Topic Archives: History & Biography

This month marks 500 years since the day which is conventionally identified as the beginning of the Reformation. On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther, a monk and theological professor in Wittenberg University, nailed to the church door a set of 95 theses, statements intended for debate. They were provoked by the unscrupulous sale of indulgences […]

500 years ago, the Church in Western Europe was awash with influences calling for much-needed reform. Most of these influences flowed from the Renaissance, whose Christian scholars were weighing the contemporary Church against what they found in the Bible and the writings of the early Church fathers. Their greatest figure, Erasmus of Rotterdam, had in […]

Tomorrow, on the 31st October 2017, we commemorate what was the beginning of the Reformation under Martin Luther. One of the features of his life and work was the central place that the Scriptures played in the spiritual revival that brought about the Reformation. Luther did not think of himself as a Reformer; the reformation […]

This is the second half of a two part article on the character and writings of William Williams. Part one may be found here. * * * Like all those touched by the eighteenth century awakening, Williams Pantycelyn was led to see that the vital matter is grace. Williams’ characterisation of the years immediately before […]

The author previously published an article on William Williams of Pantycelyn’s life. The three sections can be found here: Part One , Part Two , Part Three * * * Having traced a little of the life and experience of William Williams, it is now time to look to his character and his theology. Williams […]

This is the second half of a two part article. The first part can be found here. Semi-Pelagianism Yet the death of Pelagius was not the end of his speculation; not only were there still those who followed him, but there were those who tried to develop a ‘middle way’ between the strict Biblical teaching […]

Pelagianism can be regarded as the last of the ‘Great Heresies’; after Pelagius, heretics have, for the most part, been either reworking old heresies, or have been very limited in their influence. Pelagius, on the other hand, created a false teaching that challenged the Church to consider issues that had previously been taken for granted, […]

A delightful man’s body was buried under a tree in a country cemetery in rural Kentucky sixteen months ago. Mike Morrow’s soul had taken its heavenly flight the previous Friday, and his earthly ‘tent’ was laid to rest in Union Cemetery, immediately beside the Union Baptist Church building where Mike had pastored for sixteen years. […]

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. , Proverbs 31:10 I well remember the time I was allowed to take a series of eleventh grade American Literature class in a local high school and give the ‘other side’ of the story about the Puritans of the seventeenth century. They […]

PBS recently aired a documentary about Martin Luther which is available to view from on their website until September 27th (link at the bottom of the page). * * * The year 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of one on the most important events in Western civilization: the birth of an idea that continues to shape […]

Few biographies of Spurgeon mention Johann Gerhard Oncken. The most extensive mentions are those of G. Holden Pike (Life and Work of C. H. Spurgeon) and Spurgeon himself in his Personal Notes in The Sword and the Trowel. Writing an appreciation of ‘our friend, Mr J. G. Oncken’ soon after his death in 1884, Spurgeon […]

Steve Lawson describes some of the early struggles of his ministry, and how God used The Forgotten Spurgeon by Iain H. Murray to encourage and help him. For one week only, get The Forgotten Spurgeon for just $11. The Forgotten Spurgeon

This article is taken from a sermon preached by Christmas Evans in 1800, based on Romans 3:25 When our world fell from its first estate it became one vast prison. Its walls were adamant and unscaleable, its gates were brass and impregnable. Within, the people sat in darkness and shadow of death, without, inflexible Justice […]

Peter Jeffery was raised in Neath, coming from a fine Welsh working-man’s terraced home. He never lost his roots in that grand culture and communicated the gospel to the people there in a way that they easily understood. Wherever in the world he traveled people grasped his message and loved his preaching. He came at […]

An extract from Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987) pp. 198-200. (The ordination of J. Gresham Machen took place on June 23, 1914, at Plainsboro, NJ, just outside Princeton. Although few details have been preserved of the occasion, as Stonehouse reveals, the re is a manuscript […]

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.

A Trip to Prague I had never been to Prague and had the scantiest knowledge of the Czech Republic, but one day I was reading a newspaper and in the Travel section saw a cheap three day excursion offered to Prague. I thought about it and booked a flight and an hotel there. The Czech […]

John Hurrion was born in Suffolk, circa 1675, in a period when those who had stood apart from the Church of England after the Act of Uniformity of 1662 were undergoing persecution. Almost the only knowledge we have of his youth is this statement: ‘In his younger years, he was brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.’1 […]

William Tyndale is remembered as a Bible translator and martyr: a key player in a sequence that led to the King James Bible. In fact, as the compilers of this attractive little work show, there was far more to Tyndale than Bible translation- vital as that was. Indeed it is argued that William Tyndale’s work […]

Today (Monday 21st August), the remains of Erroll Hulse, a dear friend and elder statesman in the Reformed faith, will be interred in Cuckfield, England. My mind is, therefore, very much in that part of the world as the sun comes up here in the heart of Africa. I wish I could be there to […]

On August 4th,  the family informed us of the passing of Pastor Erroll Hulse in the Wetherby Manor Nursing Home. He had been cared for there recently, after suffering a stroke three and a half years ago. Erroll was born in South Africa in 1931 and graduated in Architecture at Praetoria University. He was converted under […]

On my bed night after night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. , Song of Solomon 3:1 David Brainerd was born in Haddam, Connecticut in April, 1718 and regularly attended the local Congregational Church, as almost everyone did in Eighteenth century New England. However when he was […]

Our dear friends and supporters of our ministry in this Northern Siberian city of Nizhnivartovsk, After six years of slow and painstaking labour, because we had to do most of the work ourselves, we completed our wooden church in 2014. We came here in 1991 on the first evangelistic mission to Siberia within living memory, […]

Let me introduce a contemporary church situation in England, and go back a time (a few hundred years in fact) to give it its origin, a contrast, and a perspective. I must take you back to William Bridge who is about as anonymous a Puritan preacher as you can find. Bare facts are the following, that […]

Muriel Ruth Cook, for 50 years a member of the church at Nottingham, and formerly for 6 years at Watford, passed away to her eternal rest on September 23rd, 2016, aged 96. The following is culled from her writings, left for the family, sermon/diary notes and letters. *     *     * Muriel […]