Resources by Macleod, Kenneth D.

John Calvin was not a man who would readily draw attention to himself. When he gave some details of his early life in the preface to his Commentary on the Psalms, his purpose was to draw attention to God’s activity. His father had intended him for the priesthood but, says Calvin, God, by the secret […]

‘All have sinned’, Paul reminds us (Rom. 6:23). Because of our fall in Adam, we are all coming short of the glory of God; there is never a moment in our lives when we meet God’s demands for perfect obedience to his law. While we remain in a state of nature, our sin leaves us […]

The child in the manger in Bethlehem, for whom there was no room in the inn, may have seemed powerless, but he was the Son of God. The angel had told Mary, his mother: ‘That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God’ (Luke 1:35). Thus, while he […]

It was a remarkable testimony that God gave of Enoch: ‘He pleased God’ (Heb. 11:5). Enoch was a sinner and, if God was to mark iniquity against him, he could not stand. At best, his works were imperfect; they could never satisfy the demands of God’s holy law; so he could not earn a right […]

John E Marshall – Life and Writings1 is published by the Banner of Truth Trust and most of the book is taken up with a selection of papers delivered at various conferences. These papers begin with one on John Rogers, the first martyr in England during the time of Queen Mary. It ends with a […]

How does God regard our worship? We may get some insight from the verse: ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight’ (Prov. 15:8), where sacrificing and prayer are taken as two examples of acts of worship. Yet it seems very strong language […]

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 […]

This year is the two hundredth anniversary of the passing of the ‘Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade’. It was the culmination of a long period of agitation against a trade which ran strongly in the face of every claim that Britain was a Christian nation. Many of the leaders of the campaign […]

Paul described himself to Titus as ‘a servant of God’. And that was how he imagined himself in his pre-conversion days. He was, so he thought, blameless as ‘touching the righteousness which is in the law’ (Phil. 3:6); he was, in his own eyes, a marvellously-faithful servant of God. But when he met the risen […]

This is indeed a first-class book and it is a real pleasure to see it in print again, so attractively produced inside and out. David Dickson, best known for his commentary on the Psalms, was one of Scotland’s most notable ministers. He came to the parish of Irvine in 1618 and his time there included […]

We live in a world where sorrow repeatedly enters. Indeed, at any given moment, multitudes all over the world are experiencing sadness for all sorts of reasons. Death follows illness, accidents and disasters into families and leaves sorrow behind. And death, however unexpected – however unwelcome – is irreversible; no one returns from the eternal […]

‘You’re going to sin. If you didn’t yesterday, you will today or tomorrow.’ Thus one of America’s best-known Evangelical magazines promoted an article. But is it justifiable to suggest that there is anyone, no matter how godly, who did not sin yesterday? Rather the quotation points to the lack of a sense of sin so […]

We stood on the green grass sloping towards the deep-blue sea. Below us a burn meandered downwards until it became lost in the sand of the beach which skirts the ocean, while a huge bank of cloud dominated the horizon. It was a beautiful scene. But death cannot be kept out of even a beautiful […]

Scotland has voted. The results have been declared and now, hopefully, all the political parties’ placards hanging from lampposts all over the country will come down. Among them were placards, from one small party, which declared: “Scotland deserves better”. Obviously, very few voters believed that this party would rule better than the others; none of […]

God made everything. His final act of creation was to bring mankind into existence. Like every other part of His work, Adam and Eve were perfect in every respect. “God saw every thing that He had made,” we are told, “and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Adam’s body was perfect; as was Eve’s. […]

It is everyone’s duty to pray. Yet there is a serious difficulty: how can a holy God answer the petitions of a guilty sinner? So Isaiah was directed to tell rebellious Israel: “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” […]

Abel was the first of that “great cloud of witnesses” whose faith is set before us in Hebrews 11. Clearly all these witnesses were intended to be examples for every succeeding generation, ours included. Abel in particular was intended to be an example of strong faith for us today, for “he being dead yet speaketh”. […]

The Saviour had been crucified. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid Him in the grave. The chief priests and Pharisees recalled that Jesus had foretold His rising from the dead on the third day. They went their unbelieving way to Pilate, claiming to be afraid that the disciples would “come by night and steal […]

This is the final article in the series on Jonathan Edwards.1 Last time we looked at the communion controversy, which resulted in Edwards’ ministry in Northampton being brought to an abrupt end. From June 1750 Edwards was without a charge, though for some time he occupied the Northampton pulpit when no one else was available. […]

No one can answer such a question with confidence. All we can do is consider where we are at the moment and where current trends point to. This article is being written on the day after more than 200 people were slaughtered in Baghdad, most in a series of co-ordinated bomb attacks, and just a […]

The previous article in this series summarised Edwards’ teaching on revival.1 One day in May 1747 David Brainerd, who for the previous four years had laboured with some success among the American Indians, arrived at the Edwards’ home. Brainerd was ill from tuberculosis and was to spend in the Northampton parsonage most of the brief […]

Today there is a widespread cry for relevance in preaching. But, generally, relevance is measured by the subjective feelings of those who sit, or might sit, in the pews of a particular church. Latching on to such feelings, a community church in Arizona advertised: “Stronger family relationships … greater satisfaction at work … and you […]

Getting the Gospel Right, Assessing the Reformation and New Perspectives on Paul1, is written by Cornelis P Venema, and published by the Banner of Truth Trust. For those who need to know what is happening in other parts of the religious world and, in particular, current threats to the gospel, this little book may prove […]

A review by Kenneth Macleod of Evangelistic Calvinism: Why the Doctrines of Grace Are Good News by John Benton, published by the Trust as a booklet of 32 pages.1 The questions this booklet addresses are: Does Calvinistic preaching – that is, true scriptural preaching – hinder the proclamation of the love of Christ to a […]

The previous article in this series looked at the ‘considerable work of God’ in the revival in Northampton in 1740-1741.1 At the Yale commencement in 1741 Edwards was the preacher and used the occasion to give a spirited defence of the revival, while acknowledging that there had been some excesses. He preached on 1 John […]