Topic Archives: Missions

Maggie Paton’s letters ought to be read alongside Paton’s autobiography. James Paton wrote that he was eager to publish these letters because ‘they present another picture of mission life and experiences in the New Hebrides’ from that portrayed in the now famous Autobiography of her husband.  The story of John Gibson Paton (1824-1907), Scottish Presbyterian […]

What is success in missions? Are churches today helping or hurting the work of missionaries? How important is the local church in missions? Why are some missionaries failing? What is the state of missions today? In the video below, Chad Vegas and Brooks Buser of Radius International work through all of these questions, and they […]

‘These men who have upset the world have come here also.’ — Acts 17:6 How do we motivate the millennial generation to take up the challenge of world evangelization? As I wrote last week, many define the millennial generation as those born between 1980 and 2000. In the United States roughly 75 million millennials were […]

I recently attended a conference with a group of pastors from five continents and 15 countries. A number of them had heard about the vibrant and growing Reformed Baptist movement in Zambia, and they asked me what the contributing factors have been. Thankfully, I have been doing some research for a writing project, and so […]

Heroes of the Spanish Reformation In the first part of the sixteenth century, Luther’s publication of the Ninety-Five Theses started a new movement across Europe which we know as the Reformation. By 1525, not only were Luther’s works translated into Spanish but Illuminist teaching was taking hold and subject to scrutiny and opposition. Valera, from […]

Tuesday 20th February was a crisp winter day in Seoul and my body clock was slowly adjusting to a new place. I left London at 10.30, taking the bus and then the tube to Heathrow Terminal 5. Everything went swiftly. I never spoke to anyone, even when attaching my baggage label to my suitcase and […]

Malta is a Mediterranean island situated 60 miles south of Sicily. Its population is 420,000, almost half of whom live in the capital, Valletta, and the numbers have been swollen in recent years by a stream of refugees from North Africa. Its official language is Maltese but many of the people speak English. It became independent […]

Ian Hamilton discusses his first time reading John G. Paton’s Autobiography as a young Christian, and the ‘seismic impact’ it had on his Christian walk.

First Protestant missionary to translate the Bible into Chinese The great English poet and hymn writer William Cowper wrote the following well before Robert Morrison left for China: Great offices will have great talents, and God gives to every man the virtues, temper, understanding and taste that lifts him into life and lets him fall […]

There  is  much  debate  in  the  modern  church  about  what  exactly  is  her  mission.  Often  the  answer  that  is  given  is  not  so  much  wrong  as  lop-sided,  and  exaggerated  implications  and  conclusions  are  drawn  from  that.  There  are  probably  three  main  views:  the  Church  exists  to  glorify  God;  the  Church  exists  to  build  up  the  […]

Pastor Boichenko says that in spite of the recent hardening of the authorities’ attitude towards them they are still able actively and openly to serve the Lord in the city. They declined, when invited to do so, to take part in the parade publicly celebrating the first anniversary of the annexation of the Crimea by […]

Australian missionaries Jocelyn and Ken Elliott, both in their 80s, had been running a hospital for some four decades in the town of Djibo in the West African country of Birkina Faso when they were captured by an al Qaeda-linked terrorist group over a month ago and are believed to have been held in neighbouring […]

The closing words of the gospel of Matthew consist of the last words spoken by the resurrected Son of God. The farewell was not tearful. What Christ said was breathtaking. Our Lord gave them an extraordinary challenge mapping out what was to be the future of all these disciples. His commission was couched in terms […]

I think that almost every reader of this magazine1 will recognize in these two lines the beginning of the hymn by William Cowper, ‘God moves in a mysterious way’. As far as I know that author is virtually unknown to Polish Christians. Although many Christians might not know the hymn, we know the truth that […]

Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting (Psa. 126:5). Read carefully. If your church does not evangelize, then it will surely perish. I say this even if you have several hundreds or thousands of members and are presently a vibrant, fast growing church. We all know of churches that fifty or one […]

Pavel Setchov, youth leader in Tobols I was born in 1978 in the south of Russia in an area known as the Caucasus, in the town of Zhelyeznovodsk. When I was only five years old my father left my mother to bring up three children on her own. He sometimes returned home aggressively abusive and […]

I am the Lord—I will not give My praise to graven images—Sing to the Lord a new song—you islands, and all those who dwell on them. Isaiah 42:8-10 After King Kamehameha consolidated his power in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in the early 1800’s, he ruled with unbridled power. The Kapu religious system demanded human sacrifice […]

Dr Palmer Robertson is a much appreciated speaker at Banner of Truth Ministers’ conferences and an author whose works the Trust publishes.1 Now he is settled for the next four months [May-August 2012] in a sabbatical spent in England, which is the home of his wife Joanna. Since 1992 he has been lecturing and preaching […]

The sound of the gospel trumpet was first heard in the Garden of Eden when it fell on the ears of our first parents, who by then had lost that communion with God which they had previously enjoyed. With the entrance of sin into the world, they now were to face up to the reality […]

It was with some relief, and thankfulness to the Most High, that we stepped onto the tarmac at Odessa airport on the very chilly, grey afternoon of Friday, February 15, after one cancelled flight, two delayed flights, and an enforced overnight stay in London en route. I was accompanying Rev Donald Ross, interim moderator of […]

BORIS OLEINIK OF THE CITY OF KIROV In 1986 Boris was conscripted into the Soviet Army for military service. His unit was sent to the disaster at the Chernobil nuclear power station. He suffered perilous levels of radiation. Earlier this year lumps began to appear on his body which grew and became increasingly painful as […]

Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; let all the peoples praise Thee. Psalm 67:3. John Paton1 was born to godly Presbyterian parents in 1824 in a small village outside of Glasgow, Scotland. He was reared on the Shorter Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith in daily family worship, and from his earliest days […]

In The Free Presbyterian Magazine of October 2007 the following report of the address given by the Rev. S. Khumalo at the recent annual meeting of this mission was published and is reproduced here by permission. It was very kind of the Mbuma Zending Board to invite me and my wife to attend this important […]

ALLEN GARDINER COMMEMORATED They were the first Protestant missionaries to attempt to make Christ known to the indigenous people of South America. In Faith Cook’s “Singing in the Fire” (Banner of Truth) the heroic story of Captain Allen Gardiner is recorded, as one of fourteen biographical sketches. It is the most accessible record of that […]

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN SPAIN TODAY The tragedy is that we had reformers, but we did not have a Reformation! In much of Europe, either the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Church have enjoyed a privileged position with a dominant influence on culture, whilst Evangelicals have been a small and sometimes persecuted minority. A pan-European forum was […]