Meet the Puritans

W e really have a crazy-sounding religion. We confess that God exists as one, yet three. Totally irrational! We confess that one of those three, the Son, became a human by being born of a virgin. What a fantasy! We confess this God-man died on a common Roman cross to take away sins. Keep dreaming!...

W hat do you do when two parties within the same Reformed tradition approach the issues from such different perspectives that they end up seeing one another as the devil? In the previous article in our series on lessons from an old controversy (see parts 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) we learned that one...

"This is our plaine confession, which we simply and boldly do affirme, that Rom. 8., this is a stable and immutable foundation, 'The Lord knoweth his own, that no creature is able to seperat his Elect frome his love, which in Christ Jesus he beareth to them.’" (John Knox, Works , 5:256) L ast time...

Randall J. Pederson, Unity in Diversity: English Puritans and the Puritan Reformation, 1603-1689 , vol. 68, Brill Studies in Church History (Leiden: Brill, 2014). 380pp. Hardcover. *Click here for details on our current giveaway of this book. “P uritanism” is so difficult to define that some...

In 2016, every two months ( Feb , Apr , June , Aug , Oct, Dec) we will be producing a Meet the Puritans Resource, which you will be able to find linked under Our Resources . These will be classic texts with introductions, footnotes, and modernized language. The purpose is to introduce you to the...

C hristians 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 views God moving everything from creation to consummation while in cosmic warfare with Satan. Within this universal history...

“N o offence, but Muslims love Jesus as much as Christians do.” On December 19, 2001, this is how John Casey, a Cambridge scholar, entitled an article in the Telegraph on the issue of Christian and Muslim theology. How could he make such a claim? The the Qu’ran teaches that Jesus was born of a...

The Presbyterians and the Congregationalists had an extremely difficult time working through their theological differences in the 1690s (see parts 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ). There are a number of reasons for this, some of which we have already considered, but one was that they approached the issues from...

We’ve resumed our reading of the Puritan Paperback, Sermons of the Great Ejection and continue in the second part of three pieces ( part 1 ) in the book by Anglican Thomas Watson . “The Great Ejection” was the explusion of nearly 20% of Anglican ministers from their "cures" (pastorates) in the 1662...

First off, congratulations to Scott P. of Aubrey, Texas, who has won a copy of To the Ends of the Earth: Calvin's Missional Vision and Legacy (Crossway). Now for the next giveaway. Our friends at Brill have provided us with a copy of Unity in Diversity: English Puritans and the Puritan Reformation...