Resources by Thomas, Geoff

OTHERS LABOURED: WE ENTERED INTO THEIR LABOURS As a congregation we inherited a living tradition of historic Christian teaching enfleshed in the lives of hundreds of people across the Principality. When I returned to Wales from three years’ study in America in 1964 I did not come into a wilderness. I came into a prepared […]

WHY THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF COHABITATION SHOULD NOT BE EXTENDED Marriage is based on lifelong commitment and discharges these mutually beneficial tasks more effectively than cohabitation A bill has been introduced in parliament by Lord Lester of Herne Hill calling for the legal protection of cohabitation to be extended. It comes at a time when […]

THE NEW INFALLIBILITY AND INQUISITION: THE ESCHATOLOGY OF DISASTER It’s unrealistic to say that everything is getting better. But we need to get a sense of priority. For example, the level of pollutants is dropping dramatically in the developed world. The future, as taught by the nabobs of the international environmental movement, is that the […]

THE CAREY CONFERENCE: January 8 – 11 Swanwick. God uses that which the world despises to know God through his Son Over 100 people gathered for the annual Carey Conference at Swanwick from January 8-11. The first evening speaker was Earl Blackburn of Los Angeles who spoke on the Theology of the Cross. Earl Blackburn […]

“BUT…YOU MUSTN’T BLAME YOURSELF.” Since the Enlightenment the idea of ‘sin’ – an offence against God – was replaced by the idea of crime – an offence against man, today men find it difficult to attribute the act of sinning to human behaviour Fred Furedi’s brilliantly perceptive article begins, “One upon a time there were […]

RICHARD GREENHAM AND THE COUNSELLING OF TROUBLED SOULS Greenham was a pastoral counsellor of uncommon skill The fifth lecture at the Westminster Conference 2001 was given by Stanley Jebb of Truro on “Richard Greenham and the Counselling of Troubled Souls.” We have learned about Greenham through J.I.Packer’s admiration for him. He has told us about […]

THE SERAPHIC SAMUEL PEARCE Pearce hoped to join him overseas but his own church were united that he was needed more in England. So he spent his brief ministry in Birmingham. The closing paper of the Westminster Conference was given by Dr Robert Oliver the professor of Church History at the London Theological Seminary and […]

RICHARD SIBBES AND THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER ‘Of this blest man, let this just praise be given: heaven was in him, before he was in heaven.’ The third paper at the Westminster Conference 2001 was given by Paul Oliver co-pastor with his father at Bradford on Avon. It was on the theme “The Returning Backslider” a […]

PHILIP DODDRIDGE AND THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION His manual of theology was considered a beacon of orthodoxy The fourth paper given at the Westminster Conference 2001 was on “Philip Doddridge and Theological Education.” It was delivered by Robert Strivens of Banbury. What a fascinating subject. There are really two themes present here, the first being Doddridge himself […]

DON’T STOP PREACHING Where are the preachers of the gospel in our land today? There are plenty of performers, but where are the proclaimers? From two different sources this week we received exhortations about continuing to believe in preaching. I was struck with these words of Phil Eveson, the Principal of the London Theological Seminary, […]

PREACHING THE MORAL LAW – REFORMERS AND PURITANS There is the importance of understanding the biblical antithesis of law and gospel The annual Westminster Conference was held at Westminster Chapel London on December 11 and 12. The usual number of men and women were present, over two hundred, and mainly men. As we walked to […]

THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD JOHN 19:1 “THEN PILATE TOOK JESUS AND HAD HIM FLOGGED”. The Word from God affirms that ‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins’, and that points to something absolutely basic and fundamental in the very nature of who God is, the being of God. It is eloquent […]

IF THEY DO NOT DO WHAT IS RIGHT, THERE MAY BE A MIGHTY BATTLE Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was born at ‘Grasmere’ near Lexington, Kentucky, one hundred and fifty years ago this year on 5th November 1851. He died in February 1921 12 weeks after the death of Abraham Kuyper and 22 weeks before the death […]

‘THOU’ SHOULD BE PRESERVED IN HYMNS If some hymn-writers today are more at peace and more conscious of God’s glory using the pronoun ‘you’ in hymns then we have few objections to their doing so and can sincerely sing good modern hymns and metrical versions of the psalms and paraphrases referring to God as ‘you’, […]

Forty years ago this month, on Labor Day 1961, the German cargo boat Carl Fritzen, which I had boarded at the Liverpool docks 11 days earlier, began its entry into Chesapeake Bay. We sailed past the beach where the Jamestown settlers had landed in 1607 where they gave thanks to God on the sands for […]