Yearly Archives: 2008

The word reveal means ‘to uncover.’ Suppose there is a plate of cookies on the table covered by a towel. When the towel is removed, then you can see what’s there – a plate and cookies. You see what you could not see before. When we use the word revelation in theology, we are talking […]

While commenting upon the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm, I was brought into most intimate communion with Thomas Manton, who has discoursed upon that marvellous portion of Scripture with great fulness and power. I have come to know him so well that I could pick him out from among a thousand divines if he were […]

It was good to be one of around 150 present at the John Owen Centre, Finchley, to hear this year’s Dr Lloyd-Jones memorial lecture by Philip Eveson on Gospel and Creation – the significance of a theology of creation for preaching. A very full paper, it considered what a theology of creation should include (making […]

The first wave of Calvinism at the beginning of the 20th century was manifest in Princeton Seminary, in Louis Berkhof and the fledgling Christian Reformed Church and the Grand Rapids publishers, in Principal John Macleod and the Free Church and the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, in the Strict Baptists of England, in Arthur Pink, […]

John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man By Carl R. Trueman Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2007 The Great Theologians Series 132 pp, pbk, $29.95. ISBN: 978 0 75461 470 8 There has been a resurgence of interest in the Puritans over the last fifty years or so, encouraged by the ministry of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and fuelled […]

And Joshua said, ‘Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.’ And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. (Joshua 7:25) From time to time I am asked what the Bible says about cremation. First I realize this can […]

The Son of God came into the world to do the will of God. He did nothing but the will of God. He did all the will of God. His life perfectly conformed to God’s will. Those who follow him will want to know the will of God, and they will want to know it […]

ROLLING BACK THE STATE AND MENDING SOCIETY Lord Blackwell is the chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies and in The Times on September 8 he made seven suggestions for breaking the dependency culture that has marred life in Great Britain today. How these ideas will resonate in the heart of every Christian! They are […]

The sound of the gospel trumpet was first heard in the Garden of Eden when it fell on the ears of our first parents, who by then had lost that communion with God which they had previously enjoyed. With the entrance of sin into the world, they now were to face up to the reality […]

But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. (Jonah 4:1) General George Patton was commanding the Seventh Army in the summer of 1943, and his objective was to overrun the Italian forces on Sicily in order to drive them from the war. He also hoped to make Hitler commit troops from the eastern front, […]

Assist me to Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley By John R. Tyson William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge, UK; 2007 356 pp, pbk, £12.99. ISBN: 978 0 80282 939 9 This biography which is based on careful research of Charles Wesley’s life helpfully brings him out from under […]

One The Roman Catholic Church believes that its traditions and teaching are as authoritative as Scripture. The Reformed value tradition, but accept the Bible alone as their authority, and sole rule of faith and practice. Two The Roman Catholic Church believes that the Pope, as successor of Peter and Bishop of Rome, is head of […]

ChristianHistory.net recently published this little article of J. I. Packer. God’s Chemo for My Cancered Soul They called it the Victorious Spirit-filled life. You got into it, they said, by total surrender to Jesus Christ (they assumed no one does this at conversion), and then looking to him whenever you felt sinful impulses stirring. He […]

I shall speak a word on ejaculatory prayers [uttered suddenly]: 1. It has been the practice of the saints. Thus Jacob, when making his testament, says, ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord’ (Gen. 49:18), and when giving charge to his sons concerning Benjamin, ‘God Almighty give you mercy before the man’ (Gen. 43:14). […]

The poet John Milton lived from 1608 to 1674, this year being the four hundredth anniversary of his birth (December 9). He was also a controversialist, a Londoner by birth and death, who after education at St. Paul’s School, and Christ’s College, Cambridge, abandoned his intention of ordination in the Church of England because of […]

‘This is systematic theology at its most accessible and profitable. Step by step, Professor Ferguson leads us along the wonderful tapestry of God’s dealings with us in Christ, pointing out the details, pausing to admire the handiwork, and not ceasing to make plain that these are not boxes to be ticked as a matter of […]

I have heard Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees Thee; Therefore I retract, I repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:5, 6) On July 23, 2007 Dr. William Pettit of Cheshire, Connecticut experienced a man’s worst nightmare. On that evening two convicted felons, released two days earlier on parole, […]

The Church in Corinth had experienced the ‘weighty and strong’ writings of the Apostle Paul, but the Galatians had even more cause to feel the force of his pen. Their actions brought forth the sharpest response from Paul. His language in Galatians 1:6-9 is as strong as anywhere in his writings. Verse 6: ‘I am […]

The above heading should give no satisfaction to any evangelical Christian. Some of the finest literature in the evangelical heritage comes from gospel ministers of the Church of England, and a considerable number of evangelicals continue to belong to that denomination today. The crisis to which we refer has arisen from more than one direction; […]

How did awareness of heavenly councils between him and his Father shape Jesus’ sense of earthly mission? Every phase of our Saviour’s life was shaped and styled by his self-conscious sense that he had come from heaven ‘not to do (his) will but to do the will of him who sent (him)’ (John 6:38). Indeed, […]

In John 12:42-43 we read the following words: ‘Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from […]

Humility is a precious virtue that is highly commended by the Word of God. It is also a virtue too rarely possessed and practiced as well as too often misunderstood. The popular conception is one where weakness and mindless compliance characterize the attitude and actions of those who are humble. While it is true that […]

God’s will for all believers is unmistakable: ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification’ (1 Thessalonians 4:3). This is priority number two in God’s eternal agenda (his first priority being his own glory). Again and again in the New Testament this great priority is impressed on God’s people. It is the omega point […]

We all like to see progress being made. This is true in every sphere of life and activity in which we are involved. Parents are thrilled at the ongoing development of their children, as they master new skills and cope with the challenges of growing up. Teachers rejoice when ‘the penny drops’ and students surge […]

Matthew Else, the pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Peel, in the Isle of Man received his homecall on 18th May 2008 after a very short illness. His sudden death came as a great shock to his family, and his passing leaves a huge gap in the life and work of his church and its associated […]