Topic Archives: History & Biography

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 […]

A few hundred yards beyond the house where Finlay Thomson lived most of his days, there stands prominently, on its own, a place of worship known as Teampaill Moluaidh, a building dating from the twelfth or thirteenth century and which, we are informed, was possibly built on the site of an earlier church. Moluag, as […]

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 […]

In this final of three articles on John Owen,1 Jeremy Walker looks at Owen’s classic work, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.2 Reader, if thou intendest to go any farther, I would entreat thee to stay here a little. If thou art, as many in this pretending age, a sign or title […]

At about four o’clock in the afternoon of March 14th 2007 the earthly remains of Howard Spencer were laid to rest on the Norfolk coast near where, for the past fifteen years, together with his wife Jean, he had made his home. Earlier, at Cromer Baptist Church, which he had pastored since 1992, there was […]

Since December 2005 we have been undergoing major changes and facing new challenges. On December 31st 2005 I completed 32 years of service with Christian Witness to Israel. Since then I have been serving the church and those of the publications programs assumed by the church when I left CWI. A good deal of time […]

Having provided this brief and necessarily shallow study of the life of John Owen,1 I want to pick out several aspects of his life and character which deserve particular attention. A general description of his character is given in the biographical note that opens his collected works: He is said to have stooped considerably during […]

John Owen is worthy of our attention because of his example as a Christian man. In many respects he was a man of his times; in others he was far ahead of them. Nevertheless, he possessed qualities and lived by principles and embraced values which – because they were the fruits of grace – are […]

On Sabbath the 4th of February 2007 the community of Kinloch on the Isle of Lewis was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mr Hector Macaulay, 33 Balallan. Although in indifferent health for the past few months the end came with startling suddenness. “Heg”, as he was affectionately known, was a remarkable person […]

Leon Morris is remembered most for his timely work on the atonement. But the story of his early ministry is also immensely helpful in getting to know this excellent scholar. A Shy Leon While teaching at a public school, a shy Leon began earnest study of Nunn’s Elements of New Testament Greek. That same year, […]

This is the final article in the series on Jonathan Edwards.1 Last time we looked at the communion controversy, which resulted in Edwards’ ministry in Northampton being brought to an abrupt end. From June 1750 Edwards was without a charge, though for some time he occupied the Northampton pulpit when no one else was available. […]

No one can answer such a question with confidence. All we can do is consider where we are at the moment and where current trends point to. This article is being written on the day after more than 200 people were slaughtered in Baghdad, most in a series of co-ordinated bomb attacks, and just a […]

We take up the story1 during Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle ministry … During this period of sustained growth and massive expenditure of effort, the health of Mrs Spurgeon failed quite drastically, leaving her substantially invalided. At the same time, Spurgeon’s health began to suffer. He was prone to depression, combined with and brought on to some […]

Arianne Arianne* had heard something of the Gospel in a congregation some distance away from us, but in terms that were even further away. All she needed to do was to recognize that God existed, that he loved her and that Jesus is the Messiah, sent to Israel in fulfilment of divine promises. There was […]

[I wrote this letter recently to a friend who is now living in Canada, who asked the reasons for the spiritual decline in Europe.] You ask, “why the decline?”, and have waited patiently for my response. I don’t know the book you mentioned and would not feel it had much to say to me … […]

In September of 1840, Scotland’s famous praying pastor, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, wrote a letter to William Chalmers Burns.1 He wrote, I am deepened in my conviction, that if we are to be instruments in a true revival we must be purified from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Oh, cry for personal holiness, constant […]

The life of Charles Haddon Spurgeon was so full of grace, gifts and labour, and so much has been written by and about him, that we must leave out much that is of interest and usefulness in reviewing his life and ministry.1 He was born in Kelvedon, a village in the county of Essex in […]

In a corner of the Churchyard at Montgomery, Wales, is a space known as The Robber’s Grave. There lie the remains of a young man named JOHN NEWTON, (not the hymnwriter) who was hanged in 1821 at Montgomery for highway robbery. In token of his innocence he asserted, “The grass for one generation at least […]

Franco was born on the 7th of July, 1937, in Turin, Italy. From an early age, Franco had a deep hunger for God. For a time he followed a hard life in a monastery near Rome. After that he trained as a priest. His motive was always the same. He wanted to find God for […]

Dr. Lloyd-Jones would preach every two years in Aberystwyth, and after one occasion I went to see him for morning coffee. It was a great treat for me to be with him alone. These occasions did not happen often. He always stayed in the home of a local doctor who, when he was a medical […]