Author: Fred Sanders
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Vincent van Gogh: More Blue than Yellow
Today (July 29) is the day in 1890 when Vincent van Gogh died from a gunshot wound he had inflicted on himself two days earlier, leaving behind many questions. That van Gogh was mentally tormented throughout his life is widely known. It is an unavoidable subject for biographers, but also an irresistible subject for anybody…
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Happy Birthday to J. Gresham Machen
J. Gresham Machen was born this day (July 28) in 1881, and died in 1937. An adherent of the Old Princeton theology and protege of B. B. Warfield, Machen launched a classic attack on modernist theology in 1923 with his book, Christianity and Liberalism (New York: Macmillan, 1923). As modernism made deeper inroads into the…
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The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
Once upon a time, the cruel emperor Decius came to the city of Ephesus to build new temples at which all citizens, but especially the Christians, would be required to worship him by sacrifices, or else die. Now in this city lived seven Christian men named Maximian, Malchus, Marcian, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine. When…
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Charles Tindley Understood it Better By and By
Today (July 26) in 1933, Charles Albert Tindley died at the age of 77. Born just one half-step out of slavery in 1856, Tindley rose to the rank of pastoring a 3,000 member Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Tindley has been called “the prince of preachers” (apologies to Charles Spurgeon), but I haven’t been able…
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William Burkitt: Observe and Learn Hence
William Burkitt was born this day (July 25) in 1650. Burkitt was a graduate of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and an Anglican minister. He was the author of the celebrated Expository Notes on the New Testament, published in two volumes about 1700. Later luminaries such as Matthew Henry and Charles Spurgeon recommended this work highly. Burkitt…
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Today is Oswald Chambers’ Birthday
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) is remembered for one devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, which was published, like all but one of his 30 books, posthumously by his widow Biddie. Biddie was a stenographer who captured Oswald’s spoken ministry and, after his death, turned her notes into volumes of publishable writing. In 1935 she published…
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Today Madame Guyon Had a Great Quiet Time
It was on July 22, 1668, that Madame Guyon (Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, 1648-1717) had the most important spiritual experience in a life that was all about spiritual experiences. She was blown away, lost in God, plunged into the depths of the divine love. At least that’s how she talked about this…
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Bob Ingersoll and the Old Atheism
Today (July 21) is the day that Col. Robert G. Ingersoll died in 1899. Ingersoll was the most popular promoter of agnosticism in the late nineteenth century, though his favored way of characterizing his beliefs was “Free Thought.” He not only drew large crowds when he came to town, but he also commanded large sums…
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Communion on the Moon Day!
Today (July 20) is the anniversary of the communion service on the moon, in 1969. Buzz Aldrin, an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Webster, Texas, had planned ahead for it, obviously, or he wouldn’t have had the elements of bread and wine with him in the lunar module. Beyond that, though, Presbyterian theology recognizes…
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Bullinger Day
Heinrich Bullinger was born today (July 18) in 1504. Bullinger took over the office of chief minister in Zurich when Zwingli died on the battlefield in 1531, and stayed at that post until his own death 44 years later. So many things make Bullinger an attractive figure in the history of theology. Though he was…
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Wedding Sermon: Everything it Takes
Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here, under the watchful eye of God, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony. We have assembled here today every thing that it takes to make a marriage. •We have the honor of an invited gathering of loved ones: •close friends who will hear James…
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Christology is not Pneumatology (A.A. van Ruler)
In a recent issue of the International Journal of Systematic Theology, Gijsbert van den Brink and Stephan Van Erp lament the lack of any contribution from 20th-century Dutch theologians to the rediscovery of trinitarian theology. In their article, “Ignoring God Triune? The Doctrine of the Trinity in Dutch Theology,” they say that “Apart from some…