 1560s and the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ing Professor of Church History at The end of the seventeenth century. Skilled For example, Baptists in this era were Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. navigators on the ocean of Christian liv- adamant that keeping in step with the Dr. Haykin is the author of One Heart ing, the Puritans rightly discerned that, in Spirit was the vital matter when it came and One Soul (Evangelical Press, 1994), the words of Elizabethan Puritan Richard to the nourishment of the soul of the Spirit of God: The Exegesis of 1 and 2 Greenham (1540-1594), “we drawe neere believer or the sustenance of the inner life Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian to God by meanes.”1 By this Greenham, of a congregation. As the late eighteenth- Controversy of the Fourth Century (Brill, speaking for his fellow Puritans, meant century English Baptist John Sutcliff 1994), and Jonathan Edwards: The that there are various “means of godli- (1752-1814) of Olney, Buckinghamshire, Holy Spirit and Revival (Evangelical ness” or spiritual disciplines by which rightly observed, Press, 2005).
    [Show full text]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    Copyright © 2009 James Christopher Holmes All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. THE ROLE OF METAPHOR IN THE SERMONS OF BENJAMIN KEACH, 1640-1704 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by James Christopher Holmes May 2009 UMI Number: 3411529 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI Dissertation Publishing UMI 3411529 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. uestA ® ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 APPROVAL SHEET THE ROLE OF METAPHOR IN THE SERMONS OF BENJAMIN KEACH, 1640-1704 James Christopher Holmes Read and Approved by: Date Hj Wj To Beth, patient, ever faithful, ever loving TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE iv Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Background 3 Personal Interest 3 Scholarly Contributions to Date 4 Methodology 5 Resources 6 2. KEACH AND PREACHING 9 Introduction 9 England in the Mid-Seventeenth Century 10 Political and Religious Volatility 11 Evolution of Preaching and Sermons 13 Early Life of Benjamin Keach (1640-165 8) 17 Childhood and Civil War (1640-ca.
    [Show full text]
  • The Metropolitan Sabernacle
    This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com TheMetropolitansabernacle;itshistoryandwork C.H.Spurgeon ' 4. THE ITS HISTORY AND WORK. BY C. H. SPURGEON. Hontion : PASSMORE & ALABASTER, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS. PREFACE. When modest ministers submit their sermons to the press they usually place upon the title page the words " Printed iy Request." We might with emphatic truthfulness have pleaded this apology for the present narrative, for times without number friends from all parts of the world have said, " Have you no book which will tell us all about your work ? Could you not give us some printed summary of the Tabernacle history ? " Here it is, dear friends, and we hope it will satisfy your curiosity and deepen your kindly interest. The best excuse for writing a history is that there is something to tell, and unless we are greatly mistaken the facts here placed on record are well worthy of being known. In us they have aroused fervent emotions of gratitude, and in putting them together our faith in God has been greatly established: we hope, therefore, that in some measure our readers will derive the same benefit. Strangers cannot be expected to feel an equal interest with ourselves, but our fellow members, our co-workers, our hundreds of generous helpers, and the large circle of our hearty sympathizers cannot read our summary of the Lord's dealings with us without stimulus and encouragement. Our young people ought to be told by their fathers the wondrous things which God did in their day " and in the old time before them." Such things are forgotten if they are not every now and then rehearsed anew in the ears of fresh generations.
    [Show full text]
  • Benjamin Keach's Doctrine of Justification
    TMSJ 32/1 (Spring 2021) 93–113 BENJAMIN KEACH’S DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION Tom Hicks Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Pastor of First Baptist Church Clinton, Louisiana * * * * * Many Christians would recognize the name of the pastor and author Richard Baxter. Likely fewer would recognize the name of the seventeenth-century Baptist pastor Benjamin Keach. This article follows the thinking and articulation of Keach as he defends the orthodox, Reformed position of the doctrine of justification and imputed righteousness against the errant views of Richard Baxter. This article is a window into the necessity to defend this doctrine that rests at the center of the Christian faith. * * * * * Introduction Benjamin Keach (1640–1704), an early Particular Baptist pastor, set out to disprove Richard Baxter’s Neonomian doctrine of justification and to affirm the biblical and orthodox doctrine of justification. Keach never wrote merely to contribute to academic discourse in a way detached from the local church and the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. Instead, he always wrote and preached with a pastor’s heart, aiming to protect God’s people from error and to train them in practical holiness for the glory of God. Keach aimed to refute not only Baxter’s false doctrine of justification, but also all aberrant theologies of justification by works. He believed the Protestant doctrine of justification on the ground of Christ’s righteousness alone, received by faith alone, is the very heart and marrow of the gospel. He was convinced that this doctrine is the teaching of Scripture, and that it has far-reaching implications for the believer’s personal progress in godliness.
    [Show full text]
  • Whitney, Donald S
    BENJAMIN KEACH’S DOCTRINE OF THE HUMAN WILL Introduction The nature and freedom of the human will has been deliberated and debated throughout the history of the Christian church by some of the church’s best and most gifted theologians, and it continues to be debated to this very day. It is one of those vital theological issues that serves as a touchstone of the rest of a theological system because it both shapes and is shaped by the whole body of doctrine articulated in a full-orbed and consistent biblical theology. Because it occupies such a prominent and central place in the matrix of any theology, the question of the nature and freedom of the will is never established or articulated in an historical or theological vacuum, but inevitably and always in light of the progress of the church’s historical discussion and understanding of the nature of the will and the interconnection and unity of truths that compose any particular theological system. Benjamin Keach’s theology of the will reflects this reality inasmuch as it was articulated in light of the church’s biblical theological understanding of his own time and was vitally related to the rest of his biblical theology. For his part, Keach stood squarely in the Reformed tradition, and held to the Calvinistic doctrine of the nature and freedom of the will. It was this Calvinistic perspective which he argued and defended so forcefully and consistently throughout his published material. For Keach, the doctrine of the will was not simply a matter of philosophical speculation or a secondary matter of theology, but instead, it was something integral and foundational to the gospel itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Church History
    FOUNDERS JOURNAL FROM FOUNDERS MINISTRIES | FALL 2015 | ISSUE 102 CHURCH HISTORY www.founders.org Founders Ministries is committed to encouraging the recovery of the gospel and the biblical reformation of local churches. We believe that the biblical faith is inherently doctrinal, and are therefore confessional in our approach. We recognize the time-tested Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) as a faithful summary of important biblical teachings. The Founders Journal is published quarterly (winter, spring, summer and fall). The journal and other resources are made available by the generous investment of our supporters. You can support the work of Founders Ministries by giving online at: founders.org/give/ Or by sending a donation by check to: Founders Ministries PO Box 150931 Cape Coral, FL 33915 All donations to Founders Ministries are tax-deductible. Please send all inquiries and correspondence for the Founders Journal to: [email protected] Or contact us by phone at 239-772-1400. Visit our web site for an online archive of past issues of the Founders Journal. Contents Introduction: Church History Tom Ascol Page 4 Seven Practical Reasons Why Historical Theology Is Valuable Jon English Lee Page 5 Seven Reasons To Teach Your Kids Church History Jef Robinson Page 8 Eight Reasons To Study Baptist History Jef Robinson Page 12 History, Providence and Good News God’s remarkable providence in the missionary endeavors of William Carey and Adoniram Judson Tom Nettles Page 16 Lessons from Church History: Esther Edwards Burr “The daughter of one of the greatest minds in American history has much to teach us on the topic of true religion and faithful friendship.” Jared Longshore Page 20 Review B&H Baptist History Collection from Logos Bible Software Reviewed by Tom Ascol Page 24 The Founders Journal 3 Tom Ascol Introduction Church History The subject of “Church History” is expansive and many fnd the thought of studying it overwhelming or inconsequential.
    [Show full text]