Showing results by author "Horatius Bonar" in All Categories

One blessing, or in some ways curse, we have been given is the ability to think and rationalize. With this comes a constant internal battle in which we debate within ourselves what the right moral choices are. Bonar expands on how conscientious we truly are and which patterns emerge in our daily lives.

We have been thoroughly introduced to the violent and often savage ways God punishes His people. But Horatius Bonar expands on a method far more powerful than any direct force. Learn more about how a father’s silence can lead to a feeling of ultimate desperation in his children.

The first pages of the bible illustrate a journey from being divinely created to falling from grace. Ever since the path started leading downward, humanity has been cursed with many trials. But hope remains when we accept a God who is harsh in his sentence, but righteous and true in his execution.

Balaam, son of Beor, is known to us as a non-Israeli prophet who, despite his initial refusal to curse the Israelis, was eventually overcome by wickedness. Horatius Bonar explores in depth the nature of this duality. He details the fate and torments of anyone who allows themselves to be guided by a divided heart.

The essence of Christianity is to have faith. A blind faith, some would say, but Horatius Bonar takes this far away from the otherwise negative context it is used in. He illustrates how all the miracles, as performed by prophets such as Moses, were so great because of this unyielding faith being able to receive God’s full power.

Balaam looks around at the Israelis who have suffered and wandered, but are now so close to glory. Horatius Bonar describes a man overlooking the encampment and feeling a certain conflict rise within himself. We see, along with him, the weary Israelis on one side and on the other, the land of milk and honey within their grasp.

What armor would we wear when considered in a biblical sense of the glorious war? None of ornate metal but one that has a more spiritual defense. Bonar reflects further on the resolve, mental strength, and faith needed in order to build up a defense against sin and against evil.

If we ask ourselves what it means to disobey God, we can recall many references to his cruelty and relentlessness in punishing those who refuse his word. These punishments go very deep and Bonar takes this biblical theme as a launching pad for discussing the frivolous nature of the so called human remedies. How we are a race of diversions and entertainments, façade and masquerades, in short, creators of a superficial and temporary solace.

The way of Cain, Horatius Bonar explains, leads to a barren world marked by the way of blood. Bonar details the haunted life lead by Cain once he had poisoned it with the murder of his brother. How despair, banishment, and fruitfulness would enter the lives of those who reject the right choices, as defined by the Bible, first given to them.

Horatius Bonar allows us to learn more about his interpretations of God as a father to all the people. The phrase ‘Oh that they were wise’ laments humanity and its inability to choose a path of constructiveness and righteousness. Bonar reflects further on these characteristics that shapes human nature in a manner that is, in his mind, unteachable.

If there is one tactile gesture that has immense metaphorical value in the bible, it is the kiss. The most famous kiss was one of betrayal, but others would be for good. Bonar further interprets the kiss Oprah gives her mother-in-law in great detail and shows how truly complex this symbol can be.

Horatius Bonar shows himself as a very passionate hymnist in this sermon focusing on the Fig-Leaves Adam and Eve use to cover themselves after acquiring the knowledge of shame. He shares his views on how a fig-leaf, a pure and beautiful form of vegetation, can’t possibly shield Man from his loss of innocence. In Bonar’s mind, the one thing that can save us from the anger and wrath of God, is the rituals we now associate closely with the Catholic faith.

Sharing his analysis of the phrase ‘go and possess the land’, Horatius Bonar reads deeply into the meaning of ownership. In some ways this entails a reflection on the biblical sense of nationalism. The Israelis, first wanderers and to some extend forced nomads, are told to settle and identify with this one place, one land, one city.

Ninteenth-century Scottish churchman and poet Horatius Bonar muses on the biblical journey from sin to sentence. Mainly remembered as a highly skilled hymnist, Bonar starts by describing a world created similar to the heavens, with perfection and beauty shaping its every detail. Once tainted by sin, the celestial path leads down and Bonar’s sermon focuses more on the darkness humanity finds itself in after falling from grace.

One of the first biblical stories we are told as children is the one of David and Goliath. We learn about the small, weak man slaying the giant with nothing but a rock. In this, Bonar compares the carnal weapons, Goliath being great of stature and physically superior, to the spiritual cloak David wears by being on the side of God.

LA APOSTASÍA es una poderosa colección de escritos clásicos que aborda uno de los temas más inquietantes del cristianismo: el abandono de la fe. A través de las penetrantes reflexiones de reconocidos teólogos como Spurgeon, Pink y Owen, esta obra desentraña las causas, señales y consecuencias de la apostasía, mientras ofrece sabiduría atemporal sobre la perseverancia de los verdaderos creyentes.