Featured Are there any Bible teachers you fully agree with.

Why I am a Primitive Baptist - Elder Michael Gowens

 

What do preachers do? They preach. Many sermons are recorded. Many times they are transcribed and put in book form with their other sermons. The Bible needs to be expounded --fleshed out. Look at Nehemiah 8:8 :
"They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read." (NIV)
It is so obvious. A sermon is not only reading a chapter or two, but explaining and applying the text. Calvin was a master of exposition. His sermons, lectures, commentaries and even letters let the light in so that the people of the Lord can have a deeper understanding of Scripture.

 

Nope. My favorite one holds to divorce only being allowed during betrothal, and remarriage never.

 

Calvin wrote something called The Golden Books, which are short brief expositions from the Bible. I found them in a church library tucked under a shelf. I was surprised that a man, known for long sermons would have created short commentary… and they were both articulated and direct. Look into it as another frame of reference into the man’s character.

 

What if the spouse comes out as a lesbian and encouraged the daughter to be a transvestite? Is divorce permissible at that point?

 

https://sovgrace.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/We-Believe-in-Divine-Preservation.mp3

 

You know better than to frame it that way. The Bible is for everyone. The Lord gave us the Scriptures to reveal Himself to us. All Scripture is expired with the breath of God --known popularly as inspiration. It is useful for teaching, rebuking and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Bible says that elders are worthy of double honor are those whose work is preaching and teaching.

The Lord has graciously given the Church --His Body teacher/preachers whose usefulness has been expanded over the centuries for our spiritual profit. John Calvin is perhaps the most noted one. But there have been thousands over the span of time whose works have been a great help to us. They may have ministered a few decades on this earth, but their ministry has continued way beyond their short lives.

 

I know no more about Primitive Baptists than I have read here. they do not exist SFAIK in Britain.
With regard to the age of organizations called 'primitive,' the Primitive Methodists split from the main body of Methodism in the mid-19th Century because they believed (rightly, I think) that Methodism was going soft. So the Primitive Methodists were actually a more recent body than the Methodists.
Sad to relate, the P.M.s re-united with the main body somewhere around 1900 and of course Methodism in Britain is now hopelessly liberal.
So calling oneself 'primitive' is no guarantee of age, nor is it mean that you may not go liberal at some point in the future. A good, solid confession of faith is the best guard against that.

 

I have not heard anything in a sermon by Alistair Begg that I disagree with, but I'm sure that if I listened to enough of them, I'd find something I didn't like.

 

Aquinas is the only one you listed in the ballpark. Among others would be Owen, Turretin, Charnock, Gill, Kuyper, Bavinck and Warfield.

John Calvin transcends the Reformed world. He is Mount Everest.

 

It is a singular book in a few ways. It was not a series.
It ended up being a chapter in the second, third and fourth editions. It's a classic and would not sound 'Calvinistic' to any non-Reformed reader.
Calvin also wrote another brief booklet called On The Christian Life. It's 132 pages.
And speaking of brevity Devotions And Prayers Of John Calvin is rather nifty. It's 120 pages. I need to reread that one.

I have Calvin's sermons on Micah. The uniform length of his sermons was 15 to 16 pages. That's on pace with the length of DML-J's sermons. A message lasting that long would be a bit less than three minutes per page. I read one page aloud from a chapter of Calvin and timed it. So, in other words about 45 minutes --give or take. His verbal speed might have been slower. We have no way of knowing.
Have you ever listened to sermons lasting an hour or more? It was common in S. Kora in which two languages were being used.
I think the appetite for church members may for half hour sermons. To go for 15 minutes is basically a homily. An hour would be too much to digest. At least that would be the excuse.
The basic goal of a sermon is the biblical content and application.

 

You are confused. Dr. Gill was a Baptist.

 

Please rework that last sentence. It doesn't make any sense.

 

"All of them men" you say. Do you live in the hills? ;-)

Calvin was not a lawyer. He did not practice law. When his father died Calvin took up humanistic studies.

I'm glad you agreed with my Mt. Everest analogy regarding John Calvin's status. So my estimation of Calvin's enduring influence is not that subjective after all.

Calvin died 459 years ago. His influence over nearly half millennium has been without precedent. Bavinck and Warfield died 102 years ago. Their influence has been enormous. Barth was perhaps the most significant theologian of the 20th century. But others will have to wait to 2068 to judge how much of an impact he will have by then.