The King's Hand in History

The Gospel Coalition and numerous other ministries have a practice of hosting women's-only conferences, etc. This is often seen as completely right and proper by many Bible-believing Christians, but what do the Scriptures say on the matter? Chris shares with you a lesser-known essay written by Puritan Baptist preacher John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim's Progress. In this work arguing...

On July 13th, 1787 (4 years after the end of the Revolution), a landmark set of laws and plans for the settling of the massive territory west of the Ohio River was put into effect by the United States Confederation Congress. It called for religious and civil liberty, the establishment of new governments in the new lands, a process for turning territories into Congressionally represented states, th...

On July 8th, 1775, the Second Continental Congress sent their Olive Branch Petition to King George III, in a last-ditch effort to persuade him to hold back the might of the British Army from waging war against the American colonies, and to let them live without hindrance. Although it inevitably failed to change anything about the British policies toward the colonies, it showed that there were many...

On July 3rd, 1754, a 22 year old George Washington surrendered his small group of soldiers to French forces after a humiliating and unsurprising defeat. Called the Battle of Fort Necessity, this was the first major one of the French and Indian War, which was the main military prelude to the American Revolution. 21 years later, July 3rd of 1775, he would take command of the American Continental Arm...

How did God bring the gospel to numerous Native American people in the early 1700s, which gave rise to greater efforts after the Revolution to preach to them? And what single man’s example was used by the Lord to inspire such missionary giants as William Carey, Robert M’Cheyne, and Henry Martyn? The answer to both of these questions is the missionary preacher David Brainerd, close friend of Jonath...

When the English colonists began to settle in the eastern coast of North America, there were many indigenous tribes inhabiting the region, of varying attitudes and influence. The major difference between the colonists and the Indians was one of religion. Most of the colonists aspired to bring the good news of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ to people who had never learned it before. This i...

C.S. Lewis stands as one of the most influential Christian authors and thinkers of the past 100 years, authoring such classic works as Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia. Yet one important book that is little known among Christians and thinkers alike is a small work called The Abolition of Man. This book was recently commended by The Theology Pugcast podcast, and was once named by Nati...

Today, there’s a great need for western Christians to get back to following the practices of the churches in the New Testament. Our western evangelical culture is largely hindered by unbiblical structures, conceptions, and customs having to do with our churches. By far, the most unbiblical and dangerous among these is the idea of a divide between a “clergy” or “ministry” and a “laity,” or normal C...

What have Baptist Christians historically believed since they began as a distinct sect of Christianity? Today, you’ll get many diverse and competing answers to this question. Yet, found among the annals of history, there are a few documents written by Baptists that have long served as the landmark ones to define what most Baptists have believed throughout the centuries. These “confessions of faith...

Do you know who arguably were the most influential group in English and American history for the popularization and legislation of religious freedom? The answer is the Baptists. Surprisingly, they were one of the most persecuted religious groups in 17th century England and America, and did the most to advocate and call for religious liberty through their suffering at the hands of fellow Protestant...

Competing for second place among the best-selling books of history is The Imitation of Christ by Thomas À Kempis. Since its publishing in the 1400s, it has grown to be a classic on Christian devotion and personal holiness. Although written from a monastic Roman Catholic perspective, Protestants from the Reformation onward (including Luther) have found its insights to be profound, powerful, and pra...

Do you know who the real saint Patrick was? Far from an imaginary legend, he was the first influential Christian missionary to Ireland. The Lord Jesus used him to convert thousands of the savage, barbarous, Irish peoples to the worship of Jesus Christ as God and Savior. We thankfully possess Patrick's own autobiography of his life, written shortly before his death in the mid-400s AD. In this a...

Were there any preceding Christian movements within western Christianity that held to Protestant, evangelical, or Reformed beliefs? Surely there were. One such example are the Waldensians, the spiritual children of the preacher and teacher Waldo of Lyons. He started a gospel-preaching, New Testament-practicing, movement in the late 1100s that lasted as a distinct group up until the early 1500s, wi...

In the 6th century before Christ, one of the most powerful empires the world has ever seen dominated the Middle East, from the border of modern-day Iran, to the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt. It’s spectacular capital was located in the Tigris and Euphrates river valley of modern-day Iraq, and was famously called Babylon, named after the primeval city of Babel. It’s ruler was a powerful man named Neb...

How did the Christian population in China go from a small minority to being one of the largest sub-sections of Chinese society today, and numbering in the tens of thousands? A huge part of the answer lies in the life and ministry of a man called Watchman Nee. He’s one of the most influential Chinese Christian leaders of the early to mid 1900s, and was used by the Lord to launch one of the largest...

What and who were the roots of Christianity in England and Scotland? How did a group of violent, power-hungry, and nature-worshiping pagans come to embrace the Lord Jesus as God and Savior? Although it wasn’t accomplished perfectly, a divided group of warring factions under various lords and kings eventually came to mostly submit to the preaching of God’s Word, and the reception of the sacraments...

Which names of famous hymn writers can you think of? And how many stories of those composers do you actually know? Many of you can probably think of Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Fannie Crosby, and John Newton. But few of you have probably heard of Philip Bliss, one of the most influential and prolific hymn-writers of recent Christian history, and certainly of the 1800s. Along with him, how many bo...

What’s all the hype about Augustine of Hippo? Why are his writings and life important for today’s Christians and westerners in general? This 4th-5th century philosopher, theologian, author, preacher, and pastor has made major contributions to Christian views on God’s nature, man’s nature, sin, salvation, government, and society. The first prominent leaders of the Reformation – Luther and Calvin –...

WARNING: Due to a failed attempt to improve the recording using 2 USB microphones, the audio has a constant echoing. The next episode will be improved. Please try to listen to it – you don’t want to miss our overview of recent history! For a free timeline of the major events in the period of church history covered in this episode, visit this blog page: Resources for Podcasts/Video’s – BEARING CHRI...

World War Two – the most devastating war of human history, which shaped the modern world as we know it, and marked the recent high point in the influence of Christianity on western society. Not surprisingly, it was filled with the whole range of human expressions of evil, as well as countless examples of love, bravery, mercy, kindness, and forgiveness. In this discussion, Chris and Casey give you...

In our era of constant gratification, instant satisfaction of our smallest desires, and easy access to every possible comfort and pleasure, living on bare necessities is an experience that is utterly foreign to most of us. Yet only 80-90 years ago, most of the world struggled through years of desperation for basic things, the daily stress of searching for gainfulemployment, and the hopelessness an...

We live in an increasingly hedonistic, humanistic, and hyper-stimulated modern culture. These three traits were some of the most prevalent during the decade known as “the roaring 20s,” or “the jazz age”. The 20s should be distinguished as the period that popularized skepticism, scientism, and materialism, and previewed the obsession with sports, sex, entertainment, and music that are such common f...

How did most of the so-called Protestant denominations become the anti-Christian groups of progressives they are today? Where did all that start, and how did the evangelical denominations and groups of today get separated from the liberal mainline groups? What were their disagreements over in the beginning, and how did Christian organizations even get to the point of embracing humanistic, naturali...

On this special video edition of The King's Hand in History, I interview my brother Jonathan Groves, an assistant pastor of the Anglican church near me, on the life and work of one of the greatest Bible teachers, devotional authors, and Christian leaders of the 1800s -- the Bishop JC Ryle. Ryle was one of the most influential Anglican leaders and writers in Great Britain, as he served as a stalwar...

As a new height of scientific and technological advancement was reached by the western world in the early 1900s, bringing the world such things as mass assembly line production, the dominance of manufacturing centers, the expansion of European railroads, the expansion of electricity, the first major uses of radio, and the inventions of the automobile and the airplane, the major European nations to...