Christopher Love on the Terrors of Hell (2)
In our previous post, we considered the Puritan Christopher Love’s defense of hell-fire preaching from his sermons in Heaven’s Glory, Hell’s Terror (1653). In the next two posts we will…
Bob McKelvey
Christopher Love on the Terrors of Hell (1)
In the next three posts on the heavenly man, Christopher Love, I want to open up (the first of three parts) his meditations on hell from Heaven’s Glory, Hell’s Terror…
Christopher Love (1618-1651): The Glories of Heaven
In this second post (see #1 here) on the heavenly man, I want to open up Christopher Love’s meditations on heaven from Heaven’s Glory, Hell’s Terror (1653). The Puritans focused…
Christopher Love (1618-1651): A Heavenly Man
Those familiar with the Puritans may have heard the posthumous praise given of Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) by Izaak Walton (1594-1683) who claimed, “Of this blest man, let this just praise…
The Holy Spirit as the “Vicar” of Christ
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus promised he would build his church. How can this be, if he rose and ascended before its formal birth at Pentecost in the Acts of the…
Zachary Crofton (1626-1672) and the Baptismal Burden of Proof
God wants Christians to baptize their infant children. It took me a while to make such a claim. I was converted at 21 and spiritually raised in Arminian Baptist…
A Puritan Approach to History: Christopher Ness (1621-1705)
Christians with even a little knowledge of church history are likely aware of Augustine’s famous work, The City of God. In it, he presents his philosophy of history as he…
Assurance as the Essence of Faith: Calvin vs. the Confession?
In 1995, I took a doctoral seminar class with Dr. Richard Gaffin in historical theology. Like the other students, I had to present my term paper in class. With great…
Tobias Crisp (1600–1643): He Was a Bad Guy Right?
Our presbytery youth camp director this summer assigned Puritan team names for the campers: Watson, Owen, Bunyan, and Perkins. No surprise at an Orthodox Presbyterian Church camp, until the staff…
Bunyan’s Arrest and Post-Pluralism Persecution in America
Trouble in Bakersfield I started thinking about John Bunyan (and writing this post) recently after reading Carl Trueman’s article, Trouble in Bakersfield. He highlights the demise of American pluralism where…
William Ames Weighs in on Worship
The Situation Today There exists much confusion about worship today. This remains true even in churches that claim the title “reformed” and those claiming the phrase reformata, semper reformanda (“reformed…
Bunyan’s Wicket Gate
On two different occasions recently, I have read and heard Spurgeon’s story of the Scottish “fishwife” carrying a basket of fish while an eager young man challenged her about spiritual…