Meet the Puritans

Dear Timothy, The Puritans were able to weather trials and rebuke pride because of their profound reliance upon the Holy Spirit. They keenly felt their inability to bring anyone to Christ as well as the magnitude of conversion. “God never laid it upon thee to convert those he sends thee to. No; to...

This is the first post in a series related to my new book on the theology of William Strong (ca. 1611–1654), an influential leader at the Westminster Assembly. Each post will focus on a particular question: 1. What is a covenant of works? 2. Did God make a covenant of works with Adam in the Garden...

"With troubled heart and trembling hand I write. The heavens have changed to sorrow my delight. How oft with disappointment have I met When I on fading things my hopes have set." [1] Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) wrote the above in memory of her granddaughter and namesake, who died in June of 1669 at...

Satan tempts us to compare ourselves to men whom we think are worse than we are. "You do so much better than Brother Ralph," Satan says: "Compare yourself to Ralph. You know more theology than he does. You serve God more zealously than he does. You are a lit­tle sloppy with your holiness sometimes...

Dear Timothy, The Puritans show us how to handle trials in a Christian manner . Consider the Scottish brothers, Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine. In addition to the religious controversies that dampened their joy in ministry for twenty-five years, they endured much domestic grief. Ebenezer Erskine buried...

Dear Timothy, Perhaps nowhere are the Puritans so helpful as in offering guidelines for the process of spiritual, biblical meditation. Here's an outline of their method. First, ask the Holy Spirit for assistance. Pray for the power to harness your mind and to focus the eyes of faith on this task...

Almost any article today could have the word “Coronavirus” in the title. This small organism has changed most of our lives and continues to affect us in many ways. While some of our questions simply require a lot of wisdom, our most fundamental perplexities still find their answers in Scriptures,...

Late in 1664 it was apparent the bubonic plague was making one of its unwelcome visitations of Europe by registering in London for an extended stay checking out early in 1666. It varied in the number of victims from month to month, but it survived through all four seasons. Over 80,000 people died...

Dear Timothy, The Puritans show us the need to be praying men of God. They were truly “men of the closet.” In their closets—their special, private place dedicated to prayer, be it in the bedroom, the attic, or the open field—they would lift up their voices and cry aloud to the God of heaven for...

God is slandered daily. Satan, who is a liar and the father of lies, makes sure of it. One of his favorite lies to spread about God is that he doesn’t love us, that he wants nothing more than for us to suffer and die. Satan wants us to think that God is more like the elder brother than the father...