The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

W E Biederwolf

I came across the name of W Edward Biederwolf recently. I knew him only as the author of a helpful book on the Holy Spirit. Seeing a brief biography by Ray E Garrett online I sent for it. Garrett wrote in 1948 less than 10 years after Biederwolf's death in 1939 and so there is no analysis but the salient  facts are there - Biederwolf's Princeton education, years as an evangelist, two pastorates and involvement in the Winona Lake Conference and School of Theology. Biederwolf was a Presbyterian, a Calvinist, a cessationist, a dispensationalist, very much a temperance man and a fundamentalist. He was clearly a good preacher, a man with a heart for souls and a good organiser. He appears to have travelled to the far east but it is not clear whether he came to England at all. He lived in different times to our own but seems to have been greatly used of God to converts sinners, help the saints, make a stand for righteousness and help the needy, including lepers in Korea. Perhaps he deserves to be better known. He wrote several books, most of which appear no longer to be in print. 

No comments: