Friday, July 24, 2026

It is the 24th of July 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Let’s hear it for late-bloomers. And for coffee houses. And for the Enlightenment and all the good and bad stuff that came out of that movement which, in many ways, made the modern world.

 

All of this is prelude to our figure today- a character you have likely never heard of, but one who brings together these threads and published one of the most important, for its time, books on the history of the Bible and early church.

 

He was Nathaniel Lardner- born to Richard and Hannah Lardner in the English county of Kent in 1684. His father was a dissenting minister- that is, since the Church of England had been established, any other type of Protestant- Presbyterian, Baptist, etc.- would be labeled a “dissenter”. There were bans on going to schools run by the church of England. And so Nathaniel, like many, headed to school in the more tolerant Netherlands.

 

He left in 1699 and returned home in 1703 with a letter of commendation from his teachers. He was determined, it seems, to be a dissenting pastor. But his life is obscure between 1703 and 1709. It was then, at the age of 25, that he gave his first sermon at the dissenting congregation in Stoke-Newington. It was, by a few accounts, not very good. He was monotone. He would eventually gain employment as the personal tutor to the son of the widow Lady Treby. Her husband had been a Lord Chief Justice, and Nathaniel was brought into their house to teach their son. This seems to have been a happy time; they traveled in Europe, and he worked for the family until 1721- when Nathaniel was about 35 and Lady Treby died. Within 2 years, her son died, grieving Nathaniel. And, then, in 1724 he noticed that when his pastor preached “I was not able to hear anything he said, nor so much as the sound of his voice… when I sit in the pulpit, and the congregation is singing I can hardly tell whether they are singing or not”. He was going deaf.

 

Nonetheless, he began perhaps the most important part of his long stalling career by going to the coffee houses. These were all the rage across Enlightenment Europe- sip on the newest beverages, which instead of making one drunk, can lead to activity and excitement. The Enlightenment- for good and ill- was born as much out of the coffee house as it was the University. And it was at Chews Coffee House in Bow Lane Cheapside, on Mondays and Thursdays, that Nathaniel met with clergymen and others, where they began to debate the questions of the day. For many of the ministers there was reluctance to allow the Biblical record to be put to the new tests of historical and scientific accuracy. Landford began work on his life’s work- a multi-volume series published over decades entitled “The Credibility of the Gospel History, or the facts mentioned in the New Testament confirmed by passages of ancient authors who were contemporary with our Savior, or his Apostles, or lived Near Their Time”. He would add to this a similar work looking at the Old Testament and the likes of Josephus. He would become well known beyond the dissenting groups- other theologians, even non-Christians, appreciated the painstaking work of collecting the writings and works of writers from the 1st century and then going both backward and forward in time.

 

Nathaniel Lardner was still downtrodden over his inability to work as a pastor- what he believed was the end goal of his work and training. In 1729 he was asked to give a sermon at the Crouched Friars assembly of dissenters in London. There, at 45 years of age, he was finally asked to become a pastor (a co-pastor). He would serve at that church for the rest of his life, but was found most useful as an author and pamphleteer, his deafness getting so bad that he was very hard to understand from the pulpit.

 

But his pen kept working- he is one of the pioneers of a kind of historical-critical approach to the Bible and apologetics, making the argument that philosophical and dogmatic arguments for the truth of the Christian religion might be helpful, but what was most necessary was the painstaking work of historical research. His works would be collected in an 11-volume collection with an anonymous biographical sketch. His works aren’t consulted much today, as our discoveries and knowledge of the past have grown by leaps and bounds since the 1700s. Nevertheless, we should remember the late bloomer- first parish at 45, the underrated Coffee House- where he was inspired, and the early work of Christian History and apologetics of Nathaniel Lardner. Born in 1864, he died on this, the 24th of July in 1768- he was 84 years old.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 105:

Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
 make known among the nations what he has done.

2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
 tell of all his wonderful acts.

3 Glory in his holy name;
 let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

4 Look to the Lord and his strength;
 seek his face always.

5 Remember the wonders he has done,
 his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,

6 you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,
 his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.

7 He is the Lord our God;
 his judgments are in all the earth.

8 He remembers his covenant forever,
 the promise he made, for a thousand generations,

9 the covenant he made with Abraham,
 the oath he swore to Isaac.

10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
 to Israel as an everlasting covenant:

11 “To you I will give the land of Canaan
 as the portion you will inherit.”

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 24th of July 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who thinks Coffee is usually the answer… and he might just have something for you… Check the show notes. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who drinks one cup with creamer first thing with a fizzy water followed by 3 or 4 cups black, every morning… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.