Resources

God used the Apostle Paul on his third missionary journey, around A.D. 58, to plant the church in Ephesus, in the Roman province of Asia Minor, modern day western Turkey. Ephesus was a fruitful church which God used to plant many other churches in the region. Mighty societal impact resulted from the Holy Spirit coming […]

We are living in days when there seems to be a flat calm on the church scene in the United Kingdom. How can we explain the current situation? We may find an answer to this by considering church history. Some people would regard times of peace and quiet as desirable and times of controversy as […]

A review by Ian S. Barter of Amy Carmichael: ‘Beauty for Ashes’ – A Biography by Iain H. Murray.1 The name of Amy Carmichael will always be associated with The Dohnavur Fellowship that she founded in the south of India more than 100 years ago. In 1895 at the age of 27 she arrived in […]

Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Jeremiah Lanphier was born in upstate New York in 1809 and moved to the city of New York as a young man where he engaged in the mercantile industry. In 1845 he was converted as he heard the preaching of the gospel at the Broadway Tabernacle, a church built […]

It is not difficult to appreciate the great strengths of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the early nineteenth century. It comprised of many solid, faithful congregations where the truths of the Bible were honoured and clearly taught; and where, from time to time, sudden bursts of religious awakening added large numbers of people to the […]

Francis of Assisi has little to answer for. Although the quotation of ‘preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary’ has been attributed to him, the historical truth of the matter is that Francis was a prolific gospel preacher.1 However, in a contemporary world of increasing political (and seemingly ecclesiastical) correctness, the unspeaking […]

A review by Dr J. Barry Shucksmith of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, translated by Robert White.1 John Calvin was the most eminent of all the 16th century Reformers. He was born at Noyon, 10th July, 1509. He trained to be a lawyer but being convinced of the errors of Rome, he turned […]

On Sunday November 23rd 2013, the bones of St Peter were presented to the world for the first time at a public Mass. According to the Catholic Herald it was ‘wonderful and almost unbelievable . . . a man from Argentina has reintroduced us to his predecessor, a Galilean fisherman born millennia ago’. Eight bone […]

This article was published as a ‘Letter from the Manse’ in the church magazine of Grace Baptist Church, Stockport, Cheshire (March 2015). I spent last week with seventeen other men. We came together for a ‘study week’ and we studied. Seven hours together each day around the conference table and personal assignments to be completed […]

The theme for this year’s Leicester Ministers’ Conference is ‘The Sufferings of this Present Time’. To whet your appetite, some of our speakers here introduce the messages they will be bringing . . . Gary Brady Gary Brady is pastor of Childs Hill Baptist Church in London, and will bring the opening message of the […]

I suppose if we had asked around our churches regarding what we would most like to see in 2015 one prominent answer would be a national revival of true religion. Of course, many definitions could be given of revival, although most of them would be related to historical records, which means that there is the […]

‘an accessible, edifying book on Scripture … an easy-to-read, straightforward guide to understanding and profitably using God’s Word.’ – Derek J. Brown on Sinclair B. Ferguson’s From the Mouth of God: Trusting, Reading, and Applying the Bible . In the Notes below are links to selected online reviews of Banner titles, mostly posted January/February 2015. […]

A review by Greg Goswell of Covenant and Commandment: Works, obedience and faithfulness in the Christian life (New Studies in Biblical Theology, No. 33) by Bradley G. Green [Nottingham: IVP, 2014], 192pp, paperback, $16.28/£12.99, ISBN 978 1 78359 1 664. The latest volume in the popular and reliable New Studies in Biblical Theology series is […]

John Calvin preached 200 sermons on Deuteronomy. They have been dropped down the memory hole. Calvinist seminary professors have never heard of them, let alone read them. Until today, they had an excuse. Not any longer. In 1583, a translation of them appeared in English. This was ignored, then forgotten. Over four centuries later (1987), […]

‘Comfort with the comfort with which you were comforted.’ My husband Dennis lay in the Intensive Care Unit at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. Surgery had led to his inclusion in the 10% who develop complications, leaving me both bewildered and overwhelmed. Day followed day with little improvement. I thought, ‘What if I lose him?’ […]