Resources

IN THE MIDDLE OF WONDERFUL, YET CONFUSING TIMES A total of 811 persons attended the XVII Annual FIEL Leadership conference in Brazil. Adhering to the theme “Grace, marvelous grace” pastor Jim Orrick from Kansas City and author and pastor Brian Edwards of London brought sixteen challenging messages directed to the hearts of hearers who had […]

CHRISTIAN SOCIETY IN AMERICA: GOD WILL DIRECT THE BULLET! When the Mayflower began her nine weeks’ voyage across the Atlantic in September, 1620, the intention of her passengers was ‘to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia’ under which description they had in view land around Manhattan Island at the mouth of […]

GOD’S PURPOSE ALWAYS HAS THE WELL-BEING OF HIS SERVANTS AT HEART In May 1999 my good friend Daniel Tennant gifted me the book “Conflict and Triumph”, whose cover he had designed for the Banner of Truth. It is a reprint of William Henry Green’s book, first published in 1874 under the current sub-title “The Argument […]

‘THOU’ SHOULD BE PRESERVED IN HYMNS If some hymn-writers today are more at peace and more conscious of God’s glory using the pronoun ‘you’ in hymns then we have few objections to their doing so and can sincerely sing good modern hymns and metrical versions of the psalms and paraphrases referring to God as ‘you’, […]

WHY I DO NOT SAY, “GOD DID NOT CAUSE THE CALAMITY, BUT HE CAN USE IT FOR GOOD.” Many Christians are speaking this way about the murderous destruction of the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, “God did not cause it, but he can use it for good.” There are two reasons I do […]

JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS Charles Spurgeon July 12, 1885 There is a judgment also passing upon nations, for as nations will not exist as nations in another world, they have to be judged and punished in this present state. The thoughtful reader of history will not fail to observe, how sternly this justice had dealt […]

PRIDE AND THE REFORMED CHURCHES Of all the dangers that can overtake a Reformed church pride is surely the worst and most serious. There is, of course, a right kind of pride, a thankfulness to God for our history or heritage. But the pride I am thinking of is that ugly, self-righteous, self-preening brute that […]

THE PROMISE OF THE FUTURE SEMINARY PROFESSORS ARE REALLY AMAZING PHENOMENA One of the many privileges of my seminary education was to sit at the feet of Dr. Cornelis P. Venema, professor of doctrinal studies at, and recently named president of, Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana. Seminary professors are really amazing phenomena. Although you […]

GOD BLESS AMERICA Forty years ago this month, on Labor Day 1961, the German cargo boat Carl Fritzen, which I had boarded at the Liverpool docks 11 days earlier, began its entry into Chesapeake Bay. We sailed past the beach where the Jamestown settlers had landed in 1607 where they gave thanks to God on […]

TERRORISM, JUSTICE AND LOVING OUR ENEMIES September 12, 2001 Someone asked me after our Tuesday prayer service in response to the terrorist attack, “Can we pray for justice, and yet love our enemy at the same time?” The answer is yes. But let’s start with or own guilt. Christians know that if God dealt with […]

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF STEPHEN CHARNOCK by William Symington Stephen Charnock, B.D., was born in the year 1628, in the parish of St. Katharine Cree, London. His father, Mr. Richard Charnock, practiced as a solicitor in the Court of Chancery, and was descended from a family of some antiquity in Lancashire. Stephen, after a course […]

SPIRITUAL REVIVAL THE WANT OF THE CHURCH Charles Haddon Spurgeon “O Lord, revive thy work.”Hab., iii. 2 ALL true religion is the work of God: it is pre-eminently so. If he should select out of his works that which he esteems most of all, he would select true religion. He regards the work of grace […]

BOOK REVIEW THE PRAYER OF JABEZ: BREAKING THROUGH TO THE BLESSED LIFE By Bruce Wilkinson (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2000, hardcover, 93 pages). How many of us have ever heard of The Prayer of Jabez? Had we asked this question a year or so ago most people would have answered with an embarrassed shrug […]

The Puritans and Revival Christianity by Iain Murray Following as it did so closely upon the Reformation it is not surprising that the Puritan movement in England believed so firmly in revivals of religion as the great means by which the Church advances in the world. For the Reformation was itself the greatest revival since […]

KNOWING AND SERVING GOD A personal testimony (For over twenty years Neil Richards has had a most blessed ministry in Wheelock Heath Baptist Church in Cheshire. He has finally retired from the pastorate, and this is the letter he wrote to his beloved congregation at the end of July 2001). In the Evangelical Magazine of […]

THE CHURCH IN NORTHERN RUSSIA In a recent edition of the Spectator (28 July 2001) Anne Applebaum describes a visit to Vortuka, north of the Arctic Circle where roses do not grow. There are no daisies or lilies; no sunflowers or geraniums, just a few wild flowers which spring up in the very short, very […]

BOOK REVIEW WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE? by Philip Yancey, (Zondervan, 1997) “Grace [is] ‘the last best word,’ the only unsullied theological word remaining in our language.” (p.232) So writes Philip Yancey in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace? Other words, like love and charity, for instance, have all but lost their original theological […]

SHOULD WOMEN SERVE IN MILITARY COMBAT? Does the church have Scriptural warrant to claim that women should not serve in military combat? The Orthodox Presbyterian Church officially thinks so, but delegates to the OPC’s 68th General Assembly in Grand Rapids in June were hardly unanimous in their decision. Instead, a study committee commissioned to examine […]

It is very odd how difficult it seems for some persons to understand just what Calvinism is. And yet the matter itself presents no difficulty whatever. It is capable of being put into a single sentence; and that, one level to every religious man’s comprehension. For Calvinism is just religion in its purity. We have […]

Towards the end of his life the great 18th Century Baptist preacher John Gill became rather weak and unwell. It was suggested to him by his deacons that he might benefit from the help of an assistant pastor. He did not take kindly to the suggestion. ‘I’ve read plenty in the Bible’ he is reported […]

THE RICHES OF SPURGEON ONE While the true greatness of a preacher will only be revealed at Christ’s tribunal, I would join my opinion with those of many others who make the earthly judgment that Charles Spurgeon was the most effective and useful of preachers since the days of the Apostles. Yes, as highly as […]

The Death of Thomas Bilney by J. H. Merle D’aubigne; [Thomas Bilney, ‘whose conversion had begun the Reformation in England’ was, in God’s hands, the instrument of Hugh Latimer’s conversion. The story of his life ‘in strength and weakness’, leading to his martyrdom in 1531, is eloquently recorded in The Reformation of England, volumes 1 […]

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD Prof. John Murray 4 volumes of his Selected Writings are published by Banner of Truth The sovereignty of God I take to be the absolute authority, rule, and government of God in the whole of that reality that exists distinct from Himself in the realms of nature and of grace. It […]

THE GRACE AND DUTY OF BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED DECLARED AND PRACTICALLY IMPROVED. by John Owen Found in Volume 7 of the Works, and published by the Banner of Truth Trust. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 Set your affection on things above. Colossians 3:2. LONDON: 1681. Prefatory Note An Outline:- Preface […]

A Sermon of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Romans 10:3 “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” “Saving Faith” An Exposition of Chapter 10, published by The Banner of Truth Trust: 1997 1.800.263.8085 (pp.28-39). “For they being ignorant of […]