The Scriptorium Daily

Author: Fred Sanders

  • Happy SchlatterDay

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (August 16) is the birthday of Adolf Schlatter (1852-1938), a great conservative New Testament scholar from a few generations ago. If you haven’t heard of Adolf Schlatter, it’s time to update your notes. You’re missing out on the Schlatter revival! It’s in full swing, with plenty of good stuff finally available to read in…

  • Jeremy Taylor Died Today, Having Written A Book About How To

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    Fred Sanders
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    Jeremy Taylor (born 1613, died today, August 13, in 1667) was a Cambridge-educated Anglican bishop whose most famous books are Holy Living (1650) and Holy Dying (1651). Both are classics, but there are many other books available that are similar to Holy Living: It reads a lot like Law’s Serious Call, Bayly’s Practice of Piety,…

  • Happy Birthday Bernard Nieuwentyt

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    Fred Sanders
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    Bernard Nieuwentyt was born this day (August 10) in 1654. You’ve never heard of him, but he was a mathematician, a natural philosopher, a medical doctor, and mayor of his town. He also wrote some theology, including this classic bit from 1718: …let us suppose that in the middle of a sandy down, or in…

  • First John: The Final Touches of the Whole System of Evangelical Truth

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    Fred Sanders
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    Christians commonly presuppose a pretty wide gap between biblical interpretation on the one hand and systematic theology on the other. It’s not just a division of labor, but an actual disciplinary boundary that is supposed to keep things tidy on both sides. The exegetes can keep their heads down and do descriptive-scientific work on the…

  • The Cane Ridge Revival, 1801

    The Cane Ridge Revival, 1801

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (August 6) was the day in 1801 when a Presbyterian communion service in Bourbon County, Kentucky, turned into a major revival. The service grew and grew, carrying on until August 12 and attracting pehaps 25,000 people. The results of the Cane Ridge revival, America’s strange way of starting the nineteenth century, changed the religious…

  • Up-Biblum God by John Eliot

    Up-Biblum God by John Eliot

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    Fred Sanders
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    The little Hertfordshire church registry says: Anno dm. 1604. John Elliott the sonne of Bennett Elliott was baptized the fifte daye of August in the yeere of our Lord God 1604. What a wonder this John Eliot was. Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, Eliot was especially gifted in the study of language. He came under…

  • Sigmund Mowinckel’s Birthday

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (August 4) is the day when Norwegian Old Testament scholar Sigmund Mowinckel was born (1884-1965). I have never made it more than a couple dozen pages into any book by Mowinckel, but he is always influencing the way I read the Psalms. My favorite Psalms commentaries were written by people who were influenced by…

  • Augustus Hopkins Strong, Theologian

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (August 3) is the birthday of baptist theologian Augustus Hopkins Strong (1836-1921), one of the most important American theologians of the nineteenth century. Strong was a man of contrasts: gregarious and popular, he nevertheless carried himself with an overstated dignity and reserve; always making witty remarks, he was never known to laugh out loud…

  • Basil the Holy Fool

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (August 2) is the day the Russian Orthodox church commemorates Basil of Moscow, the Fool for Christ. Basil was a poor serf, a shoemaker’s helper, who acted crazy for Jesus. He went around naked; he had no home; he talked funny; he took things from merchants and gave them away to the even poorer.…

  • “Sin Boldly!”

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (August 1) in 1521 is the day Martin Luther wrote the advice, “Sin boldly. But believe even more boldly in Christ, and rejoice.” Protestants have been apologizing, and simultaneously not apologizing, for it ever since. To understand what it means, you have to be familiar with three things: Luther, Melanchthon, and justification by grace…

  • Horatius Bonar Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

    Horatius Bonar Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (July 31) is the day in 1889 when Horatius Bonar died at the age of 81. Bonar (1808-1889), Scottish pastor and author, was from a long line of clergymen and was brother to the equally famous Andrew Bonar (1810-1892) with whom he is sometimes confused. Born in Edinburgh and educated there under Thomas Chalmers,…

  • William Jones of Nayland on Defending the Trinity

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (July 30) is the day William Jones was born in the year 1726. He lived until 1800, and is remembered as “Jones of Nayland,” for the last post he held, as perpetual curate of Nayland from 1777 (and because the name Jones doesn’t exactly make you easy to find in English history books). Jones…