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Experiencing the Piety of Predestination

Though predestination was not the center or governing structure of Perkins’s theology (Christ as set forth in the Apostles’ Creed was), he strongly emphasized predestination as the decretal basis of all salvation and sanctification. However, this did not stunt his emphasis on godliness, but enlightened it with a God-centered piety....

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Richard Sibbes: Sweet Mercy and Bruised Reeds

Richard Sibbes (1577–1635) was a kindhearted Puritan known for the sweetness of his writings. He was converted through the ministry of Paul Baynes, Perkins’s successor at Cambridge. He trained many preachers and cultivated a remarkable network of friendships with ministers and political figures. His classic book on repentance, The Bruised...

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Calvin on Psalm Singing

John Calvin loved the Book of Psalms. For twenty-five years, Calvin immersed himself in the Psalms as a commentator, preacher, biblical scholar, and worship leader. For Calvin, the psalmists’ words were always relevant for the New Testament church. The major psalmist, David, reflected an important stage in the history of...

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William Perkins: Steps of Salvation

William Perkins (1558–1602) was a towering influence in the English Reformed movement and similar movements in the European Continent and New England. Converted after a wild life of alcohol abuse, Perkins became a member of the spiritual brotherhood of Puritans at Cambridge. He had the unusual ability both to minister...

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Calvin the Socio-Theologian

Calvin models for us the wide-ranging impact of his theology on Western European and North American civilization, whether it be the rise of the Western democracies; the development of economic life and international commerce, scholarship, and scientific discovery; or the promotion of the values of human dignity, personal freedom, social...

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Homosexuality and Salvation in Christ

Paul did not write Romans 1 in order to proudly judge homosexuality, or to cast those practicing it or struggling against it into despair, but as part of a larger diagnosis of mankind’s need for the gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16–17; 3:21–26). The most shocking news of the epistle...

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Apostolic Foundations

The first century of church history divides roughly into three periods. In the first, our Lord Jesus, through His ministry, began to fulfill the great promise of Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church.” Jesus came into the world to die as the Savior of His people and to build...

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Knowing God According to His Self-Revelation

The Puritans rightly believed that though “the magnitude of God’s perfections is well beyond the reach of our finite understanding,” yet “we can know what He has chosen to reveal.” On the one hand, God is incomparable and incomprehensible. “For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD?...

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Jeremiah Burroughs

Jeremiah Burroughs (or Burroughes) was baptized in 1601 and admitted as a pensioner at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1617. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1621 and a Master of Arts degree in 1624. His tutor was Thomas Hooker. Burroughs’s ministry falls into four periods, all of...

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Past Views of Satan

The church’s battle with Satan did not end with the writing of the book of Revelation. Satan continued to work both within the church and from without. He sowed seeds of corruption, heresy, strife, and schism in the visible church. He instigated waves of persecution against the visible church across...

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