John M. Brentnall Resources

How thankful to God we should be for preserving these priceless sermons1 and providing a translator who offers us ‘a quite marvellous gift’ (John R. de Witt). While reading them, we are conveyed back in time to St. Pierre in Geneva, where we hear this amazing man expounding and applying the Book of Beginnings with […]

What is the Doctrine of Election to Salvation? Election is the holy and loving choice by God of those who are to receive his grace. (Ernest F. Kevan) God chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world . . .(Arthur Pink) God’s elect were the definite objects of his eternal love. (Arthur […]

Introduction In all the extant biographies of England’s worthies, we rarely hear of one who was ‘more devout and godly’ than the writer ever knew, who not only led ‘a heavenly life himself’, but also ‘very earnestly and heartily’ laboured ‘to persuade others’ to do the same. Yet such a man was John Bradford1 – […]

Introduction Teresa of Avila calls for our consideration on several counts: 1. Her writings are increasingly popular amongst unconverted but professing Protestants who find her ‘mystical spirituality’ attractive in their own ‘pursuit of God.’ We are thus alerted to a dangerous ‘enemy within the gates.’ 2. She is revered by Romanists as ‘a quintessential Catholic’, […]

Most readers will be acquainted with Spurgeon and the Downgrade Controversy. Today the apostasy signalized by Spurgeon’s opponents has probably reached its nadir. At least it is hard to imagine how much lower the enemies of the true Christian Faith can fall while retaining the name of Christ. The solid saving truths that were once […]

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 […]

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 […]

In adjacent psalms, David exclaims: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psa. 11:3) and cries: “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men” (Psa. 12:1). There is a clear link between the destruction of society’s foundations and God’s removal of godly men […]

In adjacent psalms, David exclaims: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psa. 11:3) and cries: “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men” (Psa. 12:1). There is a clear link between the destruction of society’s foundations and God’s removal of godly men […]

A review by John Brentnall of John Calvin’s Sermons on the Beatitudes: Five Sermons from the ‘Gospel Harmony’, delivered in Geneva in 1560.1 Those who read Calvin’s works for their sweet taste of sound doctrine and sharp application will welcome this new and fine translation of the Reformer’s five sermons on the Beatitudes. While the […]

Introduction Of all the Lutheran theologians besides Luther, Melanchthon was the most accomplished. He codified what Luther’s wide-ranging and discursive mind could not. One writer ranks him very highly: “his contributions to the Lutheran movement, to Protestantism, and to the German nation, are monumental.” (R.V.Schnucker) His Life Born in Bretten, Baden, Melanchthon took his bachelor’s […]

Biblical, God-fearing theologians divide sin into two branches, original and actual. These two branches are further subdivided. Original sin consists of imputed guilt and inherent pollution, while actual sin comprises sins of thought, word and deed. In a sermon based on the apostle Peter’s words to Simon Magus: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou […]

In one of his books, R. C. Sproul discusses the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. In the course of his discussion, he states that this relationship is a mystery but not a contradiction. That is, it is a mystery to us but not a contradiction in itself. This is bound to be so; […]

A careful study of the history of the west reveals certain recurring types of anxiety. After centuries of suppression of the true Gospel, the early 1500s found Europe full of anxiety over guilt and condemnation. Following the collapse of both Rationalism and Romanticism, the present age is riddled with anxiety over the loss of identity […]

Amidst all the hollow fraternization of the ecumenical movement there may be seen one great gulf persisting. This runs along the fault-line of the 16th century Protestant Reformation. On one side of the line stands a host of romanticizing mediaevalists, crying out bitterly over the Reformation’s rending of the seamless robe of Christ: namely, the […]

Despite the appallingly low level of literacy in the land at present, we in the UK are still a nation of readers. Television, computers, videos and the like have not yet ousted the old-fashioned habit of reading. The charge “Give attendance to reading” (1 Timothy 4:13) is as relevant today as when Paul sent it […]

Names, and sects, and parties fall; Thou, O Christ, art All in All. It was such a sentiment as this that made A. W. Tozer write: ‘Christians do not tell lies: they sing them.’ In Christian circles we know of no truth more consistently denied than this: that ‘the Lord Jesus Christ is all things […]

As a model of ministerial faithfulness, heavenly-mindedness and self-effacing humility, he had few equals and perhaps no superiors. by John M. Brentnall This year marks the tercentenary of the birth of Jonathan Edwards on October 5, 1703. While we wish to take nothing from Him who declares: "I will not give my glory to another […]

It was the conjunction of these two factors – the searching nature of Christ’s dealings with us and the high standard of Christian character required of us by God – that produced in Dr Duncan a self-knowledge rarely surpassed in Christian biography by John M. Brentnall (A lecture delivered by John M Brentnall at a […]

In the first place, Scripture clearly teaches us that neither we nor our services are acceptable to God. To the most religious people in the world at that time God said: Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies. by John M. Brentnall […]

it is argued that if God’s redeeming purpose is universal in scope, why should we any longer accept Christianity’s arrogant claim to be the one true religion? by John M. Brentnall From time to time the question is asked as to how many shall be saved. Shall all, regardless of their creed, worship, character and […]

This new movement has forged yet another idol out of the warped imagination of man, for it posits a god who neither fore-knows the future nor fore-ordains it by John M. Brentnall Professor Watt of Belfast used to say that the Reformation took place without the help of Arminianism, and that when it eventually entered […]

A number of writers of late have been trying to drive a wedge between Calvin and the Puritans. Thomas Torrance and R.T. Kendall are among the chief of them, while Paul Helm and Carl Trueman in particular have refuted their claims. The following quotations may shed some light on the issue. While we believe that […]

[In 1985 the Banner of Truth published the 6 volume Works of John Newton. The most valuable volumes are those that contain the famous letters of Newton and the Olney Hymns. Volume IV consists of fifty sermons by Newton on the texts used by Handel in his oratorio “Messiah.” Newton had an uncertain relationship with […]