As early as the 1520s, Protestantism was not synonymous with Reformed theology. The Anabaptist rejected Calvinism, as did Arminius, Lutherans after Luther's time, and later, John Wesley. By the end of the nineteenth century, American and English Christianity were largely non-Reformed, and increasingly so with the rise of modern revivalism.
For the more scholarly reader, William Albright's works are highly profitable. Halley's handbook and Vine's dictionary are essential tools for the serious but untrained Bible student. Also worth reading are the devotions of Oswald Chambers and Hudson Taylor, most books by A. W. Tozer, and the apologetic works of C. S. Lewis. While I do not recommend Scofield's doctrinal system, his Bible is of such historical importance that it should have a place in any good-sized personal library.
L. C. Douglas (1877-1951) - evangelical pastor and moral novelist. Douglas was educated at Wittenburg Seminary and later became a Congregationalist. Titles: The Big Fisherman; The College Student Facing a Muddled World; Disputed Passage; Forgive Us Our Trespasses; Invitation to Life; Magnificent Obsession; Precious Jeopardy; The Robe; Time to Remember.
Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889) - evangelical Anglican biblical scholar and expert on the Greek Old Testament. A Jewish Christian, he was perhaps the foremost authority of his time on Judaism in the time of the New Testament. He was critical of scholars' tendency to reject Moses' authorship of the Pentateuch, and described liberal trends in biblical scholarship as fraud that shook "the whole basis of our religion." Titles: Bible History: Old Testament Sketches of Jewish Social Life; Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ; The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Practical Truths from Elisha; The Temple Ministry and Services at the Time of Jesus.
J. M. Frost (1849-1916) - first president of the Sunday School Board. His efforts to establish the Board were opposed by most Southern Baptist papers, and Northern Baptists saw him as a threat to their publishing house. Frost was dedicated to keeping Sunday school tied closely to the churches and the denomination. Doctrinally, he identified inerrancy as the most important aspect of Southern Baptist identity. Titles: An Experience of Grace; The Memorial Supper; The Moral Dignity of Baptism; Our Church Life; The School and the Church.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) - Anglican professor at both Oxford and Cambridge. Though he strayed from evangelicalism on some points and was not an inerrantist, he held to the orthodox Christian faith and remains perhaps the greatest recent apologists. His vocabulary is accessible to the average reader, and his fiction is popular among children. Titles: The Abolition of Man; The Four Loves; God in the Dock; The Great Divorce; A Grief Observed; Mere Christianity; Miracles; The Problem of Pain; The Screwtape Letters; Surprised by Joy; The Weight of Joy; and the series The Chronicles of Narnia and The Cosmic Trilogy. Lewis' death was overshadowed by that of John F. Kennedy, who died the very same day.
J.B. Lightfoot (1828-1889) - conservative Anglican Bible scholar who left his teaching position to become bishop of Durham. Against the encroachment of German liberalism, Lightfoot joined his friend B.F. Westcott in defending the inspiration of the Bible and reality of the supernatural. He also translated the writings of many early Christians into English. Titles: Apostolic Fathers; Biblical Essays; The Brethren of the Lord; The Christian Ministry; The Drama; Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul; and commentaries on several of Paul's letters. Not to be confused with 17th-century Presbyterian John Lightfoot.
Wilhelm Loehe (1808-1872) - German Lutheran pastor whose work heavily influenced the development of Lutheranism in North America. He was a strong defender of the liturgy and of the doctrine expressed in the Luthern confessions. He also established the Diakonie, one of Germany's most successful social programs, and he trained the pastors who founded the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, which today is the largest truly evangelical Lutheran denomination in the US. Titles: Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith.
Frank Morison - pseudonym for Albert Henry Ross, a journalist who investigated the stories of the Gospels, seeking to disprove them. He found them credible and eventually converted to Christianity–a story to be repeated throughout the twentieth century for men such as Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel. He recorded the story of his conversion in the book Who Moved the Stone.
Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) - evangelical Methodist, later Baptist, missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission. This Englishman was one who revolutionized missions with his emphasis on assimilating to one's target culture (becoming a Chinese to the Chinese). He also wrote much on surrender to the will of God and confidence in His Providence, often writing like a Calvinist. Titles: God's Adventurer; Intimacy with Jesus; One with Christ; Union and Communion.
Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) - evangelical woman who harbored Jews during World War II and survived time in the concentration camps. For the rest of her life she spread the message that "No pit is so deep that the love of God is not deeper still." With the help of charismatic John Sherrill, she recorded her story in The Hiding Place. Other titles: Amazing Love; Anywhere He Leads Me; Defeated Enemies; Don't Wrestle, Just Nestle; Father Ten Boom, God's Man; In My Father's House; Not Good If Detached; Oh, How He Loves You; A Prisoner and Yet; Reflections of God's Glory; Tramp for the Lord.
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) - evangelical Catholic scholar at Oxford who specialized in the study of Old English. Though he was a devout Christian and largely responsible for the conversion of C. S. Lewis, his Christianity is often overlooked by critics and fans of his literature. Tolkien also helped produce the Jerusalem Bible. Titles: The Hobbit, Or There and Back Again; The Silmarillion (originally titled The Book of Lost Tales); and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.The 1800s saw Methodism and the Christian Church (also called the Disciples of Christ) rise in prominence in America. While they rejected Reformed theology, they emphasized, respectively, a life of holiness and a spirit of unity among Christians.
William F. Albright (1891-1971) - evangelical Methodist archaeologist and director of the American School of Oriental Research at Johns Hopkins. Albright published over 800 books and articles and is famous for confirming the authenticity of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Albright used his combination of Christian interpretation and historical analysis of the Bible to demonstrate the historical reliability of the Old Testament. Titles: Archaeology and the Relgion of Israel; The Archaeology of Palestine; The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra; From the Stone Age to Christianity; Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan; and commentaries on Jeremiah, Matthew, and Revelation.
E. M. Bounds (1835-1913) - evangelical Methodist known for his constant life of prayer vigils for the needs of the world. Bounds lived a humble life of voluntary poverty. His fervency and depth of devotion to prayer are coupled with an influence from Reformed theology that is evident in his many works. Titles: Essentials of Prayer; The Necessity of Prayer; Obtaining Answers to Prayers; The Possibilities of Prayer; Power Through Prayer; Purpose in Prayer; The Reality of Prayer; Winning the Invisible War.
Lettie Cowman (1870-1960) - Wesleyan missionary to Japan who, with her husband Charles E. Cowman, co-founded the Oriental Missionary Society in 1901 for church planting in most of the world outside North America. Her books are devotionals she compiled from sermons, readings, writings, and poetry that she had encountered. Titles: Springs in the Valley; Streams in the Desert. She usually credited herself using her married name, "Mrs. Charles E. Cowman."Jesse L. Hurlbut (1843-1930) - evangelical Methodist director of the Biblical Institute of Newark, and one of the founders of the Epworth League, a leading Methodist youth organization. His Story of the Bible is considered one of the best Bible storybooks for children and adults. Other titles: The Bedtime Bible Storybook; The Complete Book of Bible Stories; The Story of the Christian Church; 365 Short Stories from the Bible; Traveling in the Holy Land Through the Stereoscope.
E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) - evangelical Methodist missionary to India who sought to make a clear distinction between biblical Christianity and Western culture. He was a close friend of Gandhi and witnessed to him repeatedly. His biography of Gandhi would later influence the peaceful methods of Martin Luther King, Jr. Titles: The Christ of the American Road; The Christ of the Indian Road; Christian Maturity; How to Be a Transformed Person; The Unshakeable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person; Victory Through Surrender.
Bob Jones, Sr. (1883-1968) - Methodist evangelist and founder of Bob Jones University. A prominent fundamentalist, Jones advocated racial segregation and was one of the first to vocally oppose Billy Graham for working with non-evangelicals. All Fulness Dwells; Comments on Here and Hereafter; Fundamentals of Faith; How to Improve Your Preaching; My Friends; and numerous sermon collections. Not to be confused with his successors, Bob Jones, Jr. and Bob Jones III, who have also written books, or with Kansas City Prophet Bob Jones.
Donald A. McGavran (1897-1990) - Arminian evangelical pastor for the Disciples of Christ, and a third generation missionary who helped spawn the church growth movement of the late twentieth century. An early Fuller Seminary graduate, McGavran argued for the application of foreign-missions principles to American churches and was enamored with "people movements" in which entire groups (villages, cultures, etc.) moved toward Christianity at once. Titles: The Bridges of God; Church Growth: Strategies that Work; Church Growth and Christian Missions; Crucial Issues in Missions Tomorrow; How Churches Grow; How to Grow a Church; Ten Steps for Church Growth; Understanding Church Growth.
John R. Mott (1865-1955) - evangelical Methodist and long-time president of the YMCA. Mott helped launch the Student Volunteer Movement in 1888 and also founded the World Student Christian Federation. He combined cutting-edge missionary methods with biblical and theological emphases. Though conservative, Mott also chaired the 1910 Edinburgh Assembly, out of which eventually grew the liberal World Council of Churches. Titles: The Evangelization of the World in This Generation; Liberating the Lay Forces of Christianity; Strategic Points in the World's Conquest.
Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911) - Arminian evangelical; wife of popular evangelist Robert Pearsall Smith, and preacher in her own right. She taught the joy of Christ throughout a difficult life, and her writings were prized by people as diverse as William James and E. Stanley Jones. Her theology, a combination of her Quaker and Methodist backgrounds, is influnced by mysticism and the Holiness movement. She was active in temperance and women's suffrage issues in her later years. Titles: The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life; The Common Sense Teaching of the Bible; Daily Secrets of the Christian Life; God's Love for You; The God of All Comfort; Holiness by Faith; The Open Secret; Perfect Peace; Safe Within Your Love. (Note: Smith's middle name is pronounced as if spelled "White-all.")James Strong (1822-1894) - evangelical Wesleyan Bible scholar and educator. He served as president of Troy University and professor of exegetical theology at Drew University. He was also a member of the Anglo-American Bible Revision Committee that created the Revised Version, the first major revision of the KJV. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is without question the most common Bible reference tool available today, and was an amazing feat for his time. He was also co-editor the Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) - Arminian fundamentalist pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which grew out of the late-19th-century Holiness movement. As a Holiness preacher, he presented a two-tiered view of salvation that distinguished between true committed disciples and mere converts. A profound and uncompromising theologian whose books are loved by Christians of most all conservative perspectives. Titles: The Attributes of God: A Journey into the Father's Heart; How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit; I Call It Heresy; The Knowledge of the Holy; The Pursuit of God; Who Put Jesus on the Cross?.Dispensationalism was the first comprehensive system of theology and biblical interpretation that was coherent enough to present a serious challenge to Calvinism. Since its founder, John Nelson Darby, was also the primary father of fundamentalism, for many this system became (and remains) a litmus test to distinguish the "truly conservative" from the more broadly evangelical.
John W. Burgon (1813-1888) - Anglican linguist and pastor who resisted the trends of rationalism and Unitarianism in his denomination. He was also a fierce opponent of textual criticis Westcott and Hort. Even though Burgon denounced those who believed the KJV was a perfect translation, his arguments in favor of the Textus Receptus are still used by King James Only advocates today. Titles: Causes of Corruption of the New Testament Text; The Last Twelve Verses of Mark; The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham; The Traditional Text; Unholy Hands on the Bible.
Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952) - dispensational first president of Dallas Theological Seminary and, owing to his relationship with C. I. Scofield, one of the greatest popularizers of dispensationalism in America. Vehemently opposed to Lordship salvation, Chafer taught that Spirit-filling was an immediate sanctification subsequent to salvation, hence presenting a two-tiered view of salvation similar to those of the Methodist and Pentecostals. Titles: Grace: An Exposition of God's Marvelous Gift; He That Is Spiritual; Major Bible Themes; Salvation: God's Marvelous Work of Grace; Systematic Theology; True Evangelism, Or Winning Souls by Prayer; and a commentary on Ephesians..
John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) - Irish founder of dispensationalism. Appalled at the unregenerate clergy in Britain and at liberals' handling of Scripture, he joined the Plymouth Brethren and became the chief architect and theologian of classical fundamentalism. The dominant idea behind Darby's theology (based on Ephesians 2:5-7) was that the blessings promised to the church are spiritual, while those promised to Israel were (and remain) material. He also produced a Synopsis of the Books of the Bible and his own translation of the Old and New Testaments.
J. R. Graves (1820-1893) - dispensationalist, eloquent defender of inerrancy, and key figure in the Baptist Landmark movement. Graves believed foreign missions should be supported only through local churches and opposed the existing denominational structure. He was editor of the Tennessee Baptist. Titles: The Desire of All Nations; The First Baptist Church in North America; Old Landmarkism: What Is It?; The Watchman's Reply; The Work of Christ in Seven Dispensations.
James M. Gray (1851-1935) - Episcopal Bible scholar who succeeded R. A. Torrey as president of Moody Bible Institute. Gray was a dispensationalist who championed Lordship salvation in opposition to Chafer's view of salvation, as in his book Salvation from Start to Finish. He was also one of the editors of the Scofield Reference Bible.
Henry Halley (1874-1965) - "Amiable fundamentalist" pastor for the Disciples of Christ. Halley called for more biblical preaching and leadership among pastors and, in 1924, used his pulpit background notes to produce an 800-page handbook to educate his people. This resource was expanded to become Halley's Bible Handbook, one of the first lay-level works of its kind. He also had a love for Bible memorization and could recite as much as 25 hours worth of Scripture.
Harry Ironside (1876-1951) - dispensational pastor of Moody Memorial Church. He was known as the "Archbishop of Fundamentalism" and the "boy preacher of Los Angeles." Ironside wrote many Bible commentaries and vocally opposed both Catholics and liberals. Titles: The Continually Burnt Offering: Daily Meditations on the Word of God; Death and Afterward; Eternal Security; Letters to a Roman Catholic Priest; and numerous commentaries.
Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) - dispensational evangelist who was highly successful in Europe and America. Founder of the Moody Bible Institute. Stories of his revivals still provide a wealth of sermon illustrations. In addition to preaching, Moody also wrote many books. Titles: God's Abundant Grace; Men God Challenged; The Overcoming Life; The Way to God. Not to be confused with moderate Baptist Dale Moody.
J. Frank Norris (1877-1952) - fundamentalist editor of Texas' Baptist Standard and pastor of First Baptist in Fort Worth. Known for his alarmism and bitter, caustic tone, Norris was a fierce opponent of Communism, Catholicism, and evolution. He proposed splitting the Southern Baptist Convention east and west, leaving the east to liberals. He also helped establish Bible Baptist Seminary and the newspapers The Fundamentalist and The Searchlight.
C. I. Scofield (1843-1921) - dispensational Kansas legislator and district attorney who became a Congregationalist pastor. Scofield incorporated the gap theory of creation and a nearly allegorical approach to Old Testament typology into the notes of his Scofield Reference Bible. By the mid-twentieth century, his was the primary study Bible among Baptists and Congregationalists. Other titles: New Life in Christ Jesus; Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.John Strombeck (1881-1959) - dispensationalist who confronted both liberalism and Calvinism as heresies and threats t the church. He was a well-spoken defender of Chafer's system. Titles: Disciplined by Grace; First the Rapture; Grace and Truth; None Shall Perish; So Great Salvation; Understanding God's Redemptive Plan.
Louis T. Talbot (1890-1976) - dispensational evangelical who came to the US in 1911 and founded Talbot Theological Seminary. Known as a caring pastor and one of the leading defenders of the gap theory. Talbot helped popularize the famous timeline charts now used by John Hagee, Tim LaHaye, Thomas Ice, and other dispensationalists. Titles: Bible Questions Explained; Christ in the Tabernacle; God's Plan for the Ages; The Prophecies of Daniel in Light of Past, Present, and Future Events; The Revelation of Jesus Christ.William Vine (1873-1949) - dispensational language scholar and forty-year pastor of Manvers Hall Church. One of the most vocal opponents of the Jehovah's Witnesses during their early years. Vine's Expository Dictionary is nearly as popular as Strong's Concordance. Vine also wrote commentaries on Isaiah, Galatians, and the Thessalonian letters. His writings have been collected by F. F. Bruce.Out of the Methodist churches rose the Holiness movement, whose advocates awaited a "second blessing" of the Holy Spirit to bring about true sanctification, a life totally free from sin. When some of their number saw the sign of the Holy Spirit's work as speaking in tongues, Pentecostalism was born. The Pentecostal movement centered on living an untained life in a godless culture, and also embraced a form of revivalism accompanied by healings and miracles.
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) - Scottish Baptist minister converted under Spurgeon's ministry. Not properly Pentecostal, though his beliefs were similar. He stressed availability to God and sought to stir up the Holy Spirit miraculously among God's people. Titles: Baffled to Fight Better; Biblical Ethics; Conformed to His Image; Devotions for a Deeper Life; If You Will Ask; In the Presence of His Majesty; My Utmost for His Highest; Prayer: A Holy Occupation; So Send I You; Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. Not to be confused with missionary Oswald Sanders or Reformed Scottish preacher Thomas Chalmers.
Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) - Pentecostal founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. She was a popular preacher and faith healer but died as an apparent drug overdose in 1944. To this day her gravesite is a shrine regularly visited by pilgrims seeking miracles. In many ways she presaged the Word of Faith movement, whose leaders hold her up as a prophetess. She was also one of the first to describe the "slain in the Spirit" phenomenon. Titles: Healing in His Wings; Lost and Restored; The Second Coming of Christ; Tabernacle Revivalist; The Temple of the Word; This Is That.
Jessie Penn-Lewis (1861-1927) - Pentecostal prophetess who helped launch the Keswick Convention that led to the great Welsh Revival, which was a key event in emerging Pentecostalism. She was a pioneer of the view of spiritual warfare now common in deliverance ministries. Titles: The Centrality of the Cross; Communion with God; Conflict in the Heavenlies; The Conquest of Canaan; The Cross of Calvary and Its Message; The Pathway to Life in God; Prayer and Evangelism; Soul and Spirit; Spiritual Warfare; War on the Saints; Warfare with Satan; The Work of the Holy Spirit.
Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947) - faith healer who used violence to accomplish miracles (i.e., he hit people in order to heal them). He also claimed to raise the dead, although that claim was never confirmed. Wigglesworth's methods and theology of abundance in many ways foreshadowed the Word of Faith movement, as especially revealed in his works Ever Increasing Faith and Faith that Prevails.
For a statement of my beliefs, see my Declaration of Faith.
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