New April History Lecture

There’s been a change to our lecture for 28th April 2014. Austin Walker will now be bringing his lecture on the Donatists next year. We have three lectures for next year and full details will follow shortly.

Our last lecture then for this year will now be given by Dr Lesley Rowe on the topic “Arthur Hildersham and the Plague Summer of 1625”.

Some may have previously heard Dr Rowe on this subject, but I’m reliably informed that this is a new lecture with new material. Dr Rowe’s PhD thesis was on ‘The worlds of Arthur Hildersham (1563-1632)’ and there’s a favourable review of her book ‘The Life and Times of Arthur Hildersham‘ in Evangelicals Now by Dr Robert Oliver.

My appetite is now wetted and I’m really looking forward to the lecture. If you can make it to Bulkington Congregational Church on Monday 28th April, 7.30 it would be great to see you.

Audio as usual will follow when available.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Thomas Boston Lecture MP3 Available

The MP3 Audio of the  History Lecture Thomas Boston (1676-1732) anticipates the death of Queen Anne’ is now available.

The more I think about it, the lecture was not only a great encouragement, but also very challenging. This is a major purpose of the lectures. It’s not just an opportunity to stuff our heads full of facts – as useful as that might be. But we do see through the lives of Christian men & woman of the past how God has kept them and how in the case of this lecture stepped in providentially to preserve the Church. To have some knowledge of history is really important. I remember a few years ago inviting Iain Murray to come and lecture – he replied ‘are Christians interested in history?’. Quite an indictment, one wonders sometimes.

The lecture spoke powerfully, I thought, into the present situation of the Church. Powerful people die, sometimes unexpectedly. The death of Queen Anne was hugely significant as you will hear. I commend this and the other lectures to you.

The lecture can be downloaded HERE.

Visit my Website for many other history lectures HERE

Enhanced by Zemanta

History Lecture on Thomas Boston

Our next History Lecture will be:

Thomas Boston (1676-1732) anticipates the death of Queen Anne’

Bulkington Congregational Church

7:30 pm Monday 31st March 2014

Speaker: John Kilpatrick

Be great to see you if you can make it.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Lecture Audio Available

Latest lecture audio is now available.

“The Samuels Petto (1624-1711) and Peto (1809-1889)”

Go Here. You know what to do.

Lost History Lecture by Paul Cook

English: Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778)I just started reading Paul Cook’s book Fire From Heaven: Times of Extraordinary Revival (book link) and I recalled a lecture he gave way back in 1980 on Augustus Toplady ‘The Saintly Sinner’. I looked for it on my Website but couldn’t find it. After some searching I realised it was uploaded but the link was missing and it wasn’t even listed. Anyway, it’s now fixed and available for download.

I have great memories of Paul and his ministry. The lecture on Toplady will not disappoint. FYI, Paul Cook is married to the author Faith Cook.

Go here to download. Visit my website for full listing of lectures.

Here’s the first verse of Toplady’s ‘A debtor to mercy alone’

A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing,
Nor fear, with God’s righteousness on,
My person and off’rings to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

History Lecture on ‘Samuels Petto & Peto’

Metropolitan Tabernacle taken ...

Gary Brady brought the lecture last evening on: “The Samuels Petto (1624-1711) and Peto (1809-1889)”

It was a pleasure to see Gary again and to hear his lecture.

It was a bit different to what we would normally have, but it made me realise how God moves and orders people for the good of the Church. There was quite an excerpt from the MP Samuel Peto from the opening of ‘The Metropolitan Tabernacle‘ where C H Spurgeon was the minister. He donated the first £5000 to the Tabernacle. [If I can get hold of the speech section I’ll update the post] How things have changed. To find an MP willing to stand publicly for the Gospel in such a profoundly spiritual and exclusive [Jesus is the Only way of Salvation] manner would be quite a task these days!  He had a profound and true understanding of the Gospel – it seemed to me anyway. Samuel Peto was an Engineer, a Builder, an MP, a Businessman, an Entrepreneur, a Philanthropist and much more. He built the Houses of Parliament. He gave away thousands of pounds – millions in our day – to missions and the cause of Christ.

The first Petto made me think of the thousands of ministers that labour in complete obscurity in their own location for the Glory of God. Forgotten or completely unknown by us generally, but not forgotten by God. Quite encouraging. Yet some of those obscure or forgotten ministers were men of great ability. Well known, some of them in their day. This Petto wrote many books, his most well-known(?) and best was on the Mosaic Covenant – recently reprinted. There has also been a recent booklet by Michael Brown on Samuel Petto – Gary quoted from this. [See below for link]

Gary began his lecture by making the point how quickly people, even good and able people, disappear into obscurity.

Good things to think on.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

History Lecture Monday 3rd March

Just a quick reminder that Gary Brady (Childs Hill Baptist) will  be speaking this coming Monday night on the subject:

“The Samuels Petto (1624-1711) and Peto (1809-1889)”

How Gary will weave these two biographies together we have yet to find out. There could be a bookstall (courtesy of Bethel Bookshop – Wigston) and we hope that you’ll be able to join us – or listen later.

Details of this and other meetings are available on The Bulkington Church Website<bulkingtoncongregational.org/Meetings.php>

Audio will be available a few days after the lecture

Jeremy Walker’s Andrew Fuller lecture – Audio available

To listen to the lecture go here or right-click and ‘save as’ to download. Enjoy.

Andrew Fuller Lecture

Andrew Fuller
Andrew Fuller (Wikipedia)

Last evening we were treated to an excellent lecture by Pastor Jeremy Walker on ‘Wrestling – The Life of Andrew Fuller (1754-1815)’. The lecture was full of appropriate illustrations from Fuller’s life, dripping in theological truth, an eye on the Glory of God and His Gospel and delivered with challenging clarity, concern for truth and with suitable emotion. Just brilliant! It was a real joy to once again meet up and have fellowship.

You really need to listen to the audio (Will post when available) as this brief post is a very poor substitute for the real thing. It was a privilege to be there and once again we are so grateful to extremely gifted, and not to say busy, pastors and teachers prepared to travel to a small, probably unknown, Church in the Midlands, UK.

‘Hyper’ or ‘High’ Calvinism

Andrew Fuller was raised in an atmosphere of ‘Hyper’ or ‘High’ Calvinism and in such an oppressive atmosphere the ‘free offer of the Gospel’ was not to be heard. Unless significant signs of awakening were to be observed or experienced there was no warrant to urge a sinner to call upon Jesus for salvation. This is such an important aspect of the lecture that I need to come back to this. Jeremy very kindly offered to send me his lecture transcript and when that arrives (assuming he remembers) I’ll deal with this more fully then.

Not an Imitator

One aspect that powerfully stood out was Fuller’s individuality. Early on in life he determined to literally ‘follow’ another man’s furrow. This was a disaster, Fuller’s furrow rather than being the straight furrow he anticipated was full of twists and turns. From this he determined never to be an ‘imitator’. This had great significance because in his determination not to be an imitator Fuller went directly to the Scriptures for his doctrine. This meant ‘wrestling’ directly with the text of Scripture rather than relying on another man’s ‘dividing of the truth’. This applied most directly to the preaching of the Gospel offer. Fully persuaded the Bible taught that all people should be urged to repent & believe the Gospel he preached Christ and Him crucified urging sinners to call upon Christ for salvation.

More on this later.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Church History Lectures 2014 – Reminder

A reminder of the Church History Lectures for 2014. All lectures take place at Bulkington Congregational Church. Everyone welcome. Bookstall and refreshments.

7:30 pm Monday 3rd February 2014
Wrestling – The Life of Andrew Fuller (1754-1815).
Speaker: Jeremy Walker

7:30 pm Monday 3rd March 2014
The Samuels Petto (1624-1711) & Peto (1809-1889)
Speaker: Gary Brady

7:30 pm Monday 31st March 2014
Thomas Boston (1676-1732) anticipates the death of Queen Anne
Speaker: John Kilpatrick

7:30 pm Monday 28th April 2014
How pure is the church? Augustine and the Donatists
Speaker: Austin Walker

Lectures are available for download shortly after each lecture.

Enhanced by Zemanta