Author: Fred Sanders
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Beza’s Birthday is Worth Celebrating, Too
Not long ago, theology fans celebrated Calvin’s 500th birthday. But let us not overlook the birthday of Theodore Beza, born this day, June 24, 1519. Sure, a 490th anniversary isn’t as festive as a 500th, and Beza’s not Calvin. But since it’s his day, consider Beza for a moment. Beza carried out what John Calvin…
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Ernest Renan’s Life of Jesus
According to the Christian History Institute, June 23 was the very day in 1863 when French philosopher Ernest Renan (1823-1892) published his Vie de Jesus. Renan’s book was not the first attempt at a critical biography of Jesus, but it was the first best-seller in the genre. It is written in purple prose that nineteenth-century…
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Jonathan Edwards, You’re FIRED
June 22 is the anniversary of Jonathan Edwards’ dismissal from his pastorate in 1750. The great awakening had gone through his town a few years before, but once it was over, plenty of people wanted to go back to sleep. Edwards had tried to raise the standards for church membership and communion in his town,…
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How My Dad Built an Illegal Bridge, and It Was Good
This Father’s Day, I’m remembering something my dad did back in the summer of 1991. He illegally repaired a county bridge and became a local hero. For his neighbors in Missouri, it became the story of a determined small businessman beating city hall with a bulldozer and a few tons of gravel. Dad owned a…
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Introducing the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
About twenty years ago I saw for the first time “The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.” I was interested in the book at once, and commenced to use it in my daily study of the Word of God. I went through book after book of the Bible, verse by verse, with the aid of “The Treasury.”…
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Compare Scripture to Scripture
Study your Bible comparatively. What do I mean by this? Simply this, compare Scripture with Scripture. The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. A verse in Deuteronomy will oftentimes shed a wondrous light on a verse in the Four Gospels. A verse in Daniel or Ezekiel will oftentimes shed a flood of…
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Otterbein’s Birthday
Today (June 3) is the day Philip William Otterbein was born in 1726. Otterbein was a German Reformed pastor who moved from Prussia to the American colonies in 1752, where he ministered until his death in 1813. Otterbein presided over a conference of ministers in 1800 which led to the formation of the United Brethren…
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Alexander Cruden, Not Quite Correct
Alexander Cruden was born this day (May 31, 1700) and made his mark in history by producing a concordance of the Bible. Cruden’s Concordance was a revolutionary research tool in its day, as attested by the great excitement with which Jonathan Edwards ordered a copy and put it to use in his own studies. Though…
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The Barmen Declaration
May 30 is the best day to commemorate the Theological Declaration of Barmen, the document in which the Confessing Church in Germany in 1934 drew the line against the steadily-advancing incursions of Nazi ideology into the life of the church. Karl Barth was the primary author of most of the text of the short confession…
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3 from GKC
On the birthday of G. K. Chesterton (May 29, 1874), here are my three favorites from among his many poems. One for the not yet born, one for those of us making our ways through the everyday, and one for the very old. By The Babe Unborn If trees were tall and grasses short, As…
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Calvin Died
John Calvin (born 1509, died this day, May 27, in 1564) didn’t want to be a celebrity. He even tried his best to avoid taking a leading role in the second generation of the Reformation. When his death was approaching, he arranged to have himself buried in an unmarked grave to make sure nobody would…
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California Literary Regionalism?
What is California literature? For a class about California in the great books tradition, I had to pick a half-dozen of the best books for students to read and discuss. Which raises the question, what counts as California literature? The most helpful discussion I’ve read on the subject is not exactly up to date, but…