Matthew 24:9 - Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Bible Study & Commentary

Verse 9

Matthew 24:9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, &c. From the calamities of the nation in general, he passes to those of the Christians in particular: and indeed the former were in a great measure the occasion of the latter; famines, pestilences, earthquakes, and the like calamities, being reckoned judgments for the sins of the Christians, and the poor Christians being often maltreated and persecuted on that account, as we learn from some of the earliest apologies for the Christian religion. Now the calamities which were to befall the Christians were cruel persecutions, and we need look no further than the Acts of the Apostles for the completion of this prediction. But if we would look further, we have still a more melancholy proof of the truth of it in the persecutions under Nero, in which, not to mention numberless other Christians, those two great champions of the Christian faith, Peter and Paul, fell. Indeed, as Tertullian calls it, it was nominis prælium, a war against the very name. For though a man was possessed of every human virtue, it was crime enough if he was a Christian; so true were our Saviour’s words, that they should be hated of all nations for his name’s sake.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

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Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

One of the most eminent of the early Methodist ministers in England, Joseph Benson was born at Melmerby, in Cumberland, Jan. 25, 1748. At sixteen he became a Methodist and was converted. In 1766 Mr. Wesley appointed him classical master at Kingswood School. He devoted himself closely to philosophy and theology, studying constantly and zealously.Joseph Benson became a Methodist circuit rider in 1771. A close associate of Wesley, he was chosen to be a member of the Legal One Hundred who governed the Conference at Wesley's death and he was president of the Conference two times. As one of post-Wesley Methodism's most popular preachers, he sometimes addressed crowds of over twenty thousand. Wesley established an extensive organization, including the circuit riding system and a media or press to showcase books, pamphlets, and a monthly magazine. After the death of John Wesley, Joseph Benson took over the Methodist/Wesleyan movement and the organization that Wesley created.During the Bristol dispute of 1794 he led the conservative Church Methodists and was against moves which suggested that the Methodists were breaking ties with the Church of England; he was one of the last leaders to contend for the methods and philosophy of eighteenth-century Wesleyan Methodism. The circulation of The Methodist Magazine rose from ten thousand to twenty-four thousand per issue on his watch, and it was one of the most widely read periodicals in pre-Victorian England. He was an able writer, serving as apologist against Joseph Priestley, as biographer of John Fletcher, and as author of a multi-volume commentary on the Bible.Benson was influential in Methodism, and through the press, especially the magazine, he was able to extend his influence to non-Methodists as well. He and other Methodist leaders, through preaching and publication, disseminated their conservative social and political credo and may be credited in part with creating a climate in which the seeds of Victorianism could thrive.... Show more

One of the most eminent of the early Methodist ministers in England, Joseph Benson was born at Melmerby, in Cumberland, Jan. 25, 1748. At sixteen he became a Methodist and was converted. In 1766 Mr. Wesley appointed him classical master at Kingswood School. He devoted himself closely to philosophy and theology, studying constantly and zealously.... Show more

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