Upon
This Rock: Studies in Church History and Their Application
THE sequel to Truth on Tough Texts above, this book is the collection of articles on historical issues from the first six years of the monthly publication, Truth on Tough Texts. The Reformation, for example, is misunderstood by many, ignored by some, and even attacked by others. It is, therefore, a major emphasis here in chapters 3 through 8. As noted in chapter 1, Spanish-born American philosopher and writer George Santayana (1863–1952) made the now famous statement, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Well, the Church as a whole has, indeed, forgotten much of the past, and the lessons we should learn from it, and is repeating many of the same errors. This book, therefore, begins in Part I with “Our Foundation,” in which we examine the value of studying Church History and then study the deep significance of the words of our Lord in Matthew 16:16–19, “Upon this rock.” Part II, “The Five Solas of the Reformation,” is the heart of our study in which we examine the core issues of the Reformation and are challenged with their importance for our day. Part III, “Other History Lessons,” addresses other historical figures and events that are critical for our understanding in a day of growing indifference to these matters. There are also more than 60 illustrations, most of which were not in the original articles. (220 pages)
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Book Features
12 chapters (220 pages) covering the Church History articles from the first six years of the monthly publication.
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An Appendix, "Is Romanism Christianity?" by T. W. Medhurst.
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Numerous endnotes on the text as they appeared in the monthly articles.
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Four indexes: Subject, Person, Scripture, and Foreign Words.
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More than 60 black and white illustrations.
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Numerous endorsements from Christian leaders who have appreciated the monthly articles.
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Contents
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List of Illustrations................................................................
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7
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Introduction..........................................................................
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9
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Part I: Our Foundation
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1
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Why Study Church History? .................................................
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13
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2
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Upon This Rock....................................................................
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29
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Part II: The Five Solas of the Reformation
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3
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The Roots of the Reformation................................................
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43
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4
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Sola Scriptura: Our Only Model..............................................
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59
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5
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Sola Fide: Our Only Means....................................................
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71
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6
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Sola Gratia: Our Only Method................................................
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83
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7
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Solus Christus: Our Only Mediator.........................................
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95
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8
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Soli Deo Gloria: our Only Motive............................................
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107
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Part III: Other History Lessons
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9
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Target: Historical Evangelical Christianity...............................
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125
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10
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“Once More Unto the Breach” (1) ........................................
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137
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11
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“Once More Unto the Breach” (2) ........................................
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149
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12
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400 Years of Biblical Truth: The Legacy of the
King James Version................................................................................
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161
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Conclusion
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181
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Appendix: “Is Romanism Christianity?” by T. W.
Medhurst.....
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183
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Subject Index........................................................................
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193
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Person Index........................................................................
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200
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Scripture Index.....................................................................
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203
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Foreign Words Index.............................................................
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206
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About the Author..................................................................
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209
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1
Why Study Church History?*
Isaiah 51:1
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye
that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of
the pit whence ye are digged.
THE story is told of little Johnny who said to his father,
“I don’t want to discuss the grade I got in history because that’s all in the
past.” Clever, but not wise. Do you like history? I sure didn’t until college,
where I had a professor who just opened it up, and it is now an important
consideration in any study of theological issues.
What often hangs people up about history is they think it is
just about a bunch of dates, deeds, and dead guys. Who cares, right? But history
is far less about dates and events than it is about causes and consequences.
For example, what about the Reformation, which we will explore in later chapters?
What is important is not so much that it started on April 18, 1521 when Martin
Luther delivered his famous “Here I stand” speech.[i] What
is important first is what caused that event, namely, the apostasy and
abuses of Roman Catholicism that had been building for a thousand years. Second,
what is also crucial are the consequences of that event (both good and
bad) and what we can and should learn from it.
History is, therefore, critically important. A pastor friend
of mine told me he once met another pastor who felt strongly that not only
should pastors today have a degree in theology but another in history. His
point is well taken. While we might not agree that a degree is necessary, we
should recognize that pastors should be trained in history. Why? Because
we actually can understand little theology without history. After all,
think about it: are we not reading history every time we open our Bible?
Amazingly, many historians and philosophers see no real purpose
to history. They say such things as: “There is no secret or plan to history”;
history is made up of “irrationalities” of which no one can make any sense;
there is no “harmony” in historical events; history is made up of “random
events” in which we see “one emergency following another.” Shakespeare
reflected this attitude in the character Macbeth, who pessimistically declared
that history is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing.”[ii]
How foolish! In contrast, as noted in the
Introduction, no better words have been uttered on this than those of
philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist George Santayana (1863–1952);
while sadly an “agnostic Catholic”(quite a combination!), he was certainly
correct that, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”[iii]
We today are, indeed, forgetting. I also read just recently what is perhaps the best explanation for
studying history. It was uttered by the blind Czech historian Milan Hubl
to the novelist Milan Kundera:
The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.[iv]
If we may interject, that is
exactly what is happening in America more every day. History (especially
American history itself) is even being removed from the school curriculum.
So, if all that is true for history in
general, how much more important is it for the Christian to have at least some
basic knowledge of Church History? As one of the greatest of church historians,
Phillip Schaff (1819–1893), wrote:
How shall we labor with any effect to build up the Church, if we have no thorough knowledge of her history, or fail to apprehend it from the proper point of observation? History is, and must ever continue to be, next to God’s Word, the richest foundation of wisdom, and the surest guide to all successful practical activity.[v]
Likewise, while we
would not agree with his Ecumenism, evangelical Lutheran theologian and
professor Joseph Sittler (1904–1987) well said, and which
has been quoted often:
There is certainly nothing wrong with the Church looking ahead, but it is terribly important that it should be done in connection with the look inside, into the Church’s own nature and mission, and a look behind at her own history. If the Church does this, she is less likely to take her cues from the business community, the corporation, or the marketplace.
We
note also the great 17th-century mathematician and Christian Blaise
Pascal (1623–1662): “The history of the Church should more accurately be
called the history of truth.”[vi]
Returning to Phillip Schaff, he is worth quoting at some length:
The history of the Church has practical value for every Christian, as a storehouse of warning and encouragement, of consolation and counsel. It is the philosophy of facts, Christianity in living examples. If history in general be . . . as Diodorus calls it, “the handmaid of providence, the priestess of truth, and the mother of wisdom,” the history of the kingdom of heaven is all these in the highest degree. Next to the Holy Scriptures, which are themselves a history and depository of divine revelation, there is no stronger proof of the continual presence of Christ with his people, no more thorough vindication of Christianity, no richer source of spiritual wisdom and experience, no deeper incentive to virtue and piety, than the history of Christ’s kingdom. Every age has a message from God to man, which it is of the greatest importance for man to understand.
The Epistle to the Hebrews [chap. 11]
describes, in stirring eloquence, the cloud of witnesses from the old
dispensation for the encouragement of the Christians. Why should not the
greater cloud of apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, fathers, reformers,
and saints of every age and tongue, since the coming of Christ, be held up for
the same purpose? They were the heroes
of Christian Faith and love, the living epistles of Christ, the salt of the
earth, the benefactors and glory of our race; and it is impossible rightly to
study their thoughts and deeds, their lives and deaths, without being elevated,
edified, comforted, and encouraged to follow their holy example, that we at
last, by the grace of God, be received into their fellowship, to spend with
them a blessed eternity in the praise and enjoyment of the same God and Saviour.[vii]
My Dear
Christian Friend, the Christian Faith we know today was not just handed to us
on a silver platter, but was planted, cultivated, and grown over the centuries.
If I may repeat, we can understand little theology without history. I would, therefore, offer seven reasons
why we should study church history. For most of them, I’ll also submit an
historical event that I hope will encourage you to desire to know more.
The Command of God
The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, repeatedly
exhorts us to search out and remember the past. God instituted festivals and
ceremonies, in fact, as a reminder. Passover, of course, reminded the Jews of
their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. During the Feast of Tabernacles (or
Booths) the people lived in huts made of boughs. It commemorated God’s
provision for them through the wilderness and celebrated the autumn harvest. It
also foreshadowed the peace and prosperity of the millennial reign of Christ
and will be celebrated during the Millennium (Zech. 14:16).
Our text is one of those truly beautiful verses of the Bible:
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD:
look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are
digged. In the next two verses God goes on to say, in effect, “Remember
your past; remember where you came from; remember that your nation exists only
because of My power that created that nation from an old man and an old woman
who were beyond the age of child-bearing.” We, too, should remember what we
were—wretched, hell-bound sinners! But God loved us, had mercy on us, and sent
His only begotten Son to die in our place. But we should also remember the
countless events of church history that have helped mold our historical faith.
As the “Five Solas of the Reformation” section of our study graphically
illustrates, for example, we cannot understand or appreciate Christianity
without an understanding of the Reformation. Sadly, however, many so-called
evangelicals are actually trying to undo the Reformation.
To Comprehend Today
It has been wisely said, “History is not about the past but
the present.” Most people just do not realize that we cannot comprehend the
present unless we understand the past. It shows us that we are really no
different from our Christian brothers and sisters who have gone before us. It
enables us to understand and sympathize with the difficulties they faced. It
also helps us avoid the sins and errors they made.
During
the first four centuries of the Church,[viii] it
grew progressively more secularized, and the same is occurring today. This
caused (and is causing) serious doctrinal errors as well as a departure from
biblical exposition. There were some, however, who saw what was occurring.
Writing in the middle of the 2nd-century, the apologist Justin
Martyr described a typical worship service of his day:
And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen.[ix]
That is of tremendous importance. Mark it down—the
reading and explanation of the Word of God was the absolute center of the
worship service. Not today. Central today is music, drama, comedy,
discussion, or anything else we can think of except preaching. Today the
pulpit ministry, that of expository preaching, is all but gone. This leads to a
third reason.
To Consider Tomorrow
Such comprehension of the past and present, leads us right
to considering the future. Where are current trends going to lead? Where are patterns
of doctrine and conduct going to take us ultimately? Into what troubled waters
will even a single teaching guide us?
Our historical illustration here is Thomas
Aquinas (1224–74). While there is no arguing that Aquinas was one of the
greatest thinkers and theologians in history (albeit thoroughly Roman
Catholic), there is also no denying his fundamental error. As Francis Schaeffer
submits, he began “to open the door to placing revelation and human reason on
an equal footing.”[x]
Frankly, it is troubling, indeed, that any Protestant
Christian would laud Aquinas. His affinity for the philosopher Aristotle (and
the typical high view of man among such pagans) is well known. It was the blending
of such rationalistic philosophy with Christianity that led to a crippling of
the foundational doctrines of the sovereignty of God and the depravity of man.
The real key to Aquinas, in fact, lies in his view of man.
While he believed man rebelled against God and was fallen, he did not think
that fall was total. In contrast to the semi-Pelagian (also Arminian and Catholic)
error that the will remained unfallen, Aquinas’ error was that it was
actually the intellect that was unaffected. As a result, man is able to
rely on his own human thinking. Therefore, Aquinas maintained, since his
intellect is unfallen, man can be convinced of God’s existence through reason
(although deeper truth, such as the Trinity, for example, must come from
revelation). As one historian well puts it, “Accepting Aristotle’s principle—every
effect has a cause, every cause has a prior cause, and so on back to the First
Cause—Thomas declared that creation traces back to a divine First Cause, the
Creator.”[xi]
This is the old Cosmological Argument for God’s existence.
So, where did Aquinas’ blending of philosophy and
Christianity ultimately lead? It led us to what are called Classical
Apologetics, which defends
the faith through rational arguments for the existence of God, using evidence
to substantiate biblical claims and miracles. It also led us to Evidential
Apologetics, which defends
the faith through the evidence of the miracles of the Bible, especially the evidences
for Christ’s resurrection, as well as fulfilled prophecies and scientific
evidence for creation. All this is clear simply because it is man’s intellect
and reason that is appealed to. “Give a man enough evidence,” it is argued,
“and he will recognize the truth.”
As
we have noted elsewhere,[xii] is it not odd that we think
our well reasoned arguments, however compelling or convincing they might be,
can actually persuade someone to believe apart from the power of God? And if it
is the power of God that saves, why do we need compelling arguments in the
first place? Or is it that we need both?
No,
it is not arguments that win anybody to Christ, rather it is “the Gospel of
Christ” itself (the Gospel in and of itself without anything
added) that is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). Paul, in fact,
prefaced that statement with the assertion that he wasn’t ashamed of that
Gospel, rather he preached that alone as God’s power. So, we do not use reason;
we use revelation. We don’t debate the issues in arrogance; we deliver
the Truth[xiii] in humility. That is
evangelism.
As noted earlier, it is extremely troubling that Aquinas is
painted in brilliant colors by many Protestants. Just as his philosophy was thoroughly
pagan, his theology was blasphemously Roman Catholic. He taught such doctrines
as: Christ won grace while the Church imparts it; Christians need
the constant infusion of “cooperating grace” by which they can gain merit in
God’s sight; saving grace comes through the sacraments; submission to the Pope
is necessary for salvation; transubstantiation (the bread and wine of the
Lord’s Supper being the literal body and blood of Christ) is a true and
continuing sacrifice of Christ on the Cross; and the list goes on.[xiv]
A common attitude of our day is, “Well, we can glean truth
from anyone.” I have heard this said about even the worst false teachers of our
day, often cleverly expressed with phrases such as: “Even a stopped clock is
right twice a day,” or, “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.” We
would submit, however, that such an idea is like looking for a few kernels of
edible corn in a pig pen or rummaging through a dumpster in the hope of finding
a sandwich.
It is interesting, indeed, that the great Reformer Martin
Luther did not buy into any of this. He was well versed in medieval
philosophy, including Aquinas, and its heavy emphasis on Aristotle and pulled
no punches in his condemnation:
The Universities also require a good, sound Reformation. I must say this, let it vex whom it may. . . . the blind heathen teacher, Aristotle, rules even further than Christ. Now, my advice would be that the books of Aristotle be altogether abolished . . . My heart is grieved to see how many of the best Christians this accursed, proud, knavish heathen has fooled and led astray with his false words. God sent him as a plague for our sins.[xv]
We would, therefore, submit that it is absolutely essential
that we study history to remind us to always examine a new doctrine, a new
trend, a new method, a new ministry, or anything else to consider where it will
ultimately lead and what the consequences of it will be.
To Contemplate Providence
There
are three aspects of the Sovereignty of God: His decrees, His preservation,
and His providence. Space permits only brief mention of the last one.
God’s providence means that He continuously fulfills His original plan
and design through the events that occur in the universe. What a staggering
thought! I constantly ponder the providence of God in history and repeatedly
marvel at how He has worked to bring certain things to pass through amazing
events that most people just call “coincidence.” Mark it down: Our sovereign
God is always at work through providence.
To illustrate, when Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) became
Queen of England in 1553, she was determined to put an end to the Protestant Reformation
once-and-for-all and reestablish Roman Catholicism as the national religion.
While she was challenged by the English Protestants, she was not deterred.
Almost 300 Protestants were burned at the stake and hundreds more escaped to
Europe. Many of those godly exiles, among whom were some of the finest theologians
and Bible scholars in history, found refuge in Geneva, Switzerland and were determined
to translate the Bible into English, and with that the Geneva Bible was
born. Coming more than 50 years before the 1611 KJV, the Geneva was translated
from 1557 to 1560 and was the first English translation to be translated solely
from the original Hebrew and Greek. It was even the first Bible that could be
classed as a “Study Bible” because of its abundant notes, annotations, cross
references, and commentary.
King James I, however, was infuriated by the strong emphasis
of the Doctrines of Grace in the Geneva Bible (as are many people
today), not to mention its sanctioning of civil disobedience when rulers
violate God’s law (e.g. Ex. 1:19). This prompted him to authorize a group of
Puritan scholars to produce a translation without such notes. It has been speculated,
in fact, that if it had not been for James’ outrage, the also excellent King
James Version might never have been born.
It’s significant, indeed, that when the Pilgrims set foot in
the New World in 1620, it was the Geneva Bible they held in their hands,
and it continued to be the Bible of the home for 40 years after the publication
of the KJV and went through 144 editions. It was the Geneva Bible from
which the Scottish Reformer John Knox preached at St. Giles Cathedral in
Edinburgh, and it was the Bible of William Shakespeare, John Milton, John
Bunyon, and, of course, the Puritans.
Sadly, it lost this prominence only after the KJV was widely
promoted by the King and after he outlawed the printing of the Geneva in the
English realm. While it has often been called “The Forgotten Bible,” the Geneva
Bible has also been rightly dubbed “The Heartbeat of the Reformation.”
Outspokenly anti-Roman Catholic (especially in Revelation), it was hated by
Rome, just as Rome hated (and still hates) the historic doctrines of the
Reformation. It’s ironic, indeed, that while many Protestants today, myself
included, lovingly embrace the KJV (which reads 90% the same as the Geneva), it
is really the Geneva Bible that is our true heritage. While in the end
the KJV makes for a better and richer translation (see chapter 12), the Geneva
laid the solid foundation. In fact, even the preface to the KJV, titled “The
Translators to the Reader,” took its own Scripture quotations from the Geneva
Bible.
Here, then, is an amazing example of God’s providence.
Despite the attacks of man, God’s purpose was thwarted in not the slightest
degree in bringing us the Bible in English. We will see this in even more
detail in chapter 12.
To Conquer Error
One of the most important aspects of Church History is how
Theology has developed through the centuries. One of the main reasons for that
has been the reaction of godly men against error and apostasy. One doesn’t have
to study very long to discover repeated examples of error. Error is
recorded in Scripture (such as the Judaizers of Acts 15 and the entire book of
Galatians). Knowing Church History is a priceless tool in fighting error today.
For example, countless cults and false religions deny the
Deity of Christ. To the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus was not equal to Jehovah and
was not God in human flesh but was rather a created being and was actually
Michael the Archangel in his preexistent state, having a brother named Lucifer
who rebelled against God.[xvi]
Likewise, to the Mormon, Jesus—like all men, in fact—was a preexistent spirit
who took his body at birth in this world; He is set apart from the rest of us
only by the fact that He was the first-born of God’s spirit-children.[xvii]
Other cults, such as Christian Science, the Unity School of Christianity, The
Way International, and others illustrate why they are all called “a cult,”
namely, because they deny the deity of Christ or in some way pervert that
doctrine.
But all this is nothing new in Church History; it is simply
a revival of the ancient heresy called Arianism. Arius, a 4th-century
parish priest in Alexandria, taught that Jesus was not coequal with God and
was, in fact, a created being (see chapter 10 for a deeper study of Arianism
and the man who stood virtually alone against it).
The
popular book, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown (Doubleday, 2003) is another
graphic illustration. While seemingly just another thriller novel set in the present-day,
it has a hidden agenda that makes it far more. Starting with the murdered
curator of a Paris museum, the hero and heroin of the story must decipher the
clues left behind by the murdered man and thereby uncover an ancient and
sinister plot. And what is that ancient secret? The supposed “true”
story that Christianity has been trying to hide for 1,600 years, namely, that
Jesus was just another man who actually ended up marrying Mary Magdalene.
Error is everywhere, but knowing history makes it much
easier to spot.
To Compare People
Have you ever been reading an incident in history where a
person did something remarkable and then thought, “I could never have done that?”
Indeed, comparing ourselves to some of the great people of history will humble
us like nothing else will. Not only will studying people of the past teach us
about them, but it will also teach us about ourselves.
For example, one of the fundamental traits missing in
society today is personal integrity. The essence of integrity is allegiance, standing firm for what
is right without duplicity, double-mindedness, or divided allegiance.
Whenever I think of the word integrity, I am immediately
reminded of the Huguenots of 16th-century
France. They held strong morals and possessed high integrity. To be “honest as
a Huguenot” was said to have been the highest praise of one’s integrity. Put
simply, what the Puritan was in England, the Huguenot was in France. A conservative
estimate says that by 1561 one-sixth of France was strong in the historic
doctrines of Christianity, which were reasserted in the Reformation, and
blameless moral character; other estimates say one-fourth.
But history then reveals that the Huguenots were forced to
leave France in 1685 and hence settled in England, Prussia, Holland, South Africa,
and the Carolinas here in America. (I had the joy of once visiting a Huguenot
Church in Charleston, South Carolina.) What’s especially significant about that
exodus is that it was a terrible economic blow to France, since most Huguenots
were skilled artisans and professional men of the middle class (paralleled by
the tax-paying middle class in America). Does that not explain the intellectual
emptiness and moral debauchery that permeates France to this very day? Does
that not explain the virtually incomprehensible ramblings of French philosophers
such as Voltaire (1694–1778), André Maurois (1885–1967), and especially Jean
Paul Sartre (1905–1980)?
In
a day when there is little integrity among politicians, businessmen, and sadly
even some religious (and so-called Christian) leaders, the need for integrity
cannot be overemphasized. While society today places virtually no value at all
on personal integrity, it is a trait that is at the very core of a true believer.
To Cultivate Endurance
Our Lord declared, “Ye shall be hated of all men for my
name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”
(Mk 13:13). The true believer is the one who endures to the very end. We also
read in Hebrews 6:11, “And we desire that every one of you do show the same
diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” James likewise declares,
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him” (Jas.
1:12).
When we look at faithful people of the past, it is a
tremendous encouragement. There are scores of those who have endured hardship
and even death for the faith. They were each committed to the Truth and anticipated
Christ’s return. They did, indeed, endure to the end.
Of countless illustrations, one that strikes us profoundly,
and one that we would do well to remember in our day, is that of the Pilgrims.
Who were those 102 Pilgrims who left England in search of religious freedom and
landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in December of 1620? The story is a
fascinating one.[xviii]
About 1602 William Brewster (c.1563–1644), a Cambridge educated man and
Puritan, began meeting in his home with a group of Puritans of Scrooby, England
who wanted religious freedom. Also involved was another Cambridge educated man
and Puritan, John Robinson
(c.1575–1625), who soon became the pastor of the group, while Brewster was the
ruling elder. The movement grew, and when persecution forced them to leave the
Church, they founded the Separatist Church of Scrooby in 1606. At this time
part of the group moved to Amsterdam, Holland seeking greater freedom of
worship. Two years later the rest followed. Another year later they moved to
Leyden, where the congregation grew to 300.
By 1620, Brewster and Robinson both promoted immigration to
America to seek religious freedom. While Robinson stayed behind to pastor those
who decided to remain in Holland, Brewster led about one-third of the group to
America. Sailing first to England on the Speedwell,
they then boarded the Mayflower and
sailed from Southampton on September 16. They sighted land (Cape Cod) on
November 19, and landed at Plymouth on December 26. It is also interesting that
because of storms at sea, they landed in Plymouth instead of Virginia. But this
was the sovereignty of God at work, for they would have been persecuted as much
in Virginia as they had been in England.
In the opening lines of his famous poem, “Sea Fever,” John
Masefield (1878–1967) wrote of the romance of sailing: “I must go down to the
seas again, / to the lonely sea and sky, / And all I ask is a tall ship, / and a star to steer her by.” He wrote
something quite different, however, about the pilgrims who made that voyage, a
voyage that can be accurately described as horrific:
The ship was very small, and crowded with people. Counting the crew, she must have held nearly a hundred and fifty people, in a space too narrow for the comfort of half that number. The passengers were stowed in the between decks, a sort of low, narrow room, under the spar deck, lit in fine weather by the openings of hatchways and gun-ports, and in bad weather, when these were closed, by lanterns. They lived, ate, slept, and were seasick in that narrow space. A woman bore a child, a man died there. They were packed so tightly, among all their belongings and stores, that they could have had no privacy. The ventilation was bad, even in fine weather. In bad weather, when the hatches were battened down, there was none. In bad weather the pilgrims lived in a fog, through which they could see the water on the deck washing from side to side, as the ship rolled, carrying their pans and clothes with it. They could only lie, and groan, and pray, in stink and misery, while the water from ill-caulked seams dripped on them from above.[xix]
All that, however, was just a warm up for what they faced on
the shores of this new continent. The “want of fresh food,” Masefield goes on
to recount, “the harshness of the
change of climate, the exposure and labour in the building of the town, and the
intense cold of even a mild New England winter, were more than they could
endure. Nearly half of them were dead within six months.” But they endured, and
within the next twenty years were joined by some 20,000 more Puritans.
Who were those Puritans? They were godly,
Scripture-saturated people who clung to the precious doctrines of the
Reformation—the Doctrines of Grace. Their desire was to govern themselves
biblically for the glory of God. No matter how the revisionists try to rewrite
American history, there is no denying that the principle of “the laws of nature
and nature’s God” was the heart of early America. While not all the Founding
Fathers were Christians, the majority were. Unlike today, an acknowledgment of
Christian belief was required for holding public office during the years of the
Founding Fathers.
Consider also the foundation of American education. Harvard
University, for example, is the oldest American college. Founded (1636) with a
grant from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and named (1638) for its first
benefactor, John Harvard, it was intended as a training ground for Puritan
ministers but evolved a more generalized program of education. The first
president of Harvard, in fact, was the Puritan leader Thomas Shepard, and
several of our Founding Fathers attended there, including: John Adams, John
Hancock, and Samuel Adams. Further, the requirements of a student to attend
Harvard were quite specific:
Let every student be plainly instructed and consider well the main
end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ and therefore to
lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and
learning . . . Everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures
twice a day that he shall be ready to give an account of his proficiency
therein.
History also reveals that other colleges, such as Yale, and
especially Princeton, had similar requirements. Princeton’s founding statement
was, “Cursed be all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ,” and it
did, indeed, produce some of the greatest theological minds in American history.
Ah, how times have changed!
One historian well summarizes: “It’s only a slight
exaggeration to say that most of the good in America began with the Puritans
and most of the bad has come from rejecting their worldview.”[xx]
While some would argue, “But the Puritans are gone now; they haven’t endured at
all, so why cite them as cultivating endurance?” we would submit the very
opposite. Besides the persecution they endured, as well as the sea voyage and
early years in America, their legacy still endures today. A monument to them,
for example, endures in the pieces of the Mayflower that have been restored
and are on display in Skagit County Museum in La Conner, Washington.
But far more enduring is what the Puritans left
behind via the printed page. Several publishers continue to reprint the works
of the Puritans, and we do well to read them. Their passion for preaching, the
authority of Scripture, theological exactness, moral purity, and more provide
us invaluable lessons that we ignore at our peril. Indeed, the Puritans challenge
us today to cultivate endurance.
Recommended Reading
If you would like to go further in a basic study of
Church History, an easy starting place is S. M. Houghton’s wonderful, Sketches from Church History (Banner of Truth Trust). Another that provides simple, daily
readings, is Rick Cornish’s 5 Minute Church Historian (NavPress). To go
a step deeper, read Bruce Shelley’s excellent Church History in Plain Language,
3rd Edition (Thomas Nelson).
* This chapter was
originally issue #64 of
Truth on Tough Texts (hereafter abbreviated TOTT), November 2010.
A few new historical illustrations have been added, however, because some of
those in the original article appear elsewhere in this book with more detail.
[i]
It can, of course, be argued that it all started on October 31, 1517 when
Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
[ii] Macbeth, 5.5.19.
[iii] Santayana,
The Life of Reason, Vol. 1., 1905.
[iv]
Quoted by Milan Kundera in his novel, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.
[v]
Philip Schaff, What is Church History: A Vindication of the Idea of
Historical Development (J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1846), 5.
[vi] Pensées (Section XIV, polemic 858.
[vii]
Philip Schaff, History of the Christians Church, Vol. 1, “General
Introduction,” § 5. Uses of Church History.
[viii]
The publisher has chosen to capitalize “Church” as a proper name throughout
this book when it refers to the Church as a whole, that is, the Body of Christ.
We view it as a “transcendent idea,” such as “the Truth” (see note 13 below).
Lowercase (“church” or “churches”) is used when referring to a local church.
[ix]
The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1; Ages Digital Library, “The First
Apology Of Justin,” Chapter 67.
[x]
Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? (Feming H. Revell, 1976),
43.
[xi]
Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, 3rd Edition (Thomas
Nelson, 2008), 201.
[xii]
See chapter 21, “Apologetics and the Gospel,” in the author’s Truth on Tough
Texts: Expositions in Challenging Scripture Passages (Sola Scriptura Publications,
2012), 210.
[xiii]
The publisher has chosen to capitalize “Truth” as a proper name throughout this
book when referring to “the Truth.” As the Chicago Manual of Style
offers: “Words for transcendent ideas in the Platonic sense, especially when
used in a religious context, are often capitalized [such as]: Good; Beauty;
Truth; One” (7.82). Lowercase (“truth”) is used when the word has a modifier,
such as “a biblical truth,” for example.
[xiv]
Shelley, 201–202.
[xv]
Letter to the German
Nobility
(III.25).
[xviii]
A more detailed account appears in the author’s Salvation is of the Lord:
The Doctrines of Grace Expounded by a Former Arminian, which is scheduled
for release in 2013 by Sola Scriptura Publications.
[xix]
Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, with an Introduction by John
Masefield (New York: E. P. Button & Co., nd.), xi–xii.
[xx]
Rick Cornish, 5 Minute
Church Historian (NavPress, 2005), 194. For a study of worldviews, see chapter 49, “What in the
World is a Biblical Worldview?” in the author’s Truth on Tough Texts:
Expositions of Challenging Scripture Passages (Sola Scriptura Publications,
2012), 478–86.
Appreciation for the Original
Truth on Tough Texts: Expositions of Challenging Scripture Passages
Dr. Watson has undertaken a project that
would make most men tremble: he has studied and explained some of the most
daunting passages of Scripture, and then has demonstrated the courage to
publish his explanations for all of the theologians of Christendom to evaluate
and contest! He has done so with remarkable care and thoroughness, and you will
profit by reading the outcomes and learning from his methods.
—Dr. James Maxwell
President, Faith Baptist College and Seminary
Ankeny, Iowa
I
had the privilege of teaching with Dr. Watson in Haiti in 2011 and providentially
was able to read several issues of TOTT. These articles not only gave me an appreciation for his scholarship
but an understanding and gratitude for a resource that is desperately needed by
the serious student of the Word of God. The perspicuity of the Bible has been
challenged throughout Church History, but Truth on Tough Texts: Expositions
of Challenging Scripture Passages brings clarity to difficult texts using a
sound biblical hermeneutic.
—Dr. Allen Monroe
Equipping Leaders International
Former Professor, Cedarville University
Challenging.
Insightful. Biblical. Three words that accurately describe Doc Watson’s writing
in his new book, Truth on Tough Texts: Expositions of Challenging Scripture
Passages. In this compilation of excellent articles, the author does
something that is rare these days: he lets the Bible speak for itself. By applying
a sound biblical hermeneutic and taking the Bible seriously, truth clearly
emerges from the tough texts of Scripture. Pastors and laymen alike will
benefit from the hours of study and careful scholarship that went into these
pages.
—Dr. James Bearss
President, On Target Ministry
Teaching Faithful Men through International Education
If
you have not been blessed to sit under the teaching ministry of Dr. Watson, in
one of the most beautiful venues in God’s creation, then do the next best thing
and read his books. TOTT is
a much needed antidote for a culture that overwhelmingly calls itself Christian
but cannot enumerate its most basic and important truths. I heartily recommend
you wrestle through the tough texts of Scripture with Doc’s enlightened
coaching.
—JD Wetterling
Author of No one . . . and
No Time to Waste
The
vast majority of Scripture is clear and understandable to even the simplest of
readers, but there are those “hard sayings,” those confusing sections, those
tough texts that take extra care and study to discern. Dr. Watson examines many
of these “tough texts” through the lens of Scripture, making every effort to
determine their true meaning and eliminate the layers of inadequate teaching
that has covered many of them over the ages. I recommend this book to the
serious student of the Word of God.
—Dr. Gary E. Gilley
Pastor, Southern View Chapel; Springfield, Illinois
Author, This Little Church series
Doc
Watson’s TOTT has served me and our church
family with his willingness to tackle not only tough texts but also
tough topics. I often post his recent article on my office bulletin
board. As a pastor, I am all about helpful resources for myself and others, and
that’s what this publication offers. Where the commentaries give a brief
statement, Doc gives you a concise and thorough explanation. Keep this book
within reach on your shelf because you will use this as a reference source when
discussions lead to a question about a biblical text or topic.
—Pastor Kevin Kottke, MDiv
Plainfield Bible Church
Plainfield, Indiana
Dr.
Watson has taken from his extensive experience those biblical texts and issues
that are most difficult and tackled them head-on. These are texts most
commentaries skirt over or shy away from. Doc’s manner is thorough and
in-depth, using sound hermeneutic principles of exegesis. The results are profound
studies and answers on important subjects. These rich studies have been very
beneficial to me personally, and I recommend them to anyone who loves the truth
of God’s Word.
—Pastor Jim Bryant, MBS
Grace Bible Chapel; San
Antonio, Texas
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