As Christians, we are called to share our faith, but we are also called to keep it. Like the Apostle Paul, every believer should aspire to the epitaph, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” Perhaps no one in Baptist history better kept the faith than the illustrious Charles Spurgeon—especially as seen through the prism of the Downgrade Controversy. The year was 1887, and Spurgeon was in the winter of life. For more than three decades, he had enjoyed singular status as the world’s most well-known preacher, but just over the horizon, storm c ..read more

In this video, we asked Geoff Chang, curator of the Spurgeon Library and assistant of Historical Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, whether Spurgeon would have adhered to the 9Marks of a healthy church ..read more

The days were dark. Not because the sun wasn’t shining. In all honesty, those days were beautiful summer days in the Oklahoma heat. But I didn’t experience them. For me, the days were black. It was the summer months of 2016. I had been the Lead Pastor of my church for just under six months. I had previously served as Youth Pastor before eventually becoming Lead Pastor. I loved this church and they loved me. But things were getting unexplainably bad. I remember the week that the “plane crashed.” I had made it through the first Sunday in June with great difficulty. I put on a good show of confid ..read more

Many Christians today are familiar with the Apostles’ Creed. But from the perspective of the whole church, the Nicene Creed is even more significant. It originated earlier than the final version of the Apostles’ Creed; and unlike that one, the Nicene Creed is used by both western and eastern Christians. Where did the Nicene Creed come from—and what makes it so important that millions of Christians still recite it every Sunday? To trace the history of the Nicene Creed, which centers on the relationship of Christ’s deity to God the Father’s, we must go back to the period of the ancient church ..read more

The year 2021 marks the centennial anniversary of the passing of two titans of theology—Herman Bavinck and Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield. The two theologians—one American and one Dutch—helped shape a generation of theologians behind them. While Warfield was three years Bavinck’s elder, the two great Christian thinkers both passed in 1921—Warfield in February and Bavinck in July. Death Comes to Princeton and Amsterdam In a letter written to his mother, J. Gresham Machen wrote of Warfield’s death noting, “It seemed to me that the old Princeton—a great institution it was—died when Dr. Warfield w ..read more

One of the greatest benefits of learning from Christians in past eras is that it changes you as a person. Thus, even if you can explain who historical figures were and what they did, you know in your heart that this explanation is a bit of a sad attempt to paint a picture of real humans who, like yourself, are just too complex and wonderful to describe in words. If I attempted to write what I have learned from the Puritan author, poet, and theologian Lucy Hutchinson, I could not perfectly communicate all that it entails. The best advice I could give is to read her yourself, and be changed your ..read more

Various interests occupied Carl F. H. Henry throughout his life. He was a journalist as a young man, ascending the newspaper ranks as he covered athletics, politics, and local stories on Long Island. He was an illusionist, an act he trotted out at parties and gatherings. Later, travel consumed his schedule, and he was fascinated by the diversity that dots the globe. More than anything, Henry was occupied by a singular fascination from his conversion in 1933 until his final breath in 2003. It gripped him early and did not relent. He was the happy captive of this amazing thought: the Trinitarian ..read more

The story of William Wilberforce is fairly well-known, especially since the renaissance of popular interest in him birthed by the movie “Amazing Grace.” But it is his spirituality, his personal walk with Christ, that is less known or appreciated. We learn much of this primarily from his own Spiritual Journals, which I will publish for the first time later this year, with Christian Focus Publishers. William Wilberforce was born in Hull, England in 1759, the son of a wealthy merchant, enjoying all the privileges that wealth and position afforded him. He became a member of Parliament but until hi ..read more

The jeers from the crowd in the arena were overwhelming as Perpetua and her friends quickly took in the sights and smells from the Carthage arena. This was it. Their moment. A few weeks prior, new believers gathered for worship and fellowship. Perpetua, a 22-year-old, wealthy, married woman who had recently given birth, joined with her friends Saturninus, Secundulus, Revocatus, and Felicitas. Given the cultural moment, they were well aware they were under the watchful eye of the magistrate and asked the church to baptize them. A few days after boldly declaring their faith in Christ in the wate ..read more

We asked Thomas Kidd, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Church History at MBTS and Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University, “Who or what were your primary influences related to evangelicalism and the life of the mind ..read more