Topic Archives: General History

One by one the men who influenced the Scottish church’s history from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth are remembered in detail, inevitably drawing into the story many others who worked and worshipped with the main characters. From John Knox to William Roberson Smith, the story is one of strong beliefs and those opposing them: […]

Egypt: Keeping the Copts Subjugated On 11 May, Muslims in the village of Bimha (or Bamha) in Ayat district (around 70 kilometres south Cairo) left their mosques after Friday prayers, armed and zealous for jihad against the indigenous Coptic Christian community and their solitary, partially built church. The violent Muslim pogrom in Bimha bears the […]

Since December 2005 we have been undergoing major changes and facing new challenges. On December 31st 2005 I completed 32 years of service with Christian Witness to Israel. Since then I have been serving the church and those of the publications programs assumed by the church when I left CWI. A good deal of time […]

Arianne Arianne* had heard something of the Gospel in a congregation some distance away from us, but in terms that were even further away. All she needed to do was to recognize that God existed, that he loved her and that Jesus is the Messiah, sent to Israel in fulfilment of divine promises. There was […]

[I wrote this letter recently to a friend who is now living in Canada, who asked the reasons for the spiritual decline in Europe.] You ask, “why the decline?”, and have waited patiently for my response. I don’t know the book you mentioned and would not feel it had much to say to me … […]

In a corner of the Churchyard at Montgomery, Wales, is a space known as The Robber’s Grave. There lie the remains of a young man named JOHN NEWTON, (not the hymnwriter) who was hanged in 1821 at Montgomery for highway robbery. In token of his innocence he asserted, “The grass for one generation at least […]

The situation that we find ourselves in, historically, is not a happy one. Let me begin by saying I hope that you are well convinced that freedom is founded upon Christianity. Our Saviour tells us very plainly: it is only if the Son shall make you free that you shall be free indeed. There has […]

Missionaries in Mali announce that the New Testament is now available in the Maasina Fulfulde language, making the gospel story accessible to more than 1 million Fulfulde Malians who have never seen the Bible written in their native tongue. Fulfulde is spoken in some form in 17 African countries. Numerous dialects make exact communication in […]

As I sit at my desk typing this letter, I have in front of me an austere looking volume bound in grey cloth with a black label on the spine. The gold lettering on the label proclaims the title: Banner of Truth, Vol 1, Issues 1-16.1 I bought the book a few weeks ago. I […]

JAMES BARRY 1641-1719 : THE ONLY REFUGE OF THE TROUBLED SOUL The All-Sufficiency of Christ in the Life and Writings of James Barry (1641-1719) by David N Samuel James Barry, I believe, exemplifies in a remarkable way, in his life and writings, this great truth of the Christian faith – the all-sufficiency of Christ as […]

JOHN BUNYAN AT THE FUNERAL OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER There could be no greater contrast then the funeral services of the Queen Mother and that of her grand-daughter-in-law, Lady Diana the Princess of Wales. The Order of Service for Tuesday 9 April 2002 at 11.30 in Westminster Abbey has just been […]

ALLEN GARDINER COMMEMORATED They were the first Protestant missionaries to attempt to make Christ known to the indigenous people of South America. In Faith Cook’s “Singing in the Fire” (Banner of Truth) the heroic story of Captain Allen Gardiner is recorded, as one of fourteen biographical sketches. It is the most accessible record of that […]

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 […]

CHRISTIAN SOCIETY IN AMERICA: GOD WILL DIRECT THE BULLET! When the Mayflower began her nine weeks’ voyage across the Atlantic in September, 1620, the intention of her passengers was ‘to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia’ under which description they had in view land around Manhattan Island at the mouth of […]

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 […]