Book Reviews

A new book by John Calvin? Well, not exactly, but this1 is the first translation into English of Calvin’s 48 sermons on these ten chapters of Genesis. The sermons break off after Genesis 20:7 because a whole series of sermons on Genesis have been lost. Calvin expounds the biblical text for the benefit of ordinary […]

Pastor-Teachers of Old Princeton 1 In 1994 and 1996 respectively, the Banner of Truth Trust published two magnificent volumes on the faith, learning, and majestic testimony of Princeton Seminary.2 Professor Calhoun’s work was highly commended by a number of outstanding scholars, including Bruce M. Metzger, Collard Professor of New Testament Emeritus. Metzger wrote at the […]

The short answer to this question is ‘Yes’, says J. C. Ryle, the well known Church of England minister. In this small paperback, first published in 1877, he gives reason after reason why the Bible is truly the word of God. Written in a popular rather than academic style he outlines the internal evidence and […]

In the second half of the nineteenth century, C. H. Spurgeon so towered above English Calvinistic Baptists that other giants seemed to be much smaller, with one outcome being that they were quickly forgotten by subsequent generations. This was the case despite the great achievements connected to some of those men. One was Archibald G. […]

Here is a clarion call to Christians to hold fast to the true Gospel – that is that we are saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. The 8 chapters in the book have been taken from two works of the Victorian minister: Knots Untied and Home Truths. They cover subjects such as […]

Public worship is one of the areas where there is great confusion today. This little booklet by J. C. Ryle the Victorian Church of England minister and author brings much needed biblical thinking to the subject. He answers some basic questions such as: Why is it important for men and women to worship God? What […]

The Great Ejection 1662: Today’s Evangelicalism Rooted in Puritan Persecution By Gary Brady Darlington: Evangelical Press, September 2012 176 pages, paperback, £8.99 ISBN: 978 0 85234 802 4 2012 has been a year of achievement and celebration in the United Kingdom. Highlights of the year have undoubtedly been the centenary of the sinking of RMS […]

All I knew about Ernest Kevan before reading this book* was that he was the author of The Grace of Law (1964), a study of Puritan teaching on the place of God’s law in the Christian life (the published version of his doctoral thesis), but this useful account of his life introduced me to the […]

This is a book* which draws the reader in as it outlines and analyses all the events and elements of the crucifixion, which he sees as the central event of all Scripture. In so doing he relates these events back to Old Testament prophecies and forward to New Testament fulfillments and outcomes in the Early […]

The death of B. B. Warfield in 1921 effectively marked the demise of the old Princeton Theological Seminary, for it was ‘reorganised’ in 1929 along liberal theological lines, but for 110 years its aim had been to produce godly pastors and faithful teachers of God’s Word. This volume* commemorates the efforts of the pious and […]

I Wish Someone Would Explain Hebrews to Me!* So do I, and so do a lot of other believers who, reading Hebrews, find it a rich mine of Divine teaching and, sensing there is something special about it, nevertheless don’t really know quite what to make of it. Well, Stuart Olyott has done us the […]

Until recently the name of Archibald Brown was just a name to us. We must confess, however, how interested we have become in reading his biography1, and now with pleasure we have read his sermons (twenty-two in the book2), and commend them to our readers. It will be said, ‘There is not the depth that […]

‘You are holding in your hands a rare and precious book’, reads the publisher’s description on the jacket of this book.1 ‘It contains the choicest practical writings of a man whom God used to transform his native country and bring it into the light and under the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and […]

Christianity – Not a Religion of Works, but a Religion that Works ‘By grace are you saved through faith,’ writes Paul, before hastening on to add that we are ‘not (saved) by works, so that no-one can boast’, but then affirming that ‘we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which […]

Richard Phillips is the Senior Minister of Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. The seven terse and insightful chapters of this brief work on The Death of the Saviour1 cover John 19:13 to John 19:42. The chapters first began life as sermons preached to the author’s Greenville congregation. No doubt, they have been […]

The fact that the staunchly Reformed publisher Banner of Truth has released a biography of dispensational pastor John MacArthur is testimony to the fact that MacArthur is one of the most influential evangelical ministers of our times. This book1 began in 2009 as a biographical portrait commissioned from Iain Murray by the elders of Grace […]

The Wayfarers – And the Challenge of the Great Dragon River By Ruth Asp-Odlander Burleigh, Queensland: Zeus, 2009 274 pages, paperback ISBN: 978 1 92157 415 3 Among missionary biographies of recent years, this has to be one of the most challenging. Without the least attempt at the sensational, the author (b. 1935) tells the […]

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy By Eric Metaxas Nottingham: Thomas Nelson, April 2010 608 pages, hardcover, list $29.99 ISBN: 978 1 59555 138 2 A HEROIC GERMAN PASTOR & MARTYR Having recently had some time off in keeping with my new ‘semi-emeritus’ status, (and having been given an e-reader) I was able to read a […]

‘Clear, concise, biblical teaching on the ways and means of growing in spiritual maturity . . . sets out the precedent for Christian growth (Jesus), lays down the theoretical foundation for Christian growth (theology), points to the context for Christian growth (Church), and provides examples of Christian growth (Bible). Ferguson’s pleasant style and earnest tone […]

From the Foreword by Michael Reeves, which gives us a helpful summary of Thomas Goodwin’s life, we learn that The Heart of Christ in Heaven Towards Sinners on Earth1, was first published in 1651. It soon became Goodwin’s most popular work. The book is in three parts. In the first, entitled, ‘Outward demonstrations of the […]

Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence can be found in Volume 4 of Flavel’s Works, published by the Trust.1 It is also available separately in a Puritan Paperback edition, The Mystery of Providence.2 For this review, Volume 4 of the Works was used, and the page numbers cited correspond with that. John Flavel (JF) […]

This is the ‘re-typeset edition’ of the Banner of truth trust’s 1960 edition which has been reprinted a number of times and indicates the importance of this work for the trust and its readership. The letters themselves justify this enthusiasm. Here we have an insight into what Newton saw as his distinctive contribution to the […]

The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards1 is written by John Carrick and published by the Banner of Truth. You should be interested in good preaching. You should care deeply about the preaching in your church and churches around the globe. You and others need the milk and meat of the Word, not spiritual junk food that […]

Engaging with Martyn Lloyd-Jones: the life and legacy of ‘the Doctor’ Edited by Andrew Atherstone and David Ceri Jones Nottingham: IVP/Apollos, 2011 376 pages, paperback, £16.99 ISBN: 978 1 84474 553 1 The book has emerged from a conference held at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, in December 2010 on ‘Martyn Lloyd-Jones: life and legacy’. Some papers […]

The book is made up of eleven sermons from volume six of Dr Lloyd-Jones Ephesians series first published in 1973. I found this a challenge to read, not just because of the subject matter but because of the dense arguments that Dr Lloyd-Jones is propounding. No doubt the original listeners, who heard one sermon at […]