Puritanism

[JonC]

I've noticed a resurgence over the past several decades towards the Puritans. I enjoy reading some Puritan writings, especially Puritan poetry.

I think among Reformed churches interest has grown as Reformed theology has been facing challenges. On the other side there is declining doctrine in mainstream churches.

I thought it would be interesting to take a quick look at the Puritans, starting with a very brief history of who these people were.


Puritanism was religious reform movement that has its beginnings in the mid 16th century. This was a movement within the Anglican Church with the goal to purify the Church of England from Roman Catholic popery that they viewed as having been carried over into the church. The Puritans believed that England was God’s elect nation to complete the work of the Reformation.

In the early 17th century Puritanism spread to America (a very short lived but large migration), establishing Plymouth Colony. Puritans believed that they were in a national covenant with God, charged with purifying the world by perfect obedience to God’s will. As such, Puritans believed that the State was an arm of God and was therefore empowered to use corporal punishment and execution to purge the world of any they viewed as heretics. From 1658 to 1692 Puritans executed Quakers and persecuted Baptists by imprisonment.

Puritanism ended as other denominations gained ground (Baptists, Quakers, and Presbyterians). There is not an exact date when Puritanism ended, but it had ended by 1740.

Puritan influences exist today, notably in the United Church of Christ and Congregational Churches (a Reformed Protestant denomination).

 

[Jerome]

Charles Spurgeon, sermon "Fire! Fire! Fire!":

"Puritan liberty of conscience meant, “The right and liberty to think as they did, but no toleration to those who differed.” The Puritans of New England as soon as ever a Baptist made his appearance among them, persecuted him....No sooner was there a Baptist, than he was hunted up, and brought before his own Christian brethren! Mark you, he was brought up for fine, for imprisonment,confiscation, and banishment"

 

[kyredneck]

From 1658 to 1692 Puritans executed Quakers and persecuted Baptists by imprisonment....

...and they would dominate the BB if allowed...

 

[kyredneck]

no toleration to those who differed

ZACTLY!

 

[DaveXR650]

John Bunyan spent 12 years in prison for refusing to stop preaching. Try to remember that in the 1600's no one on this planet had any concept of freedom of conscience like we think of it nowadays. Slavery was everywhere. The King was also the head of the church. They had watched people be burned at the stake, excommunicated and imprisoned when the papists were in charge, and they had seen what the Anabaptists were capable of when they took over.

...and they would dominate the BB if allowed...

I was thinking the internet came later than the 1600's but that explains a lot. Thanks.

Also, keep in mind that Spurgeon is thought of as a modern day Puritan. He also believed that anyone who attended the theater was fooling themselves if they thought they were going to Heaven. I wonder what he would have said about the movies and music we like. Do not worry. There is no resurgence of Puritanism.

 

[kyredneck]

I was thinking the internet came later than the 1600's but that explains a lot. Thanks.

You're welcome. FYI, I don't think you've been around here long enough to really know what I was referring to.

 

[JonC]

John Bunyan spent 12 years in prison for refusing to stop preaching. Try to remember that in the 1600's no one on this planet had any concept of freedom of conscience like we think of it nowadays. Slavery was everywhere. The King was also the head of the church. They had watched people be burned at the stake, excommunicated and imprisoned when the papists were in charge, and they had seen what the Anabaptists were capable of when they took over.


I was thinking the internet came later than the 1600's but that explains a lot. Thanks.

Also, keep in mind that Spurgeon is thought of as a modern day Puritan. He also believed that anyone who attended the theater was fooling themselves if they thought they were going to Heaven. I wonder what he would have said about the movies and music we like. Do not worry. There is no resurgence of Puritanism.

I'm not at all saying Puritans had nothing to offer.

The point is they were not the ideal Christian. They had many issues with their theology, and were a product of their times.

Puritanism lives on in many ways (the good and the bad).

What I mean by resurgence is neo-retro theological movements (Christians going back to 17th century writers as if they were teachers given to the contemporary church). This is especially an issue with Reformed Baptists. The reason, I suspect, is that there are not very many Reformed Baptists scholars.

Reformed Baptists experienced more interest among many Baptists recently, but this occurred at a time when Reformed Theology itself was within a significant decline anf experiencing movements from within to approach theology more biblically.

 

[DaveXR650]

We all have to be aware that we are influenced by things that came before us. As you get older you are able to actually see some of this in operation. Two areas that Puritan teaching has been of big help to Baptists are these. One. They put a premium on looking at every passage of scripture and trying to actually apply it to their lives. Theologians call it experiential or experimental theology. They viewed life after you were saved as a pilgrimage and never rested or abused the idea that you were justified and thus "safe". Christianity was something to be lived. Two. They believed that the Holy Spirit was instrumental in any chance a person would come to Christ. The Baptists had drifted into semi-Pelagianism and some were publicly saying that "you give me 30 minutes with anyone and I can get them saved". "Soul winning" had become a sales presentation with aggressive tactics. For me, those things were it.

Puritanism in history was a political party and a community lifestyle and was done in America after the 1st generation of them became successful traders with other groups. You can read Edwards complaining about the young people just like we do nowadays.
I agree with you in that church leaders do try to go back to 17th century writers for ideas of how to run churches and it goes from silly to disastrous. I'm thinking especially of the heavy handed church discipline and the ideas that we are going to create a "Christian" nation.

But I will say this. Once you start reading the Puritans, it becomes apparent that if you read a lot, for the most part they covered the subjects of Christian living as good as ANYTHING published recently. What would you like to add to Owen's "On The Mortification of Sin" as far as trying to live a Christian life. What do any of the 100's of self help books that crowd the Christian bookstores (the few that are left), have over Watson's "The Art of Divine Contentment". And where have you ever seen anything like "Pilgrims Progress" which may still be a best seller, even today.

We all live in a limited world. Can a Christian get all those benefits from other sources or denominations? Yes, but that happens to be my own experience. I personally really like Wesley and have benefited from him, and Richard Baxter, a Puritan but not on the same page of the rest of the Puritans on justification or the atonement. Finding a book by a Puritan is not like finding the Holy Grail but for me, finding Jerry Bridges "Pursuit of Holiness" which was based on Owen's work was fairly close.

 

[JonC]

We all have to be aware that we are influenced by things that came before us. As you get older you are able to actually see some of this in operation. Two areas that Puritan teaching has been of big help to Baptists are these. One. They put a premium on looking at every passage of scripture and trying to actually apply it to their lives. Theologians call it experiential or experimental theology. They viewed life after you were saved as a pilgrimage and never rested or abused the idea that you were justified and thus "safe". Christianity was something to be lived. Two. They believed that the Holy Spirit was instrumental in any chance a person would come to Christ. The Baptists had drifted into semi-Pelagianism and some were publicly saying that "you give me 30 minutes with anyone and I can get them saved". "Soul winning" had become a sales presentation with aggressive tactics. For me, those things were it.

Puritanism in history was a political party and a community lifestyle and was done in America after the 1st generation of them became successful traders with other groups. You can read Edwards complaining about the young people just like we do nowadays.
I agree with you in that church leaders do try to go back to 17th century writers for ideas of how to run churches and it goes from silly to disastrous. I'm thinking especially of the heavy handed church discipline and the ideas that we are going to create a "Christian" nation.

But I will say this. Once you start reading the Puritans, it becomes apparent that if you read a lot, for the most part they covered the subjects of Christian living as good as ANYTHING published recently. What would you like to add to Owen's "On The Mortification of Sin" as far as trying to live a Christian life. What do any of the 100's of self help books that crowd the Christian bookstores (the few that are left), have over Watson's "The Art of Divine Contentment". And where have you ever seen anything like "Pilgrims Progress" which may still be a best seller, even today.

We all live in a limited world. Can a Christian get all those benefits from other sources or denominations? Yes, but that happens to be my own experience. I personally really like Wesley and have benefited from him, and Richard Baxter, a Puritan but not on the same page of the rest of the Puritans on justification or the atonement. Finding a book by a Puritan is not like finding the Holy Grail but for me, finding Jerry Bridges "Pursuit of Holiness" which was based on Owen's work was fairly close.

I just believe that we can (and should) achieve the same thing through Scripture.

I am surprised that you are so opposed to NCT for that reason. NCT holds that we should be holy because Christ is holy. We should live our lives as immature of Christ, obedient to God's moral law in every aspect of our being (both internal and external).

 

[DaveXR650]

I am surprised that you are so opposed to NCT for that reason. NCT holds that we should be holy because Christ is holy. We should live our lives as immature of Christ, obedient to God's moral law in every aspect of our being (both internal and external).

If that's all it says then I'm not opposed to it. I'm having trouble figuring out what it says. (I'm figuring that's "imitators" of Christ above.)
Like Kempis's "The Imitation of Christ". NOW we're really going waaay back. Maybe the monks were right after all.

 

[JonC]

If that's all it says then I'm not opposed to it. I'm having trouble figuring out what it says. (I'm figuring that's "imitators" of Christ above.)
Like Kempis's "The Imitation of Christ". NOW we're really going waaay back. Maybe the monks were right after all.

In terms of the Old Covenant Law, that is all it says.

It affirms Paul's words that we are not under the Law but we are under the Law of Christ which established the Law.

I don't think you would agree because it views the biblical covenants as progressing towards the greater New Covenant rather than different administrations of a covenant not specifically spoken of in the Bible. It is a different system, and it is perfectly fine to disagree with it.

 

[KenH]

The point is they were not the ideal Christian.

When you find what you consider to be "the ideal Christian", please let me know. In the mean time, I will look to Christ and His ideal Righteousness.

 

[KenH]

Christians going back to 17th century writers as if they were teachers given to the contemporary church

I even go back to writers in the 1st century A.D. and even hundreds and hundreds of years before that, as I believe they were given to the contemporary church of God's elect. Their writings are in a book called The Bible.

 

[KenH]

Personally, I like to read about the good news - the gospel of Christ - and how dirty, rotten sinners, such as I am, are saved by the sovereign grace of God - regardless of when such writings were published.

 

[tyndale1946]

You're welcome. FYI, I don't think you've been around here long enough to really know what I was referring to.

I love Puritan writings too but that being said many times they don't go far enough... Take man out of the equation in a Slavic sense... I read Puritan writers with a filter... Brother Glen

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see

 

[Martin Marprelate]

The Roman senator and orator Cicero wrote that "He who is ignorant of what occurred before he was born is destined to be always a child."
I am more familiar with British preachers than with American, but if you consider men like George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, whom God used so tremendously, you will find that they were absolutely steeped in the Puritans. The same is true of Alistair Begg, who to my mind is as fine a preacher as there is today. He mixes quotations from the Puritans with references to '60s pop songs (Matthew 13:52).
The reason is that Puritanism was a movement away from externals to the pure word of God. They built on the work of the Reformers like Bucer, Calvin and Bullinger and brought to birth many of the great doctrines of the Church. The tragedy is that so many today distain anything old and go with the latest fashions in theology and much else. Yet,
The old that is strong does not wither;
Deep roots are not touched by the frost. J.R.R. Tolkien

Having said that, we must not deify the Puritans. They were men like us and sometimes got things wrong. When studying for a sermon series on the Whole Armour of God, I read through The Christian in Complete Armour by the Puritan William Gurnall. While there was much that was helpful, there were a couple of comments which I felt were quite wrong and misleading. With the Puritans, as with all Bible teachers, we need to pray for discernment, and feed on the meat and spit out the bones.

 

[JonC]

I love Puritan writings too but that being said many times they don't go far enough... Take man out of the equation in a Slavic sense... I read Puritan writers with a filter... Brother Glen

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see

I think it wise to read everything written by men with a filter (test against Scripture).

We have to remember that these men (whether Puritans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals...) can offer things worth hearing (reading) but they are men and we are reading their understanding.

Leaning not on our understanding does not mean leaning on the understanding of Christian writers but leaning on Christ and testing doctrine against what is written in God's Word

 

[tyndale1946]

I think it wise to read everything written by men with a filter (test against Scripture).

We have to remember that these men (whether Puritans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals...) can offer things worth hearing (reading) but they are men and we are reading their understanding.

Leaning not on our understanding does not mean leaning on the understanding of Christian writers but leaning on Christ and testing doctrine against what is written in God's Word

Sometimes we even question our own and if those brethren who know me and my belief think I said something out of line... Tell me, we are all here to learn... I may or may not change what I said, but may consider what you said... We all walk with feet of clay... I'm not trying to change any ones mind, only God can do that... I will tell you what I believe but I don't expect you believe what I believe unless you believe it too... That's what a filter is for... I agree with Jon it is scripture... Rightly divided... Brother Glen

2 Timothy 2: 15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 

[DaveXR650]

The same is true of Alistair Begg, who to my mind is as fine a preacher as there is today. He mixes quotations from the Puritans with references to '60s pop songs (Matthew 13:52).

We love Alistair Begg in Ohio. He's at the other end of the state, in Cleveland. I one time heard him say that he had no trouble convincing people that "the Lord" led him to Cleveland, Ohio. What other reason would lead someone to move to Cleveland, Ohio? Have you noticed he rolls his r's. No one else in Ohio does that!

 

[tyndale1946]

We love Alistair Begg in Ohio. He's at the other end of the state, in Cleveland. I one time heard him say that he had no trouble convincing people that "the Lord" led him to Cleveland, Ohio. What other reason would lead someone to move to Cleveland, Ohio? Have you noticed he rolls his r's. No one else in Ohio does that!

Alistair Begg - The man on the middle cross' | THE MAN ON THE MIDDLE CROSS This short clip from Alistair Begg will especially warm your heart. Hallelujah, what a Saviour | By Life4U.org.uk | Facebook