Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal
Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

      Benjamin Franklin was an important conservative figure in the American Restoration Movement, especially as the leading antebellum conservative in the northern United States branch of the movement. He is notable as the early and lifelong mentor of Daniel Sommer, whose support of the 1889 Sand Creek Declaration set in motion events which led to the formal division of the Churches of Christ from the Disciples of Christ in 1906.

      According to contemporary biographies "His early religious training was according to the Methodist faith, though he never belonged to any church until he united with the Disciples."

      In 1856, Franklin began to publish the ultra-conservative American Christian Review, which he published until his death in 1878. Its influence, initially considerable, was said to have waned following the American Civil War. Franklin undertook a rigorous program of publication correspondence, and traveling lectures which took him to "many" U. S. states and Canada.

      Franklin's last move was to Anderson, Indiana, where he lived from 1864 until his death.

... Show more
Benjamin Franklin

New Testament Example Of Conversion

COMMENCING Acts viii:26, a report is found of the conversion of the distinguished officer of state, the treasurer of Queen Candace. The title given to this book, in the common version of the New Testament, is incorrect. It is not the Acts of the apostles, but only some acts, or transactions, of some... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

Persecution

Why was the primitive church persecuted? Why were the first christians persecuted? Why is the true church now persecuted? Why are the christians now persecuted? THE Head of the Church and the Leader of the first Christians "was despised and rejected by men." His enemies pursued him, pushed their mal... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

Prayer

THERE is probably no better test of faith than prayer. Men that have no faith do not pray. There can be no reason in praying without faith. To a man utterly without faith there can be no more empty and unmeaning thing practiced by human beings than prayer. To such a man the suppliant appears to be s... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

Predestination and the Foreknowledge of God

"According as he has chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace,... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

Remission Of Sins

THE Lord has determined that all, in all unregenerated state, are under sin, that he might have mercy upon all. He has concluded that all, who have never been brought to Christ, are in unbelief. The prophet of the Lord says: "They have all gone out of the way;" that "there are none that do good: no ... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Action Of Baptism

IT should be distinctly understood that the subject here introduced is of no importance, only connected with the gospel in man's salvation, and with a proper subject. To a man without faith it is a matter of no consequence. To him there is not a more empty and unmeaning thing in the world than bapti... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

Union of Christians

"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one immersion, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through and in you all." --EPH. iv: 4-6. THE subject in hand is the union of the people of God. It is necessary to have a clear... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Adaptation of the Bible to Man

"All scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished for every good work." --2 TIM. iii: 16. THE leading theme of this discourse, is, the adaptation of the Bible... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Calling Of The Gentiles

To any one in our time, with a little acquaintance with the Scriptures, it is a matter of profound astonishment that from the time of the calling of Abraham till the transaction recorded in the tenth chapter of Acts, not a living man ever understood that the promise to Abraham, or, rather, that the ... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

What Think Ye Of Christ

THIS opens the way for an inquiry of the highest importance, "What think you of Christ?" This leads to another, limiting the inquiry to one point, Whose Son is he? Of all the inquiries propounded to men, these are the most important, fundamental and all-engrossing. They penetrate down into the very ... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Cause Of Multitudes Becoming Christians In The Time Of The Apostles

IT is what is called an axiomatic truth, that there never was an effect without a cause. It is settled among men of reason, that there never can be an effect without a cause. There may be, and often are, effects where we can not see the cause, or determine what it is, but there is, nevertheless, a c... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Church--Its Purity

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." --1 COR. xiii: 1. THIS brief expression is selected from a lengthy letter of the apostle Paul to the Church in Corinth, because it contains a chief point in an important ep... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Conversion Of Saul Of Tarsus

IN many respects, and it may be that, in the highest sense, Paul was the most distinguished man that was ever in the Church of Christ. No man, at this day, can tell the difference there would have been in this world if Paul had not lived in it. He was a young man of distinction and note before he wa... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Course to Pursue to be Infallibly Safe

"Enter in at the strait gate." --Matt. vii:13. IT IS a circumstance not to be denied, that immense confusion exists in the public mind touching the way of salvation. No matter whether the cause of this confusion can be pointed out or not, the fact of its existence can not be denied. It is also a fac... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Different Things to Which Salvation is Ascribed in the New Testament

"By grace are you saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." --EPH. ii: 8. THIS text is selected, because it contains the clear statement concerning our salvation, that it is by grace and through faith. The theme for this discou... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Kingdom of God

THE purpose of this article is to answer the following questions: I. What is the kingdom of God? II. Was the kingdom of God fully established before the ascension of Christ to heaven? III. Has the kingdom of God yet come, or been established? Without preliminary or ceremony, let attention be directe... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Necessity of Regeneration

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." --MATT. v: 8. THE words selected and read, are not designed as a text, in the popular sense, but merely as a starting-point, in discussing a great theme--the necessity of regeneration, or, which is the same, simply the necessity of turning to ... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Progress Of Religious Reformation

WHEN we look through the account given in the Bible, and to the reports from other sources, of the wonderful rise and triumphant march of the religion of Christ, first in Judea, then in Samaria, thence to Cesarea, and, still later, along the coasts and the entire length of the Mediterranean Sea, and... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Punishment After Death of Those Who Die In Their Sins

"The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment, to be punished." --2 PET. ii: 9. THE theme selected for this discourse is one of transcendent importance to every accountable human being. All who have any respect for the Bible speak and t... Read More
Benjamin Franklin

The Second Coming of Christ and the Destruction of the World

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth, and the works that are in it, shall be burned up." --2 PET. iii: 10. THE first thing to which the attention of the hearer is invited, ... Read More

Group of Brands