Matt Shrader

Today in 1980, Mount Saint Helens erupted in Washington State. It was the deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in US history.

Really excited for this to be out there!! Thankful for @HanoverPressLL and @LondonLyceum and all their amazing work.

The latest issue of The Hanover Review is now available! Featuring original essays from @MattCShrader, @rafabelloo, @eliblalock, and Leland Brown. Print: amzn.to/3OQ0Y4f Digital: thelondonlyceum.com/product/the-ha… Has your library subscribed yet?

👀 And they say that Protestants 200 years ago were individualistic and all wanted to wear their own theological hats…

@JDKroeger @centralseminary John, I am really sorry for what you are describing here. I’ll reach out, I’d like to connect if possible

This is infuriating. This cannot be allowed to happen without consequences. Praying for Cities Church tonight

@MikeBrooks Really sorry to miss your paper but not able to make ETS this year. I would love to read this if you’re willing to share. This is a great topic since it was almost exactly 200 years ago (Nov 1825) in Boston that Newton held their first classes

Looking forward to presenting tomorrow afternoon at #ETS25. Glad to have good friends in town for a few days as well.

😂

Available now. Directly from us: thelondonlyceum.com/product/a-body… Other retailers: amzn.to/43AvjrK

470 years ago today, protestants Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake for the preaching and proclaiming of the gospel. After being sentenced in his trial, Latimer thanked God for giving him a death that would glorify his God. In the midst of his execution Latimer extolled Ridley: "Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."

Thanks to those who engaged this post. A few observations: 1. About half the disagreement comes from Eastern Orthodox, and the other from Roman Catholics. And Eastern Orthodoxy is extremely similar to others like Oriental Orthodoxy. This is telling. If you think the early church actually *does* look like just one church today, there simply is no clear winner. There is no way around this. And it's an intolerable burden to place on the private judgment of those discerning, given the alleged stakes of getting it wrong. 2. Being Protestant means you can be honest with the messiness of church history. You don't have to cherry-pick the data (whether pictures of much later frescoed or mosaicked interiors or quotes about later-developed practice or theology). You can acknowledge the massive sea-change of the 4th century (Constantine + Augustine), and how different the 2nd-3rd centuries are. For Protestants, church history is a fascinating trail you can follow wherever it leads, not a yard you have to protect from intruders. 3. The broader need is a way to distinguish what is essential vs. what is accidental in the church. For Protestants, what defines the church is simply the gospel of Jesus Christ, expressed in word and sacrament. Other external structures of the church, important as they are, are not essential. This is why we see the church as subsisting in multiple institutions, and why we can recognize the true church in expressions that look as diverse as 2nd century Alexandria, 7th century Britain, 17th century India, or contemporary Nigeria. Churches in these places can look vastly different, but they are all one church because they all have the one and same Jesus.

@IVMiles Kill the food source, usually grubs

Anybody got tips on how to deal w moles in your yard?

My friend @mlward and I recently discussed English Bible translations and he made a good observation: “everyone who has ever read the Bible has done so without the knowledge of a native speaker in its major languages… everyone since the New Testament has come out has had to encounter God’s Word in translation, and that’s OK.” Watch the full video: youtu.be/O9DUWXorbI4?si…

AI is rubbish at history. It just makes stuff up. I gave ChatGBT a go yesterday, thinking it might boost my productivity, and it fed me a completely bogus quote by Pindar. But making sure it WAS bogus took time - so far from boosting my productivity, AI had actively sabotaged it.

Leaving it to other traditions to answer the hard questions and do the training that many seek has always resulted in losing those seeking. This is why Baptists started Baptist theological education in the first place. We need Baptist retrieval efforts, not no retrieval efforts.

That retrieval leads often across the Thames or Tiber is a fair and necessary point to ponder. But it’s also true that not answering the legitimate questions raised by retrieval (or other movements) is a proven path out of Baptist folds.

"It is fundamentally wrong to say that Baptist witness as we see it in the seventeenth century was a product of modernity and its deeply ingrained individualism. That shows a woeful ignorance of the Baptist worlds of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries" -Michael A.G. Haykin

Thanks to @jake_stone89 and @mark_joubert for the pic

I think Baptist retrieval work is sorely needed, and one person (who did some great work in this world) who goes ACNA doesn’t undermine the efforts at all. I’m super thankful for the work of explicitly Baptist retrieval groups like @LondonLyceum and @BaptistRenewal