Syosset Gospel Church

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. -John 14:27

REFORMATION DAY A. W. Pink: The Pioneer of a Modern Reformation The past sixty years in the evangelical church has witnessed a deepening interest in reformed ...literature and a resurgence of reformed theology; it is, in some respects, a modern Reformation. Much of this has been attributed to the ministry of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (18991981) of Westminster Chapel, London. There is no doubt that Dr. Lloyd-Jones was the greatest single influence in this work of Godhe was to twentieth-century London, what Spurgeon was in the nineteenth century. His influence, furthermore, has not abated, but has continued to spread around the world since his death in 1981. He was also an avid reader of A.W. Pink. Arthur W. Pink is another man of whom less is known and to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude. Arthur Walkington Pink (1886-1952), who is generally referred to simply as A. W. Pink, was much forsaken in his day. The written ministry of A. W. Pink is one of the least noticed facts of major significance in the first half of the twentieth century. One of Pink's biographers, Richard P. Belcher, concludes that Pink is responsible, as much as any man, for the revival of that doctrine known as Calvinism." Neither of these men ever met the other although each of them was aware of the other’s existence. Their respective ministries were very different. Arthur Pink suffered all of the hardships and loneliness of a pioneer, far from the madding crowd. Lloyd-Jones, on the other hand, enjoyed the triumphant ride of a vanguard. In their own way, however, each had a profound influence in shaping the future of the evangelical and reformed church in the United Kingdom and in North America. This influence is all the more striking when we realize that neither of these men had any formal theological training. Right from the time of his conversion Pink had given himself to the study of Reformed material in an age when it was unpopular. However unpopular his ministry of Reformed theology was, he never gave up on his reading of Reformed and Puritan literature, on his study of the Word, or on his writing of the Studies. His reading regime was rigorous and impressive. In the first ten years of his Christian life he read ten chapters of the Scripture every day and studied a portion and meditated and memorized a verse every day. His extra-biblical material was limited but his interests were refined over the years of critical thinking. He selected the best, as he saw it, and the most profitable of the Reformed and Puritan writers. In 1919, in a series of letters to his publisher, Mr. Herendeen, Pink informed him that between January of 1919 and December of that same year he had read through Thomas Manton’s 22 volumes, Thomas Goodwin’s 12 volumes, and half of John Owen’s fifteen volumes of works, in addition to other material. We should not think of this reading regime as superficial by any means. He was a discerning reader, seeking out particular Reformed writers and encouraging critical reading in others. He was decided on certain points and not afraid to respectfully disagree with good men or to favor one Reformed writer over another. He would grant no author blind allegiance. Even Calvin was read critically. One time he recommended that a young university student substitute for the writings of Calvin (52 volumes) the 22 volumes of Manton, the 16 volumes of Owen, and the 12 volumes by Goodwin, for, he said, you would get more than twice as much out of these three as out of Calvin. We should not take this as a slight on Calvin or his theology, but merely as a recommendation of the style, warmth, and content of the Puritan writers. While Pink recognized and appreciated the men of the Reformation, he believed that the age of the Puritans was an age of fuller light and grace, and from 1590-1650 a purer Christianity obtained than at any other period since the apostles. However, later in 1934 he advised another correspondent concerning Calvin’s Institutes, much of that book is most helpful! He wrote, The mastering of a few such works will mean far more to you than a hurried and superficial reading of hundreds of other books. Pink’s theology of the Reformation and in particular his interests in the writings of the Puritans was very much unknown in England in the early years of the 20th century. He lived in a day when the church was distracted by an obsession with unfulfilled prophecy and when Reformed material was extremely hard to get. In 1937 he wrote to a friend: "The last time I scoured the 2nd-hand bookshops in London, twenty-two out of twenty-four [shops] told me they had long since ceased carrying any theological literatureno demand for it." Yet Pink knew what the church needed more than anything and he labored hard, and alone, to provide that in the small influence he had. As far back as 1919 Pink had felt the call of God to leave the pastorate and to give himself wholly to his writing ministry. Pink and his wife, Vera, had been living on Lewis Island Scotland for twelve years before his death and were still very busy writing, editing, and publishing their monthly magazine, "Studies in the Scriptures," as they had done for thirty years without missing an issue. Near the end of his life Arthur said, We cherish the hope that the bound volumes will be read by many long after we are called home. God granted their wish. Most of what we read today as Arthur Pink’s books have been taken exclusively from their monthly magazine "Studies in the Scriptures." But they never lived to see it. It’s true he was widely traveledAmerica, Australia and Britain, and his Studies went beyond where he himself had travelledbut his influence in these places was limited to a few individuals. The subscribers to his Studies, whom he called Our Scripture Study Family never numbered much more than one thousand. Notwithstanding the multitude of discouragements, setbacks, and the constant isolation, Pink carried on with his Studies, through its thirty-year history, like a true pioneer, convinced that the Lord had called him to serve despite the fluctuating subscriptions and a readership at times as silent as the grave. He never saw the fruit of his labors. When he died in 1952 his writings were of no interest to any publishing house and there was no expectation that they would ever have a global readership. He was unaware, however, of the influence that he would have on a new generation and, indeed, some of that within his own life-time. In the providence of God his Studies had gained the attention of significant evangelicals by the early 1940's. Pink did not witness that which he had so long desired to see and towards which he had worked so hard. But Pink had paved the way for others. Spending years in silent study, obscured from the applause of the world, he had labored by faith in the knowledge that what he was doing was in the will of God. Through his faithful labors he bequeathed a rich resource of Reformed theology, in modern English, to a new generation of evangelicals around the world. That resource was thirty years in monthly installments of Studies in the Scriptures. His biographer writes: "It was only as a new era dawned, as a deeper hunger for the Word of God appeared in the English-speaking world, and as the Puritans and other older writers were rediscovered and reopened, that Arthur Pink became one of the leading teachers of a new generation. Readers turned to him, not because he was a Baptist or a Presbyterian, but rather because they found an unction in his words which moved their hearts with new zeal and love for Scripture. In the gracious providence of God, Pink’s books are now vastly more influential than was his ministry in the days when the cold shoulder of an unsympathetic generation reduced him to silence in conventions and in churches." When Pink died in 1952 there was an excitement gaining momentum among evangelicals around the truths of the Reformation. And it continues to this day. [source: "A. W. Pink: The Pioneer of a Modern Reformation" Parts 1 & 2]

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. Mark 8:35 KJV

"Nothing so much concerns any one of you as salvation. Your health by all means. Let the physician be fetched if you be sick; care well for diet and exercise, a...nd all sanitary laws. Look wisely to your constitution and its peculiarities; but what matters it, after all, to have possessed a healthy body, if you have a perishing soul? Wealth, yes, if you must have it, though you shall find it an empty thing if you set your heart upon it. Prosperity in this world, earn it if you can do so fairly, but what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? A golden coffin will be a poor compensation for a damned soul. To be cast away from God’s presence, can that misery be assuaged by mountains of treasure? Can the bitterness of the second death be sweetened by the thought that the wretch was once a millionaire, and that his wealth could affect the polities of nations? No, there is nothing in health or wealth comparable to salvation. Nor can honor and reputation bear a comparison therewith. Truly they are but baubles, and yet for all that they have a strange fascination for the soul of men. Oh, sirs, if every harpstring in the world should resound your glories, and every trumpet should proclaim your fame, what would it matter if a louder voice should say, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). ~ Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892

Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word. Psalms 119:114 KJV