Giants of the Faith - A Christian History Podcast

Send us feedback In today's episode we're continuing the faith march toward Billy Graham. In the last episode we looked at Edward Kimball, the humble Sunday School teacher who led DL Moody to the Lord, and today we're focused on Moody himself. Moody was an American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Bible Institute, the Moody Church, and several other ministries that sti...

Send us feedback Over the next five episodes we're going to be tracing the chain of faith from a little-known Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball, to the most impactful Christian evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham. I hope you enjoy. RESOURCES New Life Christian Fellowship: https://www.newlife-ct.org/the-newlife-blog/post/who-is-edward-kimball Travis Agnew: https://www.travisagnew....

Send us feedback Today we're going to the Dark Continent to talk about Jove Ejovi Aganbi, a Nigerian pastor, evangelist and educator who played a key role in the growth of Christianity in his country. As is sometimes the case with this podcast I have to warn you that I will struggle with some pronunciations here. I did reach out to an Urhobo group on Facebook for help with pronunciations but...

Send us feedback Hello and welcome to Giants of the Faith, the podcast where we explore some of the great figures in Christian history. This is episode 62. I'm your host, Robert Daniels, and today we're going way back to look at the life of Clement of Alexandria, one of the first Christian philosophers and teachers of the church. As with many early fathers, details of Clement's life...

Send us feedback Today we're going to talk about Watchman Nee, a Chinese church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the 20th century and whose impact is still being felt there today in the rapidly expanding Christian church. Nee was a Chinese Christian who wrote about the normal Christian life, which he believed involved four steps: knowledge of the cross of Christ, reckon...

Send us feedback We've finished our 10 episode series on hymn writers and today we are going to talk about Matthew Henry, a British Nonconformist minister and author who wrote one of the most famous and influential biblical commentaries of all time. If you don't know him from his commentaries, you might know him from this famous quote: The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam;...

Send us feedback This is episode 59, the final episode of our focus on  the hymnists. Today we’re going to talk about Charlotte Elliott, a hymn writer who wrote one of the most beloved hymns of all time: Just As I Am. RESOURCES Christian Study Library: https://www.christianstudylibrary.org/article/just-i-am-%E2%80%A6-life-charlotte-elliott Conservapedia: https://www.conservapedia.com/Charlotte_Ell...

Send us feedback Today we’re going to talk about Horatio Spafford, the author of the famous hymn “It Is Well With My Soul”. As we'll see, Spafford went off the rails in his later life and, so, he's relegated to a Bonus Episode as we wind down are focus on the great hymn writers. This is probably going to stand as the longest episode in season 4 and I had to trim a lot of crazy stuff from...

Send us feedback Today we are going to talk about Augustus Toplady, an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer who is best known for his classic hymn "Rock of Ages". RESOURCES Hymnary: https://hymnary.org/person/Toplady_Augustus Leben: https://leben.us/augustus-toplady/ Challies.com: https://www.challies.com/articles/hymn-stories-rock-of-ages/ Evangelical Movement of Wales: https://www.emw.or...

Send us feedback This is episode 57 and we're continuing our look at some of the great hymn writers and writers of some of the great hymns of all time. The subject of today's episode is Thomas Obadiah Chisholm, author of the beautiful hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness. RESOURCES Hymnology Archive: https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/thomas-chisholm Blue Letter Bible: https://www.blueletterbibl...

Send us feedback This is episode 56 and we're continuing our look at some of the great hymn writers of all time. Today we're looking at the man who wrote one of the most popular hymns of the early 20th century and what is also my mother in-law's third favorite hymn - James Milton Black. Black is best remembered as the man behind When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. There's not a...

Send us feedback Hello and welcome to another short bonus episode of the Giants of the Faith podcast. Today we're taking at look at that preeminent Christmas hymn from Isaac Watts - the one that you and I have sung hundreds of times during the season of Advent - that is in fact not a Christmas hymn at all. It is, in fact, a song looking at the second advent - the second coming of Christ. I&ap...

Send us feedback You’ve surely heard or read something about the coming AI revolution spurred on by OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. I thought it’d be interesting to incorporate AI into an experimental podcast episode. I asked Microsoft’s Bing AI to write a biography of Isaac Watts that’s suitable for a podcast and then asked it a follow-up question about Congregationalism. What you’re about to hear...

Send us feedback Today's episode is focused on, as my good friend Pastor Dave Ungar would say, the big mamma jamma. He's the Father of English Hymnody, the genius of logic and theology, the Master of Metre, the Puritan Poet, the Prince of Praise, the dissenting unrelenting Southampton Singer, Isaac "Wondrous" Watts. Well, silly introductions aside, Isaac Watts was a remarkable...

Send us feedback In our regular episodes we're progressing through a season featuring hymnists that have produced some of the greatest hymns in the history of the Church. But it kind of begs the question - what is a hymn? To be honest, that's not something that occurred to me to ask until I was five episodes through profiling hymn writers. To me, hymns just are what they are and you know...

Send us feedback We're in the midst of a series profiling hymnists and in this episode I'm bringing you the life of Reginald Heber. Now, that's not a name that jumps off the page as a well known Christian – at least it didn't to me – but he wrote one of the greatest hymns, maybe even THE greatest, of all time – Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.  RESOURCES Hymns and Carols of...

Send us feedback Hello and welcome to episode 53 of the Giants of the Faith podcast. I'm Robert Daniels and I'm the host of this show. This is the podcast where we look at men and women from the age of the Church whose lives have had an impact for the Kingdom of God. Today we're continuing our series of episodes focused on hymn writers by looking at the Queen of Gospel Song Writers,...

Send us feedback We're continuing our series of episodes on hymn writers  And since it's almost Christmas at the time I'm publishing this episode we're going to take a look at the life of the writer of that most popular Christmas song, Silent Night  Silent Night was written by Joseph Mohr, an obscure Austrian priest who nearly went unrecognized but who's work has been enjo...

Send us feedback This is the podcast where we look at men and women from the age of the Church whose lives have had an impact for the Kingdom of God with the ultimate goal of finding inspiration and strengthening our faith. This is the second episode in season four of this podcast where we're exclusively focusing on hymn writers.   The subject of today's episode wrote what is widely cons...

Send us feedback t's been a while since I've been able to record an episode so I thought we'd jump right into what I'm calling season four and for the duration of season four the episodes will focus exclusively on folks who have written some of the greatest hymns this side of heaven. We're going to kick off this season by looking at the life and times of Robert Robinson. R...

Send us feedback In this episode we're taking a look at the life of Jinsey Young - a woman who's dedication to Christ and Christian service transcended her era and circumstances. She is known as a light in a place that was darker than a thousand midnights. And, though you might not have ever heard her name, she is certainly qualified to be called a Giant of the Faith. RESOURCES Concordia...

Send us feedback When I started this podcast I had a list of people I might be interested in featuring but Rembrandt was nowhere on the list. I knew who he was, of course, and seen his work in school Humanities and Art classes but I didn't understand or appreciate his work from the perspective of a Christian artist. It was Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live? That put him on my r...

Send us feedback In this episode we're looking at a woman who, in the face of great personal tragedy rose above her circumstances and experienced God doing a great work through her and her ministry. Today I'm joined by my favorite guest host - my wife Jennifer. It was her suggestion to profile Elisabeth Elliot next and she's going to take the lead on presenting Elisabeth's stor...

Send us feedback For this episode I'm going to read most of a letter written by a man named Cuthbert - who was Abbot at the Jarrow monastery - to a man named Cuthwin, who was a Deacon in the church. Cuthbert wrote this letter to explain the circumstances surrounding the death of Bede, whose life we covered in Episode 46. I'm bringing this letter to your attention because I think it paint...

Send us feedback This is episode 46 where we're looking at the Father of English History - a man who was a monk, scholar and historian and later a Doctor of the Church. I'm speaking, of course, of the Venerable Bede. RESOURCES Christian History Institute: https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/a-monk-who-made-history ThoughtCo: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-venerable-bede...