On a spring day in 1747, twenty-nine-year-old David Brainerd rode horseback into the yard of a Northampton parsonage. It was the home of eminent New England pastor and theologian, Jonathan Edwards and his wife Sarah. Edwards and Brainerd, prior to…
In the last post on the revitalization of the eighteenth-century Baptists, we considered the way in which prayer was a central cause. The passing years did not diminish John Sutcliff’s (1752-1814) and Andrew Fuller’s (1754-1815) zeal in praying for revival…
Prayer has invariably preceded revival. The revitalization of the Baptists in the eighteenth century was no exception. As Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) Fuller emphasized in his Causes of Declension in Religion, and Means of Revival (1785) that we began looking at last…
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…
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…
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,…
Of any use to whom? Ideally, of course, to the whole world. But imagine yourself walking into a Systematic Theology classroom. Look at the students, and ponder their futures. A few will become academic theologians. Some more will be missionaries.…
Of any use to whom? Ideally, of course, to the whole world. But imagine yourself walking into a Systematic Theology classroom. Look at the students, and ponder their futures. A few will become academic theologians. Some more will be missionaries.…
