Book Giveaway: Church History Contest

Welcome to the first ever Pastor and People Book Giveaway Contest.  The purpose of this giveaway is to promote readership and encourage study in the area of church history.  The winner of this contest will receive the new book, Jonathan Edwards: A Short Life by George Marsden.  For all those interested in entering the contest please read below.

Contest Rules:

1.  The contest is limited to people living in the United States and Canada.  Sorry to the international readers perhaps in the future we can include you.

2.  Write a small paragraph and post in the comment section of this post explaining the individual in church history that has had the greatest impact upon your Christian life and thought.  This individual can be from any period in church history.  Please give the name of the individual and how their writings, sermons, theology, etc… have impacted your life, ministry and thought for the glory of God.

Filed under: Books, Church History, Contest, Jonathan Edwards

The Reformation of the Church, pt. 2

I am pleased this week, while on vacation, to have Jeff Cavanaugh as a guest blogger on Pastor and People. Jeff is someone I have grown to appreciate not only as a theologian, thinker, and writer but also as a dear friend. I trust you will enjoy his posts and be encouraged by his words.

The Reformation of the Church, pt. 2 by Jeff Cavanaugh

The Reformation also resulted in a more biblical understanding of the pastor and his role in the church. In the Roman Catholic Church, the priest was believed to have important supernatural or magical powers, and he was a crucial part of mediating the grace of God to laymen. In the Eucharist, it was held, the priest re-sacrificed Christ by transubstantiating the elements of bread and wine into Christ’s actual body and blood. The priest was also supposed to have the power to grant absolution after hearing confession and assigning penance.

In the Reformation, the role of the priest shifted from performing the Eucharist to the preaching of God’s Word. Since Protestants no longer believed that the sacraments had salvific power, they understood that the priest couldn’t forgive sin or directly administer the grace of God the way Catholics believed he could. Rather, they understood that since salvation comes through faith alone and that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, the priest’s-now the pastor’s-most important duty was preaching the life-giving Word to the people.

This new focus on preaching meant that the standards for being a clergyman in a Reformed church were far different than those for being a priest in the Catholic Church. Though Rome may have had stricter official requirements, many Catholic priests were scarcely literate, since the mere recitation of the liturgy required little education and virtually no knowledge of the Scriptures. In contrast, to be ordained as a minister of the Word of God required thorough knowledge of the Bible and true theology, and substantial training in preaching and exegesis. Pastors were also expected to be examples of personal holiness and devotion to God, which was a stark contrast from the extreme moral degradation of the medieval Catholic clergy.

Finally, the Reformation had important implications for Protestants’ understanding of the nature of the sacraments. Whereas Rome had seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, communion, confession, marriage, holy orders, and last rites), the Reformers rejected all but baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as these were the only ones instituted by Jesus in the New Testament. Though faithful administration of these were considered to be a mark of a true church, they were no longer considered essential for salvation. God’s grace in Christ’s atonement, they understood, was applied to the believer solely through faith, not by performance of any works.

The Protestant view of the Lord’s Supper differed from the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist primarily in their rejection of transubstantiation, though Protestant views varied. Luther continued to believe in the real physical presence of Christ’s body in the elements of the supper, though he understood this to be brought about by the faith of the communicant and not by the magical powers of a priest. Calvin and Zwingli denied Christ’s physical presence in the supper, understanding that Jesus’ physical body was at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven and instead teaching that Christ was spiritually present in the Supper and that the believing communicant fed on Christ in his heart.

The Reformers also rejected Rome’s belief that baptism regenerated the individual (usually an infant) to whom it was given. Though the Anabaptists in the Radical Reformation adopted believers’ baptism immediately, they were marginalized and persecuted throughout most of Protestant Europe. The Magisterial Reformers retained belief in infant baptism and articulated a new doctrine of covenant theology that understood baptism to be the sign of covenant membership and parallel to circumcision in the Old Testament. In the seventeenth century some Reformed Protestants began to embrace believers’ baptism, and Baptists eventually became one of the three major Reformed factions in England, with the Presbyterians and episcopalian Anglicans.

These three areas-the church, the role of pastors, and the sacraments-were perhaps the most notable of the doctrinal changes of the Reformation. They were tremendously important for the way the new Protestant churches developed and how they came to understand the Christian faith. They are perfect examples of the significance of the Reformers’ recovery of the gospel of justification by faith alone, and they are a wonderful picture of how Christ works to reform and perfect His Church.

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Jeff Cavanaugh is pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Originally from central Ohio, he graduated from Patrick Henry College with a degree in Government. Before moving to Louisville, he spent some time in Washington, D.C. where he interned at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and worked for the White House handling presidential correspondence. He is a member at Third Avenue Baptist Church and hopes to pursue pastoral ministry after finishing seminary. He is married to a wonderful wife, Andrea.

Filed under: Church History, Doctrine, Guest Blogger, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Reformation, Reformed

The Reformation of the Church, pt. 1

I am pleased this week, while on vacation, to have Jeff Cavanaugh as a guest blogger on Pastor and People. Jeff is someone I have grown to appreciate not only as a theologian, thinker, and writer but also as a dear friend. I trust you will enjoy his posts and be encouraged by his words.

The Reformation of the Church, pt. 1 by Jeff Cavanaugh

The Protestant Reformation was a world-shaking event. It changed the structure of society wherever its doctrines took root, and the recovery of the Gospel which was its central focus brought millions of people out of spiritual darkness and into the light of Christ. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, which Luther called “the article by which the Church stands or falls”, was at the center of the radically different Protestant understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. Three important areas of thought were particularly affected by sola fide: the understanding of the church, the pastor and his role, and the sacraments.

First, the Reformation turned upside down the doctrine of the church. In medieval Roman Catholicism (and in the Roman church to this day), the church was understood to be the visible structure of priests, bishops, cardinals, monks, nuns, and other ordained officials who all owed allegiance to the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and the Vicar of Christ. The Nicean attributes of the church-one, holy, catholic, and apostolic-were abused by Catholic theologians foundational to the claim that Rome’s visible structure was the only true church and that salvation could only be found in obedience to Rome and her dispensation of the sacraments.

The Reformation changed all this. The Reformers came to understand that ultimately, the bride of Christ is made up not of bishops and cardinals, but of those who truly repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ. Their understanding that the Roman church was corrupt and fundamentally apostate from the Gospel was revolutionary, for it showed them that a true church was distinguished by faithfulness to the Gospel, not allegiance to the Pope.

The Reformation also began to change how the church understood its relation to the world. The Roman Catholic Church had proclaimed its sovereignty over all merely human governments, and for much of the Middle Ages it did indeed control the political life of much of Europe. After the reformation, however, the Augustinian understanding of the distinction between spiritual, heavenly power and earthly power came to be understood once more. In England and elsewhere, the situation was in fact reversed and the secular monarch was considered to be the head of the national church as well. It would be some time later that congregationalism would lead to the disestablishment of religion and the modern understanding of a separate church and state.

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Jeff Cavanaugh is pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Originally from central Ohio, he graduated from Patrick Henry College with a degree in Government. Before moving to Louisville, he spent some time in Washington, D.C. where he interned at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and worked for the White House handling presidential correspondence. He is a member at Third Avenue Baptist Church and hopes to pursue pastoral ministry after finishing seminary. He is married to a wonderful wife, Andrea.

Filed under: Church History, Doctrine, Guest Blogger, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Reformation, Reformed, The Church

Changes in Evangelicalism

You can now listen to the Wheaton Alumni Symposium. The panel was Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, and John Piper. They discussed changes in Evangelicalism over the last 40 years (the length of time since they all graduated from college).

It begins with a 10-minute intro from each; then there’s some discussion among themselves; and it closes with some questions from the audience.

Filed under: Audio Download, Church History, Cultural Issues, Evangelicalism, John Piper

Book Review: Jonathan Edwards by George Marsden

Jonathan Edwards: A Life

Publisher: Triliteral LLC – Yale
Author: Marsden, George M.
ISBN-10: 0300105967 | ISBN-13: 9780300105964

Introduction

Jonathan Edwards by George Marsden is a captivating biography of one of America’s greatest thinkers, theologians, and preachers. Chronicling the life of this New England pastor, Marsden takes the reader into the 18th century making the sights and sounds of the era come alive. Through the eyes of a Northampton pastor, Marsden paints a picture of Edwards’s conversion, ascent to the pulpit, family and home life, and private journey as a child of God. A reader will come away from this book being encouraged and challenged to discipline oneself in matters of spiritual reflection for the sake of the glory of Christ and His kingdom.

Summary

Jonathan Edwards is a fascinating character of Puritan heritage and background. Beginning with his rearing in the godly home of his father Timothy and mother Esther, Edwards learned the disciplines and practices that he would use for the rest of his life. He came to “a new sense of things” early in life and told his father of his experiences. Jonathan recalled that he was “pretty much affected” by this conversation, and when it ended he walked into the fields for contemplation. “And as I was walking there,” he reported, “and looked up on the sky and clouds; there came into my mind, a sweet sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express.” From that point forward Edwards began his journey into the things of Christ.

After his college training at Yale and a brief pastorate at a young Presbyterian congregation in New York, he joined his grandfather Solomon Stoddard in the church of Northampton. Marsden writes, “While grandson and grandfather agreed on most subjects, the most difficult transition for Jonathan was the much-debated question of conversion and communion to working in his grandfather’s domain.” This debate would cause Edwards to loose his pastoral position in years to come. His marriage to Sarah in July 1727 was a step signaling the young assistant’s transition to adult and authoritative status. After his grandfather’s death Jonathan assumed the senior pastor role in the Northampton church giving him many years of ministry and labor among the people.

The years of 1740-41 brought a spiritual awakening in New England that swept from Boston and along the eastern seaboard. Marsden says, “As revival fires were sweeping from Boston throughout New England during the spring, Edwards was enjoying a relatively modest though gratifying awakening among the young people of Northampton.” After the revival years were ended Edwards published one of his greatest works, Religious Affections which appeared in 1746. Affections grew from a sermon series Edwards preached in his own church examining the proper place of affections in the Christian life. This exposition remains the most widely read and admired of his theological works.

After many years of fruitful ministry and labor among the people of Northampton some in the church began to question Edwards regarding who he would admit to the Lord’s Table. Not following his grandfather’s belief that unregenerate and regenerate members may partake of the Lord’s Supper, Edwards was asked to leave the church. In his farewell sermon, preached July 1, 1750, Edwards firmly reminded his congregation of such an eternal perspective, which had been the central motif of his ministry.

After the ‘communion controversy’ ended his pastoral charge in Northampton, Edwards moved his ‘sizable’ family to Stockbridge where he would pastor and minister to the Indians. During that pastorate Edwards was asked to become a college president in Princeton where he would remain until his death on March 22, 1758.

Evaluation

Marsden sets the stage for the reader of this biography by developing the reality of life in the 18th century. He is not afraid to put on display the vulnerabilities, failures, and successes of Edwards as a pastor. In the midst of numerous writing and preaching what one sees at the core of Edwards’ outlook is a rigorously unsentimental view of love. Marsden says, “This attitude is especially difficult to appreciate for those who sensibilities have been shaped by the sentimentality of succeeding eras.” Edwards begins with the premise that the Trinitarian God is essentially loving and creates the universe in order to share that love with others. Yet God permits real and terrible evil in that universe; it is in a state of war because of Satan’s rebellion against God. “Those on the side of evil in this warfare hate true love and what is ultimately good” Marsden says. For the Christian who was to be untied with Christ, life remained a struggle of the deepest contrasts. Edwards resolved the highs and lows of his own spiritual experiences into the lessons of this tough-minded theological heritage that did not flinch at the discomforts of a lifetime of struggles, even for the regenerate. As Edwards expressed in one of the most revealing early entries in his “Shadows of Divine Things” notebook:

“Roses grow upon briers, which is to signify that all temporal sweets are mixed with bitter. But what seems more especially to be meant by it, is that true happiness, the crown of glory, is to be come at in no other way than by bearing Christ’s cross by a life of mortification, self-denial and labor, and bearing all things for Christ.”

This theme of love dominates Edwards life and pastorate as he preaches, writes and thinks on the beauty and love of God in Christ. Through the Great Awakening, communion controversy, and various frontier struggles Edwards kept his mind and heart completely focused on the love of Christ which he would enjoy more completely when he beheld Christ in the beauty of Heaven. The theme of love in Edwards is what dominates Marsden’s biography. This theme is what should dominate the life of any pastor and man of God. It should be the driving force that keeps his mind and heart focused on the glory of Christ.

One of the best and most informative chapters in this biography is entitled, “The Unfinished Masterworks”. As Edwards set off for Princeton in January 1758 he had to resign himself to the reality that it might be God’s will that he not finish the two “great works” he had described in his letters to the college trustees. It continues to be a mystery as to what two “great works” he was referring to in his letter. Marsden outlines the works of Edwards in the chapter giving particular emphasis to his Harmony of the Old and New Testaments as well as his Body of Divinity. The notebooks he carried with him to Princeton would fill many thousand pages when published. The writing side of Edwards consumed his time and energy as he wrote everything down that came to his mind. This is an important aspect that needs to be emphasized in the personal lives of modern pastors. Edwards sets for us the perfect example of a disciplined man devoted to all things concerning Christ.

Marsden shows the modern reader what happens to a man who is truly devoted to kingdom matters. He may be ridiculed by his own family, he may be fired from his own pastorate, and even die an early death but he will have an impact upon history that is unparallel. Marsden begins chapter 30 by saying, “Edwards spent his whole life preparing to die.” Should this not be the focus of every believer of Christ? Edwards shows us how to live, how to preach, how to write and how to be a loving pastor and servant of Christ.

Conclusion

Jonathan Edwards helps to bridge the gap between the Edwards of the students of American culture and the Edwards of the theologians. Marsden takes seriously the thought of Edwards in regards to the larger Christian tradition. This biography will give the reader a wider look at 18th century life and thought. It will answer questions as to what was going on in the intellectual and cultural advance surrounding Jonathan Edwards and his ministry. This author would highly recommend this biography as one not to be overlooked in the study of Jonathan Edwards.

Filed under: 18th Century, American History, Book Recommendations, Books, Church History, Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards