Yearly Archives: 2014

The Christian life is a life of faith. More accurately, the Christian life is a life of faith in God. It is the object of faith that gives faith its lustre, and nothing more enriches, ennobles, and establishes faith than the God who made the heavens and the earth, who reigns in unrivalled splendour over […]

When your child learns to write, he is ready to begin taking sermon notes. Say, what? Let’s say that little George is 4 or 5 or 6 years old and he knows how to write his name and how to write all of his letters. Now he can get started! All you need is a […]

William Booth (1829-1912) is best known as the founder of the Salvation Army, an organization devoted to feeding and clothing the destitute. Beginning as a Christian mission in London’s East End, it was renamed in 1878, and waged war on two fronts – against the biting pinch of poverty, and the degrading power of sin, […]

‘And he went outside and wept bitterly’. It is Matthew’s final word about Peter. He has faithfully recorded the details of Peter’s sin – the warning that preceded it, the pride in which it originated, the sin itself in all its aggravating features – and now he speaks of the effect on Peter when the […]

Reading Benjamin Morgan Palmer is like finding a rare jewel. His gripping style, theological acuteness, pastoral brilliance, and warm sympathy with sinners combine in a way that makes his kind scarce, even among great authors. He is in the list of my top four ‘mighty men’ in the faith whom we should prioritize reading above […]

Dr. William Robinson was a minister and theologian whose life spanned most of the 20th century. He was a professor at Columbia Theological Seminary from 1926 to 1982. As a staunch believer in the doctrines of grace as set out in the Westminster Confession of Faith, Dr Robinson fought a long but ultimately unsuccessful battle […]

People were amazed and critical then and they would be exactly the same today. Here was a star of the British Olympic team, one of the favourites to win the gold medal in the 100 metres, declining to run in the heats because they were being held on a Sunday. The reason? His Christian convictions. […]

And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32). At Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit came, Peter preached with great convicting and converting power, resulting in three thousand people calling on the name of the Lord to be saved […]

We’ll come to our own day in a moment. But first, the world of Paul’s day and how there were things that many knew but failed to understand. One had to do with how people were living. All could see, for example, that in the realm of sexual behaviour, promiscuity in general and homosexuality in […]

Extracts from the chapter on ‘Adoption’ in John Murray’s Redemption – Accomplished and Applied, reprinted in a new British edition by the Trust in 2009.1 When God adopts men and women into his family he insures that not only may they have the rights and privileges of his sons and daughters but also the nature […]

‘Murray’s writing encourages the reader to be a thinking Christian, discerning the signs of the times. As a good historian he not only educates us about the past but applies to the present. As a good preacher he not only teaches us but also challenges us. As a good author he is not only clear […]

The Banner had the opportunity to sit down with Mark Johnston and ask him to tell us a little bit about his past. A Banner author of three titles , Let’s Study Colossians and Philemon, Let’s Study 2 Peter and Jude, and Let’s Study John , Mark shared with us his upbringing as a child […]

I was born in 1974 in a small village in Siberia near the city of Tumen. My name is Vitali. When I look back on my childhood I cannot remember a single happy day. This was because both my parents were alcoholics. My father hardly ever worked and when he did all the money, or […]

The disciples once asked Jesus that very question. A storm was raging, their boat was in danger of sinking, and Jesus, of all things, was asleep! Shouldn’t he have been awake and helping them? Didn’t he care if they drowned? These men are not the only disciples to have questioned Jesus’ care. Many others have […]

Romans 3:24 ‘And are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’ Some sentences are packed with meaning and this is a prime example. These words are a forceful explanation of what the wonderful truth of God’s justification is all about. Virtually every word in the sentence is important, even […]