Faith by Hearing
Sanctifying the MP3 RevolutionArchive for Lectures
Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology Series
Monergism has just uploaded all 117 classes from Wayne Grudem’s famous lecture series covering his excellent Systematic Theology book. This should keep these lectures as a stable link for years to come. In the past they have been moved from place to place killing all of my links. Thanks to Monergism for hosting these lectures. By the way, the lectures are also available via iTunes.
Lectures on Secularism and Christianity: Hunter Baker
Hunter Baker, the author of the excellent book The End of Secularism has given three lectures at Southern Seminary on secularism and Christianity. If you have enjoyed this book, or have been interested in it, these lectures will be something you don’t want to miss.
Hughes Oliphant Old: Preaching as Worship
The Mullins Lectures at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary this year invited Hughes Oliphant Old to present 3 lectures on Preaching as worship. Who is Hughes Oliphant Old? All I know about him is that he has devoted much of his life to studying the history of preaching, which has produced a massive series of books. If you preach, this is one man you don’t want to miss.
Preaching as Telling the Story of God’s Mighty Acts of Redemption >>>
An Afternoon with Milton
The Andrew Fuller Center celebrated the quartercentenary of the birth of John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, with a number of lectures and readings from Milton. All the short sessions are contain on a single mp3 file.
Milton was a colorful figure. He was sometimes scandalous, sometimes politically revolutionary, very often theologically confusing, but a master of the English language. Paradise Lost was his crowning achievement, a masterful epic poem, and an affirmation of the Christian faith.
You will enjoy these lectures if you have a love for English literature and poetry, or an interest in John Milton. If not, these will be a struggle to get through. The readings, unfortunately, are not particularly inspiring — a difficulty not only of the delivery, but of the poetic language.
Why listen to this? There’s some interesting history on the life of Milton, certainly an imperfect Christian figure, but Milton stepped out and took stands on issues rather than standing on sidelines, and he is an example of a creative Christian using his skills of the English language and storytelling to create timeless works.
The Power of the Church and Church Discipline
Waynes 3 classes on the Power of the church considers the Power of the church in spiritual warfare, the powerful promotion of the Gospel, and the power entrusted to it regarding church discipline.
The class on church discipline is particularly noteworthy. Grudem provides very considered anecdotal evidence that God not only has his hand in disciplining those believers who are harming the church, but also that God honors a churches decision to discipline a member, often supporting the church when the sinning member tries to run to another church who may not know about the discipline. Fascinating food for thought.
The Power of the Church mp3 pt. 1 >>>
The Power of the Church mp3 pt. 2 >>>
Ray Ortlund: 3 Lectures on Preaching
Ray Ortlund has given us a very valuable series of messages on preaching.
Ortlund looks at Paul’s decision in 1 Corinthians to not preach with the cleverness of man. Clever speech is rhetoric. When Paul went to preach to a group of people, his concern was what they needed to hear. Content was his goal. When a rhetorician goes to speak, his primary concern is who his audience is, not the content. Rhetoric is his goal. Paul understood that the only value of rhetoric was to point audiences to his own abilities. Above all else, God needs men who are crucifed to themselves to carry his Word to the world.
Pastors also must have a desire to see their people grow. They are not to despise their people, or complain about them, rather they must have sincere and earnest desire to see their people grow in sanctification, and flourish in their relationship with Christ. A pastor’s congregation is his testimony to present to Christ in the last day. What an awesome responsibility and priviledge it is to be entrusted with the care of God’s people.
Pastors must also delight in their weaknesses. It is only when a pastor is weak that God can be glorified with his successes. If we were strong then we would take glory away from God. When a pastor boasts, he should boast in his weakness, which reveals the strength of God. Weakness is where we recieve power from God.
This is a very encouraging, clarifying and challenging trio of lectures. These were delivered at this years Mullins Lectures.
Power in Preaching: Decide (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
Power in Preaching: Desire (1 Thessalonians 1:2-5)
Keller & Clowney: Preaching Christ in a Post Modern World
Tim Keller and Edmund Clowney together taught a class called ‘Preaching Christ in a Post Modern World’, and is now on iTunes as part of Reformed Theological Seminary Worldwide. This is going to keep me busy for some time. You can download the entire course, including Q&A sessions, a total of 35 audio files.
Preaching Christ in a Post Modern World on iTunes >>>
You can find the handouts for this course on Google Docs (thanks Mark), or on Scribd.
Worldwide Classroom Covenant Theological Seminary
For many years, Covenant Theological Seminary has been making their courses available to the public by posting audio on the Internet. They recently launched a new website
Worldwide Classroom website >>>
History of the English Bible
In four lectures, Dr. Daniel Wallace covers the history of the English Bible from John Wycliff to the present day. He concludes with a lecture about why there are so many versions of the Bible. These lectures were given at the Lancaster Bible College and are part of the BiblicalTraining.org cirriculum.
From Wycliffe to King James
The Reign of King James
From the KJV to the RV
Why So Many Versions?
Master’s Seminary 2007 Faculty Lecture Series: New Covenant Theology
The faculty of the Master’s Seminary has posted the Spring lecture series. This years subject is New Covenant Theology, which is basically a reformed Baptist movement that rejects the covenant understanding of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It’s a relatively small, yet growing, movement that is primarly propagated by the internet. I suggest you listen to Dennis Swanson’s introduction to New Covenant Theology before you download the rest of the messages for listening. The entire series is good, as are all of the Master’s Seminary Faculty Lectures, but this series is not something that is going to engage everyone simply because the movement is very small.
2007 Spring Lecture Series ‘New Covenant Theology’>>>
Patience is required when downloading audio from the TMS website.
