Posts by Thomas Kidd

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Slavery and the Bible

Thomas Kidd
Sep 16, 2016
My bread and butter course at Baylor University is the "America to 1877" survey class. The most troubling issue I cover in the class is slavery. What especially piques the interest of Christian students is the biblical case against slavery - or the lack thereof. "How do we know the Bible is against...

Slavery and the Bible

Thomas Kidd
Sep 16, 2016
My bread and butter course at Baylor University is the "America to 1877" survey class. The most troubling issue I cover in the class is slavery. What especially piques the interest of Christian students is the biblical case against slavery - or the lack thereof. "How do we know the Bible is against...

Edwards the Exegete

Thomas Kidd
Aug 1, 2016
Jonathan Edwards, the great pastor-theologian of Northampton, Massachusetts, is best known for his writings on revival and religious experience, and his defense of orthodox Calvinism in the face of "Enlightenment" critics. But at the end of the day, Edwards was mostly a preacher of the Word of God...

Edwards the Exegete

Thomas Kidd
Aug 1, 2016
Jonathan Edwards, the great pastor-theologian of Northampton, Massachusetts, is best known for his writings on revival and religious experience, and his defense of orthodox Calvinism in the face of "Enlightenment" critics. But at the end of the day, Edwards was mostly a preacher of the Word of God...

The Real John Knox

Thomas Kidd
Jun 6, 2016
If you ever go to see the John Knox statue at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, you won't come away with warm and fuzzy feelings. Knox, in statue and in Scottish historical memory, comes off as stern, formidable, and unapproachable. To admirers, he was also a man of deep principle and driven...

The Real John Knox

Thomas Kidd
Jun 6, 2016
If you ever go to see the John Knox statue at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, you won't come away with warm and fuzzy feelings. Knox, in statue and in Scottish historical memory, comes off as stern, formidable, and unapproachable. To admirers, he was also a man of deep principle and driven...

Edwards and Interpreting Providence

Thomas Kidd
Apr 19, 2016
Like many eighteenth-century Reformed pastors, Jonathan Edwards was confident in his ability to discern God's purposes in earthly events. For example, during a 1736 drought, he explained that God was chastising New Englanders for the "corruption in our hearts." Similarly, during a plague of crop-...

George Whitefield, Principled Calvinist 4: The Full Biblical Gospel

Thomas Kidd
Feb 25, 2015
Although Whitefield’s style moderated in the years after the height of his Great Awakening preaching, his basic Calvinist convictions did not change. In the late summer of 1762 Whitefield made his annual journey to Scotland, giving his departing sermon at Edinburgh on Aaron’s blessing to the...

George Whitefield, Principled Calvinist 3: Networks and Conflicts

Thomas Kidd
Feb 23, 2015
Befitting his far-flung travels and correspondence, Whitefield’s Reformed influences ranged widely. He sought out a wider Anglo-American Calvinist network in travel, correspondence, and reading. In a letter to Ralph Erskine, Whitefield noted that he “exceedingly” liked the Scottish Presbyterian...

George Whitefield, Principled Calvinist 2: Defending Calvinism

Thomas Kidd
Feb 18, 2015
Whitefield’s Calvinism precipitated recurring theological feuds in his career with evangelical associates who believed in free will and the possibility of sinless perfection. By June 1739, as Whitefield was preparing for his return to America, his relationship with John Wesley – his onetime “...

George Whitefield, Principled Calvinist 1: Froward From My Mother's Womb

Thomas Kidd
Feb 16, 2015
At the outset of the Anglican baptismal liturgy, an eighteenth-century rector would say “Dearly beloved, for as much as all men are conceived and born in sin. . .I beseech you to call upon God.” Ask God, he urged, to show the infant mercy, and to make him part of the divine kingdom. Here the...