Yearly Archives: 2008

Grey Hazlerigg once wrote, ‘A truth out of place and out of season may work in Satan’s hands like a lie.’ So Satan has often perverted the truth of predestination and God’s sovereignty to lull sinners into idle slothfulness. Fatalism is evil. God is not in it. There is no purpose, no point, no religion, […]

. . . the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and your wife by covenant. [Malachi 2:14] Every Christian man knows pornography is sinful and that it will rob his soul of vitality, destroying his marriage and […]

What is the use of a prayer meeting? There are many uses. Believers are encouraged and strengthened; the cause of God is maintained; the truth of God is watered after it is sown; and prosperity is rained down through the opened windows of heaven, according to the Lord’s promise. In the beginning of the year […]

Cyril John Pocock, (always known as John), faithful deacon of the church at South Moreton for fifty-five years, passed away on November 24th, 2007, aged 89 years. The following details are taken from his own writings: I was born at Gainfield Farm, Buckland, on March 14th, 1918. My father, Mr. Jacob Pocock, was a minister […]

The following are links to some blogs where comments on or reviews of Banner of Truth titles have been posted April 11-30, 2008. The views expressed are of course those of the respective bloggers. . . For each title mentioned, a link is also provided to the appropriate page of the Banner online Bookstore, where […]

One book was destined to become a spiritual classic almost as soon as it was published. Thomas Chalmers called it ‘the best book I ever read.’ And John Owen said of it that there was more divinity in it than in all his writings. I am referring to William Guthrie’s little classic, The Christian’s Great […]

Mission Statement The Project has as its objective the transformation of society through faith in Jesus Christ, using the life and works of John Newton as one great example.1, 2, 3 The Better Hour During February 2008, The Better Hour, a documentary on William Wilberforce, was shown on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television channels right […]

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. [Ephesians 4:25] I suggested in the previous article1 that we are prone to listen to the lie of the devil, namely that worshipping the creation rather than the Creator Redeemer brings Shalom, well being, prosperity, […]

Sin is a corrupting, spoiling, God-dishonouring disease. It manifests itself in a defiance of God’s Law, a rejection of God’s Son, and a dismissal of God’s church. Sin is multi-faceted. It betrays itself essentially by its self-oriented, earth-bound perspective on life. Its horizon is the stars, not the Creator of the stars. Its desire is […]

It was at the end of the period when judges ruled in Israel. This was a time of repeated departures from God – when ‘every man did that which was right in his own eyes’, without any thought of what the Most High saw to be right. The Philistines invaded the land and the first […]

How blessed I was to be able to join a visit to my son and daughter-in-law and their children with attendance at the annual Banner Conference in Leicester. Are there any other conferences its equal in the world? Perhaps there are, such as our own Grace Ministers’ Conferences every January here in South Africa. The […]

Several years ago while living in Jerusalem I noticed how the Jews kept the Sabbath. Around 3 p.m. on Friday afternoons the weekend rush hour traffic would increase as workers made their way home. Most of the working mothers were trying to arrive at the market in time to buy needed supplies. This frenzied pace […]

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. [Ephesians 4:25] I had the privilege recently of speaking with Dr. Peter Jones at the Connecticut Valley Conference on Reformed Theology and the topic was modern paganism. My job was simply to prepare the way […]

A book entitled Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson has just been written by D. A. Carson, and published by Crossway Books (2008, 160 pp, pbk, $15.99, ISBN 978 1 43350 199 6). For most gospel labourers, the title of this book will need no explanation. It is the […]

Over the past weeks I have been reading through The Letter to the Hebrews. It has, as ever, been a fascinating, sobering and richly encouraging read. The Letter, as you will know, was written to Hebrew Christians who had become influenced by false teaching and were under pressure to give up on Christ and return […]

‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.’ [Ephesians 5:25-27] For fifty years I have believed that […]

In his address ‘Modern Theories of the Atonement,’ given in 1902, B. B. Warfield observed the revolt against penal substitution that gained momentum in the late nineteenth century. He noted that this revolt prompted an immediate and equally powerful defence. However, ‘this defense only stemmed the tide, it did not succeed in rolling it back.’ […]

Day One GWYNN WILLIAMS – OPENING SERMON Gwynn Williams from the Welsh Evangelical Church in Cardiff based his opening sermon on the text I Thessalonians 1:5, ‘Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.’ A Christian in the small Welsh town of […]

Day Three JOEL BEEKE (3) – PREACHING CHRIST’S OFFICES Luke 22:31 – The temptations of Peter. The threefold office of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be applied to our hearts by the Spirit. Our Lord is the only one who can meet our needs, and he does so as prophet, priest and king. As […]

We are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. [2 Corinthians 2:15.] I recently was making my weekly evangelistic visits at a rehab centre and introduced myself to a man recuperating from knee replacement surgery. We talked a while about his surgery and recovery […]

  The Divine Spiration of Scripture: Challenging Evangelical Perspectives   by A.T.B. McGowan Apollos (an imprint of Inter-Varsity Press), 2007, 229pp. £14.99, ISBN: 978-1-84474-220-2 In this slender volume Dr. McGowan has given us much to consider. He offers historical and theological surveys: of the Enlightenment, the rise and fall of liberal theology, the influence of […]

This article provides a number of links to blogs where comments on or reviews of Banner of Truth titles have been posted. The previous article in the series was added to the website on 19 February 2008. This one covers web reviews posted since that time. The views expressed are of course those of the […]

To those of us who were blessed to be born in the latter half of the twentieth century, it seems unthinkable that there was a time when quality Reformed literature was not readily available on demand. John J. Murray’s book Catch the Vision [Evangelical Press, 2007] traces the roots of those privileges, showing the disfavour […]

‘Berkhof’ – it has a certain ring of defiance about it, an abbreviation for an almost 1,000 page volume of systematic theology which is considered a touchstone of orthodoxy, but . . . ‘surely a bit out of date’ . . . ‘Dutch’ . . . ‘not a note about revival’ . . . ‘rather […]

“Unto a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13) Eric Liddell, the Scottish missionary and Olympic gold medal winner, while serving the Lord in China, often told his students to live a sincere life. He pointed out that our word sincere comes from two Latin […]