Author: Fred Sanders
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Some Sound Bites from Barth
Karl Barth wrote some sentences that run on for about a half-page, circle around their main idea without ever quite stating it, and keep readers on the edge of their seats with a sense of dramatic suspense and tension. But he also wrote quotable bits. Here are some I noticed during a recent re-read of…
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Andrew Murray’s Birthday
Andrew Murray, Reformed pastor who worked chiefly in South Africa, was born on May 9, 1828 and died at a ripe old age in 1917. He wrote scores of books, most of them having 31 chapters and intended to be read a chapter at a time for one month. They are devotional books, and if…
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Handley Moule, Evangelical Bishop of Durham
H. C. G. (that’s Handley Carr Glyn) Moule was born in 1841 and died on May 8, 1920. He served as the Bishop of Durham from 1901-1920. He was an acute scholar and a powerful communicator. He wrote great Bible commentaries, an outline of Christian doctrine, and many sermons and poems. When the editors of…
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Kierkegaard’s Birthday
There must be some significance to Soren Kierkegaard’s birthday falling on Cinco de Mayo, but it escapes me. An admonition from the great Dane, from his book For Self-Examination: If you are a scholar, remember that if you do not read God’s Word in another way, it will turn out that after a lifetime of…
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Augustine’s Praying Mother
This is the traditional day when Monica is commemorated; Monica the mother of Augustine. Lots of people having praying mothers, but Augustine’s mother was really serious about praying for her son. By the way, Mother’s day is just a few days from now. Monica has an important role in Augustine’s world-famous autobiographical book The Confessions.…
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Donald Bloesch’s Birthday
Donald Bloesch is a theologian whose name rhymes with “keep it fresh,” “nativity creche,” and “word made flesh.” Born on May 3, 1928, Bloesch has been an important theological voice for decades. He published the widely-used two-volume Essentials of Evangelical Theology back in the early 1980s, and his Christ-centeredness has been a lodestar for evangelicals…
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Athanasius: Battle on Ten Fronts
Athanasius of Alexandria (born around 293, died on this day, May 2, 373) stands out from the great crowd of witnesses that make up the early history of the church. If you’d like to begin reading the church fathers but don’t know where to start, consider starting with Athanasius. Anybody who understands the work of…
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3 Pithy Remarks on Handling the Doctrine of the Trinity
Not very helpful: The Trinity: Try to Understand It and You’ll Lose Your Mind. Try to Deny It and You’ll LOSE YOUR SOUL! –mercifully anonymous but sadly widespread Much better: Nowhere else is a mistake more dangerous, or the search more laborious, or discovery more advantageous. –Augustine Sweeeeet: It is rashness to search too far…
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Nothing Happened in April
Actually, lots of interesting anniversaries are coming up in the next couple of weeks: Brainerd was born, Moody was converted, Kant was born, William Miller’s predicted date for Christ’s return came and went, Augustine was baptized, Charles Fuller was born, Luther had his disputation at Heidelberg, and Peter Bohler died. But I’m not going to…
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Corrie ten Boom was Born and Died Today
Cornelia ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892, and died on her ninety-first birthday, April 15, 1983. Corrie was from a remarkable family of pious Dutch Christians who constructed a secret room in their home and housed a number of Jews there, hidden from the Nazis. When their secret activities were discovered, the whole…
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Karl Barth Sinks With The Titanic
On April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg. In the early hours of the next morning the great ship sank, and everybody was talking about it. Pastors were talking about it. One pastor, in Safenwil, Switzerland, said to his congregation, “I would like to encourage you to reflect on it.” He was the 26-year…
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The Living One, Alive with Divine Life
John Webster on the meaning of the resurrection: “Jesus Christ lives. Whatever further claims may be made about the resurrection of Jesus, and whatever consequences it may be necessary to draw from the primitive Christian confession that ‘God raised him from the dead’ (Rom. 10:9), they can only be a repetition, expansion or confirmation of…