The one thing that really matters is this: to have a religion that will bring us safe at last to the new heavens and the new earth. To have that “little that a righteous man has,” to have faith that is lodged in Jesus Christ even if our trust seems as fine as a spider’s thread. To believe in your heart and to say with your mouth, “I know my Redeemer lives.”

Read the words of the Apostles to the early church: “We will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). This Apostolic commitment gave the church of the new covenant the priorities of a twofold vocation: it was to be characterized by prayer to the Father in the name of His Son and by the preaching of the Bible. Let me seek to open up something fresh about both of these marks.
Praying
Recently, I began to read a book that I found interesting in its concept, purpose, and accomplishment. A woman named Berenice Aguilera discovered a copy of John Calvin’s commentaries and realized that the original transcriber of his sermons—more than four hundred years ago in St. Peters, Geneva—also transcribed and printed his closing prayers. These brief living intercessions are printed in most of Calvin’s books of sermons. Berenice was so moved in reading them that she proceeded to gather them together, and she seems to have published them herself in England—because there is no name of a publisher to be found anywhere in a 255-page book that she has titled Praying through the Prophets. Publishing the book herself would have required not only cash but a strong conviction that there was something very valuable in listening to John Calvin speaking to God after he had spoken to the people in his congregation. This one book contains more than three thousand prayers of the Genevan Reformer at the close of each of his sermons on the Major and Minor Prophets from Jeremiah to Malachi.
I initially dipped into these prayers and found them refreshing. In daily readings, I am in the latter chapters of the prophet Jeremiah and Lamentations, so I have begun, at the end of the verses apportioned for each day, to read the prayers of Calvin on that chapter. These latter chapters of Jeremiah contain both a relentless declaration of the forthcoming destruction of mighty Babylon and also words of encouragement to the Lord’s people in captivity there. Let me give an example of a portion of Jeremiah as he seeks to encourage the people of God in their long exile from Jerusalem, and then the prayer of John Calvin when he finished preaching on them:
“You who have escaped from the sword, go, do not stand still! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come into your mind: ‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach; dishonor has covered our face, for foreigners have come into the holy places of the LORD’s house.’ Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will execute judgment upon her images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, yet destroyers would come from me against her, declares the LORD.” (Jer. 51:50–53)
This is the prayer of John Calvin after he has preached on these verses:
Grant, Almighty God, that when you hide at this day your face from us, that the miserable despair that is ours may not overwhelm our faith, nor obscure our view of your goodness and grace, but that in the thickest darkness your power may ever appear to us, which can raise us above the world, so that we may courageously fight to the end and never doubt that you will at length be the defender of the church which now seems to be oppressed, until we shall enjoy our perfect happiness in heaven, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
What simplicity, theocentricity (God-centeredness), humility, and submissive yearning that expresses the oneness of the redeemed. That spirit is what we long to experience when we are hearing public prayer. Christians meet at the mercy seat. When we all bow there in the presence of our Lord in prayer, we are never closer together. There are Christians who will refuse to read anything that was written by John Calvin. They are missing so much. He was a man of prayer. You will never understand or appreciate the Genevan Reformer or realize his impact in the world until you grasp how there was a part of his life lived at the throne of grace. I often heard Ernest Reisinger say, “It is a sin to preach and not to pray.”
When one visits the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust website, one discovers that five examples of the congregational praying of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones are recorded there. They are most moving, comprehensive, and deeply reverent as spoken by one addressing the almighty Creator of the cosmos through what His Son Jesus Christ has achieved. The first recorded prayer was prayed on the opening Sunday of a new year, and so it is the longest—fifteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds. The others average between ten and eleven minutes, but all are so gripping and relevant that the last thing one thinks of is their length. Little wonder people looking back sometimes said that when they went to Westminster Chapel for the first time, it was the praying of the Doctor that moved them more than the preaching. Only a man who knows the Scriptures, prays privately, and who walks in the Spirit could pray for that length, gripping and lifting a congregation of 1,400 into the presence of the Holy One. John Owen said, “If the word does not dwell with power in us then it will not pass with power from us.”
There are also four different versions of some of the pulpit prayers of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, prayed on Sunday mornings in the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The most accessible is published by the Banner of Truth. It has been said about Spurgeon’s praying:
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Written by Melanie A. Howard |
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
The Bible highlights a wide variety of (often disruptive and disobedient) activities that it describes without censure. The implication for student life staff and college administrators, then, might be to help channel students’ energies for dissent in positive directions that align with the biblical witness rather than to be quick to quash dissenting activity, even if it interrupts the status quo.

Late in the spring 2024 semester, several college campuses were rocked by student (and faculty) protests over the conflict in Gaza. More recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education broke a story about an instructor whose contract was not renewed after he had publicly opposed an increase in parking fees. On the surface, these events could appear to have little in common. However, despite what might appear to be radically different issues, both scenarios raise the same fundamental question: What is the place of critique or dissent on college campuses?
While this question has implications for all institutions of higher education, I would like to put a finer point on it: What is the place of criticism or dissent on Christian college campuses, and what resources from the biblical text might lend themselves to answering this question?
Rather than try to address larger questions about the freedom of speech or academic freedom on campus, I would instead like to inquire how the Bible itself might serve as a conversation partner in considering such questions. In doing so, I suggest that the Bible’s provision of multiple examples of dissenters can offer a valuable resource for Christian college communities as they consider the place of protest on their campuses. By implicitly condoning dissent, highlighting a diversity of methods for dissent, and offering parameters for appropriate dissent, the Bible offers a rich resource for Christian colleges discerning how to encourage and/or limit expressions of dissent on their campuses.
The Bible as a Resource for Considering Dissent on College Campuses
In the Bible, Christian campuses can find a resource to support conversations about dissent on campus. Based on the rich collection of examples of dissent found in it, Christian universities that look to that text as their ethical foundation have an additional source, beyond those drawn upon by secular institutions, for informing moral reflection about the ethics of protest and dissent.
There is a wide diversity of dissenting activities illustrated throughout the pages of the Bible. Although each of the following biblical examples deserves more consideration, a brief overview demonstrates the array of biblical examples of critique, civil disobedience, and/or protest:

Micaiah (1 Kings 22:1–40): The account of the prophet Micaiah provides an example of a figure who refuses to go along with the status quo, even when he has been instructed to do so (1 Kings 22:13). Instead, Micaiah vows to speak only the word that the Lord gives him (1 Kings 22:14), even though this word contradicts what his superior wants to hear. Ultimately, Micaiah points out that the positive (albeit false) prophecies from the other prophets were the result of spirits of deception that the Lord permitted to deceive King Jehoshaphat. Micaiah alone was faithful to the word of the Lord in declaring the truth about the forthcoming disaster.
Esther (Esther 4–8): The well-known story of Esther recounts Queen Esther’s daring quest to save the Jewish people from certain destruction. At a risk to her own life, Esther beseeches the king to spare the Jewish people. Although her action was risky and ran contrary to the plans that the leading rulers had made, Esther took it upon herself to resist and speak out against what she saw as a destructive course of action.
Shiphrah & Puah (Exodus 1:15–22): The Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah receive an order from Pharaoh to kill any newborn boys whom they help to deliver (Exodus 1:16). However, they disobey this order and allow the babies to live. The text specifies that this action of protest against a direct order was due to their fear of God (Exodus 1:17).
The Magi (Matthew 2:1–12): The unnamed foreigners who are the first in the Gospel of Matthew to meet the young Jesus receive a direct order from Herod to alert him to the whereabouts of Jesus (Matthew 2:8).

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Their head may be full of theology, but it seems that their heart is empty. They miss what the Spirit of God is trying to do as they go on their little theological crusade. Those folks who are such repeat offenders when it comes to this really demonstrate how little of the heart of God they have and how carnal they in fact can be. It is always so sad to come across this.

There are certain things that must be said over and over. No matter how often you speak about such matters, you find that you must keep repeating yourself. Either folks are just not listening, or there are some perennial problems that must constantly be addressed.
The topic of this post is an example of this. I have often written about it in the past, but the need is always there to keep revisiting the theme. And that theme is this: yes, theology matters – massively. Sound doctrine is vitally important, and I have made that case hundreds of times over the years, both here and on the social media.
However… We all know of those who always want to be theologically correct but who are far too often spiritually incorrect. That is, so often they are running in the flesh, and not in the Spirit, as they act as the world’s policeman to make sure everyone is believing the “correct” thing.
I find this constantly on the social media. Indeed, just this morning I opened up one of my pages to find this happening yet again. It does my head and heart in, and I wonder if it will ever stop. As I just posted online:
It is one thing to be concerned about sound theology, but another thing to obsessively act as a theology cop, going around and “correcting” everyone when they dare to have a different view on things – especially when you were just trying to offer some spiritual edification, and NOT start yet another theological war. Such folks end up being little more than Pharisees, and as I have said so often, they will not get a free run on my page.
This happens so often and it bothers me no end. When my aim is NOT to make some theological point, but simply to encourage others, bless others, seek to have them love God more, it really is disturbing that some believers do not get it. The spiritual aim that I intended goes completely over their head, and they see this as yet another opportunity to push their pet theology.
Their head may be full of theology, but it seems that their heart is empty. They miss what the Spirit of God is trying to do as they go on their little theological crusade. Those folks who are such repeat offenders when it comes to this really demonstrate how little of the heart of God they have and how carnal they in fact can be. It is always so sad to come across this.
But let me spell this out with some examples just in case some Christians are still not getting it:
When I share some great spiritual encouragement or biblical truth from John Wesley, I really do not need some angry Calvinist attacking me and missing entirely the helpful truth I was seeking to offer to others.
When I share some great spiritual encouragement or biblical truth from John Calvin, I really do not need some angry Arminian attacking me and missing entirely the helpful truth I was seeking to offer to others.
When I share some great spiritual encouragement or biblical truth from a Catholic, I really do not need some angry Protestant attacking me and missing entirely the helpful truth I was seeking to offer to others.
When I share some great spiritual encouragement or biblical truth from a Protestant, I really do not need some angry Catholic attacking me and missing entirely the helpful truth I was seeking to offer to others.
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