Blogging the Reformers: John Elector of Saxony

John was born June 30th, 1468 to the Elector of Saxony. His brother was Fredrick the Wise, who ruled Saxony for 39 years. Fredrick was Protestant, and supported Martin Luther and the Reformation. After Fredrick died in 1525, John succeeded him as the Elector. He was Protestant as well and was one of the political leaders of the Reformation in Germany. At the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 he stood up the the Emperor and refused to abolish the preaching of the word of God in Saxony. He was called John the Steadfast, and God used him to defend the Reformation in Germany. He died on August 16th, 1532, and was buried in the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

Civil War 150 Blog


I am starting a new blog on the Civil War for the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary.) Throughout the years of the war I will write posts about what happened at that time 150 years ago. You can visit it here. You can also sign up for email updates:

Blogging the Reformers: John Wickliffe

Wickliffe at work
John Wickliffe was born in 1324 in Yorkshire, England. He was saved after reading the Bible when he was frightened at the thought of death when the Black Death, which killed half the human race, arrived in London. He began to proclaim his faith to others, and he was an eloquent preacher and teacher. He became popular when he was preaching against the pope who claimed to rule England. In 1379 he became sick and four priests came to attempt to make him recant. He told them, “I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the friars.”1 His ministry began with attacking the pope and turned to preaching the gospel to everyone and then he permanently gave the people the word of God with his translation of the Bible. He translated it from Latin because he did not know Hebrew or Greek. It had a great effect even though it had to be copied by hand because the printing press had not yet been invented.

After translating the Bible he continued to teach the people. The church was angered because he disagreed with the doctrine transubstantiation - that Christ was killed whenever they did the mass. He was not punished because there were two people who claimed to be pope and they were too busy fighting each other. In 1384 he was paralyzed as he was administering the Lord’s Supper and he died two days later on December 31st, 1384. He was the first Reformer and a great leader of the English Reformation. D’Aubigne said, “If Luther and Calvin are the fathers of the Reformation, Wickliffe is its grandfather.”2
Wickliffe preaching
1. J. H. Merle D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, (Harrisonburg, Virginia: Sprinkle Publications, 2003) vol 5, p 93
2. Ibid, p. 104

NCFIC Love the Church Conference Day 2

Friday, the second day of the conference, was the most intense. There was one breakout session before lunch, and two following lunch. I would have like to go to some of the breakouts, but I was assigned to manage the sound in the Hispanic breakout room. Also, the Kendall family sang all three days of the conference. Rachel and some of here friends were working at the Reforming to Scripture book table through the whole conference, but none of us thought about taking any pictures of it.
Mr Pollard preaching
Mr. Pollard reading from the Bible
Josue Raimundo preaching in Spanish
Listening to Paul Washer preach in Spanish
The Kendall children singing
Joel Beeke preaching
 

Snow in North Carolina

Last night it snowed for the second time where we live! We were going to post some pictures the first time it snowed, but we were too busy getting ready for the Love the Church Conference, so I will post them now.
The snow falling

The snow still falling

A view from our attic


Snow on trees the next morning


Our backyard covered in snow

NCFIC Love the Church Conference: Day 1

Last Thursday, we left at 6:30 am to drive to the Love the Church conference put on by NCFIC. We had to get there a few hours before the conference started so that Rachel could set up the Reforming to Scripture Book table, and also Joshua and I had to go to a volunteers meeting. The first message was around 5:00 pm. Mr. Brown had each of the keynote speakers come up on stage and give a summary of the messages they were going to preach. There were only a few keynotes the first night. I liked Mr. Phillips's message the first night, which was about the gates of Hades not prevailing against the church of God. Below are a few of the pictures from the conference.

The crowd during one of the breaks between messages


Jacob Burnhardt, one of the NCFIC interns, playing the piano


Mr. Phillips preaching


Two of the recording and duplicating volunteers


Joel Beeke preaching