Topic Archives: Theology

GOD’S PURPOSE ALWAYS HAS THE WELL-BEING OF HIS SERVANTS AT HEART In May 1999 my good friend Daniel Tennant gifted me the book “Conflict and Triumph”, whose cover he had designed for the Banner of Truth. It is a reprint of William Henry Green’s book, first published in 1874 under the current sub-title “The Argument […]

One of the many privileges of my seminary education was to sit at the feet of Dr. Cornelis P. Venema, professor of doctrinal studies at, and recently named president of, Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana. Seminary professors are really amazing phenomena. Although you hear them lecture for only three or four years, they remain […]

September 12, 2001 Someone asked me after our Tuesday prayer service in response to the terrorist attack, ‘Can we pray for justice, and yet love our enemy at the same time?’ The answer is yes. But let’s start with or own guilt. Christians know that if God dealt with us only according to justice, we […]

‘Grace [is] “the last best word,” the only unsullied theological word remaining in our language’ (p. 232). So writes Philip Yancey in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace? Other words, like love and charity, for instance, have all but lost their original theological meaning, but grace has managed even through years of usage in […]

It is very odd how difficult it seems for some persons to understand just what Calvinism is. And yet the matter itself presents no difficulty whatever. It is capable of being put into a single sentence; and that, one level to every religious man’s comprehension. For Calvinism is just religion in its purity. We have […]

The sovereignty of God I take to be the absolute authority, rule, and government of God in the whole of that reality that exists distinct from himself in the realms of nature and of grace. It is a concept that respects his relation to other beings and to all other being and existence. It is, […]

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.’ — Romans 10:3 ‘For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going’. . . We have, so far, been dealing with the first two verses, and have seen that certain general […]

At the end of the Banner of Truth ministers’ conference in Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania, on June 1, Sherman Isbell took me to Baltimore airport and on the way we called in at the Green Mount Cemetery to visit the grave of Dr J. Gresham Machen. He is buried next to his parents and his […]

In 1964 the Banner of Truth was encouraged by the Rev. J. Marcellus Kik of Silver Spring, Maryland, then an associate editor of Christianity Today, to republish Samuel Bolton‘s The True Bounds of Christian Freedom. It is a classic study of the law of God and its relationship to the Christian. This is the book’s […]

Left Behind has reached Wales. On Saturday April 28 the religious section of the Western Mail contained the following large block advertisement. In capital letters it announced: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CALAMITIES, FLOODS, EARTHQUAKES, TORNADOES, ETC, ETC, ETC. IS GOD SPEAKING TO US? WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? See the film LEFT BEHIND (based on the Bible book […]

The apostle Paul says, ‘Approve things that are excellent’ (Philippians 1:10). I. Evangelical Principles 1. The Absolute Supremacy of Holy Scripture Show us anything, plainly written, in that Book, we will receive it, believe it, and submit to it. Show us anything contrary to that Book, and however specious, plausible, beautiful and apparently desirable, we […]

For four decades now the Banner of Truth Trust has been committed to republishing and keeping in print the works of John Owen. All over the English-speaking world there exists testimony to the incalculable value of his biblical teaching in many vital areas of Christian doctrine and experience. For some time now, our associate editor […]

The Chairman of the University Debating Society, Gerard, attends our church on Sundays and Tuesdays. He asked me if I would take part in the weekly debate on Thursday March 15th, making the proposition ‘That this house believes in Creation rather than Evolution.’ So I said I would. How many attend, I asked. As low […]

On March 31, at Bryn-y-Groes Conference Centre, Bala in North Wales, the Associating Evangelical Churches of North Wales held a Day Conference on medical ethics. The speaker was Dr John Ling, a lecturer in the faculty of Biological Sciences at the University in Aberystwyth. He is the author of a new book entitled, Responding to […]

The first and worst cause of error that prevails in our day is spiritual pride. This is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to darken the mind and mislead […]