Church History, Volume Two Quotes

“The first wall attacked by Luther was the idea that popes, bishops, monks, and priests are spiritually superior to laity. His view was that all Christians belong to the same spiritual estate by virtue of their baptism and faith. These alone grant entrance into the kingdom of God. This was an early version of what came to be known as the “priesthood of all believers.” Luther demolished the second wall when he rejected the Roman assertion that only the pope has the right to interpret Scriptures. Luther strongly emphasized that laypeople have the right to read and interpret the Scripture for themselves. The third wall torn down was the claim that only the pope could summon church councils. Luther reminded his German readers that the emperor, not the pope,”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“during the years 1797–98. In the 1790s, revivals (led by Reformed pastors) also broke out in the Connecticut Valley in the United States. They became early manifestations of the so-called “Second Great Awakening” (late 1780s – early 1840s). This awakening encompassed multiple disparate elements: the widespread distribution of Christian literature; Reformed preaching in Connecticut by theological descendants of Jonathan Edwards; the faithful gospel witness of Methodist circuit riders; the occurrence of emotionally high-octane camp”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“the tsars of the Romanov family dynasty began a lengthy rule of Muscovy-Russia from 1613 until 1917.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“attempted to refute the charges of Dirck Coornhert (1522–90) against the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. After studying Romans 7 and 9, Hermanszoon modified his beliefs and affirmed that God predestined all who believe in Christ. As a professor of divinity at the University of Leiden (after 1603), Arminius engaged in a harsh dispute with fellow professor Francis Gomarus, a committed supralapsarian Calvinist and admirer of Calvin and Beza.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“university,” Joseph Scaliger (1540–1609). His expertise in the classics and biblical textual criticism made him one of the premier scholars of Europe. Other scholars included Jacob Arminius (1550–1609), Francis Gomarus (1563–1641), Simon Episcopius (1583–1643), and Johannes Coccejus (1603”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“John Newton, the repentant former slaver, preached the gospel in his parish of Olney; created the Eclectic Society, whose members asked questions like “What is the best way of propagating the Gospel in the East Indies?”; and penned the famous lyrics of “Amazing Grace”: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“Unlike Charles, John was firmly convinced that lay preachers could minister even if they had little if any theological training. He gave his preachers a solemn charge: “It is not your business to preach so many times and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance, and with all your power to build them up in that holiness without which they cannot see the Lord.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“John defined a society as “a company of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other work out their salvation.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“A brilliant student, John Wesley pursued his education at Oxford University from 1720 until 1724. He was adept in a number of languages and appreciated classical culture. He became very interested in the writings of the church fathers (especially St. Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, and later Macarius). He meditated on Bishop Taylor’s Rules and Exercises of Holy Living and Holy Living and Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“John himself said, “… from a child I was taught to love and reverence the Scripture, the oracles of God.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“he attributed his incredible stamina and strength to (1) the power of God, (2) traveling 4,000 to 5,000 miles yearly, (3) the ability to sleep whenever and wherever he wanted, (4) getting up at a set hour between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., and (5) constant preaching, particularly in the morning.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“In fifty years of preaching, Wesley traveled approximately 250,000 miles in his itinerant ministry and preached at least 40,000 times.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“The origins of the Particular Baptists (Calvinists) date from the 1630s. In 1644 Particular Baptists of seven churches drafted the First London Confession (1644”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“Thomas Grantham (1634–92) stood out as a major theological writer for the General Baptists later in the seventeenth century. The General Baptists believed that Christ died for the sins of all (“general atonement”), not that all would believe.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“Whatever differences in polity, all Puritans shared the same fundamental theological commitment to Reformed theology (Calvinism).”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“As the Puritans’ relationship with the new king soured, John Winthrop, a Puritan lawyer, began to pursue seriously the prospect of a Puritan colony in New England. In March 1629 Winthrop obtained a royal charter to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and in 1630 he was joined by 700 colonists on eleven ships to set sail for New England. While on board the Arbella, Winthrop preached a sermon in which he declared to his fellow travelers, “We shall be as a city upon a hill [and] the eyes of all people are upon us.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“During the reign of James I some Puritans grew discouraged at the pace of reform and separated entirely from the Church of England. After a short sojourn in the Netherlands, one group of “separating Puritans,” better known historically as the “Pilgrims,” eventually established the Plymouth Colony in 1620 in what is now southeastern Massachusetts.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“unconditional predestination, and irresistible grace. Arminius’s theology put him in conflict with the Belgic Confession, which had become the confessional standard of the Dutch Protestants. Supralapsarianism (supra [before] + lapse [the Fall] = before the Fall) was concerned with the logical order of God’s decrees in eternity before the creation of the world. Supralapsarianism argues that in eternity God’s decree to predestine preceded his decree to permit the fall of humanity.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“She is only a woman, the mistress of half an island, and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all!” (Pope Sixtus V referring to Elizabeth I).”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“On July 12, 1588, the Spanish Armada set sail for the Netherlands. The English were outnumbered and outgunned. However, fortune smiled on the English when they caught the Armada anchored in close formation near Calais. At midnight on July 28, the English sent fireships loaded with pitch, brimstone, and gunpowder directly into the heart of the Armada.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“Anabaptist movement arose from the Swiss Brethren. The origins are dated quite specifically to January 21, 1525, when Conrad Grebel baptized Felix Manz in the home of George Blaurock in the Swiss canton of Zürich. This view generally argues that Swiss Anabaptism was transmitted to southern Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and northern Germany, where it developed into its various branches. This remains the dominant view for the historical origins and diffusion of Anabaptism.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“It is worth noting that Anabaptists did not aspire to be identified as Protestants. Instead, they actually repudiated the Protestantism of the Lutherans and Reformed. Anabaptists acknowledged that Protestants were right to break away from the Roman Church, but they judged that the Protestants fell well short of the more extensive social, moral, ecclesiastical, and theological reforms that were needed and had succeeded only in creating another institutional church, to which the Anabaptists were equally opposed.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“that every time the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, Christ is actually resacrificed. For Luther, this was the most abominable bondage of all. The mass was a gift of God to man, not a gift of man to God. “They [the Roman Church] make God no longer the bestower of good gifts to us, but the receiver of ours. Such impiety!” So that everyone could better understand this gift of God, Luther stressed that the mass should be in the vernacular.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“(1524), Luther indicated that “a city’s best and greatest welfare, safety, and strength consist rather in its having many able, learned, wise, honorable, and well-educated citizens.” To train such citizens, he recommended they receive a classical liberal arts education and instruction in Hebrew and Greek so that they could study Holy Scripture with diligence. With this education in hand, students would be well prepared to assume their role as competent Christian citizens to serve the church and state.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“On November 5, 1414, the Council of Constance opened its proceedings. The participants faced a daunting agenda: (1) to find a way to heal the schism; (2) to douse the flames of the Bohemian revolt led by John Hus; (3) to establish a means to reform the church of abuses.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context

“Such was unfortunately not the case. Neither Benedict XIII nor Gregory XII acquiesced before the negative judgments of the Council of Pisa on their respective claims to be pope. Ironically enough, the council’s actions in electing a new pope had only expanded the scope of the schism. Now there were three popes in Christendom. Moreover, each had loyal followers in certain corners of Europe.”
― John D. Woodbridge, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context