Yearly Archives: 2008

To talk about revival is to talk superlatives, for revival is Christianity taken to a heightened intensity. God never does more for his church than when he revitalises her with the breath of heaven. In the midst of the years he ‘makes known’ (Habakkuk 3:2). We then experience more of his grace and power than […]

With God nothing has any standing except grace. Grace signifies that favour with which God receives us, forgiving our sins and justifying us freely through Christ. The best and infallible preparation [for grace] is the eternal election and predestination of God. As far as our own abilities are concerned, there is no difference whatever between […]

Several members of the Cambridge Presbyterian Church have set up a book table in the city centre every Saturday morning with the aim of handing out leaflets and tracts, trying to engage people in conversation, encouraging people to consider Christ and the claims that he makes, and generally providing a point of contact for people […]

Introduction Robert Annan never founded a church, wrote a book or entered a Christian pulpit. His sphere of influence was not among the learned or cultured, but among the down-and-outs of 19th century Dundee. His mission was to seek out the lost of his native town – living in squalid closes, often drunk and asleep […]

On March 11-13, 2008 Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (GPTS) hosted its 11th annual Spring Theology Conference: this year exploring ‘A Reformed View of the End Times.‘ About 420 people attended the conference, held at Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church in Simpsonville, SC. ‘Our Spring Theology Conference aims to equip Christian ministers and lay persons with sound. […]

Southern Baptists inherited the most compelling aspects of all the Baptist Calvinists that preceded them. James P. Boyce summarized this well. He encouraged every preacher to get theological education in some way, even if it could not be at the Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. If no other means were available, he advised, ‘work at […]

Over 40 gathered on June 3 at the Evangelical Library in Chiltern Street to hear Dr Jonathan Moore give an excellent lecture on ‘Predestination and Evangelism in the Life and Thought of William Perkins‘. After briefly acquainting us with what little is known of Perkins’ life (he was born 450 years ago and died at […]

Rudyard Kipling realized that when nations rise to wealth and power, just like ancient Israel in Deuteronomy 8, they are inclined to forget God. He immortalized this reality in his poem ‘Recessional,’ written on the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign. Far-called, our navies melt away; On dune and headland sinks the fire: Lo, all […]

I was somewhat hesitant in writing this review of John R. Muether’s Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman (CVTRAC) since I fear that you, the reader, could have devoured three-quarters of this biography of Cornelius Van Til (CVT) in the time it took you to read my review. (This assumes, among other things, the […]

‘Not so much a Reformer or theologian, more a preacher…there is no agonizing over hermeneutics, and comparatively little time is given to exegesis and exposition. Calvin simply reads the words off the page, providing clear direct commentary, and applies them.’ [Paul Helm on Calvin’s Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles, Chapters 1-7] The following […]

Between May 9th and 19th, 2008, Baruch was the guest of the Arche Pentecostal Church in Hamburg, Germany. Some years ago, the Pastor, Wolfgang Wegert, had tired of the endless sensationalism and the emotional roller coaster cultivated by the Toronto Blessing, Power Evangelism, Benny Hinn, Jongi Cho and the like. He told his wife that […]

Readers will recall the murder of Rami Ayyad, a member of the Baptist Church, who managed Gaza’s only Christian bookstore and was involved in many charitable activities. He was found shot in the head, on a Gaza street in early October 2007, 10 hours after he was kidnapped from the store. Ayyad had received regular […]

Christmas Evans was a man of lowly birth, and little education. But in the hands of God he became one of the most eloquent and powerful preachers in Wales from the late 18th to the early 19th centuries. Great crowds would gather to hear his vivid, imaginative sermons. HIS EARLY LIFE On the evening of […]

Sitting in the pews listening to the pastor preach can be very trying if you have a burbling, wiggling ten-month-old on your lap and a three-year-old intent on colouring the hymnal beside you. You’re in a quandary. You do not want to disturb those in neighbouring pews, but you do want your children to learn […]

Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck have written the book Why We’re Not Emergent (by two guys who should be) (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008; 256 pp.) I start to get really nervous when I hear others speak in unqualified, glowing and glorious terms about a book or speaker. Nothing can be that good, I say to […]

Gresham Machen, professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary (1929-1937), wrote the following introduction to The Narrow and the Broad Way, a book of sermons by J. Marcellus Kik (published bv Zondervan in 1934). This piece has not been included in any previous bibliography or compilation of Machen’s works, and was spotted by Richard […]

A discussion of chapter 3 of The Westminster Confession of Faith, presented at the Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in December 2007 by Rev Hugh Cartwright. R B Kuiper comments that it behoves us to remember that we are dealing with a profound mystery, that we are here on holy ground […]

We have received some correspondence regarding the article by Jeremy Walker, ‘John Owen and The Death of Death in the Death of Christ’, posted on the website April 17, 2007.1 The comments received and Pastor Walker’s reply appear below. Dear Editor, I found Jeremy Walker’s supposed review of John Owen’s Death of Death2 to be […]

Not many people can say they have been to seminary. I have been to two: the first for two years to train as a Roman Catholic priest in Ireland; the second was a Reformed Seminary in London. Like most young boys growing up in Ireland in the 1980s I was brought up as a Roman […]

A review article by Os Guinness of Frank Schaeffer’s Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back [New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007], 304pp, ISBN 978-0-78671-891-7. If asked what is the deepest relationship imaginable, many […]

BORIS OLEINIK OF THE CITY OF KIROV In 1986 Boris was conscripted into the Soviet Army for military service. His unit was sent to the disaster at the Chernobil nuclear power station. He suffered perilous levels of radiation. Earlier this year lumps began to appear on his body which grew and became increasingly painful as […]

It was with some relief, and thankfulness to the Most High, that we stepped onto the tarmac at Odessa airport on the very chilly, grey afternoon of Friday, February 15, after one cancelled flight, two delayed flights, and an enforced overnight stay in London en route. I was accompanying Rev Donald Ross, interim moderator of […]

The Question Should we sing Psalms only? ‘Exclusive Psalmody’ is the teaching that, in the worship of the church, we should sing all, and only, the 150 Psalms found in the biblical Book of Psalms. We are not allowed to sing hymns. Hymn singing is sinning against God. There is no unity on this question […]

How does God regard our worship? We may get some insight from the verse: ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight’ (Prov. 15:8), where sacrificing and prayer are taken as two examples of acts of worship. Yet it seems very strong language […]

The pure in heart are blessed by their seeing God (Matt. 5:8), and those who see God see all things rightly in his perfect light (Psa. 36:9). It is therefore no wonder that the Word of God emphasizes the vital necessity of men having pure hearts, while those who believe the divine testimony of Scripture […]