Topic Archives: Church & Ministry

A member of our congregation put to me a question in the light of some teaching on Luke 8:21, where Jesus dealt with a messenger who had come from his own relatives. These relatives wanted to speak to Jesus. ‘But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of […]

I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2) Charles Hodge and Henry Ward Beecher were 19th century contemporaries and both were leaders in the church of Christ at the time. Both also were reared in God-centred, Christ-exalting homes. One remained faithful to his biblical heritage and the […]

The Tyranny and Necessity of Narrowness The story is told of a Puritan who was asked, ‘Why are you so precise?’ He replied: ‘Because I follow a precise God.’ I very much like the old Puritan’s answer. The God of the Bible, the living God, is indeed a precise God. When the Lord instructed Moses […]

Are altar calls biblical? If they aren’t, then why are so many evangelical churches doing them? The altar is mentioned often in the Scriptures, but there’s no mention of an altar call. Then again, we’re not told that the 3,000 who were saved on the day of Pentecost came forward to some sort of ‘altar’ […]

Anyone who will make a careful examination of the state of our churches will be astonished at the low degree of spirituality which they manifest. This is owing, among other causes, to the laxity which they display in church discipline, and the leniency with which they regard the errors of those who lay themselves open […]

The Westminster Confession of Faith, insisting that Scripture is sufficient in our day, holds that ‘those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people’ have ‘now ceased’ (1.1). We who adhere to that doctrine are thus often called ‘cessationists.’ That label carries a lot of baggage. By itself, it’s negative. In current debates […]

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 […]

And Joshua said, ‘Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.’ And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. (Joshua 7:25) From time to time I am asked what the Bible says about cremation. First I realize this can […]

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 […]

The Church in Corinth had experienced the ‘weighty and strong’ writings of the Apostle Paul, but the Galatians had even more cause to feel the force of his pen. Their actions brought forth the sharpest response from Paul. His language in Galatians 1:6-9 is as strong as anywhere in his writings. Verse 6: ‘I am […]

The above heading should give no satisfaction to any evangelical Christian. Some of the finest literature in the evangelical heritage comes from gospel ministers of the Church of England, and a considerable number of evangelicals continue to belong to that denomination today. The crisis to which we refer has arisen from more than one direction; […]

The Bible teaches that the church is the company of those who are committed to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. The Master said ‘Upon this rock I will build my church’ and the foundation to which he referred was expressed in the glorious testimony of Peter ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the […]

In a few weeks time, a group of youngsters from this church, loaded up with rucksacks, sleeping-bags and Bibles will be heading off to camp. It’s thirty-four years since I first set off from home carrying more-or-less the same equipment. My first Christian camp was at Pendine on the South Wales coast. It was run […]

At the annual assembly of the Associating Evangelical Churches of Wales in Newtown, Peter Milsom spoke on the deficiencies of the Pharisees from Matthew 23. They began well concerned for the purity of God’s people but by Jesus’ time this had declined into a legalistic joyless form of religion without power, opposed to the gospel […]

Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word that is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear. [Ephesians 4:29] In January 1932, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and within seven years had plunged the world […]

When we want to know the boundaries and contours of right and wrong we consult the teaching of the Word of God, not our own feelings or natural reasoning (Prov. 3:5,7). Scripture clearly prescribes the things that are right and prohibits the things that are wrong. However, the Word of God also indicates to us […]

Several members of the Cambridge Presbyterian Church have set up a book table in the city centre every Saturday morning with the aim of handing out leaflets and tracts, trying to engage people in conversation, encouraging people to consider Christ and the claims that he makes, and generally providing a point of contact for people […]

Southern Baptists inherited the most compelling aspects of all the Baptist Calvinists that preceded them. James P. Boyce summarized this well. He encouraged every preacher to get theological education in some way, even if it could not be at the Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. If no other means were available, he advised, ‘work at […]

Between May 9th and 19th, 2008, Baruch was the guest of the Arche Pentecostal Church in Hamburg, Germany. Some years ago, the Pastor, Wolfgang Wegert, had tired of the endless sensationalism and the emotional roller coaster cultivated by the Toronto Blessing, Power Evangelism, Benny Hinn, Jongi Cho and the like. He told his wife that […]

Sitting in the pews listening to the pastor preach can be very trying if you have a burbling, wiggling ten-month-old on your lap and a three-year-old intent on colouring the hymnal beside you. You’re in a quandary. You do not want to disturb those in neighbouring pews, but you do want your children to learn […]

Gresham Machen, professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary (1929-1937), wrote the following introduction to The Narrow and the Broad Way, a book of sermons by J. Marcellus Kik (published bv Zondervan in 1934). This piece has not been included in any previous bibliography or compilation of Machen’s works, and was spotted by Richard […]

A discussion of chapter 3 of The Westminster Confession of Faith, presented at the Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in December 2007 by Rev Hugh Cartwright. R B Kuiper comments that it behoves us to remember that we are dealing with a profound mystery, that we are here on holy ground […]

We have received some correspondence regarding the article by Jeremy Walker, ‘John Owen and The Death of Death in the Death of Christ’, posted on the website April 17, 2007.1 The comments received and Pastor Walker’s reply appear below. Dear Editor, I found Jeremy Walker’s supposed review of John Owen’s Death of Death2 to be […]

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 […]

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 […]