Austin Walker on Robert Hall Junior

The Theology of Robert Hall Jr.: The Undermining of Calvinism among the English Particular Baptists (Studies in Baptist History) Paperback – 20 Feb 2024 by Austin Walker, 266 pages, H&E Academic ISBN 1774841398

This really is an excellent work in Reformed Baptist history, looking at a well known but rather obscure figure. It well deserves the honorary doctorate it is rumoured to have received. Rather than giving us a straight chronological account Dr Walker walks us around the subject several times but without repetitioin, enabling us to see the subject from several different angles. This work is the result of long and careful research. Robert Hall Jr is difficult to write about as his theological positions were not always predictable or stable. He appears to have rejected federal theology early on but come back to it but never to have properly embraced a full orbed Particular Baptist position. His open communion views are better known. Dr Walker's thesis that Hall and his teaching had a powerful and detrimental affect on Particular Baptists stands up well and his final warning is worth hearing.

Carey Conference 2025 Day 2

We had a good full day at the conference today. We began with a prayer meeting and then after breakfast we had another session helpful session on mission with Brooks Buser. After coffee we split into a men's and women's stream. The men's stream was quite demanding as Enoch Adekoya sought to distill parts of his PhD, speaking on Christian nationalism.

In the afternoon a number of us made the short journey to Carey Baptiist Chruch in Moulton, where we were shown a number of items in connection with the missionary William Carey. An interesting time.

Back at the centre we had the prayer and share session and then the second more wide ranging evening session with Austin Walker on particular redemption. There was also a brief exposition of Chapter 7 of the 1689 Confession from Fabio Silva.

Austin Walker

... Certain dangers arise if the Church does not confess and preach particular redemption. If it is not clearly defined, then few will really know what the Bible teaches. If the objection is raised that we are being overly precise and creating unnecessary division among Christians it is because doctrinal precision is not to be eschewed in favour of vagueness and open-endedness. Either Christ died for all men or he died for his people whom he deliberately intended to save. It is not adequate simply to say that salvation is all of grace. The fact is that universal redemption is unbiblical. Follow out its implications and it destroys God’s gospel. Alec Motyer has a fine chapter in a recent book, From Heaven He Came and Sought Her. He expounds the atoning work of the suffering servant found in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. He concludes that the death of the servant was complete and efficacious for his innumerable elect from every nation. In keeping with the rest of the Scripture, Isaiah’s language is such that particular redemption is the only conclusion that can be drawn. At the same time Motyer affirms that redemption in no way inhibits the universal proclamation of the good news and the invitation to God’s salvation. ...

What difference does it make whether we believe in particular redemption? There are several considerations for us in our witness-bearing and preaching. First, we should be full of confidence in the preaching of the gospel as God’s chosen means to save sinners. The preacher should be directly evangelistic and address sinners with warmth and genuine concern for their salvation. Believing in particular redemption should add to his confidence, urgency and intensity as he pleads and invites sinners to come to Christ. Second, and closely related to the first, the preacher should have the utmost confidence in the all-sufficiency of Christ, of his death on the cross and his power actually to save sinners. That will also, thirdly, affect the way that the preacher freely offers Christ, salvation and the forgiveness of sins to all kinds of guilty sinners. There should be no hesitation or reservation in freely offering Jesus Christ to all. He is offering them not the possibility of salvation but the certainty of salvation because as Christ’s ambassador he is offering them the person of the Saviour in all his capacity to save sinners.

However, simply preaching particular redemption, (Calvinistic orthodoxy, if you will), is not enough. We also believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. When Paul went to Thessalonica the gospel came to them ‘not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance’ (1 Thess 1:5). That should become the constant prayer, the longing and expectation of the church of Christ, in every generation. The preacher is totally dependent on God for success in preaching Christ. In his sovereignty, God takes preachers with mistaken views about redemption and the work of Christ and uses them to advance his kingdom in this world.

However, that should not make us think that after all it does not really matter what we believe and preach, that we can be Calvinistic or Arminian. The key question is always, what do the Scriptures teach and how is God to be glorified? In every generation the church of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to be clear in its understanding of the gospel and of the way in which God saves sinners.

My personal conviction is that relegating such matters as particular redemption to the place of non-essential, secondary truth actually undermines the maintaining of the biblical gospel. Brief statements of faith which are not specific about the matters discussed above will do nothing either to promote and maintain the biblical gospel. In fact, they unwittingly encourage a spirit of indifference towards matters of doctrine. Our forefathers drew up confessions of faith for a good reason. They wanted to set out their convictions about the specific teaching of the Bible in as full and clear a way as possible. It has always been a puzzle to me that today’s generation of Christians seems happy to confess less truth than our forefathers. To do that jeopardises the faithfulness and well-being of the church and is in grave danger of detracting from the glory that belongs to God and of providing a platform for the entry of error and heresy.

C H Spurgeon (as quoted by AW)

There is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless we preach what is nowadays called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel … unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of his elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the Cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called.

C H Spurgeon’s Autobiography, 4 vols. (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1899), I:172.

Carey Conference 2025 Day 1

We are in Northampton this time round, a little unusual. It suits me as it only took an hour and a quarter to get here. My assistant Eddie came with me in the car. We had three sessions today. First, Lewis Allen on the Council of Nicaea, 325. which wa a very helpful overview. Then it was our American visitor, Brooks Buser, giving a mainly biograhical introduction to the theme of mission. Brooks was a pioneer missionary in Paua New Guinea so very interesting. The final session of the day was Austin Walker preaching from Isaiah 53 on particular redemption. Such a great day.

Carey 2025

The Carey Conference 2023 will be on January 7-9. There is a new venue - King's Park, Northampton. Speakers include Brooks Buser from America and Austin Walker.

Book Reviews in Foundations and Banner

My reviews of Dominion and a book on Fuller's ordination sermons can be found here and here. This review also occurs in the current Banner (Do get your copy of the magazine).

Glory to the Three Eternal: Tercentennial Essays on the Life and Writings of Benjamin Beddome (1718-1795) (Monographs in Baptist History, Volume 13)
Michael A. G. Haykin, Roy M. Paul and Jeongmo Yoo (eds.)
Pickwick Publications, 2019
182pp., paperback, £21.00 / $25.00

In the eighteenth century several hundred people were attracted to the Cotswold village of Bourton from the surrounding countryside to hear the faithful preaching of Benjamin Beddome. He was the Baptist pastor in the village for fifty-five years until his death in 1795. Early on in his ministry in 1741 there was a spiritual awakening. By 1766 over two hundred had been baptised and added to

the church.

Beddome was a faithful man who stood firmly in the Puritan and Particular Baptist tradition established by his forefathers. Gary Brady says of him, ‘while never a giant of Particular Baptist history he was certainly a shining light.’ This slim volume containing six essays by six different authors will go a long way toward remedying his relative obscurity. They form the first critical study of Beddome’s writings.

Following a biographical sketch, we have three essays that deal with his convictions regarding the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. the remaining two essays focus on his hymns and his answers to ‘the Modern Question’ (concerning the free offer of the gospel and whether it is the duty of sinners to repent and believe). It is clear that Beddome was no hyper-Calvinist. There is some repetition in these essays, mostly of a biographical nature - almost inevitable when there are six different authors. Beddome is best remembered today for his hymns, used widely by contemporaries, but not published in their entirety until over twenty years after his death. One of his best known hymns runs:

God in the gospel of his Son,

Makes his eternal counsels known;

’Tis here his richest mercy shines,

And truth is drawn in fairest lines.

Another of his legacies is A Scriptural Catechism (reprinted in 2006). Beddome had been a student in Bristol Baptist Academy, and the use of his catechism there helped the Academy to maintain its Calvinistic theology during the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century.

This volume has been a long time coming, but I hope that readers will conclude that it was worth the wait. It deserves a wide readership and is warmly commended.

AUSTIN WALKER
(See link here)

N Ireland

Eleri and I made a short trip to N Ireland last week. It is only the second time I have travelled there. We bussed from Golders Green to Stansted then flew Ryanair to Belfast International. The bus was an hour late but the plane was late too so we didn't need to panic. We had hired a car and drove 20 minutes west to an airbnb near Randalstown which was just tight for us. We had a little wander around the next day seeing Antrim Castle Gardens and walking along the River Bann as far as the massive Lough Neagh (biggest fresh water lake in the British Isles).

We then moved on to Magherafelt and a wander round there. We then called on our friends the Roks who settled last year in Magherafelt last year after being in the seminary for two years. Alexander has become pastor of the Reformed Baptist church in the town. It was lovely to enjoy their hospitality in their lovely new home.

That evening we went along to the attractive building the RBs have in town for the official induction. While without a pastor the church has been under the oversight of Maidenbower Baptist in Crawley. If that sounds a little remote one should bear in mind that in previous such situations over its 22 year in existence churches in America have taken that role and, anyway, Crawley is right next to Gatwick!

The service was led by one of the deacons and another gave the history of the call. The current lead pastor in Maidenbower, Jeremy Walker, preached and led in the laying on of hands. he was assisted in this by Robert Strivens (formerly elder with us and Principal at the seminary but now in Bradford on Avon), Austin Walker (now retired as pastor in Maidenbower) and myself. We prayed.

At the end of the meeting greetings were shared from churches in America and Wetzlar in Germany. A number of friends were present and it was good to have further fellowship over a lovely spread. I enjoyed talking to Reuben Saywell who had travelled as we had, Andrew Rycroft (Baptist pastor in Millisle), Ted Donnelly, John McDermott from the Baptist church, etc.
It was good to be there.The service can be found on Facebook here.

Martin Bucer - Forgotten Reformer

It was good to be at the Evangelical Library today and to hear Austin Walker give an excellent overview of the life of forgotten Reformer Martin Bucer (1491-1551). Younger than Luther and Zwingli (by 8 years) and older than Calvin (by 18 years), Bucer is the man who mentored Calvin during his three year exile in Strasbourg, brought about the unsuccessful Marburg Colloquy and spent his final years in Cambridge at the request of Thomas Cranmer.

A fascinating figure he was a Dominican monk who became a zealous Reformer in Strasbourg, where he worked with Capito, Zell and others from 1523-1549. Calvin said of him

"In addition to his profound learning. abundant knowledge, keenness of intellect. wide reading, and many other varied excellences, in which he is surpassed by hardly anyone at the present day, this scholar, as we know, is equalled by few and is superior to very many. It is to his especial credit that no one in our time has been more precise or diligent in interpreting scripture than he."

Austin surveyed his pastoral theology which has been translated into English by Peter Beale and published by Banner. He went on to talk of his instigation of confirmation for the baptised and his attempt to form fellowships within the state church, a plan doomed to eventual failure.

Bucer The Forgotten Reformer

This is a reminder that next Monday (18th) Austin Walker will be giving a lunch time lecture at the Evangelical Library on Martin Bucer - The forgotten Reformer. We start at 1 pm.

No Regrets

I forgot to say that Monday ended up being a Walker Day. Not only did my wife and I hear Austin Walker in the evening at the Library and meet his wonderful Welsh wife Mai for the first time in an age and not only did I spend much of Monday (and Tuesday as it turned out) with fellow pastor and blogger Jeremy Walker but at 10.30 pm we sat down with my two middle sons and watched Question of Sport (not something I often do) with Dan Walker as one of the contestants. The Walker Brothers have a sister or two so it wasn't a full house but certainly a day of Walkers.

PS as for the possibly cryptic title see here.

Walker on Carey and books

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/WCarey.jpg

This year sees the 250th anniversary of the birth of the pioneer missionary William Carey. It was a great joy on Monday then to be at the Evangelical Library with around 40 others for the library's annual lecture and to hear Pastor Austin Walker of Crawley give an interesting and stimulating paper on William Carey and his books.

He began by pointing out that as far as books are concerned Carey's main pre-occupation was with translating the Bible. In this he was prolific. Timothy George has said he must be put in “the front ranks of Bible translators in Christian history alongside Jerome, Wycliffe, Luther, Tyndale and Erasmus.” We were then given an overview of the subject under four main headings with a closing lesson.

1. Some of the books Carey produced besides his translations of the Bible

When translating the Bible into Bengali Carey came to see the importance of the underlying Sanskrit language, which he proceeded to master, producing a grammar, a dictionary and a Bible in it as he had done for Bengali and would also do for Marathi. He went on to produce grammars in seven more Indian languages! In addition to the grammars and dictionaries he also provided prose books in Bengali for his students to read (he took up a college teaching post for various reasons in 1801) and also for children in the mission’s elementary schools. Together with his son Felix and some of the pundits he produced some sixty prose books: simple stories, fables, essays, a version of Pilgrim’s Progress, books on Indian history, a chemistry book, as well as the translation of the Sanskrit classics. There was also no end of evangelistic material of various sorts in Bengali and English (aimed at those settled in India). Clearly  Carey "was not a man who ever let the grass grow under his feet"! The famous statement about his being a plodder was then quoted. The question of why was he so single-minded was tackled in the rest of the paper.

2.  What William Carey believed about ‘the Book,’ the Bible

Here we were given something of the background to Carey's position -  his thoroughly orthodox view of the Bible, his conversion and his confidence in the power of the naked Word to convert sinners.

3. Some of the books that shaped Carey’s theology, mission principles and translation priorities

We then stepped further back to consider this matter focusing on his Calvinistic and Baptist convictions and the founding of  The Particular (or Calvinistic) Baptist Society for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen. Reference was made to a variety of books - Pilgrims Progress, Defoe’s Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and the Life of Christopher Columbus as a child. Then, significantly,  Help to Zion’s Travellers, by Robert Hall Sr (1728-1791) “probably the most important extra-biblical book that Carey read.” (Peter J Morden). Carey often re-read it. There were also Fuller's Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation of 1785, many works by Jonathan Edwards, especially his life of Brainerd (required reading and re-reading for Serampore missionaries). Also, of course, the narratives of the voyages of Captain Cook.

4. Carey's Enquiry

The final section considered and summarised Carey's little book arguing the case for taking the gospel to the heathen, arguments so familiar to us now that it is hard to imagine there was a time when they were not widely accepted.

5. Lesson

We closed with an appropriate exhortation to read the Scriptures and to make good use of good Christian books.
It was encouraging that two Indian brothers (Chako and Joseph) were able to visit us, being in the country at present and based over in Basildon.

The day was a full one for me as we had a committee meeting  beforehand and I had been at the Westminster Fellowship during the day. Very appropriately that had been an introduction to the life of Andrew Fuller by Dr Robert Oliver. So it was a whole day of Reformed Baptist history and a joy it was too.

Annual Lecture Evangelical Library

This is a reminder that at 7 pm on Monday, June 6, at the Evangelical Library, Austin Walker will speak on the subject of "William Carey and his books".

This year sees the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Carey, often referred to as “the father of modern missions”. This lecture on Carey and his books will focus both on what he wrote and what he read.

Austin Walker actually comes from North London but has studied in Wales and in Westminster Theological Seminary, USA. In 1975 after his return to the UK, he became one of the pastors of what is now known as Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley, West Sussex. Becoming full-time in 1979, he has continued in that role up to the present day. An author as well as a pastor, Austin is married to Mai and they have four children and seven grandchildren.

This will be the first time that the annual lecture has been held at the new Library premises. We are hoping for a good turn out.

Ted Donnelly on Peter

On Monday I was with the twelve who met at the John Owen Centre for the Theological Study Group discussion on Ted Donnelly's book Peter Eye Witness of his Majesty.. Our chairman was Austin Walker from Crawley. Numbers were slightly up on the norm due mainly to the presence of three LTS students, all on their first day of a three week placement. it was good to have them there. The book, which began as a series of messages to ministers and was published by Banner about 12 years ago is a little more popular in style than our usual fare but none the worse for that. ted looks at Peter as Disciple, Preacher and Pastor and makes a number of important and useful points. We all agreed that it was a fine book that could be commended to someone preparing for ministry as a brief guide or someone in the ministry as a brief refresher. Also, it would be useful for someone not in the ministry to read in order to help them understand better the work of the pastor.

The following quotations may help give something of the flavour of the book:

On discipleship and the close connection between strength and weakness: "There is scarcely a gift that the devil cannot pervert" (31)

On preaching Christ doctrinally and the underestimate often made of Peter in this respect: "We expect him to be vigorous and earnest, but not particularly deep. If this has been our view, we are mistaken." (69) "We must preach Christ theologically" (71)

On bold preaching: "It is so very hard to be direct and, at the same time, gentle and loving." (77) "He must hammer home the nails of conviction" (78)

On faithfulness in the ministry: "all Christian service carries an inevitable price-tag" (106)

On the specialised nature of pastoral work: "it is a mistake to hand over a significant part of the work of the training of pastors to men who have never done the work for which they are preparing others" (114)

We prayed for Ted Donnelly at the end, thankful for his book and conscious of how unwell he is at present. We would love to hear him declare such truths once again.

(The current notice on the church website here reads: Pastor Donnelly became ill in November 2010 and had to spend a number of weeks in hospital. He is now able to attend morning worship services but it is anticipated that his recovery will be a slow process. Please continue to remember our pastor, his wife Lorna and their family in your prayers.)

Hebrew Noah

Spent a brilliant day at the John Owen Centre today looking at Genesis 6-9 with eight others (mostly recent ex-LTS) under the expert guidance of David Green. Previous days have been well attended but this was something of a test as we had to pay for the privilege this time. I think everyone would have agreed that it was money well spent. Once again it struck me that there are many things in the Hebrew text almosty impossible to detect by any other means. David works incredibly hard to prepare these days. By riding on his tails as we do a great deal of time is saved as although at a push I could possibly do the work myself I guess it would take me most of the week. The next one (on Abraham) is on March 16. Nice to have fellowship with the other men, all of whom I know to some extent. Ben Midgeley had a wonderful story of a recent conversion which I had only heard a slightly garbled account of.

Catch the vision 3

As intimated we met yesterday a sthe Theological Study Group at the John Owen Centre/LTS for our study of Catch the Vision. Seven of us gathered including one man new to the rest of us - Steve Jeffery, pastor of a new church in North London. I hope he felt at home with us. he writes about it here. It was inevitably a wide ranging discussion. While appreciating John J's efforts, there were lots of things we felt that were missing and some questionable conclusions. It was good to have Austin Walker present whose memory goes back even further than mine. He was able to confirm some of things in the book that seemed not quite right to some of the more sceptical among us.

We were not able to use the Library as the work on the new Library and lecture rooms is almost complete and they were busy ferrying books in. The new rooms are state of the art and very impressive and everything seems to have gione to plan. As a student who likes distractions I found it perturbing to see that the lecture rooms ar pretty much without windows!