Covenant Podcast

Having seen how John Collett Ryland’s wide friendships likely influenced his change of views regarding church communion, let us now examine his only writing on the subject. This came in a 3 page broadsheet-style publication in very small type dated June 15, 1772 and signed Pacificus. It was entitled “A Modest Plea for Free Communion at the Lord’s Table; between true believers of all denominations: In a letter to a friend.” This defended free communion in the form of a letter beginning, “Dear Sir”. It gave eight reasons for Pacificus’ church practice and four answers to objections before a half-page conclusion. Given its small size and presumably small printing, it’s a marvel any of these pieces of ephemera survive. Two copies are known to exist. The first one was discovered by Robert Oliver about 1981. For more information, visit CBTSeminary.org  

In this conversation, Pastors Joe Wilson and Lee McKinnon address friendship within the local church. Some have said that pastors should NOT make friends within their own congregation. Our cohosts think otherwise.  Our cohosts also discuss the importance of avoiding partiality in friendship fostering, and how church members can go about cultivating friendships with fellow church members. FACT CHECK: John Fawcett is indeed the Particular Baptist Pastor that Pastor Joe and Pastor Austin were trying to call to remembrance. For more information on this story, listen to Particular Pilgrims, episode 102, "The Life John Fawcett. Pt.3." here:  https://manofgodnetwork.com/particularpilgrims/   For previous episodes of the Pastor's Inbox, listen here: https://manofgodnetwork.com/pastorsinbox/ For more information about CBTSeminary, click here: https://cbtseminary.org/    

We now turn to John Collett Ryland’s espousal of what he called free communion, also known as open or mixed communion. His position was familiar to his fellow Baptists. For example, John Rippon states, “it is well known that he was what is commonly called, a mixed communion Baptist; that is, a Baptist admitting other good men to the Lord’s table, though in his opinion they are unbaptized."   For more information about CBTSeminary, visit CBTSeminary.org

Confessing Sound Words is a discipleship curriculum that utilizes the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith and the Baptist Catechism. The purpose of this curriculum to equip the saints with the truths of God’s Word, reform churches, retrieve the baptist confessional heritage, and glorify God. In this curriculum, you will find modernized questions and answers from the Baptist Catechism, inductive Bible studies, memory verses, and the full text of the Second London Confession with several helps in the footnotes. Also, there are several questions throughout to facilitate both thought and discussion among those going through it. To order the book, click here: https://hesedandemet.com/product/confessing-sound-words-1689-johnson/ For more information about CBTS visit: https://cbtseminary.org

We continue with our survey of the open and closed communion debate. In 1816, the year following Robert Hall Jr.’s “Terms of communion” came out, Joseph Kinghorn answered Hall with “Baptism, A Term of Communion at the Lord’s Supper”. Kinghorn was the pastor of Norwich Baptist Church and a former pupil of Hall’s at the Bristol Baptist Academy. For more information, visit CBTSeminary.org

A Reformed Baptist is a Christian who believes in the great doctrines recovered by the Protestant Reformation, including the sufficiency of Scripture for the church, salvation by God’s free grace, justification by faith alone, the importance of God’s good law and the gospel of Jesus Christ, the centrality of the church in the life of the believer, and the great doctrine of Christian liberty. This book argues that Reformed Baptists are not particularly unique, but are simply biblical Christians who fall within the theological stream of the historic Reformed faith, and who are also baptistic in their doctrine of the church. This is not a polemical work. Rather, it makes a positive case for the doctrines cherished by Reformed Baptists. May this book benefit motivated laymen, broadly evangelical pastors, Baptist pastors, and Reformed paedobaptist pastors who want to understand what their Reformed Baptist brethren believe. Order your copy here: https://press.founders.org/shop/what-is-a-reformed-baptist/ For more information about CBTS, visit: https://cbtseminary.org  

An open communion answer to Booth finally came in the formidable writing of Robert Hall Jr. In the early 1800s he was perhaps the greatest orator in England, possessed a genius mind, and liked to practice radical politics. In 1815 he produced “Terms of Communion”, a direct challenge to Booth’s Apology. For more information about CBTS, visit CBTSeminary.org

Under God, Over the People: The Calling and Accountability of Civil Government speaks biblical truth directly into our situation as churches today as we increasingly face government interference and intervention in the life of the local church. This precise and yet, accessible work draws and expounds upon the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith on the subject of the Civil Magistrate, its calling and its accountability. Order the book here: https://brokenwharfe.com/product/under-god-over-the-people-us/ For more information about CBTSeminary visit: https://cbtseminary.org  

We continue with our survey of the open and closed communion debate in preparation for a later review of John Collett Ryland’s principles and practices related to it. Next I’ll review the interactions of John Bunyan and William Kiffen.   For more information about CBTS, visit CBTSeminary.org

In this episode of the Pastor's Inbox installment of the Covenant Podcast, Pastors Joe Wilson and Lee McKinnon introduce the scriptural subject of friendship and discuss its importance. For previous episodes of the Pastor's Inbox, click here: https://manofgodnetwork.com/pastorsinbox/ For more information about CBTSeminary, visit: https://cbtseminary.org