Topic Archives: Theology

In the Banner of Truth magazine, December 1971, the late S.M.Houghton wrote about the Passion Play at Oberammergau: “In recent days Protestantism has suffered invasion from the Bavarian village of Oberammergau, noted for the Passion Play which it presents to the world once in a decade, a thank-offering, as it terms it, for a deliverance […]

The heart of the reformed faith–the heart of biblical Christianity–is God-centredness: the conviction that God himself is supremely important. We define all our doctrine in a God-centred way. Sin is horrible because it is an affront to God. Salvation is wonderful because it brings glory to God. Heaven is heaven because it is the place […]

The annual Aberystwyth Conference of the Evangelical Movement of Wales takes place during the second full week of August. The preceding week is the National Eisteddfod of Wales and the succeeding week is the annual EMW Welsh language Conference which a few hundred people attend. The significance of these weeks, carefully laid out in August, […]

For part of Monday, I missed two of the sessions of the SBC pastors’ conference, attending instead one sponsored by the Center for Church Reform, a ministry developed by Mark Dever’s church in Washington, DC. Dr. Roger Nicole was the main speaker, dealing with the extent of the atonement. There were also two Q&A sessions […]

I just returned from a Reformed pastors conference here in Spain. It was refreshing to take four days out of the usual routine to meet with other workers-pastors and missionaries-of like convictions. I preached the opening message at the conference, on Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:10-22. The two main speakers were a Reformed pastor from […]

Billy Morrison spoke in our church in Aberystwyth on June 20th. I had not seen him for six or seven years when I visited the prison in Northern Ireland where he was serving twelve years for terrorist offences. His father had been a member of the loyalist para-militaries and so he was raised to consider […]

Two years ago a representative of the Slav Lands Christian Fellowship was invited to western Siberia to see the fruit of an indigenous missionary outreach that had begun seven years before in this previously unevangelised field. He went not as a tourist but to assess the possibilities of co-operating in a practical ways with our […]

Session 1 The Conference commenced with the 300 men singing the metrical version of Psalm 65, and with prayer. Iain Murray then explained to the Conference that the sickness of Dr Robert Godfrey of Westminster Seminary, California, had prevented his attendance, and that Dr Sinclair Ferguson would speak instead of him. John Marshall opened a […]

Perhaps the most famous sermon ever preached in America was the one Jonathan Edwards delivered entitled Sinners in the hands of an Angry God. Not only has the sermon been reproduced in countless catalogues of preaching but it is included in most anthologies of early American literature. So scandalous is this vivid portrayal of unconverted […]

Near the end of his life, Augustine of Hippo meticulously reviewed everything he had ever published. He wrote an entire catalogue of his own works, a painstakingly annotated bibliography with hundreds of revisions and amendments to correct flaws he saw in his own earlier material. The book, titled Retractationes, is powerful evidence of Augustine’s humility […]

To some it might seem unnecessary and even wickedly controversial to thrust upon readers any discussion of Arminianism. This might appear to be the case for two reasons. First of all, why should we revive ancient controversies and thereby provoke animosities that have long since died the death of old age? Arminianism takes its name […]

The Reformed churches in Liverpool have a monthly officers meeting on Fridays in the winter, and I was invited in February, at the last minute withdrawal of Peter Masters of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, to speak to them on the subject of worship for 35 minutes to be followed by discussion. There were about 25-30 […]

The old gospel of Owen, first of all, contains no less full and free an offer of salvation than its modern counterpart. It presents ample grounds of faith (the sufficiency of Christ, and the promise of God), and cogent motives to faith (the sinner’s need, and the Creator’s command, which is also the Redeemer’s invitation). […]

The start of the new millennium has many pundits wringing their hands about the future, but believers in Christ should he looking to the future with optimism. This may be the year in which the Lord returns. He can come at any time. Again, this may be the year in which we see the beginning […]

How are we to pray for the world-wide success of the gospel of Christ? How are we to plead the promises of Scripture? The Larger Westminster Catechism Question 191 sums up the Puritan view. Question: What do we pray for in the second petition of the Lord’s prayer? Answer: We pray that the kingdom of […]