Resources by Barnes, Peter

When coming to consider plagues throughout history and some Christian responses, it is appropriate to begin with this extract from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer: O Almighty God, who in thy wrath did send a plague upon thine own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron; and also, in […]

It is worth asking the question: What difference does it make to believe in the resurrection of Christ, as opposed to not believing it? Death is clearly the great reality and the great leveller of life. Fools die and wise men die — as do kings and paupers, celebrities and nonentities. Princess Diana dies, and so too Kerry Packer […]

It has long been observed that the eye sees all else but not itself. As a preacher, I am sometimes called upon to use a translator. Issues like accents and mannerisms are raised, and my default position is that I have none. It is everybody else who has an accent and some unusual mannerisms. As […]

It is worth asking the question: What difference does it make to believe in the resurrection of Christ, as opposed to not believing it? Death is clearly the great reality and the great leveller of life. Fools die and wise men die – as do kings and paupers, celebrities and nonentities. Princess Diana dies, and so too Kerry Packer […]

Western  society  is  beset  with  slogans  of  one  kind  or  another.  There  can  be  few  societies  which  have  had  to  face  so  many.  Not  that  previous  generations  have  not  had  to  respond  to  them.  Virgil  spoke  to  the  ancient  world  of  ‘Eternal  Rome’,  and  people  were  meant  to  be  grateful  that  the  Roman  Empire  would  […]

There  is  much  debate  in  the  modern  church  about  what  exactly  is  her  mission.  Often  the  answer  that  is  given  is  not  so  much  wrong  as  lop-sided,  and  exaggerated  implications  and  conclusions  are  drawn  from  that.  There  are  probably  three  main  views:  the  Church  exists  to  glorify  God;  the  Church  exists  to  build  up  the  […]

A review by Peter Barnes of J. C. Ryle’s Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots.1 No one has written more simply, more graciously, and more helpfully than J. C. Ryle, and the 21 chapters which constitute the full edition of Holiness (the enlarged 1879 edition which expanded the 1877 edition) reveal Ryle at his […]

To live by faith is surely the hardest thing in the world. As Calvin put it: Our circumstances are all in opposition to the promises of God. He promises us immortality: yet we are surrounded by mortality and corruption. He declares that He accounts us just: yet we are covered with sins. He testifies that […]

By 1812 William Carey, the great Baptist missionary and linguist, had been in India for nineteen years. He had waited seven and a half years before he saw the first Indian convert from Hinduism to Christianity. Then the work seemed to accelerate, but in 1812 a fire broke out which destroyed the printing house, with […]

Peter Barnes (Revesby Presbyterian Church, Australia) As Timothy prepared to leave Ephesus in order to meet Paul in prison at Rome, the great apostle asked him to bring the cloak that he had left in Troas and also the books, especially (or perhaps "that is") the parchments (2 Tim.4:13). Almost fifteen hundred years later, William […]