Thomas Helwys, Roger Williams, and Pre-Enlightenment Arguments for Religious Liberty
In a fascinating chapter entitled “The Evangelical Encounter with the Enlightenment,” Catherine A. Brekus details early evangelicals’ relationship with Enlightenment principles. To be sure, evangelicals did not imbibe Enlightenment ideas and ideals wholesale. As Brekus explains: On the surface, the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason, and evangelicalism, with its heart-centered piety, seem to have stood in stark opposition to...
The Beginnings of Baptist Ecclesiology: A Review
When people think of Thomas Helwys, they often think of religious liberty, and rightfully so. Yet Helwys’s writings address far more than religious liberty. Marvin Jones seeks to demonstrate this in his recent monograph The Beginnings of Baptist Ecclesiology: The Foundational Contributions of Thomas Helwys.[1] Jones contends that while many scholars have considered Helwys’s Mystery of Iniquity to be a work focused primarily on...
Recommended Books (Winter 2018)
The cold grey days of winter are here again. This year has been particularly frigid, driving even the hardiest indoors for unusually long spells. In such weather, there are few pass times more profitable than spending the day in a reading chair with a good book. Below we have provided some of our favorite reads from recent weeks that may be beneficial to you as we slog through the last half of the season. Be sure to leave us some of...
Thomas Helwys and Sola Scriptura
The foundational theme of the Reformers’ work was sola scriptura, Scripture alone. Each Reformer exhibited a strong commitment to look to the Scriptures for the truth about all of life. They rightly believed that the Roman Catholic Church’s problems stemmed from its departure from the Word of God as its rule in faith and practice. However, every Reformer struggled between their commitment to sola scriptura and their cultural context....
The Doctrine of Scripture: An Overview
God has revealed Himself to humankind in two ways: First, He’s revealed Himself primarily in Jesus Christ and in the Christian Scriptures, referred to as special revelation.[1] Second, He’s also revealed Himself externally in the created order and internally in the human conscience and heart, referred to as general revelation.[2] This article will highlight the importance of the doctrine of Scripture and provide an overview of the...
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