More on the Benefit of Christ
More on the Benefit of Christ My earlier post on the 16th-century booklet The Benefit of Christ has elicited many responses. Several people have pointed me to this edition , which I had seen before. It’s not a…
Tag Jesus Christ
Classic Theism: Worshiping the Immutable God
Beware the church that is always trying to make Christianity cool again; far more often than not, their hearts are preoccupied with what the world wants than what God wants. Of course it could be argued that Christianity has…
Union and Communion (7)
In this penultimate installment of the series on a puritan doctrine of union and communion with Christ, I want to consider the comfort “this glorious union with Christ” brings to dying saints and to “their surviving mourners” (Case). Thomas…
Classic Theism: Is God Simple or Complex?
My Sunday school teacher posed this question during class a few years ago. The question surprised me because the answer seemed obvious. If God is so far beyond my comprehension, how could he be simple? Therefore, he must be complex,…
A very Lutheresque Psalm
In this quincentennial year, marking Martin Luther’s memorable act of defiance in Wittenberg, much has been said regarding his famous dictum about ‘the Word doing its work’. Far from attributing the impact and success of the Reformation on his own…
Classic Theism: Basic Trinitarianism
Few doctrines are as central to Christianity as the doctrine of the Trinity. That God is Triune is not just a confession of faith but it is also at the core of our worship. We worship the true and living…
Bite-Size Bunyan: Some Gospel Truths Opened (2)
The purpose of “Bite-Size Bunyan” is to share John Bunyan’s writings in summary form. Our second “bite” (see #1) concerns Bunyan’s work, A Vindication of the Book Called, Some Gospel- Truths Opened (1657), itself a response to Quaker Edward Burrough…
Union and Communion (6)
The doctrine of union and communion with Christ provides a number of comforts or encouragements to Christians. I want to look at two in particular that some puritans highlighted: first, the dignity and honor that union with Christ bestows upon…
The Benefit of Christ – The Most Influential Book You Have Never Read
It was 1543. North of the Alps, Protestant reformers were busy publishing books. In Rome, the papacy was busy banning them. Still, the publishers in Venice, a proudly independent republic with a reputation of opposition to the pope, were persistent.…
“I have Laboured to no Purpose”
I was speaking with some ministerial colleagues recently about a conference one had just attended. The conference had been great, but to his surprise, after one of the sessions, a friend next to him put his head in his hands…