Yearly Archives: 2008

How blessed I was to be able to join a visit to my son and daughter-in-law and their children with attendance at the annual Banner Conference in Leicester. Are there any other conferences its equal in the world? Perhaps there are, such as our own Grace Ministers’ Conferences every January here in South Africa. The […]

Several years ago while living in Jerusalem I noticed how the Jews kept the Sabbath. Around 3 p.m. on Friday afternoons the weekend rush hour traffic would increase as workers made their way home. Most of the working mothers were trying to arrive at the market in time to buy needed supplies. This frenzied pace […]

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. [Ephesians 4:25] I had the privilege recently of speaking with Dr. Peter Jones at the Connecticut Valley Conference on Reformed Theology and the topic was modern paganism. My job was simply to prepare the way […]

A book entitled Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson has just been written by D. A. Carson, and published by Crossway Books (2008, 160 pp, pbk, $15.99, ISBN 978 1 43350 199 6). For most gospel labourers, the title of this book will need no explanation. It is the […]

Over the past weeks I have been reading through The Letter to the Hebrews. It has, as ever, been a fascinating, sobering and richly encouraging read. The Letter, as you will know, was written to Hebrew Christians who had become influenced by false teaching and were under pressure to give up on Christ and return […]

‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.’ [Ephesians 5:25-27] For fifty years I have believed that […]

In his address ‘Modern Theories of the Atonement,’ given in 1902, B. B. Warfield observed the revolt against penal substitution that gained momentum in the late nineteenth century. He noted that this revolt prompted an immediate and equally powerful defence. However, ‘this defense only stemmed the tide, it did not succeed in rolling it back.’ […]

Day One GWYNN WILLIAMS – OPENING SERMON Gwynn Williams from the Welsh Evangelical Church in Cardiff based his opening sermon on the text I Thessalonians 1:5, ‘Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.’ A Christian in the small Welsh town of […]

Day Three JOEL BEEKE (3) – PREACHING CHRIST’S OFFICES Luke 22:31 – The temptations of Peter. The threefold office of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be applied to our hearts by the Spirit. Our Lord is the only one who can meet our needs, and he does so as prophet, priest and king. As […]

We are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. [2 Corinthians 2:15.] I recently was making my weekly evangelistic visits at a rehab centre and introduced myself to a man recuperating from knee replacement surgery. We talked a while about his surgery and recovery […]

  The Divine Spiration of Scripture: Challenging Evangelical Perspectives   by A.T.B. McGowan Apollos (an imprint of Inter-Varsity Press), 2007, 229pp. £14.99, ISBN: 978-1-84474-220-2 In this slender volume Dr. McGowan has given us much to consider. He offers historical and theological surveys: of the Enlightenment, the rise and fall of liberal theology, the influence of […]

This article provides a number of links to blogs where comments on or reviews of Banner of Truth titles have been posted. The previous article in the series was added to the website on 19 February 2008. This one covers web reviews posted since that time. The views expressed are of course those of the […]

To those of us who were blessed to be born in the latter half of the twentieth century, it seems unthinkable that there was a time when quality Reformed literature was not readily available on demand. John J. Murray’s book Catch the Vision [Evangelical Press, 2007] traces the roots of those privileges, showing the disfavour […]

‘Berkhof’ – it has a certain ring of defiance about it, an abbreviation for an almost 1,000 page volume of systematic theology which is considered a touchstone of orthodoxy, but . . . ‘surely a bit out of date’ . . . ‘Dutch’ . . . ‘not a note about revival’ . . . ‘rather […]

“Unto a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13) Eric Liddell, the Scottish missionary and Olympic gold medal winner, while serving the Lord in China, often told his students to live a sincere life. He pointed out that our word sincere comes from two Latin […]