Yearly Archives: 2005

Now I saw in my dream that the highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation (Isa. 26. 1). Up this way therefore did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus […]

Sermon preached by Ben Ramsbottom at Bethel Chapel, Luton, on Lord’s day morning, April 10th, 2005. Text:“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). This last week has witnessed some of the most amazing things […]

Gomer also needs the grace of redemption. See how God goes about this, “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will […]

I cannot recollect commenting on, far less criticising, a Prime Minister in our congregational monthly letters – but I am going to do so now, with sadness, and yet with resolve. Last month, our PM, Tony Blair, stated that abortion should not be an issue in the forthcoming election! Just who is this PM who […]

The prophet Hosea marries Gomer, a wife who proves to be unfaithful to him, going after numerous men. How is Gomer to be brought back from her sin? How is the land to be delivered from its wickedness? It’s no secret. The way back is written plainly on every page of the Bible. There are […]

The Banner of Truth Conference was as faith enhancing and encouraging an event as I remember. I attended my first conference in 1963 and there have been few that I have had to miss since that year. Ted Donnelly opened the conference with a sermon on the will of God from Ephesians 1. This theme, […]

The Christian faith and controversy go hand in hand. Wherever the gospel of God’s grace in Christ is planted it will inevitably provoke controversy and opposition. The reason is not so hard to seek: the gospel confronts and provokes the sin-ingrained self-will and “auto-soterism” of this fallen, God-denying world. The armour-piercing truth of God’s word […]

[An address given at the 2005 Banner of Truth ministers’ conference at Leicester.] The triumph of grace in the ministry of the prophet Hosea shows itself in a number of ways: 1. In the length of Hosea’s ministry. The opening words of his prophecy don’t look much, that list of the names of the kings, […]

The Evangelical Library is pleased to announce the creation of the Geoffrey Williams Bursaries, named in recognition of the Library’s founder. The Bursaries are for the purpose of advancing understanding in some aspect of Evangelical Christianity, using the Library’s unique holdings to do so. Recently the Library opened its new Reference and Rare Book Room. […]

(This is an extract from the recently published book by Terry L. Johnson) 4: SOLA FIDE How may a man be made right before God? We are justified by faith alone (sola fide), in Christ alone (solo Christo), the Protestant Reformers answered. This conviction – sola fide – based upon solo Christo, was the principle […]

(This is an extract from the recently published book by Iain H. Murray) If we ask why God was moved to exercise his holiness and justice in such a manner, at such a cost, in the sacrifice of his own beloved Son for our sins, the answer is ‘God so loved the world’. And it […]

Of all the dreams that ever deluded men, and probably of all blasphemies that ever were uttered, there has never been one which is more absurd and which is more fruitful for all manner of mischief, than the idea that the Bishop of Rome can be the head of the church of Jesus Christ. No, […]

At the Livingstone airport in Zambia pastor Michael Bwembya met me and took me to his home, and on the next day we set off for the Victoria Falls 20 minutes away. We were hampered by a power cut which lasted 12 hours, the water supply was cut off too for 18 hours. On the […]

The flight to Lusaka, Zambia, was good; I enjoyed reading William Haslam’s “From Death to Life,” the Cornish preacher who famously came into assurance of salvation as he himself was preaching to his congregation: “The parson’s converted! The parson’s converted!” they cried. But the later years of his life were perplexing and the book finally […]

On Sunday 21 March 2004, the BBC aired Jeremy Bowen’s latest foray into biblical archaeology. Having previously examined the life of Christ and the exodus from Egypt, his subject on this occasion was the Genesis account of Noah and the Flood. Describing it as ‘one of the great myths of human history’, he set about […]

A careful study of the history of the west reveals certain recurring types of anxiety. After centuries of suppression of the true Gospel, the early 1500s found Europe full of anxiety over guilt and condemnation. Following the collapse of both Rationalism and Romanticism, the present age is riddled with anxiety over the loss of identity […]

Edmund P. Clowney (b. August 30, 1917) met his Lord face to face on Sunday, March 20, 2005 at the age of 87. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Jean Wright Clowney; by his five children: David Clowney, Deborah Clowney, Paul Clowney, Rebecca Jones, and Anne Foreman; by his twenty-one grandchildren; and […]

The Church Order of the Christian Reformed Church says that only those persons who “meet the biblical requirements” are eligible for office. Passages like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 teach that, among other things, an “overseer” must “be above reproach,” “manage his own family well,” “have a good reputation with outsiders,” and be “self-controlled, […]

During the first week of December, one of the major French weekly magazines, “Courrier International,” dedicated its cover article to the “phenomenon” of evangelicalism. The evangelical church in France represents only about 0.8 percent of the population according to the most optimistic statistics. Many (if not most) French people have never heard of “evangelicals” or […]

All who came into contact with the late Aaron Ndebele as fellow-travellers on the highway that leads to Zion and who spent some time in his company will remember him as a Christian and a gospel minister of no ordinary stature. So well endowed was he intellectually that he would undoubtedly have become eminent in […]

It was about October or November 1952 that a popular witch-doctor went to stay in the home of a local chief at Nkayi in the Shangani reserve. The woman claimed to have been sent by some great spirit in the Matopo hills to make rain, heal the sick and kill the witches and wizards in […]

Gareth Davies a notable Welsh Calvinistic Methodist preacher died on March 4 in Cardiff. On his best days, and he enjoyed many of these, he preached with theological discernment, earnest longing for the salvation of men and women, unavoidable application and a Welsh warmth of spirit. Two memories come back to me. The first is […]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP), The book’s title looks both promising and inspiring. Brian D. McLaren’s new book, “A Generous Orthodoxy,” is sure to get attention, and its title grabs both heart and mind. Who wouldn’t want to embrace an orthodoxy of generosity? On the other hand, the title raises an unavoidable question: Just how “generous” can […]

There is so much in this book of Tom Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said. Was Paul of Tarsus the Real founder of Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), that is good and should elicit a loud “Amen!” A balanced review of this book would focus on both its strengths and weaknesses. Here, unfortunately, I shall […]

This article first appeared in The Free Church Witness in January 2005 but was subsequently posted on the Banner of Truth Trust website. The article seeks to identify me (and other Reformed commentators of repute) as ‘antinomian’. I have a number of objections to this article and am grateful to the Banner of Truth for […]