Yearly Archives: 2006

Most of you know the story about Eric Liddell, the gold medallist in the 400 meters in the 1924 Olympics in Paris, how he refused to run on Sunday and forfeited his place in the 100 meters, opting to run a race which was not his speciality. What you may not know is that Eric […]

Rev Hugh Cartwright was once the professor of church history at the Free Church College, Edinburgh. He is now a minister in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He was asked to review the History of the English Calvinistic Baptists 1771-1892, From John Gill to C H Spurgeon,1 by Robert W. Oliver, and this is […]

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 […]

The 55th Westminster Conference took place at the Friends’ House, opposite Euston Station, London, on Tuesday and Wednesday December 5th and 6th 2006. Almost 200 people were registered including 35 or so for the first time. 1. John Owen’s Doctrine of the Trinity and its Significance for Today At the opening session (chaired by Erroll […]

Much has been written in recent years on postmodernism. It’s a term that pops up regularly in newspapers, magazines, talk shows and other media. You may have heard it mentioned even from the pulpit on occasion. What is postmodernism? The word itself suggests that it has to do with something that happened post or after […]

Some 140 brethren gathered at the evangelical centres near Naples and Florence to hear pastor Jerry Marcellino from Audubon Drive Bible Church in Laurel, Mississippi, USA speak on the theme of ‘Spiritual Leadership’. The first session of this pastoral conference focused on the duties and responsibilities of those who are leaders in the church. Not […]

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 […]

The previous article in this series looked at the ‘considerable work of God’ in the revival in Northampton in 1740-1741.1 At the Yale commencement in 1741 Edwards was the preacher and used the occasion to give a spirited defence of the revival, while acknowledging that there had been some excesses. He preached on 1 John […]

A review by Kenneth Macleod of Evangelistic Calvinism: Why the Doctrines of Grace Are Good News by John Benton, published by the Trust as a booklet of 32 pages.1 The questions this booklet addresses are: Does Calvinistic preaching – that is, true scriptural preaching – hinder the proclamation of the love of Christ to a […]

Jerrold Lewis was recently installed as pastor of the Free Reformed Church of Lacombe, Alberta. He was received his ministerial training through the theological programme of the Associated Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Canada and was ordained a minister by that church denomination. Rev. Jack Schoeman conducted a personal interview with Pastor Lewis in order […]

A review by Kenneth Macleod of The Ministry by Charles J. Brown.1 The author was a well-known minister of the Disruption Free Church in Edinburgh. Some readers will be familiar with his excellent little book The Divine Glory of Christ.2 Now a further little volume has been reprinted consisting, for the main part, of fairly-informal […]

In a recent article in The Times a man wrote justifying going to a prostitute. The following letter published on November 9, 2006 pointed out the real cost of prostitution: Sir, Clare Spurrell is right to focus on the men who pay for sex, but I found it disturbing to read that she might be […]

Shortly before his death on January 1, 1937, Dr. J. Gresham Machen dictated a final telegram to his friend and colleague, Professor John Murray. The words of the telegram were short and sweet: “I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” That memorable message has been passed down through the […]

Sitting in a plane travelling at 600 miles an hour at an altitude of 35,000 feet gives you time to think (I am en route home from the States). The focus of my thinking has been “do” or “done?” This is the title of an address I was to give in the following week at […]

As we look around the Western world today, there is very little to encourage anyone on the moral or spiritual level. Iniquity no longer hides its face for shame; immorality is assumed to be normal; violent crime is increasing. The Churches generally are becoming weaker, many of them no longer prepared to make any stand […]

As leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) navigate the shoals between Christ and culture, artful dodgers craft statements that sound Scriptural while giving license to those who have no use for the Word of the Lord. The resulting duplicity has often left those who love the Bible in a quandary: Are the words, policies, and […]

Exodus 20:8-11. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, […]

If we truly belong to the Lord, we should show resemblances to our heavenly Father. What our God is in Himself and how He thinks and acts toward us should with increasing prevalence characterize our own attitudes and actions toward the Lord and His people. Of course there is this great difference between the attitude […]

The recent arrest of Stephen Green, the director of Christian Voice, for handing out tracts containing verses from the Bible relating to homosexuality at a so-called “Gay Pride” event, is surely a sign of the times. Although Stephen was later released and all charges dropped for “lack of sufficient evidence,” it can hardly be doubted […]

It was the third day after Jesus was crucified. As the women went early that morning to anoint the Saviour’s body, they were asking: “Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?” They need not have worried, for an angel had already descended from heaven to roll the stone away. […]

Colossians, an Exposition by John Davenant, (hardback, 956 pages),is the latest addition to the Banner of Truth’s Geneva Series of commentaries. With nearly 1000 pages, it may be viewed as a particularly daunting challenge. This fact, together with the amount of profound learning in the footnotes, may discourage the Christian public from purchasing it. It […]

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, Ephesians 1:11. John Owen, the greatest of the Puritan theologians, was born in 1616, the year William Shakespeare died and four years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. He was […]

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me 1 was once lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see. ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved: How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Thro’ many dangers, toils and […]

In the century and a half since Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was first published, evolutionary theory has gained widespread acceptance. In fact, it is usually thought of as just another of the certainties of life—like the roundness of the earth or the existence of viruses. “Intelligent†people never dream of questioning it. This is […]

“I do not, by nature, thrive on confrontation,” declares Richard Dawkins, the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and one of the world’s leading sceptics concerning Christianity and belief in God. Dawkins is well known as an intellectual adversary to all forms of religious belief – and of Christianity […]