What do you think of Obadiah Holmes?
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Discussion in 'Baptist History' started by kraftyhorselover, Jun 17, 2011.
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Obadiah HOlmes
He's a huge hero of mine.
"You have struck me as with roses." -
We watched a movie about him and I think he is one of the greatest Baptist heros of all times
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Squire Robertsson AdministratorAdministrator
His case is one reason I don't have as high an opinion of the Puritans as some of my Brethren.
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Agreed - The Puritans were very much legalists....and grace never entered into the picture.
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John Owen wrote, in his book The Dominion of Sin and Grace:
First, the Law giveth no strength against sin unto them that are under it, but grace doth. Sin will neither be cast nor kept out of its throne, but by a spiritual power and strength in the soul to oppose, conquer, and dethrone it. Where it is not conquered it will reign; and conquered it will not be without a mighty prevailing power: this the law will not, cannot give.Richard Baxter, in a hymn, wrote:
Lord, it belongs not to my care,John Bunyan wrote a book with the title: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give”
John Flavel wrote a book called The Method of Grace in the Gospel Redemption.
And so I could go on. -
Squire Robertsson AdministratorAdministrator
The sub set of Puritans I was refering to were the ones who governed Massachusetts Bay Colony, Mather, Winthrop and company.
Obadiah Holmes was a Baptist preacher who lived in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation. He was the second pastor of First Baptist of Providence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obadiah_Holmes
The pertinent paragraph in the article is:
Brother Holmes had to live on his hands and knees until his back was sufficiently healed.
So, my gripe isn't so much a theological one. It's with the modern uncritical "worship" of these brethren. In New England, their zeal to set up a New Jerusalem left them zero tolerance for those who dissented from their doctrine.
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That is interesting that Obadiah Holmes was the second pastor of First Baptist of Providence. -
Squire Robertsson AdministratorAdministrator
Brother David, remember back to the conditions of the Commonwealth when England was under the control of the Roundheads. And remember Bunyan wasn't a Puritan, if one defines Puritans as the English sister of the Scottish Presbyterians and Continental Reformed Churches.
The grace being spoken of as lacking wasn't in the soteriological sense of the word. It was used in the "political" sense. Politically, the Puritans on either side of the pond showed no "grace{ towards heir opponents. Why do you think the Thirty Years War finally ended in this century in Ireland.
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Re Bunyan, yes, it must depend on one's definition of "Puritan". I know it's hardly conclusive :)laugh:), but I just googled "Bunyan was a puritan", and got over eight thousand hits, then "Bunyan was not a puritan", which got just four.
Thanks again.