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37 An Examination Of Gill’s Goat Yard Declaration Of Faith (1729)
I would like to welcome you back to another study in Bible Doctrine. In our previous study, I laid out for you a historic backdrop to Gill’s Goat Yard Declaration. For this study, I would like to look at the document itself. However, it seems appropriate, given the fact that the Declaration was designed for a single congregation, that we first take a look at that congregation, to gain a bird’s eye view of its history and doctrinal positions. The Goat Yard Declaration was named after the church for which it was drawn up. It was known as the church meeting at Goat’s Yard Passage, on Fair Street, in Horsley-Down, Southwark, and they met in the Goat’s Yard Chapel. The origin of the church may…
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36 A Historical Backdrop To Gill’s Goat Yard Declaration Of Faith (1729)
I would like to welcome you back to another study in Bible Doctrine. In our previous study, I introduced you to the ministry and writings of an 18th century Baptist theologian named John Gill. Aside from his pastoral duties in London, he was a prolific writer, the author of more than twenty-five works, many of which were large and exhaustive volumes. Of these works, there are four which I recommended you should have and of which you should make frequent use: 1. “The Cause of God and Truth” (1735-38) 2. “An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments” (1746-48; 1763-66) 3. “Goat Yard Declaration of Faith” (1729) 4. “A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity” (1769-70) Having already given an overview and samples of the…
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The Old Paths versus New Divinity: Exemplified by William Huntington and Andrew Fuller
The work of the Banner of Truth Trust proved a great encouragement in my spiritual development and I became an enthusiastic reader of their magazine from its start. Throughout the following years, especially during the seventies and eighties, I was able to break away from my work in Sweden and Germany to attend those inspiring Leicester Conferences which blessed the soul of so many pastors and teachers and gave them a love for Reformed doctrines and personal holiness. In those early halcyon days of theological unity and brotherly love, we young men believed that we were on the verge of a great revival and a return to the Old Paths of evangelism and soul-care which had become overgrown with the weeds of Liberal theology. We…
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Wesleymania: (A Brief Look At The Current Wesleymania In Our Reformed Churches)
Most books on John and Charles Wesley refer to his religion of the heart. We thus find Leslie Church entitling his biography of John Wesley Knight of the Burning Heart and Arnold Dallimore presenting Charles Wesley under the title A Heart Set Free. Yet there was far more to John Wesley and the Arminian Methodist movement that he founded than ‘utterances of the heart.’ Both Augustus Toplady[1] and George Eayrs[2], to mention two theological opposites, stress that Wesley was a thinker and philosopher and due attention must be paid to John Wesley’s head, a head which even his brother Charles often noticed, did not always go the way of his heart. Wesley’s liberty to contradict himself This fact, i.e. the contrary utterances of Wesley’s heart…
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“Ask For The Old Paths”
Beloved In The Lord: – It is well that we earnestly give heed to this command to Israel. First, let us be solemnly impressed that it is the Lord who thus speaks to his people, as their covenant and faithful God, and for their spiritual welfare, peace and rest. Next, let us well consider that our best interests, safety and well being, is in asking for the old paths, and walking therein. It was a divine command to Israel to remove not the ancient landmarks, which their fathers had set. “This is the way; walk ye in it.” “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” He says, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.” Prophets of old…
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Counterfeit Gospels: God’s Multiple Wills
Many free-willers and duty-faith people who call themselves ‘Calvinists’ speak of two different wills in God which they call His secret and revealed wills. These two sides of God, they believe, run parallel to each other and never the twain shall meet in this life. They tell us that this paradox or seemingly self-contradiction in God will be explained in glory. In other words, they refuse to preach the full will of God as revealed in His full gospel and ban it to that area of thought symbolised by the adage ‘Pie in the sky when you die’! Theirs is a half-gospel which is thus no gospel. Maximising and minimising God’s will Such would-be Calvinists tell us that those who reject duty obedience leading to…
