The Top Ten List
By Jay Rogers
Published April 10, 2008
Christian Leaders of Massachusetts
On the following pages are listed the top ten Christian leaders in Massachusetts history. Literally hundreds of names could have been included. No doubt, there are more than a few glaring omissions. Ever since the first English Pilgrims and Puritans settled here in the 1620s and ’30s, Massachusetts has led the nation in producing Christian leaders from all walks of life. Ministers, authors, statesmen, sports heroes and business people have professed their faith in Jesus Christ, sometimes in the face of ridicule, but often as a testimony to their success.
As Oliver Wendell Holmes said, Boston is “the hub of the solar system.” The Puritans believed that Massachusetts was literally the “New Jerusalem.” The names New Hampshire, New Haven, New England speak of the mandate of the New Testament to build the city of God on earth. The names of towns, rivers and places echo biblical names and doctrines. Even the city of Boston, originally named Tremont for the three hills the city was built upon, alludes to the Trinity. It was a city built upon the foundation of God.
While few today would think of New England’s citizens as being God’s chosen people, when we look at our great achievement and culture, it is obvious that there is a special calling for the region. Here is only a brief representation of the Christian leaders of four centuries. As the growing number of Christian students and local churches attest, it may not be long before we will see a new generation of Christian leaders who will build “the city of God” on the foundation laid by its founders.
- 1. William Bradford: Governor of Plymouth Colony (1590-1657)
- 2. John Winthrop: Governor of Massachusetts (1587-1649)
- 3. Anne Bradstreet: America's first poet (1612-1672)
- 4. Jonathan Edwards: The First Great Awakening (1703-1758)
- 5. George Whitefield: The First Transatlantic Evangelist (1714-1770)
- 6. Phillis Wheatley: Forerunner of American Abolitionism (1753-1784)
- 7. Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution (1722-1803)
- 8. John Quincy Adams: America's Evangelist President (1767-1848)
- 9. Dwight Lyman Moody: America's Greatest Evangelist (April 21, 1855)
- 10. Billy Sunday Draws 70,000 to Boston Revival (November 12, 1916)
Forerunner - Home » The Boston Awakening
Your comments are welcome!
The Four Keys to the Millennium (Book)
Foundations in Biblical Eschatology
By Jay Rogers, Larry Waugh, Rodney Stortz, Joseph Meiring. High quality paperback, 167 pages.
All Christians believe that their great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will one day return. Although we cannot know the exact time of His return, what exactly did Jesus mean when he spoke of the signs of His coming (Mat. 24)? How are we to interpret the prophecies in Isaiah regarding the time when “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:19)? Should we expect a time of great tribulation and apostasy or revival and reformation before the Lord returns? Is the devil bound now, and are the saints reigning with Christ? Did you know that there are four hermeneutical approaches to the book of Daniel and Revelation?
These and many more questions are dealt with by four authors as they present the four views on the millennium. Each view is then critiqued by the other three authors.
$12.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
Freedom: The Model of Christian Liberty (DVD)
“Give me liberty or give me death!”
Patrick Henry’s famous declaration not only helped launch the War for Independence, it also perfectly summarized the mindset that gave birth to, and sustained, the unprecedented experiment in Christian liberty that was America.
The freedom our Founders envisioned was not freedom from suffering, want, or hard work. Nor was it freedom to indulge every appetite or whim without restraint—that would merely be servitude to a different master. No, the Founders’ passion was to live free before God, unfettered by the chains of autocracy, shackles that slowly but inexorably bind men when the governments they fashion fail to recognize and uphold freedom’s singular, foundational truth: that all men are created in the image of God, and are thereby co-equally endowed with the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
This presentation is a similar call, not to one but many. By reintroducing the principles of freedom that gave birth to America, it is our prayer that Jesus, the true and only ruler over the nations, will once again be our acknowledged Sovereign, that we may again know and exult in the great truth that “where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17).
Welcome to the Second American Revolution!
This DVD features “Liberty: The Model of Christian Liberty” along with “Dawn’s Early Light: A Brief History of America’s Christian Foundations.” Bonus features include a humorous but instructive collection of campaign ads and Eric Holmberg’s controversial YouTube challenge concerning Mitt Romney’s campaign for president.
$14.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
Go Stand Speak (DVD)
With “preaching to the lost” being such a basic foundation of Christianity, why do many in the church seem to be apathetic on this issue of preaching in highways and byways of towns and cities?
Is it biblical to stand in the public places of the world and proclaim the gospel, regardless if people want to hear it or not?
Does the Bible really call church pastors, leaders and evangelists to proclaim the gospel in the public square as part of obedience to the Great Commission, or is public preaching something that is outdated and not applicable for our day and age?
These any many other questions are answered in this documentary.
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
Why Creeds and Confessions? (Book)
High Quality Paperback — 219 pages
Foundations in Biblical Orthodoxy
Driving down a country road sometime, you might see a church with a sign proudly proclaiming: “No book but the Bible — No creed but Christ.” The problem with this statement is that the word creed (from the Latin: credo) simply means “belief.” All Christians have beliefs, regardless of whether they are written.
Yet a single book containing the actual texts of the most important creeds of the early Church will not often be found. Out of the multitude of works on the evangelical Christian book market today, those dealing with the creeds of the Church are scarce.
Why Creeds and Confessions? provides a foundation of biblical orthodoxy as a defense against the false and truly heretical doctrines advanced by the spirit of this age.
$14.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)Click here for more information
Dr. Francis Schaeffer - A Christian Manifesto (DVD)
That Swiss Hermit Strikes Again!
Dr. Schaeffer, who was one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the twentieth century, shows that secular humanism has displaced the Judeo-Christian consensus that once defined our nation’s moral boundaries. Law, education, and medicine have all been reshaped for the worse as a consequence. America’s dominant worldview changed, Schaeffer charges, when Christians weren’t looking.
Schaeffer lists two reasons for evangelical indifference: a false concept of spirituality and fear. He calls on believers to stand against the tyranny and moral chaos that come when humanism reigns-and warns that believers may, at some point, be forced to make the hard choice between obeying God or Caesar. A Christian Manifesto is a thought-provoking and bracing Christian analysis of American culture and the obligation Christians have to engage the culture with the claims of Christ.
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
(We accept all major credit cards and PayPal.)
