One of the Best Christian Bookstores in Canada

Just got back from a week in Nova Scotia. I always try to get to Dartmouth (across the harbor from Halifax) and visit the Bible Treasury, my favorite Christian bookstore. It is run by a “Plymouth Brethren” brother and he carries books that you just won’t find anywhere else, mainly Brethren works but other good materials, too. I usually drop $50-100 when I visit. Their website is here. The Google map is here.

John Calvin or Menno Simons?

I still have trouble understanding why some Baptists have such a love affair with John Calvin, the Reformation and Reformed Theology, seeing none of these are linked with Baptist history or heritage. Calvin had no love for the Baptists, nor did the Reformers (with the exception of Erasmus). In my readings, I would think that Baptists would be better served with looking toward men like Menno Simons and groups like the Reformation-era Anabaptists, the Mennonites and the Brethren groups.

Comparing Menno Simons with John Calvin reveals a world of difference and theological attitudes.

1. Menno never persecuted anyone while Calvin did.
2. Menno never had anyone put to death while Calvin did.
3. Menno was every bit a scholar as was Calvin.
4. Menno held to religious liberty while Calvin did not.
5. Menno opposed state churches while Calvin didn’t.
6. Menno made a cleaner break with Rome than Calvin did.
7. Menno suffered more persecution than Calvin did (Calvin faced some early in his life, before he came under the protection of a state church, an advantage Menno never had).
8. The Mennonites are much closer to modern Baptists than are the Protestants.

Baptists really should look toward Menno, and the Brethren/Anabaptist/Brethren groups rather than the Reformed Protestants for our inspiration and historical instruction. After all, we are all related theologically, while the same cannot be said of any Baptist relationship with the Calvinistic branch of the Reformation.

I have really come to appreciate the Mennonite/Brethren groups more over the years as a genuine Pilgrim/Remnant movement in church history. Naturally, they have their problems today (who doesn’t?) and no human theological group is perfect. I am well familiar with Menno’s struggles over some issues of Christology. But Calvin had many theological errors as well, such as his teachings of predestination and election, so neither man was perfect theologically. But what a world of difference in reading Calvin and Menno Simons! Menno is not forever quoting Augustine and his language is more more Christian than is Calvin’s. Calvin could almost sound like Peter Ruckman in attacking his enemies. Menno displayed a much better Christian spirit in his life and writings.

Part of my appreciation of the Mennonite/Brethren groups may come from a close geographic association I have with them. There is a sizable Mennonite and Amish population here in central Delaware and I spend a lot of time in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I’ve always believed that the true “Bible Belt” in the United States is not “down south” but runs from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to near Philadelphia, through southern Pennsylvania, where there is a higher percentage of these Baptistic groups. Mennonites and the Brethren are my spiritual “cousins” and I can have a much deeper affinity with them than I could every hope to have with Martin Luther or John Calvin.

The “Plymouth” Brethren- A Remnant Christian Group

One way to get a grasp on what Remnant Christianity is would be to study the distinctives of some groups that could be classified as Remnant groups. There are many through church history. One are the “Brethren” groups, often mis-labeled “Plymouth” Brethren. I am not going to go through a full dissertation as to their history and distinctives, but simply point out that they belong in such a classification as “Remnant”.

I have read quite a lot of materials by John Nelson Darby, C. H. Macintosh and William Kelly, among other Brethren writers. One of my favorite Bibles is the Newberry Reference Bible, edited by a Brethren, Thomas Newberry. One of my favorite bookstores is the Bible Treasury in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, a Brethren store. While I do not endorse everything they wrote and did, I am still impressed by their desire to withdraw from apostate churches and to re-establish a simpler, more Scriptural for of church government and practice. What Remnant Saint couldn’t sympathize with that? Their scholarship is impressive and the volume of their writings in voluminous. The debt of the entire church to these men cannot be calculated. Because of them, to a large degree, we have a better understanding of the Bible truth of the pre-millennial coming of Christ. I still am having some trouble getting a handle of their dispensational teachings, as some of it doesn’t exactly line up with our modern understandings of it. But their pioneering work in these doctrines is something every saint of God should be thankful for- if you are dispensational and pre-millennial!

Their heart and burden are definitely worthy of consideration by Remnant Churches. I would hope that more fellowship with such groups, that possess the right kind of heart and spirit, might be established as we will need all the fellowship that we can muster in the days ahead.