Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Christian History Made Easy Chapter 11 Ageless Faith in an Age of Reason




1. What’s in this Video?
  • How the optimism of the Modern Age led to missions and social reforms—but also to false beliefs about God.
  • How William Carey became a missionary in India.
  • How camp meetings and revivals called people to repentance during the Second Great Awakening.
  • Why the 19th century became an era of social reforms.
  • How Pope Pius IX, Dwight Moody, B.B. Warfield, and the father of theological liberalism responded differently to the challenges of the Modern Age.
2. 2.What Was Happening during this period?


•The Modern Age began in the late 1700s and lasted until the mid-to-late 1900s.
•Much of the Modern Age was characterized by an optimistic emphasis on
scientific evidence, efficiency, and progress.

3. What was Carey’s Successful Failure? 

•Among some Christians in England, the emphasis on progress resulted
in a passion for missions.
William Carey started as a shoe cobbler— but not very successfully
•Carey was an excellent linguist, having taught himself five languages!
•He opened a language school—but was not particularly skilled as
teacher.
•God called Carey the teacher to become Carey the preacher.
•Two years passed before Carey’s sermons attained the minimum acceptable quality for ordination.
•Soon, Carey sensed God’s call to be involved in international missions.
•Some Calvinistic Baptists (Particular Baptists) in Carey’s day decided that evangelism was not necessary.
•One church leader told Carey, “When God pleases to convert the heathen, he’ll do it without consulting you or me!”
•Carey persisted, showing from Scripture that Calvinism and missions go hand-in-hand.
•Some Calvinistic Baptists (Particular Baptists) in Carey’s day decided that evangelism was not necessary.
•One church leader told Carey, “When God pleases to convert the heathen, he’ll do it without consulting you or me!”
•Carey persisted, showing from Scripture that Calvinism and missions go hand-in-hand.
•But in India:
  •        A doctor stole Carey’s support.
  •        Carey’s wife lapsed into insanity.
  •        Two of their children died.
  •        A fire destroyed much of his work.
•Still, Carey persisted; he translated the New Testament into 24 Indian languages and laid the foundations for thousands of future missionaries.

4. What was the Camp Meeting movement?

•On the American frontier, some aspects of modern thinking led to the acceptance of universalism—the belief that God will never condemn anyone.
•One result of such unbiblical theology was spiritual darkness and
apathy.
•In the early 1800s, many American Christians began to seek a renewed vision of God’s truth.
•“Camp meetings” were one expression of this desire for a renewed awareness of God.
•One of the most significant camp meetings occurred in August 1801, in Cane Ridge, Kentucky.

5. What was the Restoration Movement?

•After the Cane Ridge meeting, Stone became convinced that Christians should leave denominations behind and return to the Bible only.
•His goal was to restore New Testament Christianity.
•In 1824, Stone joined with Alexander Campbell, who held similar ideals.
•Elements of their Restoration Movement continue today in the
Churches of Christ, Christian Churches, and Disciples of Christ

The Restoration Movement has been characterized by several key principles:
1. Christianity should not be divided, Christ intended the creation of one church.
2. Creeds divide, but Christians should be able to find agreement by standing on the Bible itself (from which they believe all creeds are but human expansions or constrictions)
3. Ecclesiastical traditions divide, but Christians should be able to find common ground by following the practice (as best as it can be determined) of the early church.
4. Names of human origin divide, but Christians should be able to find common ground by using biblical names for the church (i.e., "Christian Church", "Church of God" or "Church of Christ" as opposed to "Methodist" or "Lutheran", etc.).
5. Thus, the church 'should stress only what all Christians hold in common and should suppress all divisive doctrines and practices'.

6.  Who were the 19th-Century Evangelists?

•A former lawyer named Charles G. Finney was a key figure in the Second Great Awakening.
•Finney became a Christian in 1821; the day after he became a Christian, he became a preacher.
•At the same time, some of Finney’s opinions distorted historic Christian beliefs.
•Finney:
a. Rejected original sin.
b. Claimed Christians could be morally perfect in this life.
c. Presented conversion as a rational human choice rather than an act of divine grace.

     •Charles Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers,” was a Calvinist Baptist pastor in London.
     •He proclaimed God’s Word to more than 10 million people during his lifetime—an amazing feat before radio and television. 





•Throughout his life, Spurgeon defended historic Christian orthodoxy and called all people to trust Jesus.

•He also spoke out against American slavery, sponsored orphanages, and supported laborers when they were treated unfairly.




 7.  What were some Responses to Modernity?
•Optimism about humanity’s capacity to progress and to create a better world characterized much of the Modern Age.
•This optimism contributed to:
          a. The expansion of mission efforts; and
          b. The end of many social injustices, including enslavement and exploitation of Africans.
•This emphasis on progress and on human capacities for change also presented many challenges.
•Influenced by Immanuel Kant, science and history were gradually moved out of the domain of faith.
•Religious faith became a matter of subjective feelings and good morals—not objective truth.



•Four ways Christians responded to Modernity:
 A. Reflecting the Modern Age
 B. Resisting the Modern Age
 C. Rejecting the Modern Age
 D. Redeeming the Modern Age

A. Reflecting the Modern Age
•Friedrich Schleiermacher, the “father of theological liberalism,” developed beliefs that reflected modernity.
•The essence of faith is not any historical act of God; it is the individual’s sense of dependence on transcendent reality.

"What is the social gospel?"
The phrase “social gospel” is usually used to describe a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that came to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Those who adhered to a social gospel sought to
apply Christian ethics to social problems such as poverty, slums, poor nutrition and education, alcoholism, crime, and war.
These things were emphasized while the doctrines of sin, salvation, heaven and hell, and the future kingdom of God were downplayed.
Theologically, the social gospel leaders were, overwhelmingly postmillennialist, asserting that Christ’s Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by human effort.




B. Resisting the Modern Age
•Pope Pius IX denounced the idea that he “should harmonize himself with recent civilization.”
•He assembled the First Vatican Council in 1868.

•The council declared the pope to be infallible whenever he “defines a 
doctrine.”

C. Rejecting the Modern Age

•Dwight L. Moody rejected modern scholarship and ignored theological studies.
•He viewed the world as a “wrecked vessel” and worked passionately to share a simple gospel. 




D. Redeeming the Modern Age
•B.B. Warfield, principal of Princeton University, believed that faith in the accuracy and authority of Scripture could go hand-in-hand with serious theological scholarship.

•He contributed to a series of essays known as The Fundamentals.

•The Fundamentals took modern scholarship seriously while holding strongly to these five beliefs:
1. Jesus was uniquely divine.
2. Jesus was born of a virgin.
3. Jesus died as a sacrifice for sin.
4. Jesus will come again.

5. The Bible is free from factual errors; the Bible is inerrant.

The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues.  It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law. In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute and exhibit portions of copyrighted motion pictures, video taped or video discs, without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair Use”, and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news, reporting, teaching, and parody. This articles is written, and any image and video (includes music used in the video) in this article are used, in compliance with this law: Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107.





on

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please feel free to make civil comment. Divergent views encouraged,

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)