Old Paths Paved

Why You Should Read the Puritans

by Joel R. Beeke

The great eighteenth-century revivalist, George Whitefield, wrote:

Whitefield went on to predict that Puritan writings would continue to be resurrected until the end of time due to their scriptural spirituality. Today, we are living in such a time. Interest in Puritan books has seldom been more intense. In the last fifty years, 150 Puritan authors and nearly 700 Puritan titles have been brought back into print.

Puritan literature has so multiplied that few book lovers can afford to purchase all that is being published. What books should you buy? Where can you find a brief summary of each Puritan work and a brief biography of each author so that you can have a glimpse of who is behind all these books?

These kinds of questions motivated Randall Pederson and me to write Meet the Puritans: With a Guide to Modern Reprints. In this book, we tell the life stories of the 150 Puritan writers who have been reprinted in the past fifty years. We have also included concise reviews of the 700 newly published Puritan titles plus bibliographical information on each book. And we have noted the books that we consider most critical to have in a personal library.

We had four goals for writing this book: first, that these godly Puritan writers will serve as mentors for our own lives. That is why we have told the stories of the Puritans on a layperson’s level and kept them short. You could read one life story each day during your devotional time. Second, we trust that when you read these reviews of Puritan writings, you will be motivated to read a number of these books, each of which should help you grow deeper in your walk with the Lord. Third, we hope this book will serve as a guide for you to purchase books for your families and friends, to help them grow in faith. Finally, for those of you who are already readers of Puritan literature, this guide is designed to direct you to further study and to introduce you to lesser-known Puritans that you may be unaware of.

Definition of Puritanism

Just who were the Puritan writers? They were not only the two thousand ministers who were ejected from the Church of England by the Act of Uniformity in 1662, but also those ministers in England and North America, from the sixteenth century through the early eighteenth century, who worked to reform and purify the church and to lead people toward godly living consistent with the Reformed doctrines of grace.

Puritanism grew out of three needs: (1) the need for biblical preaching and the teaching of sound Reformed doctrine; (2) the need for biblical, personal piety that stressed the work of the Holy Spirit in the faith and life of the believer; and (3) the need to restore biblical simplicity in liturgy, vestments, and church government, so that a well-ordered church life would promote the worship of the triune God as prescribed in His Word (The Genius of Puritanism, 11ff.).

Doctrinally, Puritanism was a kind of vigorous Calvinism; experientially, it was warm and contagious; evangelistically, it was aggressive, yet tender; ecclesiastically, it was theocentric and worshipful; politically, it aimed to be scriptural, balanced, and bound by conscience before God in the relationships of king, Parliament, and subjects; culturally, it had lasting impact throughout succeeding generations and centuries until today (Durston and Eales, eds., The Culture of English Puritanism, 1560-1700).

How to Profit from Reading the Puritans

Let me offer you nine reasons why it will help you spiritually to read Puritan literature still today:

1. Puritan writings help shape life by Scripture. The Puritans loved, lived, and breathed Holy Scripture. They relished the power of the Spirit that accompanied the Word. Their books are all Word-centered; more than 90 percent of their writings are repackaged sermons that are rich with scriptural exposition. The Puritan writers truly believed in the sufficiency of Scripture for life and godliness.

If you read the Puritans regularly, their Bible-centeredness will become contagious. These writings will show you how to yield wholehearted allegiance to the Bible’s message. Like the Puritans, you will become a believer of the living Book, echoing the truth of John Flavel, who said, “The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.”

Do you want to read books that put you into the Scriptures and keep you there, shaping your life by sola Scriptura? Read the Puritans. Read the Soli Deo Gloria Puritan Pulpit Series. As you read, enhance your understanding by looking up and studying all the referenced Scriptures.

2. Puritan writings show how to integrate biblical doctrine into daily life. The Puritan writings do this in three ways:

First, they address your mind. In keeping with the Reformed tradition, the Puritans refused to set mind and heart against each other, but viewed the mind as the palace of faith. “In conversion, reason is elevated,” John Preston wrote.

The Puritans understood that a mindless Christianity fosters a spineless Christianity. An anti-intellectual gospel quickly becomes an empty, formless gospel that never gets beyond “felt needs,” which is something that is happening in many churches today. Puritan literature is a great help for understanding the vital connection between what we believe with our minds and how that affects the way we live. Jonathan Edwards’s Justification by Faith Alone and William Lyford’s The Instructed Christian are particularly helpful for this.

Second, Puritan writings confro
nt your conscience. The Puritans are masters at convicting us about the heinous nature of our sin against an infinite God. They excel at exposing specific sins, then asking questions to press home conviction of those sins. As one Puritan wrote, “We must go with the stick of divine truth and beat every bush behind which a sinner hides, until like Adam who hid, he stands before God in his nakedness.”

Devotional reading should be confrontational as well as comforting. We grow little if our consciences are not pricked daily and directed to Christ. Since we are prone to run for the bushes when we feel threatened, we need daily help to be brought before the living God “naked and opened unto the eyes of with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:12). In this, the Puritans excel. If you truly want to learn what sin is and experience how sin is worse than suffering, read Jeremiah Burroughs’s The Evil of Evils and Thomas Shepard’s The Sincere Convert and the Sound Believer.

Third, the Puritan writers engage your heart. They excel in feeding the mind with solid biblical substance and they move the heart with affectionate warmth. They write out of love for God’s Word, love for the glory of God, and love for the soul of readers.

For books that beautifully balance objective truth and subjective experience in Christianity; books that combine, as J.I. Packer puts it, “clear-headed passion and warm-hearted compassion” (Ryken, Worldly Saints, x); books that inform your mind, confront your conscience, and engage your heart, read the Puritans. Read Vincent Alsop’s Practical Godliness.

3. Puritan writings show how to exalt Christ and see His beauty. The Puritan Thomas Adams wrote: “Christ is the sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line, the Scriptures being but as it were the swaddling bands of the child Jesus.” Likewise, the Puritan Isaac Ambrose wrote, “Think of Christ as the very substance, marrow, soul, and scope of the whole Scriptures.”

The Puritans loved Christ and exalted in His beauty. Samuel Rutherford wrote: “Put the beauty of ten thousand worlds of paradises, like the Garden of Eden in one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colors, all tastes, all joys, all loveliness, all sweetness in one. O what a fair and excellent thing would that be? And yet it would be less to that fair and dearest well-beloved Christ than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and foundations of ten thousand earths.”

If you would know Christ better and love Him more fully, immerse yourself in Puritan literature. Read Robert Asty’s Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus.

4. Puritan writings reveal the Trinitarian character of theology. The Puritans were driven by a deep sense of the infinite glory of a Triune God. When they answered the first question of the Shorter Catechism that man’s chief end was to glorify God, they meant the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They took John Calvin’s glorious understanding of the unity of the Trinity in the Godhead, and showed how that worked itself out in electing, redeeming, and sanctifying love and grace in the lives of believers. John Owen wrote an entire book on the Christian believer’s communion with God as Father, Jesus as Savior, and the Holy Spirit as Comforter. The Puritans teach us how to remain God-centered while being vitally concerned about Christian experience, so that we don’t fall into the trap of glorifying experience for its own sake.

If you want to appreciate each Person of the Trinity, so that you can say with Samuel Rutherford, “I don’t know which Person of the Trinity I love the most, but this I know, I love each of them, and I need them all,” read John Owen’s Communion with God and Jonathan Edwards on the Trinity.

5. Puritan writings show you how to handle trials. Puritanism grew out of a great struggle between the truth of God’s Word and its enemies. Reformed Christianity was under attack in Great Britain, much like Reformed Christianity is under attack today. The Puritans were good soldiers in the conflict, enduring great hardships and suffering much. Their lives and their writings stand ready to arm us for our battles, and to encourage us in our suffering. The Puritans teach us how we need affliction to humble us (Deut. 8:2), to teach us what sin is (Zeph. 1:12), and how that brings us to God (Hos. 5:15). As Robert Leighton wrote, “Affliction is the diamond dust that heaven polishes its jewels with.” The Puritans show us how God’s rod of affliction is His means to write Christ’s image more fully upon us, so that we may be partakers of His righteousness and holiness (Heb. 12:10–11).

If you would learn how to handle your trials in a truly Christ-exalting way, read Thomas Boston’s The Crook in the Lot: The Sovereignty and Wisdom of God Displayed in the Afflictions of Men.

6. Puritan writings explain true spirituality. The Puritans stress the spirituality of the law, spiritual warfare against indwelling sin, the childlike fear of God, the wonder of grace, the art of meditation, the dreadfulness of hell, and the glories of heaven. If you want to live deep as a Christian, read Oliver Heywood’s Heart Treasure. Read the Puritans devotionally, and then pray to be like them. Ask questions such as: Am I, like the Puritans, thirsting to glorify the Triune God? Am I motivated by biblical truth and biblical fire? Do I share their view of the vital necessity of conversion and of being clothed with the righteousness of Christ? Do I follow them as far as they followed Christ?

7. Puritan writings show how to live by wholistic faith. The Puritans apply every subject they write about to practical “uses”―as they term it. These “uses” will propel you into passionate, effective action for Christ’s kingdom. Their own daily lives integrated Christian truth with covenant vision; they knew no dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. Their writings can assist you immeasurably in living a life that centers on God in every area, appreciating His gifts, and declaring everything “holiness to the Lord.”

The Puritans were excellent covenant theologians. They lived covenant theology, covenanting themselves, their families, their churches, and their nations to God. Yet they did not fall into the error of hyper-covenantalism, in which the covenant of grace becomes a substitute for personal conversion. They promoted a comprehensive worldview, a total Christian philosophy, a holistic approach of bringing the whole gospel to bear on all of life, striving to bring every action in conformity with Christ, so that believers would mature and grow in faith. The Puritans wrote on practical subjects such as how to pray, how to develop genuine pie
ty, how to conduct family worship, and how to raise children for Christ. In short, they taught how to develop a “rational, resolute, passionate piety [that is] conscientious without becoming obsessive, law-oriented without lapsing into legalism, and expressive of Christian liberty without any shameful lurches into license” (ibid., xii).

If you would grow in practical Christianity and vital piety, read the compilation of The Puritans on Prayer, Richard Steele’s The Character of an Upright Man, George Hamond’s Case for Family Worship, Cotton Mather’s Help for Distressed Parents, and Arthur Hildersham’s Dealing with Sin in Our Children.

8. Puritan writings teach the importance and primacy of preaching. To the Puritans, preaching was the high point of public worship. Preaching must be expository and didactic, they said; evangelistic and convicting, experiential and applicatory, powerful and “plain” in its presentation, ever respecting the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.

If you would help evangelicals recover the pulpit and a high view of the ministry in our day, read Puritan sermons. Read William Perkins’s The Art of Prophesying and Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor.

9. Puritan writings show how to live in two worlds. The Puritans said we should have heaven “in our eye” throughout our earthly pilgrimage. They took seriously the New Testament passages that say we must keep the “hope of glory” before our minds to guide and shape our lives here on earth. They viewed this life as “the gymnasium and dressing room where we are prepared for heaven,” teaching us that preparation for death is the first step in learning to truly live (Packer, Quest, 13).

If you would live in this world in light of the better world to come, read the Puritans. Read Richard Baxter’s The Saint’s Everlasting Life and Richard Alleine’s Heaven Opened.

Where to Begin

If you are just starting to read the Puritans, begin with John Bunyan’s The Fear of God, John Flavel’s Keeping the Heart, and Thomas Watson’s The Art of Divine Contentment, then move on to the works of John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, and Jonathan Edwards.

For sources that introduce you to the Puritans and their literature, begin with Meet the Puritans. Then, to learn more about the lifestyle and theology of the Puritans, read Leland Ryken’s Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), Peter Lewis’s The Genius of Puritanism (Morgan, Penn.: Soli Deo Gloria, 1997), and Erroll Hulse’s Who are the Puritans? and what do they teach? (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2000). Then move on to James I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1990) and my Puritan Reformed Spirituality (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2006).

Whitefield was right: the Puritans, though long dead, still speak through their writings. Their books still praise them in the gates. Reading the Puritans will place you and keep you on the right path theologically, experientially, and practically. As Packer writes, “The Puritans were strongest just where Protestants today are weakest, and their writings can give us more real help than those of any other body of Christian teachers, past or present, since the days of the apostles” (quoted in Hulse, Reformation & Revival, 44). I wholeheartedly agree. I have been reading Christian literature for more than forty years and can freely say that I know of no group of writers in church history that can so benefit your mind and soul as the Puritans. God used their books to convert me as a teenager, and He has been using their books ever since to help me grow in understanding John the Baptists’s summary of Christian sanctification: “Christ must increase and I must decrease.”

In his endorsement of Meet the Puritans, R.C. Sproul says, “The recent revival of interest in and commitment to the truths of Reformed theology is due in large measure to the rediscovery of Puritan literature. The Puritans of old have become the prophets for our time. This book is a treasure for the church.” So, our prayer is that God will use Meet the Puritans to inspire you to read Puritan writings. With the Spirit’s blessing, they will enrich your life in many ways as they open the Scriptures to you, probe your conscience, bare yours sins, lead you to repentance, and conform your life to Christ. Let the Puritans bring you into full assurance of salvation and a lifestyle of gratitude to the Triune God for His great salvation.

You might want to pass along Meet the Puritans and Puritan books to your friends as well. There is no better gift than a good book. I sometimes wonder what would happen if Christians spent only fifteen minutes a day reading Puritan writings. Over a year that would add up to reading about twenty average-size books a year and, over a lifetime, 1,500 books. Who knows how the Holy Spirit might use such a spiritual diet of reading! Would it usher in a worldwide revival? Would it fill the earth again with the knowledge of the Lord from sea to sea? That is my prayer, my vision, my dream. Tolle Lege―take up and read! You will be glad you did.

—————-

Joel Beeke is President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and the Editorial Director of Reformation Heritage Books.

Text: Mat 26:31,32
Introduction

In verse 30 of this chapter we find our Lord singing an Hymn. However this was not a man made song like “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”, but a portion of the great Hillel (a Psalm,) sung at every Passover on account of the five great benefits referred by the people of God.

For over 1000 years the people of God had been singing the Hallel after the pascal meal (end of Psalm 136), but never with so much application as we find here in this text. For 1000 years these Psalms were sung in anticipation of the Messiah, and now the Messiah sings it of himself.

What prophetic words we have in the Hallel, which have been called in part “the sorrows of the Messiah” . Psa 116:3,4 “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.”

Psa 118:22 ff. “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.”

Who ever sang these words with more bravura in his voice than Christ? Who ever sang with more fever? To sing it as a disciple on that eventful night would have been amazing. But to sing it of oneself would be altogether heart stopping.

What must our Lord have thought as he sings of his prophetic sufferings? Now, not centuries away, or years or even days…but moments? We can only wonder as the anti-type of David crossed the brook Cedron. Not running from his enemies as David did, but walking bravely toward them.

Our Lord speaks openly to his disciples, “All ye shall be offended because of me this night”, not to frighten them or to overwhelm them with grief, but to warn them that even in the great fleeing of this night, He is still in control. For he tells them what will surly come to pass.

Withing the text under our consideration there are 3 things I would like to bring to your attention. Our Theme will be: “Meet me in Galilee” from verses 31, 32.

1. The Scandal (“All ye shall be offended because of me”).
2. The Scattering (“the sheep shall be scattered”).
3. The Rendezvous (“But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee).

e="font-size:100%;">The Scandal.

The word translated “offended” in the Authorized Version is the word “skandalizo” in the Greek from which you will immediately recognize the English word scandal. A wooden, but true translation of the text would be, “All ye shall be scandalized because of me this night”. We would not think of this incident as a scandal would we? Here we have the Lord warning the 11 disciples that tonight, there will be a scandal among them. But it will not be a scandal toward them, but because of them. “Oh, have you heard the scandal”, one might say, “The followers of Jesus, when he needed them the most ran away and left him to die!” Oh, the religious rulers no doubt set the trap, but it was the disciples who fell into it with a full warning from the Lord (All ye shall be offended because of me).

It is true that the offense was the fulfillment of prophesy (Zech. 13:9), but this does not negate the reality of the scandal. While God has ordained “whatsoever comes to pass”, and the Lord Christ should suffer and die alone, it does not remove the offense! Christ left the disciples to do what comes so naturally to every one of us- to run from his sufferings. Oh, Simon, you who stand so strong and boastful. You who only moments ago said, “Though all men shall be offended (skandalizo) because of thee, yet will I never be offended (skandalizo)”. But Christ’s words echo here, “Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice?

Oh James and John, sons of thunder, “ Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” To which they answer, “we are!”.Ye are not able. “I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”

They were all offended, every one of them, scandalized. At this crossroad in history when the kangaroo court of the spiritually blind came to take the Lamb of God, the 11 do not run to his side in defense, but run away, as if to say by their actions, “guilty, guilty, guilty. We have nothing to do with this man, guilty.” For that is what skandalizo means, “to cause one to judge unfavorably or unjustly of another.” As one young maid said to Peter, “Art thou not a friend of Jesus of Nazereth? And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man.” skandalizo!

Oh dear reader has your faith ever been tried like this? Here, these 11 have been so affected by the circumstances around them that they begin to question, “Is this truly the Messiah”. Perhaps asking what John the Baptist asked of Christ in his weakest moment, “Are you the one, or should we look for another”?

Perhaps you have found yourself in this kind of situation from time to time? Have you stumbled at the stumbling stone, the rock of offense, the rejected cornerstone? Perhaps you see something of yourself in the action of the disciples today?

Take courage dear friend, there is something else we should see in this passage today.

The Scattering.

Where the 11 went that night we do not know. We do know that John and Peter followed Christ in the shadows. Where did the others go? We have no indication. Perhaps back to their old life and ways? But this is not important. What is important is the fact that they, being scattered sheep, were still sheep. Do you see that today? Oh, how many of us, once we have found ourselves in the position of being scandalized at Christ for his gospel’s sake feel that we are now somehow outside the fold of the Lord. We feel that we must be reconverted or born again, once more. But this is not true
. Scattered sheep are still sheep. This is why Jesus prays in John 17, in his High Priestly prayer before these events, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me.” (John 17:11). As if to say, in his High Priestly way, “I know that times will come when in themselves they will wish to deny me. I know that because of their sinful nature, the struggle against the old man, and the persecution of the world, they will flee when challenged. But heavenly Father, keep them.” And by what means are we kept? By what power? Personal strength? Pulling ourselves up by our own moral bootstraps? No, Christ says, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name.” And what a name it is. The all powerful, covenant keeping name of Jehovah.

Dear Christian, Christ intimately knows your infirmities, your weaknesses because he died for them. We too might say in the privacy of our prayer closet, “Lord thou all shall be offended, yet will not I”. But when the time comes we deny our Lord. Dear soul, you do not lose your Shepherd at that moment. You may lose the sense of him, but you never lose him. You are his sheep. And though you might be scandalized and scattered by denying Christ, you never stop being his.

Sometimes persecution causes the sheepfold to scatter, but they never scatters from the omniscient eye of the Shepherd. His tender, watchful eyes, are ever on his children. When we are not faithful, he is the Faithful One. When we have forsaken him, he is the Covenant God. Though we may leave him, “I will never leave thee , nor forsake thee”, says the Lord.

And even here in the midst of the deep troubles of a Suffering Saviour, as he begins to feel the constricting pangs of his passion, we find him tending to his flock, in unabashed compassion.

Which brings us to our last point.

The Rendezvous

Mat 26:32 “But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.”

Notice how tender a shepherd we have, how compassionate? So often we find him in this way. When naturally he should be concerned about himself, he looks to the welfare of others. And in the face of a scandalized, offended group of disciples, he looks to their safe haven. For that is what Galilee was, a haven of rest. It was home for many of the disciples, but more, it was the place that Christ displayed his power, and love, and glory to his friends.

It was in Galilee, that he first spoke of the Forgiveness of sins.
In Galilee, he walked on water, and calmed the wind and waves.
In Galilee, He taught as no man taught.
In Galilee, He healed the lame, blind, dumb, maimed.
In Galilee, the great multitudes followed him.

In Galilee where the great cities of refuge (Kedesh and Naphtali) pointed to Christ. Where any condemned, murderer guilty of his crime might flee for sanctuary. In these precious words, Christ was saying to his sheep, “After you have been offended, after you have betrayed me, after you have left me to die alone. Don’t worry, I will meet you in Galilee”.

Here is the Rendezvous. “After I am risen again, I will meet you in Galilee”. How this would have struck deep cords in the hearts of the disciples.

Oh, see here in these words that the Lord was anxious to see the other side of his sufferings. When the work had been done, when the price had been paid, redemption won, he’s looking to the Rendezvous. Even though there was a cross to face, a death to die, a ransom to be given, He looks to the other side, “After I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee”.

O, that precious region, Galilee.

It was here Christ was baptized. It was here he called out to Peter and John to come and follow him. It was here where he preached the gospel of the kingdom and saw tremendous success. It was a place of intimate memories of a deep and abiding love for a band of men who at their weakest moment, have a praying and watchful shepherd. Is it, “After I am risen again, meet me in Jerusalem?” No. “Meet me in Bethlehem?” No. Meet me in Galilee”. As if to say, “all will be well dear brothers, all will be well”.

And it was in Mat 28:7 where the angel of the Lord said, “And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. ” And what joy must have filled the hearts of his disciples. “Just as he had said. Why did we ever doubt? Why did we ever question. Why were we offended? James, John, Matthew, Nathaniel, go tell Phillip, go tell the others, yes even Peter. To the rendezvous!,just as he said. To Galilee.”

Here Christ looks with joy and confidence, laying hold on the divine promise, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” To Galilee! No longer as the “man of sorrows”, but now the risen King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Galilee, that sweet place of meeting. The rendezvous. Dear reader we have a rendezvous don’t we? When all of life’s storms are over, and we cross this dry parched land? A Galilee to come. That Galilee called heaven, on who’s shores so many a weary traveler will cast their anchor forever. Where Jesus stands and wipes away the last tears from every eye. O, the Galilee above! The rendezvous of the soul.

Yes, says Christ, “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

And all our stumbling, our offenses, and our fleeing will be no more. Oh, what a day.

In days of grief and in times of sorrows,
When your soul, burdened be,
Hear the voice in sweet affection,
“My dear child meet me in Galilee.”

In response to Dr. Clark’s blog post, I submit my own thoughts on the subject.

Introduction

Formal pedagogical forms is a fancy way of describing the science of teaching by way of lectures, written assignments, and examinations. Traditionally this has taken place in classrooms under the supervision of in-house professors under the auspice of a brick and mortar institution. The question that has arisen in the last 20 years is, “Can formal education be done properly at a distance, or is distance education a second rate substitute for a true education?”

As a minister who has spent several years in brick and mortar institutions and several years doing distance education, I would like to offer a few thoughts regarding the benefit of distance education.

First, let me begin by saying that distance education is not for everyone. Brick and mortar schools have their place and should be utilized when needed. Further, if you are not highly self motivated with a mature and realistic outlook on the criteria for completing a degree at home, it is better to stop before you begin, and head off to a good brick and mortar seminary. Distance Education should not be thought of as a shortcut to a degree. Any school worth its salt will require the same level of academic standards from its distance students as it will from its residents. This will eliminate many prospects right off the bat because most need the structure of the brick and mortar pedagogical method to complete their work.

There are several reasons that are presumed to be the best reasons for going to a brick and mortar school. I would like to take the top 3 and provide an alternate viewpoint from someone who has worked and has succeeded (in some measure) under both systems.

Fallacy #1: Brick and mortar schools are better because live lectures are better than recorded.

Live lectures are only as good as the lecturer. Not all brick and mortar schools have a John Murray, or a Joel Beeke to teach Systematic Theology. Countless schools have fair teachers, but the best are often far away in other parts of the world, or worse yet, deceased! A live lecture from a run of the mill teacher is no substitute for a taped lecture from Westminster’s late John Murray, Knox’s Robert L. Reymond, or Pittsburgh’s John Gerstner. To transcribe theological thought from the lectures of one of the Churches brightest lights is a far better way of learning than from any middling college professor. Besides, one can’t stop a live class, reflect on the professors’ words, rewind what the professor said and then run to your private library and cross reference the quotation just given. With distance education you can.

Fallacy #2: Brick and mortar schools offer personal interaction with the professor.

It has been my experience and the experience of many of my peers that this is simply not the case. With the high demands of the academic life in school, reading assignments, essays, labs, and examinations, coupled with the demands of a part time job (mine was full time!), and a family, personal interaction with a professor was a fairy-tale dream concocted by the marketing strategist of whatever school you are attending. Besides, most professors do not hang around after the class because of the great demand on their own schedule. In most schools the professor that just lectured needs to juggle his own very busy schedule to do justice to the demands on his life. This is why he never read your term paper on Barth’s Theological Method in your Church History class and why a fourth year teachering assistant did. When he does have a free moment you are clamoring with 45 other students who also want his attention. Most people who speak of personal interaction with the profs are speaking idealistically, not realistically.

Fallacy #3: Brick and mortar schools offer a peer to peer atmosphere where students can sharpen each other.

In my three years of brick and mortar education here is a typical day. Up at 5:00 am to complete the homework I could not complete the night before. Next I rush out the door with a piece of dry toast and a juice box, fly down the married dorm stairs and cross over the campus to my first class. At 8:45 am I stop at the cafeteria for a snack and run to the other side of the campus for my next class. At 10:30 am, I race home to read the assignment for my afternoon class and sleep for 15 min before my 12:45 class, after which I stop by the library to pick up some text book only to find out that all 70 text books have been signed out by other students. I then quickly put my name down for a back order and slip off to my last class. At 3:30 pm I rush home, change my clothes and run once again across campus grounds to the Restaurant where I will spend the next 8 hours waiting tables. Fortunately I am home by eleven so I can spend at least the nest 4 hours doing homework. This was a typical day. Weekends were spent working and catching up from the week before. Anyone who thinks that a student can spend time with his peers is probably very rich and very smart. How one can pay for a $50,000 education, get good grades and spend time with peers discussing the finer points of eschatology is beyond me. Besides, any spare time I might have should be spent with my family not my peers.

There are more fallacies to debunk such as the benefit of a massive library, and the prestige of graduating from a “top school”, but the ones I listed are the main ones. Now I would like to give you several reasons for student ministers to do their degree at home.

Advantage #1: You get true one-on-one training.

Under a proper distance education model the institution will require that the student have a mentor or tutor, preferably the student’s own Pastor or another local minister. Now the student gains the academic knowledge needed coupled with true beneficial interchange with an experienced pastor. In my situation my minister and mentor Rev. D. Beattie passed away during my training. But before he did I had the pleasure of learning at the feet of a masterful pastor/theologian who spent 25 years in one pulpit. I had hundreds of hours of one-on-one session where he poured out a quarter of a century of pastoral wisdom and knowledge. No seminary professor, no mat
ter how efficient he is with his time, can compare to this model. Since his death I have found the next best thing in another local area minister.

Advantage #2: You never leave your local Church.

Most men who are pursuing the ministry leave for seminary and never return to their local body. So often the cream rises to the top and is whisked away never to be seen again. Instead of the local congregation benefiting form the gifting of the individual, they are left with a real void. Often, the same gifts that caused the church and student to look toward the ministry in the first place became a true benefit to the local body in zeal, evangelism, dedication, etc. Now, many of the very best prospects in the local church community are somewhere in Delaware!

Advantage #3: You get to experience in reality what the school teaches theoretically.

Isn’t it is strange that we think that to gain a true understanding of the Church we must leave it. Isn’t the Church the best place to learn about the Church? Spiritual maturity, godly humility, tending to the flock, experiential preaching, mature governance, and care of souls cannot be taught on a blackboard or overhead projector. I can learn what John Murray said on the Covenant of Works just as well in my study as any classroom. Putting to memory the Shorter Catechism, the WCF, the doctrine of John Calvin, and John Owen is the easy part. The hard part is self sacrifice, love for the brethren, spiritual discernment, etc. What I am saying is while at seminary one may learn how to identify the objective genitive Greek noun and be able to display how Warfield’s position on textual variants differs from Hort’s, one will never learn the intangible spiritual qualification of a minister in such an artificial environment. John Frame suggests that more often than not this artificial environment does not prepare the new graduated scholar for the spiritual duty of shepherding God’s flock. “Seminaries not only ‘frequently refuse to do the work of the church’; they also tend to undo it”, by making scholars not shepherds (Frame. “A Proposal for a New Seminary. Journal of Pastoral Practice.” p.10).

Advantage #4: You gain hands-on training.

John Frame said in the same essay,

In the early days of American Protestantism, the training of ministerial candidates was carried out by pastors of churches. A young man feeling a call of God to the ministry would associate himself with a church pastor, receive training from him, participate in the work of the parish, and perhaps even live in the minister’s home. I’m not sure why, but eventually this system was felt to be inadequate (Frame. “A Proposal for a New Seminary. Journal of Pastoral Practice.” p.10).

Frame goes on to remind the reader that seminaries are a convention of the church, created to fill in the gap created by churches that are not fulfilling their Biblical mandate of discipleship. He sites “old” Princeton Seminary board member Rev. Gardiner Spring who contends that in his day the parish-trained minister far surpassed the seminary trained scholar. That is quite a statement from both Frame and Spring – two seminarians (p.11).

The truth is the training of a minister is a ministry of the Church, not the seminary. How a Ph.D. who has spent little to no time labouring in the pulpit of a congregation, catechizing the young, visiting the sick, and comforting the widowed, deserves the honor of teaching the intricate details of tending to the Vineyard of Christ is hard to understand. Even though there are some outstanding professional teachers in some seminaries, it seems to me that the qualified teachers of the Word are the teachers of the Church. However in our day, pastoral experience has given way to “wall worshiping” men who are not seasoned pastors, but Ph.D.’s, D.Min’s and Th.D’s. Frame comments, “Over the years, however, it has become less and less possible for a man to be an outstanding pastor and an outstanding scholar; thus seminaries, forced to choose, have inevitably picked the latter” (p.11).

Distance Education plus an active Presbytery/Session/Consistory is the best model of training in my estimation. Are we the best scholars? Perhaps not. However, before I was ordained I preached on the Lord’s Day over 350 times (in my church and others), to members of Presbytery 7 times, conducted 96 catechism classes, conducted 134 Bible studies, stood at 3 death beds, did two funerals, and dozens of visitations. Had I gone away to complete my training I would have missed out on 3-4 years of hands-on training before ordination, and I would spend the first 5 years of my ministry gaining the experience I would have had as a student under the Distance Education model.

Advantage #5: You are under you Presbytery’s supervision.

Who better to know your greatest strengths and weaknesses than your presbytery? If the Lord has deemed fit for the Church to train its ministers then why not utilize technology and the presbytery’s experience together? When it is time to go to your first charge as a pastor the recommendation does not come from a seminary professor who only has a limited knowledge of your ability, but a session and presbytery who are intimately conversant with you as a student.

Advantage #6: You develop a strict and proper use of time.

Imagine 3 or 4 courses sitting on your desk ranging from Logic to Church History. There are no time tables, no class bells, no deadlines for papers or exams. How quickly would you get these courses done? Now the phone is ringing, your kids are calling, and you have a midweek meeting to prepare for before your Lord’s Day Sermon. Would you have the personal dedication to do the work that is required of you? The greatest personal benefit to distance education is not the information you assimilate, it is the discipline of self regulation and control. It is far easier to follow the conventions of a brick and mortar timetable created to regulate you time for you than it is to do it out of sheer self discipline. What the distance educated student may lose in the benefits of brick and mortar training he gains in self sacrifice and self discipline. I have learned something during my time as a distance student that could be taught nowhere else; I learned how to use my time wisely without outside pressure. This is, in my opinion, invaluable to one who would be a minister entrusted to study, pray, visit, and teach by his own timetable.

Conclusion

There are certain detractions to distance education. The
dropout rate is greater, there is a sense of isolation, no competitive atmosphere, too much flexibility, etc, but as far as I am concerned this system works. When the local church and the student are equally concerned with the task of training ministers, we come closer to a biblical model of educating those who are seeking the ministry.

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Works Cited

1.Frame, M. John. “A Proposal for a New Seminary”. Journal of Pastoral Practice.Volume 2. Number 1.Baker Books. Grand Rapids:1978.

2. Whytock, Jack. C. “Theological Education and Training and the Modern Rise of Distance Learning”. Haddington House Journal .Volume 5. Moncton: 2003.

Recently, while reading an article in The Standard Bearer by Russell Dykstra, I was struck by the author’s insistence that the Reformed Faith has never taught a conditional covenant (of Grace). By conditional, it is meant that there is something for the sinner to do in order to have the pact ratified and applied. Closely tied to this Protestant Reformed idea of an unbreakable covenant is the belief (much like our baptist friends) that only the elect are in the Covenant of Grace. Now this is contrary, not only to Scripture, but the writings of the Reformers (both first & second generation). We in the Free Reformed Churches believe that the Covenant is made with believers and their seed. One of the key passages that speaks to the conditional nature of the Covenant of Grace is John 15:1-6. I decided to look up Calvin to see how he dealt with the physical aspect of the Covenant of Grace, and here is what I found: (keep in mind, that the Covenant of Grace is only breakable in a physical sense, all the while the internal or ethereal reality, remains unbreakable.)