For the Puritan, the Bible is the most valuable thing that this world affords.

Puritanism was about reforming all of life under the supreme authority of the Bible,

and that was something that would put the fear of God into the authorities.

The highest authority in the Christian life is God's Word, the Bible,

because as Paul teaches, it is God breathed.

It's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

And we see that zeal so clearly in the life of the Puritans.

Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thank you for joining us today for renewing your mind.

This week, Michael Reeves has been helping us see the hand of God in England in the 16th century,

and he spent most of his time focusing on kings and queens.

But today, he will shine a spotlight on a group of people who,

despite the image that might come to mind when you think of them,

had a zeal, a passion to obey God,

and for many of them had a gospel that could not be sweeter.

Here's Michael Reeves.

In this lecture, what we're going to do is we're going to press in a little bit

to see who were these Puritans.

Who were they?

Now Puritan, the word has always been more of a weapon than a real description.

For the very small minority today,

Puritan is used as a description of a united golden team with impeccable spiritual theological credentials,

something that's not strictly true, as we'll see.

...