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Craig L's Blog

Commonplace Holiness

Tag: Daniel Steele

  • Toward a Wesleyan Eschatology

    Toward a Wesleyan Eschatology

    Here’s a question that often comes up: Where do John Wesley and his early followers fit in the familiar end-time schemas of a-millennial, post-millennial and pre-millennial (and it’s pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib flavors)?

    People looking for information about this find that there is very little available. Here’s the reason: John Wesley doesn’t fit any of these schemas exactly. He has been claimed by both pre-millennialists (Christ returns to establish an age of peace and righteousness on earth) and post-millennialists (an age of peace and righteousness on Earth is established through the advancement of Christian faith, and then Christ returns). And, individual quotations from his works can be lifted out both to support or refute both viewpoints.

    First, let me note Wesley’s approach to the book of Revelation, as a way of introducing and illustrating the problem.

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  • Sanctification as a Central Theme

    Sanctification as a Central Theme

    Since this is actually another blog re-boot,  I thought it would be good to re-iterate my intentions for this web site and this blog — and for my various Internet projects.

    In other words, I’d like to take a few moments to answer the question: why am I doing this? There are days when that is quite a serious question. What has kept me at this so long, and what am I trying to accomplish? I maintain not only this blog, but a growing collection of old holiness writings, a blog drawn from the writings of Daniel Steele and a blog drawn from the writings of Thomas C. Upham. So, that’s really quite a lot.

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  • Steele: The Old Testament Witness Against Slavery (1891).

    Steele: The Old Testament Witness Against Slavery (1891).

    I have reproduced this from the Commentary on Leviticus written by Dr. Daniel Steele (1824-1914) in Whedon’s Commentary on the Old Testament. This was originally published in 1891.

    (1.) The verdict of Jehovah against chattelism, and in favor of freedom as the natural inheritance of all men, is found in the sentence of capital punishment inflicted on him who steals and sells a man, or retains him in his hand. Exodus 21:16. This statute lays the axe at the very root of chattel slavery by destroying its very germ, “the wild and guilty phantasy of property in man.” For both stealing and selling assume the fact of a property value. It is to be observed that this law is universal. Stealing a man is a crime. Exodus 21:7, is not a limitation of this universal prohibition to persons of Hebrew blood. The toleration and regulation of the system of servitude in Mosaism are by no means an endorsement of its abstract rightfulness, but rather a concession to the depravity of the times. “Servitude existed before Moses. It was no part of the mission of the Hebrew code to create it. Let it be forever admitted that the laws given of God through Moses cannot be held responsible for its existence. They found it existing, and proceeded, therefore, to modifyit; to soften its more rigid features; to extract its carnivorous teeth; to ordain that the slave had rights which the master and the nation were bound to respect — in short, to tone down the severities of the system from unendurable slavery to very tolerable servitude.” — Cowles.

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