Topic Archives: History & Biography

Christmas Evans was a man of lowly birth, and little education. But in the hands of God he became one of the most eloquent and powerful preachers in Wales from the late 18th to the early 19th centuries. Great crowds would gather to hear his vivid, imaginative sermons. HIS EARLY LIFE On the evening of […]

Not many people can say they have been to seminary. I have been to two: the first for two years to train as a Roman Catholic priest in Ireland; the second was a Reformed Seminary in London. Like most young boys growing up in Ireland in the 1980s I was brought up as a Roman […]

Cyril John Pocock, (always known as John), faithful deacon of the church at South Moreton for fifty-five years, passed away on November 24th, 2007, aged 89 years. The following details are taken from his own writings: I was born at Gainfield Farm, Buckland, on March 14th, 1918. My father, Mr. Jacob Pocock, was a minister […]

Mission Statement The Project has as its objective the transformation of society through faith in Jesus Christ, using the life and works of John Newton as one great example.1, 2, 3 The Better Hour During February 2008, The Better Hour, a documentary on William Wilberforce, was shown on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television channels right […]

‘Berkhof’ – it has a certain ring of defiance about it, an abbreviation for an almost 1,000 page volume of systematic theology which is considered a touchstone of orthodoxy, but . . . ‘surely a bit out of date’ . . . ‘Dutch’ . . . ‘not a note about revival’ . . . ‘rather […]

A Visit to Artillery Street Chapel in Colchester At first we couldn’t find it. We walked a long way down Artillery Street in a less than thriving area of Colchester, England. I was the guest of Graham Stevens and Abbeyfield Community Church, where he is the senior pastor. I had spoken there on Saturday night […]

An old writer on the Puritans tells us how Robert Atkins, in one of his last sermons at St. John’s, Exeter, before the Great Ejection of 1662, took the opportunity of declaring in the presence of Bishop Gauden and other dignitaries that ‘those ministers who beget converts to Christ may most properly be called Fathers […]

Why a Translation from Hebrew to Hebrew? Spoken Hebrew differs from biblical Hebrew far more than Shakespeare’s English differs from the English of today. Biblical Hebrew speaks of a large woman (2 Kings 4:8) to indicate a woman of influence. Hosea (8:4) speaks of Israel’s idolatry: ‘With their silver and gold, they make idols for […]

The year 2007 has been one of significant anniversaries for the Christian church. Among the most notable were the births of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (see faith Cook’s biography1) and of Charles Wesley exactly three hundred years ago. From far different backgrounds, these two became closely linked in God’s purposes during the great Evangelical Revival […]

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 […]

David Brainerd,1 the great missionary to the American Indians, was born in April, 1718 at Haddam, Connecticut. His father, a legislator in Connecticut, died when David was nine years old and his mother died when he was fourteen. He lived with a godly aunt and uncle until he was eighteen and then tried farming for […]

ANTI-MISSIONARY THREATS TURN VIOLENT IN TURKEY A Protestant pastor in the Turkish industrial city of Izmit woke up one morning last month to find a huge red swastika pinned to his apartment door, with a handwritten hate letter shoved underneath. The writer threatened the safety of Wolfgang Hade and his family unless they left the […]

I arrived to take up the pastorate at Kabwata Baptist Church on 1st September 1987. I was a young man of 25 years of age and green between the ears. I was still a bachelor and had never seen the inside of a theological college. The church took a great risk in calling such a […]

Geoffrey Thomas is Pastor of Alfred Place Baptist Church, Aberystwyth, where he has served the Lord for over forty years. His preaching and written ministry are deeply appreciated by many of God’s people around the world, and he is no stranger to Northern Ireland [where ‘Men for Ministry’ is based], having spoken in a number […]

Dr. Edward J. Young was one of the greatest Christian scholars, and the godliest of Christians whom I ever met. I came to Westminster Theological Seminary in 1964 for postgraduate work. I had just completed a master’s degree at Princeton and was tired of the liberalism that seemed to permeate all the lectures and grading. […]

Iain H. Murray, born in Lancashire, England, in 1931 was educated in the Isle of Man and at the University of Durham. He entered the Christian ministry in 1955. He served as assistant to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel (1956-59) and subsequently ministered at Grove Chapel, London (1961-69) and St. Giles Presbyterian Church, Sydney […]

Is it ever right to question one’s standing with God? Recently the world was informed about Mother Teresa’s inner life as a nun in the Roman Catholic Church. Mother Teresa gained world-wide recognition for her labours amongst the poor in Calcutta. Truly, her efforts on behalf of the poor and the unborn are worthy of […]

JOHN BRAINERD: MISSIONARY TO THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS 1747-1781 David Brainerd’s life and legacy have become a special part of Christian history for Christians worldwide. The sacrificial giving of himself to take the gospel to the North American Indians, as recorded in his journals and Jonathan Edwards’ Life of David Brainerd,1 has been used of […]

On Monday July 2nd Iola and I drove out east from Grand Rapids twenty miles to a lovely house in the woods overlooking Murray Lake on Red Oak Drive, Lowell to visit Bob den Dulk. Bob and I had begun our studies at Westminster Seminary together in 1961 and we graduated three years later (along […]

One by one the men who influenced the Scottish church’s history from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth are remembered in detail, inevitably drawing into the story many others who worked and worshipped with the main characters. From John Knox to William Roberson Smith, the story is one of strong beliefs and those opposing them: […]

This is how world-famous triple jumper and high profile ‘Christian’ Jonathan Edwards has described his (now abandoned) belief in God. In a tragic interview in the The Times on 27th June 2007, Edwards speaks openly and candidly of his renunciation of the Christian faith, and of his apparent naivety in following Christ for 37 years […]

“Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.” So the Psalmist prayed, and we ourselves have much need of pleading for such help when the number of the Lord’s people in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland is so sadly diminished. How great is the blank […]

Egypt: Keeping the Copts Subjugated On 11 May, Muslims in the village of Bimha (or Bamha) in Ayat district (around 70 kilometres south Cairo) left their mosques after Friday prayers, armed and zealous for jihad against the indigenous Coptic Christian community and their solitary, partially built church. The violent Muslim pogrom in Bimha bears the […]

Elizabeth, the fifth child of Dr Edward Payson and his wife Louisa was born in Portland, Maine, USA in 1818. This is the story of her childhood development, her marriage in 1845 to George Prentiss and their subsequent life and work. I had no previous knowledge of this truly Christian lady, prior to reading this […]

Mary Stone was the daughter of Matthew Stone, a successful London Merchant. She met her husband Christopher Love, in 1639 and six years later they married. Christopher Love was a Puritan who became the lecturer at St. Ann’s Aldergate for three years before becoming the minister of St. Laurence Jewry, a church in London, in […]