Book Reviews

Sometimes a book surprises the Christian as he reads. A smallish paperback, a modest cover, an eclectic name1 might not at first glance cry: ‘Read me! Read me!’. But when the author’s name is Iain Murray, the Banner men will be eager enough to read it. They know that the modest presentation belies the strength […]

Surely the best books are those that keep close to Scripture, and we have never known a book that keeps closer than this. The Christian’s Great Enemy1 opens up, explains and applies 1 Peter 5:8-11 – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may […]

In this small book the author makes the argument for teaching children the catechism regularly from a young age, quoting many well-known theologians as he goes along. The author discusses the history and strengths of the catechism (specifically the Westminster Shorter Catechism), but it is when he writes about its structure and the way it […]

This short booklet is reprint of an article that first appeared in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review in 1862. Having acknowledged that the work and help of the Holy Spirit is indispensable in preaching, the author concentrates on the human aspects that can lead to power in the pulpit. Three areas are discussed: the […]

‘an affordable paperback containing some of the most heavenly and sweet teaching I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying . . . You simply will not hear sermons like this today, but you can read 20 here that will move you to “wonder love and praise”.’ – David Morris was thrilled by Richard Sibbes’ […]

A review by Kenneth D. Macleod of David B. Calhoun’s Our Southern Zion: Old Columbia Seminary (1828-1927).1 The author has previously written two highly-interesting volumes on Princeton Theological Seminary, from its inception in 1812 until it was transformed into a more liberal institution in 1929.2,3 He has now turned his attention to a smaller, but […]

This book consists of five recent addresses given by Iain Murray the veteran preacher and co-founder of Banner of Truth. The messages cover a wide range of issues: evangelical holiness, the Bible, apostasy, controversy and the fourth commandment. Mr Murray shows in each message how important the subject is and carefully and clearly teaches using […]

Book Review: God in the Whirlwind: How the holy-love of God reorients our world, David F. Wells [Nottingham: IVP, 2014], 272 pages, paperback. Starting with God in the Wasteland (1994), David Wells has written four influential books exposing and critiquing Evangelicalism’s compromise with modern Western cultural norms and trends. The focus of his new book […]

This interesting volume, Pleading for a Reformation Vision: The Life and Selected Writings of William Childs Robinson (1897-1982),1 is what a Christian biography should be; not just a laudatory ‘life’ (for we should guard against the tendency to a ‘Protestant hagiography’) but a work in two halves: firstly a detailed life of the subject, and […]

This companion volume1 to The Face of Jesus Christ,2 contains 20 sermons, in which Archibald G. Brown concentrates on the Bible’s teaching on God as Creator, Judge and Saviour. Mr Brown clearly had a most fertile imagination as the titles of some of those sermons suggest, such as: ‘Noah’s Telescope’, ‘A Rough Night at Sandown’, […]

To live by faith is surely the hardest thing in the world. As Calvin put it: Our circumstances are all in opposition to the promises of God. He promises us immortality: yet we are surrounded by mortality and corruption. He declares that He accounts us just: yet we are covered with sins. He testifies that […]

Book Review: Four Views on the Historical Adam, Matthew Barrett & Ardel B. Caneday (Eds.)[Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013], 288 pp., paperback. Few questions are more pressing among Evangelicals today than the time and the manner in which God created the world and all life within it. Did he create the world in six literal […]

Book Review: iPod, YouTube, Wii Play: Theological Engagements with Entertainment, by D. Brent Laytham [Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2012], x + 220 pp. A generation ago, media theorist Neil Postman feared that modern men and women, enamoured with technology and entertainment, were losing the ability to think critically. He also believed that they were erring […]

Book Review: From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective; edited by David and Jonathan Gibson, with contributions by Sinclair Ferguson, Henri Blocher, Paul Helm, Robert Letham, John Piper, Thomas Schriener and others. [Crossway Books, hardback, 704pp, $50/£25-£33 (also available on Kindle).] Historically referred to as ‘limited […]

‘I would vigorously recommend Murray’s book, especially to pastors and preachers. Yes, it will convict and rebuke, but also it will instruct and encourage. If nothing else, it paints a sweet portrait of Christian humility, faithfulness, and endeavour which we would do well to emulate.’ – Jeremy Walker enjoyed Iain H. Murray’s Archibald G. Brown: […]

In his book The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax, the Puritan preacher Richard Sibbes provides a tenderhearted, Christ-exalting exposition and application of Isaiah 42:1-3. Since its initial publication in 1630, The Bruised Reed1 has been a source of encouragement to dejected sinners and struggling saints alike. Sibbes follows Matthew’s interpretation of this text, seeing it […]

Charles Spurgeon was not the only man of God to be labouring during the heyday of the gospel’s progress in Victorian London. On the other side of the river lived and worked that most excellent servant of Christ, Archibald Geikie Brown. He is the subject of Iain H. Murray’s fairly recent biography, Archibald G. Brown: […]

A review of R. T. Kendall, In Pursuit of His Glory: My 25 Years at Westminster Chapel (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2002). In the past quarter-century, Westminster Chapel, London, has been through seismic change. Either from personal experience of what it was, or from the reading of Lloyd-Jones’ literature, there are many who know what […]

Finding Peace with God1 provides a brief overview of the biblical doctrine of justification. It is written in plain language which makes it accessible to all and affords not only a timely antidote to the false teaching of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy but it also helpfully refutes the erroneous New Perspective on Paul adopted […]

J C Ryle was an evangelical Church of England minister of the 19th century who eventually became the first Bishop of Liverpool. During his life he became best known for writing tracts on a range of subjects. This book, first published in 1873, is a collection of nineteen such booklets. The common theme is the […]

What is it that shapes our lives? Is it the all-pervasive influence and philosophy of this world? Is it our own fallen natures? Or is it our faith? What do we mean by faith? These are days when it can no longer be safely assumed that the language used for centuries will be understood, so […]

‘an excellent book, a brilliant series of studies . . . A great church history book but one that sets its sights radically on today’s church.’ – Melanie Carroll is one of the first to review Garry Williams’ Silent Witnesses. In the Notes below are links to selected online reviews of Banner titles, posted June-September […]

‘MAGISTERIAL’ is the word most often used to describe Iain Murray’s biography of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I remember how eagerly and impatiently we waited for the first and then the second volumes, and yet after devouring them both in turn, wondering if our intrepid author had struggled to tell the story of such greatness in […]

How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels By N.T.Wright New York: Harper Collins, 2012 304 pages, paperback ISBN: 978 0 06173 057 3 Wright has carved out a name for himself in his studies of the historical Jesus and Paul’s theology. He has consistently and convincingly challenged the liberal view of the […]

What an excellent book, a brilliant series of studies on theologians, witnesses, pastors and fathers of the church that both clearly and concisely tell us not only about the people themselves, their times and their beliefs but in so doing helps inform us about our own faith, theology and beliefs – especially if you are […]