My regular readers have probably noticed that my posts come in themes (you might want to call them “topics”). The most recent theme has been John Calvin.
Here’s a secret: most of my themes pertain to whatever I am studying at the moment. I have been writing a paper about Calvin for a Church History course.
As I was reading through Calvin’s reply to Sadoleto, a Catholic bishop who had written a letter to the city of Geneva asking them to return to Catholicism, I discovered one of the most forceful presentations of the Gospel message that I have ever read:
First, we bid a man begin by examining himself, and this not in a superficial and perfunctory manner, but to cite his conscience before the tribunal of God, and when sufficiently convinced of his iniquity, to reflect on the strictness of the sentence pronounced upon all sinners. Thus confounded and amazed at his misery, he is prostrated and humbled before God; and, casting away all self-confidence, groans as if given up to final perdition. Then we show that the only haven of safety is the mercy of God, as manifested in Christ, in whom every part of our salvation is complete. As all mankind are, in the sign of God, lost sinners, we hold that Christ is their only righteousness, since, by His obedience, He has wiped off all our transgressions; by His sacrifice, appeased the divine anger; by His blood, washed away our sins; by His cross, borne our curse; and by His death, made satisfaction for us. We maintain that in this way man is reconciled in Christ to God the Father, by no merit of his own, by no value of works, but by gratuitous mercy. When we embrace Christ by faith, and come, as it were, into communion with Him, this we term, after the manner of Scripture, the righteousness of faith.
The entire letter, along with Sadoleto’s original, can be found in the book A Reformation Debate
edited by John C. Olin.
A variety of free Christian Audio Book mp3 files can be downloaded from Free Christian Audio Books.
These include:
- All of Grace by Charles Spurgeon
- Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray
- At the Masters Feet by Sundar Singh
- A Life for a Life by Henry Drummond
- George Mueller Biography
- God of All Comfort by H. Smith
- Heaven by D.L. Moody
- How to Pray by R. A. Torrey
- Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis
- Inspiration of the Bible by A.W. Pink
- Life of St. Patrick
- Life of William Carey
- New Life by Andrew Murray
- Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton
- Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
- Prayer and Praying Men by E.M. Bounds
- Reality of Prayer by E.M. Bounds
- Revival Addresses by R.A. Torrey
- Secrets of a Happy Christian by H. Smith
- The Necessity of Prayer by E.M. Bounds
- The Practice of the Presence Brother Lawrence
Covenant Worldwide, a ministry of Covenant Theological Seminary, has made over twenty graduate courses available for free download. These not only contain the audio lectures in mp3 format, but also the original lecture notes along with lecture transcriptions. If you are looking to get a graduate-level education in theology, but don’t want the graduate price tag, then be sure to look at this resource. Even though I am in a graduate M.Div. program at another seminary, I often use these as supplemental material to the courses I am enrolled in. Of course, though, the Covenant Worldwide courses are for personal enrichment only and no college credit or degrees are awarded.
The courses that are available are:
Persecution, although a terrible trial on those being persecuted, has proven to be beneficial to church growth and orthodoxy throughout history. In early Christian history, when the church was originally persecuted with a key factor being the destruction all of its writings and the execution of those who did not cooperate, it was very important to determine which writings were the important ones. Without the printing press or later advances, books were very valuable, but perhaps not always valuable enough to give your life for. This led to the canonization of the books we now have in the New Testament.
Also, as the alleged beliefs of the Christians began to spread throughout the world, some non-orthodox or heretical groups emerged that were often confused with the Christians. There was also some confusion regarding what the true beliefs of the Christians were. Sometimes they were called cannibals because it was thought that they ate flesh and drank blood. Because of all of this confusion, it was important for them to theologically define who they were so that both their own practices were understood (e.g. The Lord’s Supper) and they distanced themselves from the heretics.
In addition, with persecution comes conversion through martyrdom. Of course this is not our preferred method of evangelism, especially if you are the one being martyred, but those who witness someone dying for a cause wonder if they have anything as special or important in their lives that they would likewise be willing to die for. This leads to more hearts and minds that are open to the Gospel message.
into mp3 format. 