Topic Archives: Church Issues/Unity

Recently I read the large two volume official biography of John Stott written by Timothy Dudley-Smith. The books are interesting because of the account they give of many events, organisations and people in the British evangelical scene during the second half of the twentieth century. There is no doubting the huge impact Stott made in […]

. . . but to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word. Isaiah 66:2 When the Puritans came to the Massachusetts Bay in 1630 under the leadership of John Winthrop, they came humbly, expectantly, seeking earnestly to fear and honour God, to […]

Here is a clarion call to Christians to hold fast to the true Gospel – that is that we are saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. The 8 chapters in the book have been taken from two works of the Victorian minister: Knots Untied and Home Truths. They cover subjects such as […]

The Great Ejection 1662: Today’s Evangelicalism Rooted in Puritan Persecution By Gary Brady Darlington: Evangelical Press, September 2012 176 pages, paperback, £8.99 ISBN: 978 0 85234 802 4 2012 has been a year of achievement and celebration in the United Kingdom. Highlights of the year have undoubtedly been the centenary of the sinking of RMS […]

On Monday 10th September 2012 I had the privilege of attending a minister’s fraternal in Mount Merrion Free Presbyterian Church, Belfast, where the guest speaker was Dr Joel Beeke. Dr Beeke is minister of the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. The subject he had chosen to […]

The annual meeting of the Mbuma Zending, of Malawi, was held as usual on April 30, and the venue this year was the spacious Brabanthallen in the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. This date is always chosen as it coincides with the public holiday observed annually in Holland in celebration of the Queen’s birthday. When presumably most […]

PSALM 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? This Psalm refers to some unknown episode in the life of David, when such terrible things were taking place that it seemed that ‘the foundations’ of society were being destroyed. So, he cries out in grief in the third verse: ‘If the foundations […]

Can women be ordained to Christian ministry? Should they be bishops or hold office as pastor/teachers in the 21st century? These and many other related questions, are being asked and acted upon in an increasingly fluid, controversial, and divisive atmosphere within the professing Christian Church. A fresh appreciation in the light of contemporary church disorder […]

The text of a letter written by Charles Hodge of Princeton Theological Seminary on behalf of the two General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, explaining why the Pope’s invitation to Protestants to send delegates to the first Vatican Council of 1869-70 was being declined. To Pius the Ninth, Bishop of Rome, By […]

Some students wore hats in our services. Some were from Holland and others came from similar congregations where all the women wear hats. Another student was convicted by this and began to raise the subject with her friends and finally came to me. ‘You say you believe the Bible, but here is plain teaching in […]

If anyone in the ancient world wanted to know how to write, he read Marcus Fabius Quintilianus’ Institutio Oratorio. Among other things, Among other things, Marcus pleaded that if you wanted to win the assent of your readers you must begin with a ‘courteous and natural opening.’ Sounds like sane advice. However, when Paul wrote […]

EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTERS 8 & 9 OF IAIN H. MURRAY’S Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace1 The position of the mixed denominations in the 1960s was far from static. On account of the ecumenical movement, the whole future of denominations was under discussion as it had never been before. When ML-J raised the great Reformation question, ‘What […]

Events in 1732 made Ebenezer Erskine consider the time ‘a day of trouble’. Twenty years had passed since Parliament had reimposed patronage on the Church of Scotland. This meant that the right to nominate a minister for a vacant congregation lay with, normally, a local landowner. Now the 1732 General Assembly had agreed, in the […]

GD: Hello Garry Williams and welcome to Exiled Preacher. Please tell us a little about yourself. GW: I became a Christian aged 17 through studying RS A Level, which I took by ‘chance’ as my third subject, on a whim really. But we studied John’s Gospel verse by verse and the Reformation, so I came […]

At the annual assembly of the Association of Evangelical Churches in Wales, Ian Parry, pastor of the Bay Church in Cardiff, delivered a paper on the above subject and then led a seminar in a discussion of it. The following is a summary of what he said. 1) We need to UNDERSTAND our traditions. Where […]