August Is A Very Calvinistic Month

Most of the following men were not Baptists . But the Lord has used , is using , and shall use non-Baptists to furthur His kingdom .

August 1 -- Andrew Melville was born in 1545

August 1 -- James Henley Thornwell died in 1862

August 4 -- Rolfe P. Barnard was born in 1904

9th -- Adoniram judson was born in 1788

11th -- August Toplady died in 1778

12th -- Rowland Hill was born in 1744

17th -- William Carey was born in 1761

24th -- John Owen died in 1683

26th -- Thomas Bradwardine died in 1349

28th -- Augustine died in 430

31st -- John Bunyan died in 1688

31st -- Gordon H. Clark was born in 1902


Hmm , 6 births and 6 deaths . Usually the deaths exceed the births in a given month regarding noted Christians of the past .

Did I miss some important Calvinists ? Please feel free to share .

 

How many of the ones I listed are you familiar with ?

 

Hi J.D.

Judson was a missionary to Burma ( now Myanmar) . As a Congregationalist he studied the issue of baptism enroute to India and became convinced of the scriptural correctness of the Baptist position . He translated the Bible into Burmese . He was influenced by Carey to start the Baptist Missionary Society in America .

William Carey went to India and translated the Bible into Bengali .

John Owen is certainly one of my favorite Christians of the past . I note you are reading : " The Death Of Death In The Death Of Jesus Christ " . It is one of my cherished books back in America . It is as clear as a bell regarding its theme ( though he takes a long time to complete his thoughts ) . It has indeed never been answered by the Arminians ( Biblicists , Semi-Pelagians etc. ) . He was a good friend of John Bunyan . Owen was responsible for getting Pilgrim's Progress published . When asked why he would ever listen to such a tinker deliver a message , Owen said something to the effect that he "would gladly relinguish all his learning to preach like that man ."

Owen was the giant among other giants of the Puritan era . Richard Baxter wrote more ( and I respect him and his book The Reformed Pastor , which had nothing to do with Calvinism ) . There are now Puritan paperbacks available which compacts the writings of old authors which otherwise would be negelected .

Back to Bunyan . I have his " Holy War " , but have not taken the time to read it yet . My copy ( which was my mom's is about 150 years old ) . Lately his baptistic credentials have been questioned for various reasons . But regardless , he was a man of God whom I respect greatly -- so did Spurgeon .

Augustine did indeed debate Pelagius . His works against that man are valuable for us now . For a while Augustine and his followers like Prosper ( spelling ? ) brought the Church some purity of doctrine on the issue of grace and the will of man . But then things began to be watered-down .

It's been said that Augustine was against Augustine . His doctrine of the Church has been adopted by the Catholics and his doctrine of grace has been followed by Calvinists . Indeed , Augustinianism is Calvinism .

I have never been able to wade through the deep waters of his City of God . I have read his Confessions and some smattering of his other works .

Gordon Clark was a strong Calvinist . He was a Supralapsarian -- but not a hyper-Calvinist . I have at least 12 of his books with me in Korea . They are mostly commentaries/devotionals . He was prolific writer . After Machen and before Carl Henry -- he upheld the Calvinistic mantle with distinction . BTW , he mentored Henry . Clark was primarily a philosophical/theologian . I prefer the latter .

Herman Hoksema ( 1886-1965 ) started the Protestant Reformed Church . Hoeksema was an excellent Bible expositer . I have a number of his books and that of his son Homer .

Toplady died at only 38 years of age -- but what a productive life ! At first Augustus ( if I may use his first name ) was a follower of John Wesley . But when A.T. became an ardent Calvinist he parted ways with Wesley . Also , Wesley lied a great deal . He forged A.T.'s name on works that Wesley himself authored much of . That was his way of countering Calvinism .

 

A three week belated thanks .

Speaking of belated -- I had forgotten to include Increase Mather . He was born in 1639 and died on August 23 rd 1723 . His father was Richard Mather . His son was even more famous -- Cotton Mather 1663-1728 . Yes , he only lived five years longer than Increase . Don't you love the name Increase ? Lots of Puritans in America and the UK had those marvellous names . Anyway , Increase was quite a godly influence in the colonies . He pastored for ages . And while still maintaining his pastorate -- was the acting President of Harvard for years . He was a Congregationalist . He and Cotton were prototypes of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758 ) in my estimation .

 

Bump . It's August again !

 

BTW , Elvis wasn't a Calvinist .