The Scriptorium Daily

Month: June 2009

  • Czeslaw Milosz’ Birthday

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Czeslaw Milosz, the Polish poet who lived his last decades in California, was born on this day, June 30, in 1911. I am told on good authority that we should pronounce his name “Chess-wov Mee-woash,” but I can’t get used to saying those L’s as W’s, so now I stumble over his name whenever I…

  • Armageddon, the Great War, and the Prince of Peace

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    R.A. Torrey
    in

    Q: Is the tremendous battle now going on between Germany and the allies the battle of Armageddon prophesied in Scripture? A: No, certainly not. That battle is to be fought in Palestine (Megiddo, in the Plain of Jezreel; restored Israel the people of God are arrayed on one side and ‘the kings of the whole…

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning Was One Theological Poet

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    Fred Sanders
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    Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on this day, June 29, in 1861. She was the most famous female poet of the Victorian age, easily outpacing other luminaries like Christina Rossetti and Jean Ingelow (who?). During her lifetime, the rumor was that she only missed the post of poet laureate because that Tennyson fellow was an unstoppable…

  • Holy Holy Holy

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    All Christians believe in the Trinity, but some Christians believe in the Trinity better than others. There are some Bible-believing Christians who have all the basic biblical materials for trinitarian theology stored in their minds, but who have never assembled those materials to make the doctrine of the Trinity. They believe there is only one…

  • Cyril of Alexandria

    Cyril of Alexandria

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    June 27 is the day Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) is remembered in the Western churches. For many years, he wasn’t widely remembered in the Western churches at all, at least in English-language theological circles. For example, in the 48-volume set of patristic writings of the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene periods issued in the nineteenth…

  • Doddridge Day

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    Fred Sanders
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    Philip Doddridge (born this day, June 26, 1702; died 1751) is remembered today, if at all, for his book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. This book was very famous in its time, and was translated into seven languages. William Wilberforce pointed to it as the book that made him take Christianity…

  • Everything You Think About Contentment is Wrong

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Tim Challies hosts a “Reading Classics Together” blog event, and the book he’s working through now is The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, by Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646). This week’s reading is the second and third sermons in the book. In Philippians 4, Paul says “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content,”…

  • Bernard Founded Clairvaux

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    June 25 is the day, according to tradition, that Bernard (1090-1153) founded a new Cistercian monastery in Clairvaux in the year 1115. The monastery was such a success, and he was so linked with it, that “of Clairvaux” is now his last name. He was not the first Cistercian, but he was the perfect one.…

  • Beza’s Birthday is Worth Celebrating, Too

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    Fred Sanders
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    Not long ago, theology fans celebrated Calvin’s 500th birthday. But let us not overlook the birthday of Theodore Beza, born this day, June 24, 1519. Sure, a 490th anniversary isn’t as festive as a 500th, and Beza’s not Calvin. But since it’s his day, consider Beza for a moment. Beza carried out what John Calvin…

  • Ernest Renan’s Life of Jesus

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    Fred Sanders
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    According to the Christian History Institute, June 23 was the very day in 1863 when French philosopher Ernest Renan (1823-1892) published his Vie de Jesus. Renan’s book was not the first attempt at a critical biography of Jesus, but it was the first best-seller in the genre. It is written in purple prose that nineteenth-century…

  • Staggered by Bible Trouble

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    R.A. Torrey
    in

    Q: I want to believe in every word taught or inspired by the Holy Spirit, but I am simply staggered when I read statements of I Kings 20:30 and I Samuel 6:19. Can you give me any relief? If the figures are incorrectly translated why did not the revisers make the necessary alterations? A: The…

  • Jonathan Edwards, You’re FIRED

    Jonathan Edwards, You’re FIRED

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    June 22 is the anniversary of Jonathan Edwards’ dismissal from his pastorate in 1750. The great awakening had gone through his town a few years before, but once it was over, plenty of people wanted to go back to sleep. Edwards had tried to raise the standards for church membership and communion in his town,…