A New World

Renewing Your Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Reformed, Study, Jesus, Preaching, Christianity, Scripture, Spirit, Bible, Holy, Theology, Christian, God, Teaching

4.8 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many in Puritan New England were confident that the future of the church was one of increasing success. Meanwhile, few were concerned about dangerous ideas infiltrating the church. Today, W. Robert Godfrey examines this tension.

With your donation of any amount, request American Presbyterians and Revival: Lessons from the Nineteenth Century. You’ll receive W. Robert Godfrey’s teaching series on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3941/donate

Meet Today’s Teacher:

W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is the featured teacher for many Ligonier teaching series, including the six-part series A Survey of Church History. He is author of many books, including God’s Pattern for Creation, Reformation Sketches, and An Unexpected Journey.

Meet the Host:

Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.

Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	When the church faces challenging times, it responds in different ways.
0:05.3	Take, for example, the early 19th century.
0:08.4	We may look back at the Puritan times in New England and say, well, look at the internal tensions, look at the difficulties, look at the struggles, look at the changing world that surrounds them.
0:19.5	That's not what they were focused on.
0:21.4	They were focused on their confidence that they would overcome these problems, and the church
0:27.1	would become ever more glorious and successful on earth.
0:43.2	Sometimes the people living through a period in history can't see the significance of it.
0:50.9	But with a careful eye, we can look back and see how the challenges and opportunities of an era shaped the world.
0:56.1	This is the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and that's the reason why W. Robert Godfrey taught the series American Presbyterians and Revival. With the advantage of hindsight,
1:04.2	we hope to see our own time more clearly. You'll hear two messages today and tomorrow from this
1:10.5	11 message series.
1:12.4	You can request digital access to all 11, along with the study guide, plus we'll send it to you on DVD
1:18.7	when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.
1:23.6	Well, here's Dr. Godfrey, the chairman of Ligonier Ministries, on the changing landscape of the New World.
1:32.3	At the time of the American Revolution in 1776, probably 90% of the American colonial population that had any religious commitment were committed to a vision of Protestantism that
1:48.5	was basically Calvinistic. That would include the Anglicans. We need to remember that in the
1:54.8	18th century, the Anglicans had 39 articles that were their confession of faith. That was a
1:59.9	Calvinistic statement. They had a
2:02.6	liturgy written by Thomas Cranmer, who'd been a Calvinist, and it was a basically Calvinist
2:07.6	liturgy. And although the Puritans had criticisms of Anglicanism to improve it and make it better,
2:15.0	it surely ranks as one of the reformed communities of faith.
2:20.2	And when you add then to the Anglicans and the Dutch Reformed and others with the Puritans,
	...

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