The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Blog

  • Count Gelesnoff is Just Wrong

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    R.A. Torrey
    in

    A question for Dr. Torrey: Count Vladimir Gelesnoff says in the December number of his magazine, Unsearchable Riches, ‘the barbarous and heathen dogma of endless torment is refuted by the very passages on which orthodoxy depends for its support.’ Is this statement of Count Gelesnoff’s true? A. This statement of Mr. Gelesnoff is not true. It…

  • Today John Hooper was Burned (1555)

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    They burned him at the stake, and he knew it was coming. John Hooper (born around 1500 – martyred February 9, 1555) was the bishop of Gloucester in the sixteenth century. When the Church of England pendulum swung back towards Roman Catholicism under Mary, Hooper was predictably high on the list of people who would…

  • Best Bits from the Religious Affections

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Every believer interested in making discerning judgments about spiritual experiences ought to read Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections. It is a balanced, careful, and mature work by the man known as America’s greatest theologian. Edwards had defended the Great Awakening against its detractors, and then he had watched abuses and weirdness spread and had warned enthusiasts…

  • Playmobil Creator Hans Beck Dies

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    The weekend news carried the report of the death of Hans Beck, the man behind the Playmobil toys. Born May 6, 1929, Beck died on January 30, 2009. Left to my own lights, I would be a lifelong Lego nerd. But my kids have very clearly expressed a greater love of Playmobil. Hans Beck said…

  • Desperate for Authority

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    Greg Peters
    in

    I’ve been given many reasons lately to think about the nature of authority, specifically ecclesial authority. Having recently returned from leading twenty-two students to Rome, where I once again saw and heard Pope Benedict XVI, I have been wondering how did the church go from having apostles (where Peter was one of at least twelve…

  • Today Martin Buber was Born (1878)

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    Fred Sanders
    in , ,

    Martin Buber (1878-1965) was a Jewish philosopher who did a great deal to put classic documents of Hasidic tradition into wider circulation. He is most famous for his 1923 book I and Thou. I and Thou is a remarkable book, a masterpiece of simplicity and direct communication. I don’t know if it will ever seem…

  • Today Hannah Whitall Smith was Born (1832)

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    “You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it. You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything so uncomfortable.” When Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) heard someone…

  • Today Photius Died (893)

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Photius of Constantinople (ca. 810-893) is commemorated on this day. As an influential patriarch of this important eastern city, Photius could boast many educational, administrative, and evangelistic accomplishments. But in both East and West, the name of Photius will always be chiefly associated with that very split, the one between East and West. He excommunicated…

  • Christ Did Something or Other

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    “Robertson believed that Christ did something or other, which, somehow or other, had some connexion or other with salvation.” This was the judgment of John Duncan on the theology of preacher Fred W. Robertson. It was a rather sharp-tongued remark, and Duncan never put it in print himself. Instead, the comment made it into a…

  • Today Dwight Moody was Born (1837): Why God Used Him

    Today Dwight Moody was Born (1837): Why God Used Him

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    R.A. Torrey
    in ,

    Eighty-six years ago (February 5, 1837), there was born of poor parents in a humble farmhouse in Northfield, Massachusetts, a little baby who was to become the greatest man, as I believe, of his generation or of his century — Dwight L. Moody. [note: Dr. Torrey wrote this in 1923; today it would be 172…

  • Today is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Birthday

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    If you were only going to say one thing about theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), you would tell the story that led up to his death in a Nazi prison on April 9, 1945, at age 39. But today is the anniversary of his birth, so here is a reflection Bonhoeffer’s way of living a Christian…

  • The Prayer Meeting That Launched My World-Wide Ministry

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    In 1900, following up on a personal request from Dwight Moody, R. A. Torrey wrote a book entitled How to Pray. It became an international best-seller and was translated into many languages. Here is the story behind R. A. Torrey’s historic world tour as an evangelist and revivalist, as told by Basil Miller in his…