The religious system, adopted by many at this day, has very little of real Christianity in it. Many laboured performances are not published to the world, in which we find the duties of morality recommended with peculaiar elegance of style, and acuteness of reasoning, wherein we meet with little or nothing concerning the person, the work, or the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is like raising a superstructure, without a solid foundation. The great mystery of redemption by the blood of that Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, appears to be of little or no use with such persons, in their attempts to promote piety and obedience.
"We will never save civilisation as long as civilisation is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more." —C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Friday, July 22, 2005
Another Game
A tougher challenge, at Paul's request. Again, googlin' is cheatin'. Who said it?
Spurgeon
ReplyDeleteI'll guess Packer.
ReplyDeleteMartin-Lloyd Jones
ReplyDeleteGood guesses all (albeit wrong). You've got the geography, at least.
ReplyDeleteC.S. Lewis?
ReplyDeleteStott
ReplyDeleteIan Murray
ReplyDeleteNo, no, and . . . J Dubya, were you listening to SB in staff devotions this morning? Apparently not.
ReplyDeleteWe've crossed three centuries so far, but not yet the right one.
It must be McClaren then.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding.
-Matt
I think I should take back that request to make it harder.
ReplyDeleteMcCheyne?
Is that an "uncle" I hear?
ReplyDeleteIt's from one of the old Klock & Klock reprints.
Ryle?
ReplyDeleteStill no, but there is a tie that binds this person to Ryle.
ReplyDeleteWas it Wesley? He was tied to Ryle in more than a few ways.
ReplyDeleteDon't expect much personal overlap. One activity they both engaged in is the tie that binds them.
ReplyDeleteIf it's from the Klock & Klock reprints then it can't be Osteen. If it isn't in our century, it can't be NT Wright (a bishop like Ryle!).
ReplyDeleteHmmmm.
How about Whitefield?
I'm ready to say "Uncle."
He was saved under Whitefield's ministry. (The secret person, not Osteen.)
ReplyDeleteWell that narrows it down . . .
ReplyDeleteWell it's not like I said Jack Hyles or something. I mean, with Whitefield it's at least down to the tens of thousands. If it were Hyles we'd be talking tens of millions! But then Jack had the tactical advantage of buses.
ReplyDeleteWith all those clues, those of us who are church history lightweights are nervous to venture a guess and reveal our ignorance. Usually with a little Google research I can masquerade as an educated person...but rules are rules.
ReplyDeleteFair enough. Google away.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm. This is a toughie! Is the author a recognizable name?
ReplyDeleteMy current guess is Robert Robinson, 18th century English preacher and author of "Come Thou Fount."
Not Robinson.
ReplyDeleteI thought he was recognizable. He's not prominent, I suppose, but a whole lot of churches sure do sing one of his hymns on a regular basis.
Regular. Literally.
Last call. I'll post the answer tomorrow morning.
ReplyDeleteJohn Fawcett, author of Christ Precious and "Blest Be the Tie that Binds." I knew it would be tough, but I thought the clues might give it away.
ReplyDeleteThe next round will drop the degree of difficulty a couple notches with a more familiar name, although the quote might be a little surprising coming from him.
Man! Fawcett was my next guess. To think that I was that close to having a "You might be a Paleoevangelical..." t-shirt! :-) I just wasn't sure if "Blest Be The Tie" was famous enough. (When you said it was sung regularly I wondered if that was a veiled clue that the hymn was a holiday hymn of some sort.) There were several other people like John Newton that almost fit the bill, but were eliminated by one clue or another.
ReplyDeleteGood game.
I was thinking regularly as in Lord's Supper. Don't just about all Baptists sing it at the close of communion services?
ReplyDeleteThat's possible. My childhood Baptist church always sang "There
ReplyDeleteIs a Fountain Filled with Blood."
At BJU we join hands and sing "Blest Be The Tie" at the end of the last chapel before Christmas. Perhaps those memories have overshadowed other more natural associations.
Ah yes, the much-anticipated annual "Hand Holding Service." How could I forget?
ReplyDeletePaleoevangelical, were you a student at Bob Jones? I never knew!
ReplyDeleteI was. Many, many moons ago.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, where would you have guessed I went to school?
Does this revelation make me more or less credible? ;-)
You write with the reasonableness and lucid prose of a BJ grad, but I actually thought you had gone to one of the Baptist colleges in the North. (Intentional humor!) Wasn't there discussion at some point of you being a dorm sup at Maranatha?
ReplyDeleteAre you at liberty to reveal when you were at BJ and what you studied?
(You're no Dissidens, but you don't provide a lot of info on your bio page.) :-)
Plus I'm a Baptist who believes in the local church (for the sake of propagating stereotypes), so I can see how it might be misleading. ;-)
ReplyDelete'91-'95 PR Journalism/PoliSci
I was on staff at MBBC for 5 years during which time I did an MA in Biblical Studies before moving to NC to work at PAFC and go to SEBTS to inch my way towards an MDiv.