Resources

"Does the church still need free grace?" To answer the question Rev. Mark Vander Hart travelled from Dyer, Indiana to Ancaster, Ontario on October 31, to give his affirmation to what was – in the confines of a receptive Reformed audience – an obvious answer. Obvious as it was however, it was clear from the […]

Three addresses at the Revival and Reformation conference at Swanwick, November 2003, given by Stephen Clerk, Minister at Free School Court Evangelical Church, Bridgend (1) Can you imagine the following situation, a typical British Sunday, but the shops are closed, and there is no major sporting event. Where are all these crowds going? They are […]

The history of the ‘Reformation and Revival Fellowship’ was outlined in a fascinating way by the Rev James Wood at the annual Conference of the Fellowship this November. Mr Wood wasn’t present at the very first residential conference, but in 1956 he went to the third conference in the Highleigh Conference Centre, the year in […]

Roger Carswell reflects on 20 years as an itinerant evangelistLife itself is a great teacher. For 20 years I was involved in evangelism whilst a student and then a teacher. For the last 20 years I have worked full time as an itinerating evangelist. I have had many teachers, and lessons! They are too numerous […]

Think common grace is no longer an issue in the Reformed community? Think again. The issue of common grace came to a head in 1924 when the Christian Reformed Church Synod determined that, in addition to the saving grace imparted only to the elect, there exists a “common grace” which is manifested to all people […]

James W Galyon (A PhD candidate at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas) When God initiated his covenant with Abraham, He declared, "I will make you a great nation…. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:2-3). All the families of the earth will be blessed because […]

October 29, 2003 Dear Mr. Prowse, It would be my great joy to persuade you that God’s demand for worship is beautiful love, not ugly pride. On March 30, 2003 you wrote in the Financial Times: “Worship is an aspect of religion that I always found difficult to understand. Suppose we postulate an omnipotent being […]

Psalter Reading: Psalm 27Epistle Reading: 2 Timothy 4: 9-18Text: 2 Timothy 4: 16-18 Sometimes you have to go it alone. The old spiritual teaches us to sing, “You gotta walk that lonesome valley, you gotta walk it by yourself, oh, nobody else can walk it for you, you gotta walk it by yourself”. There are […]

Baruch Maoz, a Christian pastor in Israel, has been confronted with a phenomenon called ‘Messianic Judaism’ for many years. It is a blending of Jewish cultural practices with Christian convictions about the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Claims are made that this is the most potent means of leading Jewish people to faith in […]

Austin Walker was the first of the Aberystwyth students to go into the ministry after I arrived in the town in 1965. He is now the pastor at Maidenbower Baptist Church, Crawley, Sussex. His son, Dan Walker, is a radio sports commentator with Key 103 FM (Piccadilly Radio) based in Manchester. He has been described […]

The Presbyterian minister and author G.I. Williamson has now retired from the pastorate after fifty years in the ministry. His paperback commentaries on the Westminster Confession and Catechism are well known. He was recently interviewed by Glenda Mathes in the ‘Christian Renewal’ magazine. CR:Rev. Williamson, during a lecture at a conference in Johnston, Iowa, you […]

Paul Brand was born in Ootacmund on the Nilgiri Hills in South India on 17 July 1914. He died on 8 July 2003. His parents were Jesse Brand of Guildford and Evelyn Harris of St John’s Wood, London. They had married and gone to work for the Strict Baptist Mission in the Kolli Hills, 150 […]

What are your recurring, chronic temptations? I know you have them. We all do. I classify them as the fearsome foursome: sensuality, food, possessions and speech. There is not a man alive who does not face sensual temptation. It is everywhere he looks. Some battle food, either gorging or purging. All are tempted to want […]

Glenda Mathes The fact that a movie about Martin Luther is necessary for our culture can best be demonstrated by a recurring phenomenon. Some people, hearing about the selection of the actor Joseph Fiennes for the lead role, asked why a black man wasn’t chosen for the part. It’s a sad commentary on modern society […]

EXTRACT FROM THE INAUGURAL LECTURE OF HYWEL JONES AS PROFESSOR OF PRACTICAL THEOLOGY AT WESTMINSTER SEMINARY ESCONDIDO. Looking back on the first 75 years of the last century, several writers have noted that the Holy Spirit had been overlooked in theological writing in the English language. Juergen Moltmann and Alister McGrath, for example – and […]

by Baruch Maoz Israel has always had grounds for hope, although the people have not always exercised that hope. The religion of Israel was conceived as a religion of hope: hope promised, lost and regained. The nation was born in hope: Abraham was called to leave his homeland and step out into the desert, away […]

The following articles were prepared by young members of the Sunnyside Orthodox Christian Reformed Church Washington, USA for their annual commemorating of the 16th century Reformation. Many papers were written and this is a selection included in the October ‘Trumpet’ to share “the wonderful works of God” in history with everyone. 1] HERE I STAND […]

Last year I heard a sermon by Tim Brown, a leading pastor in the Reformed Church of America and professor of preaching at Western Seminary. With appropriate fatherly pride, Tim told the congregation about a phone call he had received from his son Jon who was doing a seminary summer assignment in a church in […]

N. Gazendam Sometimes one reads a book that stays on your mind, and that was the case for me with one I borrowed recently from our church library. Its title: "History of the Waldenses", by J. A. Wylie. One reason for choosing such a book was a flier announcing a day of prayer for the […]

RICHARD M. BENNETT Introduction I had great difficulties as a Catholic priest in listening to evangelists in my fourteen years of searching for the Gospel. Christian radio programmes continually told me the amount of things I had to do to accept Jesus into my heart. Christian tracts likewise told me the amount of dedication or […]

George van Popta Publishers of the Bible do not seem to know when to quit. In what has become a market-driven money-making enterprise, the bizarre has entered the scene. Australian readers have, perhaps, heard about The Aussie Bible. Written in the Australian vernacular, known as "Strine," The Aussie Bible is aimed at readers who believe […]

Dr Joel Beeke, Grand Rapids. Puritan literature has been a major resource for my devotional reading for thirty-five years. I believe there is no group of writers in church history that can feed our minds and souls with spiritual truth as effectively as do the Puritans. With the Spirit’s blessing, here’s how Puritan writings can […]

This is the testimony of how the Lord worked in the life of an eighty-year-old man who departed this life in August 1969. R.H.K. would have been the first to acknowledge what the Lord himself had done for him since he knew it was something he could never have done for himself.A number of Scriptures […]

by John R. Muether “Read any new books lately?” Visitors to the Reformed Theological Seminary library often ask this, eager to learn what to add to their reading lists. Before introducing them to what’s new, though, I remind them of what’s old that they should be reading. High on that list, yet often overlooked, is […]

Maurice Roberts, Inverness. By ‘public prayer’ we mean prayer offered in the presence of a Christian congregation. This contrasts with prayer offered in secret or in the family, where a somewhat greater freedom may be appropriate and where the guidelines suggested here may be more relaxed. By ‘leading’ in public prayer we refer to that […]