Category Archives: History

In a comment on my last post, Ben links to an X post that compares Islam to Tolkein’s ring of power, arguing that whoever tries to control it will be controlled, and then destroyed, by it.

I was recently in touch with a friend from my old church in Essex, which has now grown to over 1,000 weekly attenders. There were only about 80 when I joined in 1987, and it has grown steadily since. That doesn’t automatically mean it’s doing something right – Hillsong and Bethel were bigger, after all, and look what’s happened to them. But in this case it is, and it’s a cause for personal rejoicing.

Twenty-two years ago I came to the conclusion that the perennial Evangelical (and Pentecostal) hunger for revival is, in effect, an attempt to put God in a box shaped like the First Great Awakening under Wesley, Whitefield and Edwards two centuries ago. In fact, in my view, this was a unique work of God for a particular time and circumstance, and not a biblical template for the renewal of Christianity. Indeed, like every work of God in history, it was in large part a psycho-social, as well as a spiritual, phenomenon, which was both a good thing and a bad thing in God’s providence.

In previous posts, I’ve shown how the Charismatic “second experience” of the Holy Spirit has radically changed its meaning over three centuries of Christian history, which makes it rather difficult to identify for certain as a work of God, rather than as a psycho-social phenomenon. This is especially so since it does not correspond to anything found in Scripture, but does strongly resemble an experience also seen in non-Christian religions. Is it for sinless perfection, as Wesley taught, or for the ability to resist temptation, as the Holiness Movement taught, or to provide power for service, as Jessie Penn-Lewis taught, or to provide “joy unspeakable,” as Martyn Lloyd-Jones taught, or … Continue reading →

I’m reading a book on eschatology, largely because it has a good chapter by Greg Smith (on the eschatology of the historical books of the Bible), who has read and appreciated my own books. So I thought I should return the compliment. I’m surprised to find I’ve never written on the topic of millennial theologies here, though I’ve done so quite extensively on it for local study guides on the Book of Revelation, etc, in the past.