Get to Know David Brainerd

You will never regret taking an hour to listen to John Piper's biography of the unstoppably passionate missionary to American Indians in the 1700s David Brainerd (click here to read or listen or download it). It is amazing to read how many pioneering, paradigm shifting missionaries his life deeply impacted.

Let me leave you with this insights from Brainerd's journal, which Jonathan Edwards published, and Piper's message...

"He was gripped with by the apostolic admonition: "Redeem the time for the days are evil." (Ephesians 5:16) He embodied the counsel: "Let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due time we shall reap if we do not faint." (Gal. 6:9) He strove to be, as Paul says, "abounding in the work of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58)."

April 17, 1747. "O I longed to fill the remaining moments all for God! Though my body was so feeble, and wearied with preaching and much private conversation, yet I wanted to sit up all night to do something for God. To God the giver of these refreshments, be glory forever and ever; Amen." (p. 246) February 21, 1746. "My soul was refreshed and comforted, and I could not but bless God, who had enabled me in some good measure to be faithful in the day past. Oh, how sweet it is to be spent and worn out for God!" (p. 366)

Among all the means that Brainerd used for pursuing greater and greater holiness and usefulness prayer and fasting stand out above all. We read of him spending whole days in prayer (p. 172), and sometimes setting aside six times in the day to pray, (p. 280), and sometimes seeking out a family or friend to pray with. He prayed for his own sanctification. He prayed for the conversion and purity of his Indians. He prayed for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ around the world and especially in America. Sometimes the spirit of prayer would hold him so deeply that he could scarcely stop.

Once, visiting in a home with friends, he got alone to pray: "I continued wrestling with God in prayer for my dear little flock here; and more especially for the Indians elsewhere; as well as for dear friends in one place and another; till it was bed time and I feared I should hinder the family, etc. But oh, with what reluctancy did I find myself obliged to consume time in sleep!" (p. 402)

Archaeology Supports Bible...AGAIN!!!

Thanks to BTW for posting on a find in Jerusalem, read about it here, a family seal from the first temple period with a name with a family name found in Nehemiah 7:55.

Does it say the name and then "as written in the Bible"? No, but it does show it was a name used at the time, like the Bible says, and it does not contradict the Bible in anyway, but rather the find further supports it's historicity and accuracy.

This & Last Week in History

Since I've forgotten to do this recently, I thought I'd let you know some highlights from the dates of last week and this week in church history.

Aside from many interesting events that you can read about here, last week...

• Constantine defeated Maxentius at Milvian Bridge after having a "vision" of the symbol of Jesus, which paved the way for Rome to become a Christian empire (AD 312)
• The very important Council of Chalcedon (in modern Turkey) begins to address heresies about Christ that were not addressed at Nicea (451)
• Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany (1517)
• The British Parliament passes the Supremacy Act officially making England Protestant (1534)
• George Muller converts to Christianity (1825)
• Jim Elliot writes in his journal "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" (1949)
• John Lennon ignites controversy when he tells reporters the Beatles are "more popular than Jesus" (1966)

And, click here to read that this week...

• Martin Luther is born in Eisleben, Germany (1483)
• The Massachusetts Bay Colony makes it a capital offense to deny that the Bible is the Word of God (1646)
• American journalist Henry Stanley finally finds Scottish missionary David Livingstone in Central Africa and utters his famous introduction, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume." (1871)
• Gideons International places its first Bible in a room at the Superior Hotel in Iron Mountains, Montana (1908)
  
• Evangelist Billy Graham is born in Charlotte, North Carolina (1918)

When Was...?

When was...

• Jonathan Edwards named president of Princeton?
• The Peace at Augsberg signed, giving Lutheranism official recognition in Germany?
• George Mueller born?
• The U.S. Constitution amended so as to allow the free exercise of religion and prohibit the government establishment of a state church?
  

These significant events, and many others, happened in 1757, 1555, 1805, and 1789 respectively--all during THIS week in church history.

God Trending Away from the West

This article, as well as books like Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom and David Wells' Above All Earthly Pow'rs make it clear that vibrant, biblical Christianity is leaving the West and showing up in the East and the southern hemisphere.

My favorite line from the article:

"Serious missionary work began in Nigeria in 1842, conducted by a Church Mission Society dedicated to promoting 'the knowledge of the Gospel among the heathen.' In 2007, the Nigerian outreach to America officially began, on the fertile mission fields of Northern Virginia."

For those of us in the West, I can't help but think this trend is evidence of God's judgment upon us. I don't see times getting any easier for us--both from within and from outside the church.

Did You Know...?

Did you know all of this happened this week in church history?

• 101 colonists and 48 crew members board the Mayflower to settle in America (1620)
• Massachusetts Puritans found Harvard to train ministers (1636)
  
• Robert Morrison becomes the first Protestant missionary to China (1807)--see what John Piper blogged today about this momentous event here.
• Mother Theresa died (1997)

D. James Kennedy (1930-2007)

Dr. D. James Kennedy passed away this morning in his sleep. If you don't know who this man is, you should do some internet searching and get to know him.

See a tribute website from the ministry of this wonderful man here with a video and time line of his life here. Also, Dr. Al Mohler eulogizes him here.

I loved these words from him on the front page of the tribute site:

"Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will say is the end of this life. They will probably put me in a box and roll me right down here in front of the church, and some people will gather around, and a few people will cry. But I have told them not to do that because I don’t want them to cry. I want them to begin the service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah chorus, because I am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead. I will be more alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down upon you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet joined me in the land of the living. And I will be alive forevermore, in greater health and vitality and joy than ever, ever, I or anyone has known before."

I remember taking a trip to Florida with my sister and step-grandmother in the summer of 2000. We went for a drive one night around Ft. Lauderdale, and in the distance I noticed this massive steeple. I drove towards it and stopped in front of a massive white church building. It seemed to glow. I parked the car and said "Wait here. I want to see if I know who the pastor is." My sister laughed at me, but I got out anyway.

When I walked up to a sign that said "Dr. D. James Kennedy." I walked around for a little while, found some materials about the church and then got back in the car. My sister piped up sarcastically "So, did you know him?" to which I replied "Yes" and that was it.

We are quickly loosing a very significant, and God-blessed generation of godly men. Oh, that God would raise up another generation of men like Dr. Kennedy.

Did You Know?

Did you know that during this week in history...?

• The Temple was destroyed by the Romans (70 AD)
• Augustine died (430)
  
• John Bunyan died (1688)
  
• Charles Finney was born (1792)
  
• Mother Theresa was born (1910)
  

For more events, click here.

Happy Birthday!!!

For all you history buffs, or more likely those you who saw, or should still see, Amazing Grace: The Movie, I thought you might want to know that Friday marks William Wilberforce's 248th birthday.

May God give our churches and our culture more men like him.

History Substantiates Bible...AGAIN

You'd think after at least a dozen decades of archeology confirming biblical history (yawn) that scholars would see this latest find that does it once again as old hat (Read more about it here and here):

Austrian Assyriologist Dr Michael Jursa made the breakthrough discovery confirming the existence of a Babylonian official mentioned in the Old Testament and connected to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.

The clay document is dated to the 10th year of Nebuchadnezzar II (595 BC) and names the official, Nebo-Sarsekim. According to chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he was present at the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC with Nebuchadnezzar himself.

However, since most scholars, curators and reporters start with the presupposition that the Bible is more myth than fact, discoveries like this will continue to amaze and thankfully, put the fact that the Bible is true on the front page:

On hearing of the discovery yesterday, Geza Vermes, the eminent emeritus professor of Jewish studies at the University of Oxford, said that such a discovery revealed that “the Biblical story is not altogether invented." He added: "This will be interesting for religious people as much as historians."

This is a great quote to end with:

“Cuneiform tablets might all look the same, but sometimes they contain treasure," added Irving Finkel, Assistant Keeper in the Department of the Middle East at the British Musem. "Here a mundane commercial transaction takes its place as a primary witness to one of the turning points in Old Testament history. This is a tablet that deserves to be famous."

Happy Birthday Calvin!!!

John Calvin was born July 10, 1509 in Noyon, France, making today his 498th birthday.

And, yesterday in 1925, the Scopes Monkey Trial began in Dayton, Tennessee as John Scopes was tried for teaching evolution to his students.

Balthasar Hubmaier Encyclopedia Entry

I just found this entry on Dr. Hubmaier in an online edition of the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Check it out if you want to know more about him.

Balthasar Hubmaier Biography

The biography of the man who's famous saying this blog is named after and who wrote that quote above begins:

"Balthasar Hubmaier was a participant in the Anabaptist wing of the Reformation for less than three years. Baptized in Waldshut [Germany] on Easter Saturday, April 15, 1525, he met his death at the stake in Vienna on March 10, 1528. In that limited time his writings and public activity gained him a well-earned reputation as the most learned and the most gifted communicator among the Anabaptists. He did not stand in the middle of the Anabaptist movement, but was without contest that most able theologian and the most visible among the leaders of those first years" (Balthasar Hubmaier: Theologian of Anabaptism, 15).

Balthasar Hubmaier on V.e.I.

I found this book today at a sale (for 70% off retail by the way :) and hope to start incorporating the life and writings of the reformer who coined the phrase this blog gets it's name from.

In the preface the editors write:

"The choice of the title for tis book--Balthasar Hubmaier: Theologian of Anabaptism--does not intend to suggest that Hubmaier was the only theologian, or the normative theologian, of the Anabaptist movement...[but his] place in the first generation of the broad [Anabaptist] movement is unique. He is the only figure of his generation with university credentials, the only one with extensive public activity before joining the Reformation, the most skilled in popular expository writing" (13).

I hope you enjoy learning about this great, though oft neglected, reformer of the 16th century who some think would've been appreciated on the level of Luther and Calvin had he not been martyred.

Who was he, and why was he martyred? We'll look first at his biography.