223 years ago today (April 28, 1789) was the date that some of crew aboard the ship called Bounty committed mutiny against the ship’s captain William Bligh. Books and movies have made this ship’s name recognizable to most.
18 men joined the mutinous group and set sail. Eventually most of the mutineers would settle in Tahiti. A handful of the men continued on to the ship’s final destination of Pitcairn Island.
Martin Luther at Worms - April 18, 1521
Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason–I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other–my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen.
“How the Doctrine of Election Affected the Pastoral Ministry of John A. Broadus”
By
Assistant Professor of Religion & Communication
Baptist College of Health Science
Memphis, TN
A Lecture (or Sermon)
Delivered at the Annual Founders Conference Mid-West
Given February 27 & 28, 2012
In St. Louis, Missouri
At the Invitation of Dr. Curtis McClain
Of the Missouri Baptist University
There is a vast amount of difference that exists between “the dreamer of dreams” and the “builder of dreams.” [i] My colleague Craig Christina observes that “John Albert Broadus was much more than a dreamer; he was a man who gave his life for the edification of the church, the Southern Baptist denomination, and her founding seminary. Yet it was the establishment and continuance of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that became his all-consuming passion later in life, and it is in the building of the Seminary that one finds the heartbeat of this dream builder.” [ii]
“The seminary,” to which Broadus would give the major energies of his life, “opened its doors in Greenville, South Carolina, on October 1, 1859.” [iii] In its beginnings it had an enrollment of 26 students. “The largest number of students in each of the first three sessions was from Virginia, in large part because of the efforts and influence of Broadus.” [iv] But, “a disruption . . . waited on the horizon; one which would preclude all studies and threatened the [very] existence of the seminary itself” [v] and with it, Broadus’s dream. This “disruption” of course was the Civil War. This disruption will act as a case-study to consider how “the doctrine of election affected Broadus’s pastoral ministry.”
John Newton (1725-1807)
John Newton had been raised by a godly mother. Yet Newton turned his back on his mother’s God and became a vile man who was deeply involved in the slave trade.
One night the ship he was on was on the verge of sinking at the hands of a violent storm. In the midst of the storm, Newton recalled:
I concluded my sins were too great to be forgiven. I waited with fear and impatience to receive my doom.
Finally the storm subsided and Newton tells what happened next:
I began to pray…to think of that Jesus that I had so often derided; I recollected his death: a death for sins not his own, but, as I remembered, for the sake of those who should put their trust in him.
“How John A. Broadus Embraced the Doctrine of Election”[1] [2]
By
Assistant Professor of Religion & Communication
Baptist College of Health Science
Memphis, TN
A Lecture (or Sermon)
Delivered at the Annual Founders Conference Mid-West
Given February 27 & 28, 2012
In St. Louis, Missouri
At the Invitation of Dr. Curtis McClain
Of the Missouri Baptist University
Upon reflection of Dr. McClain’s invitation to give these two lectures (or sermons), I was taken back in my mind to a time many years ago when we first met. It was January of 1982. Curtis and his wife Patsy had just arrived in Memphis. I too had just arrived with my little family—consisting of my wife Linda, who was 6 months pregnant at the time, and my nearly 3-year-old daughter Leah. Both Curtis and I had come to Memphis to study at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary: Curtis with a newly minted Master of Divinity “in hand” to begin work on his PhD degree and me—who had left the construction trades as a Union Steamfitter Journeyman and had never even attended college—AT ALL! It is quite ironic that he would extend to me such an opportunity as this! I confessed to him: “I attend Founders Conferences Curtis—I don’t SPEAK AT THEM!” Needless to say we became fast friends over the years through some very random acts of Providence. Well—at least they seem random to me.
One of the funny issues that stand out in my mind about the academe early in my seminary career was the friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) competition between the language department and the theology department. But these seem to have always been “in house” arguments which go back at least to the days of James P. Boyce and John A. Broadus. In his A Gentleman and a Scholar, Broadus related how that
His colleague [Broadus speaking of himself] who was professor of the New Testament once said to . . . [Boyce], in some pleasantries of conversation, that students of exegesis might have some freedom if it were not for those dreadful theological people, who know beforehand what every passage ought to mean, in order to suit their creeds and systems, and who have not a proper respect for philology and criticism.[3]
Today is St. Patrick’s Day. The day when many wish they were Irish. I cannot prove it, but it seems that I have Scot-Irish ancestry on my mother’s side of the family tree.
Many articles have been posted online about Patrick. I simply want to provide a couple of stanzas of what is referred to as Patrick’s Morning Prayer.
John A. Broadus (1827-1895)
Thankee, John was the constant greeting given to John Broadus by the first man Broadus led to Christ.
Perhaps in different words, many preachers, students and congregations have echoed the same sentiment.
Broadus is often considered to be the father of modern expository preaching. On March 16, 1895 (117 years ago), Broadus left this earth.
At the age of 16, Broadus became a Christian when a friend urged him to heed these words of Jesus:
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
(John 6:37 ESV)
Later Broadus would forego a career in the medical field to become a preacher and educator of preachers. His oft repeated piece of advice to preachers was this:
If you forget everything else I have told you, don’t forget to treat the Scripture in a commonsense way (Broadus).
- The 2nd president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
- Baptized Lottie Moon who is the most well known Baptist missionary in history.
- During the Civil War, Broadus preached before General Robert E. Lee.
- Declined a hefty salary offer from J.D. Rockefeller to become pastor of his church in New York City.
- Active member of Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville, KY.
- Worked 20 years on his Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.
- His book on preaching, The Preparation and Delivery of Sermons is considered a classic in the field of homiletics.
(Broadus had) every natural endowment, every acquired accomplishment to have become, had he been only a preacher, a preacher hardly second to any in the world (University of Chicago professor W. C. Wilkinson).
No man ever stirred my nature as . . . [he] did in the classroom and the pulpit (Greek and New Testament scholar A.T. Robertson).
No man ever heard him preach but understood every sentence; no one heard him preach who did not feel the truth of God sink deep into his heart. As a teacher of the New Testament as well as of homiletics, it is perhaps not too much to say that he had no superior in this country (Dr. William Rainey Harper, president of the University of Chicago).
Preaching Rediscovered: Broadus’ Lost Lectures and the Recovery of Exposition by Mark Overstreet (my former neighbor)
Our Presidents – John A. Broadus (1889-1895) from the Archives of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
John Owen (1613 - 1686)
If you notice up in the heading to this blog, the subtitle is Flourish Like the Palm Tree. That phrase is taken from this passage in Psalm 92:
The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the LORD;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
to declare that the LORD is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
(Psalm 92:12-15 ESV)
When I saw that The Essential Owen blog posted about John Owen’s comments on this passage, my ears perked up. Owen was a 17th century English Puritan. His extensive theological writings continue to bless those who read them. Here is what Owen had to say about this section on Psalm 92:
February 6, 1812 (Salem, Massachusetts) – 1,500 people braved a harsh snow to attend the commissioning service of five men to the foreign mission field.
The Congregational service at Tabernacle Church is considered to be the beginning of the foreign missions movement in America. These five men had prepared for this day since their days together in college.
February 5, 1631 – Roger Williams arrived in the New World from his home in England. For many Williams is considered the father of religious liberty in America. So this date is called Freedom’s Cause Day.
He initially settled in Massachusetts. Massachusetts authorities were not enamored with his views of religious tolerance and exiled him from the commonwealth. He settled in what became Rhode Island and is considered the founder of that state.
Williams had an eventful religious journey that some admire and some count quirky or unstable.
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