Byron Borger's excellent bibliography

Byron Borger does what he does well - he's produced an excellent bibliography of great books that demand to be read!

Ernest Kevan by Paul E. Brown

Ernest Kevan
Leader in the Twentieth Century British Evangelicalism
Paul E, Brown
Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2012
294+xvii; pbk; £8.00
ISBN 978 1 84871 156 3

In his introduction Paul Brown, former pastor of Bethel Chapel, Stoke-on-Trent, comments that if you look up Dr Ernest F. Kevan on the internet you are likely to think that he is only known for writing book entitled The Grace of Law. But, no longer, Brown has changed that - a search for Ernest Kevan now leads to several reviews of Brown's book. Brown knew Kevan while he was a student at London Bible College (1957-1960) when Kevan was principal.

Kevan was perhaps best-known as the principal of London Bible College (now called the London School of Theology) (1946-1965) and for his joint editorship of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship's one volume commentary of the Bible. Several chapters are devoted to Kevan's role as principal of the LBC, but only a few paragraphs on the influential commentary.

Kevan's upbringing was Strict Baptist, but of the more open kind. He pastored three Strict Baptist congregations. The first, at Church Hill Baptist, Walthamstow, when he was only 21. Here he found his wife, Jennie several years his senior, engaged in church planting and wrote his first book: London's Oldest Baptist Church. In 1934 he became the pastor of Zion, New Cross. From there he took up the pastorate for a short time at Trinity Road Chapel, Tooting (1944), while being involved with the establishing of the interdenominational London Bible College.

A good third of the book deals with his time at LBC. Two chapters deal with his 'wider ministry'. Unusually for a Strict Baptist (SB) Kevan had been involved with the Keswick movement. He had even encouraged other SB's to attend. It was in 1953 that he was asked to deliver the Bible readings. He chose to preach on Romans 7-8, key Keswick verses. Graham Scroggie had the previous year preached on the same passages, expounding the traditional Keswick view of holiness and sanctification. It could not have been a coincidence that Kevan took up the same verses to expound a traditional Calvinistic view of sanctification. Obviously Kevan was able to go where no other SB had gone before!

This biography is very readable and Brown has made good use of his sources notably Kirby's short biography - Kirby was Kevan's successor as principal of LBC - and the two histories of LBC by Harold Rowden and Ian Randall. He has also made good use of Kevan's written works and this book has numerous extracts from them at key points, allowing Kevan to 'speak for himself'.

One appendix provides a helpful summary of Kevan's doctorate published as The Grace of Law, which is still available; another appendix provides extracts from his other works; and yet another copies of some important documents including letters to Dr Martryn Lloyd-Jones. Several photographs serve to add value to the book.

This book is a worthy tribute to an unassuming, often overlooked, but highly influential Calvinist evangelical of the twentieth century.



Available from ICM Books Direct

High-Lights of Strict Baptist History by C. Breed

High-lights of Strict Baptist History

Charles Breed

16 pages; paperback.

Reprinted for the Strict and Particular Baptist Minister's fellowship, no date c. 1949.

This short, 16 page, pamphlet was written by the first student, and later principal, of the Strict Baptist Bible Institute. The pamphlet is a printed version of a lecture given in 1948 at the Strict Baptist Open Air Mission.

Strict and Particular Baptists were so-called because they were Strict in who they allowed to take communion, held to particular grace and believed in believers' baptism by full immersion. They were strongly calvinistic. 

Breed notes in his opening statement that 'Strict Baptist history have never been written'; this was the case in 1948, but now Kenneth Dix has at least partly remedied that. This pamphlet provides, as the title suggests, a few highlights. Breed recounts vignettes of displays of 'amazing courage and glorious heroism'.The Strict Baptists were born  out of persecution and many of them paid for their beliefs with imprisonment and even death. It was at a time when any meeting together for worship had to be according to the forms of the Established church: non-conformism was illegal in the seventeenth century. 

Although brief this pamphlet provides an insight into the courage, faith and tenacity of the early Strict Baptists in the scriptures and the God of the scriptures. They were also involved in the cause of religious liberty, at the forefront of the abolition of slavery and held a strong commitment to the advancement of education. 

Music for a Christmas morning

Top posts of 2012

These are the posts with the most 'hits' during 2012:

All of life redeemed newsletter vol 2(1)

Resources for a Christian approach to art and aesthetics

Richard Mouw's Abraham Kuyper

Review of How Church Fails Business People

Mindmap of Mouw's Abraham Kuyper

Mindmap of kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism Ch 3

Mindmap of Kuyper's Lectures on calvinism Ch 1

Review of Kuyper's Problem of Poverty

10 reasons why men shouldn't be pastors

Mindmap of Part II of Kuyper's Wisdom & Wonder

Mindmap of part I of Kuyper's Wisdom & Wonder

Review of George Washington Carver biography

Godel's proof for God

Kuyper's children

Abraham Kuyper's family tree

... this is a Christian bookshop

A mathematical proof that God is infinite good!

Aims for a Christian mathematics education

Resources for a neo-calvinist approach to the physical sciences

Music for a Sunday morning: Nils Petter Molvaer trio

Best books of 2012

In no particular order:

Andree Troost What is Reformational Philosophy? Paideia Press

Craig Bartholomew and David Beldman (editors) Hearing the Old Testament Eerdmans

Ian J. Shaw Churches, Revolutions and Empires 1789-1914 Christian Focus

Albert Weideman A Framework for the Study of Linguistics Paideia Press

James Eglinton Trinity and Organism: Towards a New Reading of Herman Bavinck's Organic Motif T&T Clark

George Harinck (editor) Kuyper in America Dordt College Press 

Lydia Jaeger What the Heavens Declare: Science in the Light of Creation Cascade

Amy Sherman Kingdom Calling IVP (my reviews Intro  Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 )

Best books of 2011
Best books of 2009
Best books of 2008

Terry Eagleton and Roger Scruton debate 'culture'

A great debate between Terry Eagleton and Roger Scruton on culture. Is is it a tradition to be imparted or a context to be critiqued?

 

All of life redeemed newsletter vol 2 (1) 2012

All of life redeemed: a reformational newsletter Volume 2(1) 2012

Music for a Sunday morning: Marcin Wasilewski trio

Odds and sods

Byron Borger on the re-release of Dooyeweerd's Roots of Western culture
Mark Roques reports on his recent visit to Cumbria
Willem de Witt on Bristley's Guide to Bavinck
Nelson Kloosterman on H. Henry Meeter on the Bible and politics in the Calvinist worldview (1) and (2)


A helpful critique of Twilight and expose of how Christians have engaged with it.

The idolisation of being extrovert

This fascinating TouTube is based on Susan Cain's book Quiet - a look at the the quiet introverts. This is an interview with Susan Cain.

 

Church parties according to W J Conybeare (1855)

From W. J. Conybeare 'Church parties' in ESSAYS ECCLESIASTICAL AND SOCIAL.REPRINTED, WITH ADDITIONS, FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. (1855)

PRTJ issue on Herman Bavinck

The November 2012 issue of the Protestant Reformed Theological Journal is a special issue on Herman Bavinck.

There articles on Bavinck the man and his theology, his covenant theology, and his view of common grace. There is also a review of Ron Gleason's biography of Bavinck.

Odds and sods

Nelson D. Kloosterman Louis Berkhof on the kingdom of God and the visible church
Willen J. de Witt Comments on Eric Bristley's guide to the Writings of Herman Bavinck
Art Lindsey Five myths about the Jubilee
Anthony Smith A biblical case for female pastors?
C. Michael Patton Seven historical events that prepared the way for the Reformation

Hope in Hope Street by Gervase Charmley

The Hope in Hope Street

200 Years in Hanley

Gervase Charmley

Bethel Evangelical Free Church, 2012

Every church building can tell a story. Unfortunately, not many are told. This book tells the story of one small evangelical congregation through the years. The book was written by the present pastor, Grevase Charmely (who blogs here), to celebrate Bethel Evangelical Church's 200 years of existence.

              

This local expression of church is currently affiliated to the FIEC. But that wasn't always the case. It started life as a congregational chapel, became associated with Edward Jeffrey's Bethel movement before returning to its congregational roots and then became affiliated to FIEC.

                                                      Now ....

                                                                         ... and then

Founded in October 1812 as Hope Chapel by some who had seceded from the large Congegational Tabernacle, which was formed as a result of the preaching of Revd George Burder and Captain James Scott when they came to the Potteries town of Hanley. Hope's first pastor came two years after it was founded. 

One small criticism is that the story of the church is told through its pastors. Little is provided of how the congregation were engaged in ministry outside of the church. This is probably inevitable as the historical documents relate to the pastors and not the congregation. However, it implicitly leaves the impression that the only ministry is that done by the pastor, the minister.

Revd John Greeves (1791-1846), a Methodist convert from Buxton, was the first to fill the pulpit full-time. On leaving Hope Chapel a few years later he went back to his Methodist roots. The more experienced  Revd William Farmer (1780- ) took up the reigns in 1816. Farmer was embroiled in accusations of sexual infelicitations - he strenuously denied them; but this had an effect on his church ministry. He left Hope Chapel in 1824. When he left he took about 50 of the congregation with him and formed a new local church. 

Being an evangelical church mission was rightly and inevitably high on its agenda and a number of saints were sent from Bethel as overseas missionaries. The first ones sent from the church were contemporaries of the Serampore trio in india. 

1824-1827 was the time of Pastor Samuel Jackson, this was followed by John Edmonds and then in 1842 the Revd Charles Fox Vardy (1806-1889). Vardy's health meant he had to resign in 1847. Other pastors in the nineteenth-century included Robert Macbeth, James Deakin, John Kay and Richard Henry Smith and David Horne (uncle of Charles Silvester Horne, the notable Congregationalist). Smith was a particularly interesting character. Smith had a great interest in art and wrote several books on art, including Expositions of the Cartoons of Raphael (1861). He used this interest to help working class people understand art and to introduce them to the Gospel, in part he was the forerunner of the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon men's fellowship (PSA).  

William Landsell was responsible for leading the congregation out of the long nineteenth-century into the somewhat troubled twentieth. It was during this time that falling church numbers began to hit Hanley and  far wider. The church suffered from the effects of the First World War. During this time there were several attempts at linking congregations, as there was a problem with small congregations supporting full-time pastors.  Respite from decline came in the form of Edward Jeffreys, son and nephew of the Pentecostal pioneers Stephen and George Jeffreys. Edward Jeffreys had set up the Bethel Evangelistic Society He came to the Potteries in 1930. Hope Chapel were enamoured with him and agreed to become part of the Bethel set-up. This involved a name change to bethel temple and Jeffreys provided them with Pastor W. J. Jones and then Pastor Alfred Anderson Brown. Edward Jeffreys originally held a Pentecostal theology, but later came to amend his views. Pastor Ernest John Vernon took over from Brown in 1934. In 1939 the Bethel movement was wound up and this left bethel once more an independent church. Edward Jeffreys went on to be ordained into the Anglican Church. 

The Second World War caused as many issues as the first. Vernon's sudden death in 1953 left the way for Mr Archibald Walter Mead to become the pastor. Under pastor Mead Bethel affiliated to the FIEC.

The next major event of the church involves the new building - here they had to take on the supermarket giants Tesco and won. the result was a modern new building which now stands on the site of the old.  This was under the pastorship of Paul E. Brown, the author of the recent biography of Ernest Kevan.

This is a fascinating story of two centuries of church history. It is well written and well researched. Many primary documents as well as family history documents consulted. It provides ample evidence of God's sovereign grace in a local congregation. 

Africa for Norway - share the heat: Radi-Aid

[HT First Things]

C. S. Lewis and the case against scientism

Odds and sods

Nelson Kloosterman discusses Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms in Dutch Theology

Paul Otto, the reformational blogger, has switched to Wordpress and has posted a list o his top ten reformational books see the discussion on them here.

Jim Skillen's paper on The Bible and the State. From the Churches and the Rule of Law
John Knox Center, Geneva, Switzerland, 28-31 October 2012.
Jason Goroncy's brief report on the conference and his response to Skillen is here.

Reformed academic's Jitse van der Meer on Bavinck and evolution:

Finally, I referred to Bavinck not because I think he should have the last word on the relationship of Scripture and scholarship. I referred to him because I believe no one in the Reformed tradition has improved on his views in this respect. If we want to improve on his views we should start with Herman Bavinck.

My short piece on William Carey, statistics and the modern missionary movement

Lawrence Osborn on theology as stamp collecting.

Anthony Smith on Creation care

The Evangelical Times interactive Church History Timeline

E. J. Poole-Connor on English evangelicalism in the nineteenth century

After having dealt with the tail end of the eighteenth-century Poole-Connor now turns to the nineteenth. He spends most pages discussing C. H. Spurgeon, for whom he obviously has the highest regard.

Here is a scapple of pages 199-238.

"... the history of religion in England during the nineteenth century was, from the Evangelical stand-point, one of bright hope and ultimate disappointment. The flood-tide was followed by a rapidly-running ebb." p. 201.