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These handsome volumes1 are full of edifying matter relating to the great revival in Wales in the mid-eighteenth century and the subsequent development of Methodism in the Principality. First published in Welsh in 1897, they have recently been translated into English and will hopefully reach those who were previously unable to benefit from them and […]

An extract, with slight editing, from Memoirs of the Rev James Fraser of Brea.1 Being at the University, and being at the age of 17 or 18 years, our minister proposed to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, of which he gave warning the Sabbath preceding the celebration thereof. I purposed (I know not […]

1. ‘Much of the Power and Wisdom of God’1 ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ With these words the Bible begins. The doctrine of Creation must therefore have considerable significance in relation to the whole revelation which God has given in the Scriptures. Manifestly, the first two chapters of Genesis focus […]

During this the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin I would like to express three ways in which John Calvin is an inspiration to me. First he is an inspiration as a pastor/preacher. John Calvin was a pastor for 27 years. First he served at St Peter’s Church in Geneva from 1536 to […]

. . . the woman, whom thou gavest me, gave me the fruit and I ate of it. (Genesis 3:12) You cannot live one moment of one day without experiencing the effects of Adam’s fall into sin. It adversely affects everything. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the civil unrest in Iran, genocide, racism, tsunamis, […]

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: 1859-2009 By Gregory Wills New York: Oxford University Press, 2009 592 pages, hardback, $35.00. ISBN: 978 0 19537 714 9 This long-anticipated history of Southern Baptists’ oldest Seminary will not disappoint those who have savoured its coming with heightened interest. Greg Wills has given the kind of historical investigation and […]

I have been thinking about the grace of God, not so much in terms of how that grace affects us as the Lord’s redeemed people, but rather in terms of how such grace has affected our Lord himself. Such thinking is not a matter of mere human speculation, for there is much teaching about it […]

A calm and impartial view of this sad subject has been reserved for this place, and for a chapter1 of its own. The immense advantage of having been able to consult and to weigh the evidence of the principal writers – certainly not fewer than forty – about the case of Servetus, besides several biographies […]

The annual Fiel Conference for pastors and church workers took place, 8-12 June. Prayers were much needed as the work this year far exceeded what could be done through the scant human resources at our disposal, but God more than made up the difference. There is good reason to think this latest meeting represented another […]

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. (Romans 13:11) Paul is writing to the congregation of new Christians at the heart of the Roman Empire. First of all he has given to […]

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism By Timothy J. Keller New York: Dutton, 2008 xxiii + 293 pages, hardcover, $24.95. ISBN: 978 0 52595 049 3 John R. Muether’s fine biography entitled Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman suggests that Van Til was marginalized by Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) and […]

The thought of heaven and especially the second coming used to unsettle me. I can remember growing up with a certain measure of fear associated with the end of this life (whether occasioned by the conclusion of this age with the coming of Christ or the conclusion of my physical life and entrance into heaven). […]

For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you. (1 Thessalonians 1:8). Many church leaders tell us that open air evangelism in the form of preaching or door-to-door evangelism is outdated, that it no longer works because people are post-modern, because people no longer care about heaven and hell, and that promising or […]

A tender farewell The fellowship meal of Abraham with the Lord and the two angels was over, and one part of God’s mission in leaving heaven and coming to Mamre to the patriarch and his wife had been completed. The Lord had assured Sarah that she was going to give birth to a son within […]

Let me begin with a question (not a trick one!): ‘What is the principal exercise of faith?’ It is a straight-forward question and a very important question. For John Owen, the great English Puritan divine, the answer was instinctive: ‘The contemplation of the glory of Christ.’ Saving faith unites the believer to the Lord Jesus […]

In his book titled Miracles, C. S. Lewis writes concerning the time when Christ walked on the Sea of Galilee that it was a glimpse given to us of the powers of the new creation. By that he meant that whereas many of the miracles of our Lord demonstrated some of the powers that the […]

GD: Hello Garry Williams and welcome to Exiled Preacher. Please tell us a little about yourself. GW: I became a Christian aged 17 through studying RS A Level, which I took by ‘chance’ as my third subject, on a whim really. But we studied John’s Gospel verse by verse and the Reformation, so I came […]

Why should Christians be familiar with the great doctrines of the Bible? Let me give you four reasons. 1) The first is the simplest of all: Because we love God. And if you love someone, you want to know everything about them. If a young man meets a girl and falls in love, he’ll want […]

God created man in his own image. (Genesis 1:27) On the sixth day of creation, after making cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts, Elohim, in a marvellous intra-Triune council decided to create man in his own image. The word ‘image’ in Hebrew literally means to cut from a stone, much like what Michelangelo did when […]

Three uses of the law are commonly identified in relation to the believer: (1) the civil use, (2) the law as schoolmaster, (3) the law as a teacher. (1) The civil use of the Law. In commenting on Galatians 3:19, Luther writes: The first use of the law is to bridle the wicked. This civil […]

On 10 July 1509, almost exactly 500 years ago, one of God’s greatest gifts to his Church was born. This was John Calvin, whose life began in Noyon in northern France. His father held several important positions in the town, some civil and some ecclesiastical; his mother – who died when John was no more […]

I have just completed preaching through the twelfth chapter of Romans, thirty years after I had first preached through the letter. It is the Everest of New Testament ethics, corporate and individual, ecclesiastical and personal. I preached fifteen sermons on it and found much helpful material available compared to thirty years ago. There is the […]

One of the effects of conversion is a new desire for the public worship of God. In regeneration, the Holy Spirit joins the soul to Christ, and through Christ the soul is united to all other believers, as members of the same body. The soul now finds itself drawn to the place where prayer is […]

And God blessed them, saying, ‘. . . fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ (Genesis 1:22) On the fifth day of creation Elohim created swarms that swarm in the sea and flying birds that fly in the sky. In his commentary on Genesis, John Currid says that the […]

THE LAW IS VERY GOOD AND PROFITABLE It is exceeding necessary for us to know this use of the Law. For he that is not an open and a public murderer, an adulterer, or a thief, holds himself to be an upright and godly man; as did the Pharisee, so blinded and possessed spiritually of […]