Topic Archives: Theology

This is about the person who has given his name to Christmas, Jesus Christ. It will only take you a few moments to read. A single word— special—sums up why you shouldn’t grudge the time. Special person Had you seen Jesus after he was born in Bethlehem special is not the word that would have […]

The following excerpt is taken from Chapter 2 of Iain H. Murray’s The Forgotten Spurgeon (pages 46–64). Mr Spurgeon is a Calvinist, which few of the dissenting ministers in London now are. He preaches salvation, not of man’s free will, but of the Lord’s good will, which few in London, it is to be feared, […]

The following excerpt is from Chapter IV of Robert H. Ireland’s Light from Calvary: The Seven Last Words of Jesus, first published in 1873 and out this summer in a Banner edition.   And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, […]

The following, which appeared in Issues 611–612 of the Banner of Truth Magazine (Aug–Sep 2014) is from John Angell James, The Anxious Inquirer After Salvation Directed and Encouraged*. We are grateful to Mr Martyn Jolly for bringing this extract to our attention and supplying the text. It may seem strange to some persons, that I […]

The following excerpt is taken from Chapter 2 of Archibald Alexander’s Thoughts on Religious Experience. That conviction of sin is a necessary part of experimental religion, all will admit; but there is one question respecting this matter, concerning which there may be much doubt; and that is, whether a law-work, prior to regeneration, is necessary; […]

The following excerpt is taken from Chapter 2 of Archibald Alexander’s Thoughts on Religious Experience. It is an interesting question whether now there are any persons sanctified from the womb. If the communication of grace ever took place at so early a period of human existence, there is no reason why it should not now […]

To assert that the message of the cross is wholly one of divine love (as some have done) is to destroy its meaning. For it is only in the recognition of the holiness of God that the sufferings of Christ, which brought forth the cry, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,’ can […]

Think about someone being selected and sent to do an especially difficult job. Some major crisis has arisen, or some massive problem needs to be tackled, and it requires the knowledge, the experience, the skill-set, the leadership that they so remarkably possess. It was like that with Jesus. Entrusted to him by God the Father […]

The following words, so contemporary in their feeling and import, come from John Kennedy (presumably of Dingwall), and were published in the 6th Issue of the Banner of Truth Magazine (May, 1957). In times such as ours it is easy to seem a bigot, if one keeps a firm hold of truth, and is careful […]

The following was an address delivered at the “Religious Conference,” held in the Theo­logical Seminary, Princeton, on October 13, 1902. Reprinted from The Princeton Theological Review, i. 1903, pp. 81-92. The article forms a part of Warfield’s Studies in Theology (1932, rep. Banner of Truth, 1988), which is currently out of print. WE may as […]

The following was first published in the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood 6, no. 1 (2001): 21-23. It can be found on the Grace to You website here, and was first republished on the Banner website on March 1, 2000. Near the end of his life, Augustine of Hippo meticulously reviewed everything he had […]

The following is excerpted from Chapter 3 of Iain Murray’s book The Forgotten Spurgeon, which is entitled ‘Arminianism Against Scripture’. I believe that very much of current Arminianism is simply ignorance of gospel doctrine. C. H. S., Sermons, 11, 29 When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and […]

What would you say is the fundamental doctrine of the Christian Faith? For many of us, the instinctive answer would be, ‘justification by faith alone, in Christ alone’. There is no doubt, or should be no doubt, that this is a biblical and evangelical fundamental. Didn’t Martin Luther describe justification by faith alone, in Christ […]

One of the remarkable features of the early church was its preoccupation with the doctrine of God. Initially the concern of men like Athanasius (300-371) was to establish and defend the deity of Christ against men like Arius who taught that Jesus was a creature. Athanasius understood that if Jesus was not God in the […]

The following passage is excerpted from Richard Alderson’s No Holiness, No Heaven: Antinomianism Today (BoT., 1986, rep. 2001). In it, Alderson speaks to the issue of antinomianism and its proponents. They have their (false) prophets of love whose favourite texts are I John 4:8 (‘God is love’) and Romans 13:8 (‘Love one another; for he […]