16 December 1714 A.D. Dr. Lee Gatiss on Whitefield’s 300th Birthday
Gatiss, Lee. “Happy 300th Birthday George
Whitefield.” Reformation21. 16 Dec 2014. http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2014/12/happy-300th-birthday-george-wh.php.
Accessed 16 Dec 2014.
George Whitefield, the great
Anglican Evangelical evangelist of the 18th century, was born on 16th December
1714 (Old Style -- which means we can celebrate again in 11 days time
too). So buy a cake, get 300 candles and a box of matches, and sing a happy
song for the old guy!
I've spent the last year writing
and talking about Whitefield in various places, from Cape Town to Carlisle,
from Athens to America. So I thought this would be a good time to share some of
those things here, to aid your celebrations.
First up, read the man himself: The
Sermons of George Whitefield in a new, two-volume set with annotations and
a historical-theological introduction:
Last week, the 2014 St Antholin's
Lecture was on Whitefield, Toplady, Simeon, and Wesley's Arminian Campaigns. It
was called "Strangely Warmed", or perhaps an alternative title might
be "Celebrity pastors in Calvinist cover-ups." The audio has just
been made available here
A whole issue of the excellent Credo magazine
was on Whitefield
There was also a
great conference at THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (which I may have
blogged
about already on Ref21...), the
material from which is available online. E.g.
Andrew Fuller Conference 2014: Session 2 - "George Whitefield: The Anglican Evangelist" by Lee Gatiss from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.
THE Southern Baptist Theological
Journal also did an issue on him
Obviously, we can't get a Ref21
post go by without mentioning the celebrity historian Dr Carl Trueman, who also
got in on the act by lecturing on Whitefield here. Carl, George, and myself all
went to school in Gloucester. Though I was at the comprehensive school.
And if, as well as Whitefield's
sermons, above, you want to read something (or get something for Christmas) on
the great man (Whitefield, not Trueman...), you could do a lot worse than the
brand new blockbuster by Thomas Kidd.
So, happy birthday George. Thanks
for being a great confessional Anglican, and thinking the 39 Articles were
cool. Thanks for being into covenant theology before that became a naughty
thing to talk about in the UK. Thanks for repenting of being
too rash and hasty in your attitude towards certain American
presbyterians, and repenting of your "too apostolical" way
of speaking and judging people when you were in your 20s. Thanks for
showing that one really can believe in predestination and limited atonement at
the same time as being a barnstormer of an evangelist. And thanks for winning
many people for Christ.
Now, "let the name of
Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified."
- See more at: http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2014/12/happy-300th-birthday-george-wh.php#sthash.a4EqXkxR.dpuf
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