Topic Archives: History & Biography

The following is closely based on an article published in the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Volume 18, number 2 (Summer 2014), with selected references. The Trust’s publications on Whitefield include The Life and Times of George Whitefield by Robert Philip,1 George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore, Volumes 12 and 2,3 and Select Sermons of George […]

This is the final week of the Banner mini-documentary release. These short documentaries (about 5-6 minutes each) are designed to inform you, or to remind you, about the work of the Banner of Truth Trust. Is there more to the Banner than books? What makes a Banner conference unique? What is the Banner Bookfund? Watch […]

The news came to us late last year. A beloved brother and friend in our Hudson Taylor Ministries family in China had passed away. His name was Ma Zhi Jia. We knew him affectionately as ‘Brother Ma’. The news of his death came as a very big surprise to all of us. There were many […]

In the 1600’s a special relationship developed between John Owen (1616-1683), and John Bunyan (1628-1688). Although they were both English Puritans, there were some striking differences between the two men. And yet they were good friends. You might call them the Puritan odd couple. Bunyan had little education. He spent time in the army, and […]

This is week two of three, where we have been unveiling three short mini-documentaries (about 5-6 minutes long each) to inform you, or to remind you, about the work of the Banner of Truth Trust. What makes a Banner book? How does preaching encourage reading? Watch the video below to find the answer to these […]

Over the next three weeks we will be unveiling three short mini-documentaries (about 5-6 minutes long each) to inform you, or to remind you, about the work of the Banner of Truth Trust. How did the work of the Banner begin? Who were its founders? What exactly is a ‘Trust’? Watch the video below to […]

We are living in days when there seems to be a flat calm on the church scene in the United Kingdom. How can we explain the current situation? We may find an answer to this by considering church history. Some people would regard times of peace and quiet as desirable and times of controversy as […]

It is not difficult to appreciate the great strengths of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the early nineteenth century. It comprised of many solid, faithful congregations where the truths of the Bible were honoured and clearly taught; and where, from time to time, sudden bursts of religious awakening added large numbers of people to the […]

It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind (Joel 2:28). In 1848 at the age of twenty Andrew Murray returned home to Cape Town, South Africa from his theological studies in Scotland and Holland. The Dutch Reformed Church required ministers to be at least twenty-two years old […]

To answer my own question, I hope so. I very much hope so. I am not a fan of hell. I bow to God’s sovereign wisdom and justice, but I wish there were no hell. I wish that every life were sooner or later redeemed, set free from the scourge of sin, and released from […]

At the Westminster Conference at Westminster Chapel last December [2003] the opening paper was given by Iain Murray on the above title.1 The following are his opening words, and the remainder of this fascinating lecture has now been printed with the other five lectures in Knowing the Mind of God, published by the Westminster Conference […]

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 […]

Peter Hulland has been an elder and a preacher in the Stanton Lees Chapel in the Derbyshire Dales for forty years. His home is noted for its hospitality; his family trust in the Lord. His church has preaching services that are attend by throngs of people several times a year. He is in his eightieth […]

BOOK REVIEW: Calvinism: A History by D. G. Hart [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013], 339pp, $40.00/£25.00, ISBN 978 0 30014 879 4. Professor Darryl Hart has taken the plunge. A specialist in the history of twentieth-century American evangelicalism, especially Presby­terianism, he has a string of impressive publications to his credit such as Defending the […]

Mehdi Dibaj’s Final Testament is an extraordinary document. An Iranian preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ he was arrested and spent nine years in an Iranian prison on the charge of apostasy. He was eventually tried before the Islamic courts in December 1993 where he displayed such bravery in giving this defence of the […]

A review article on An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office, by James M. Garretson, published by Reformation Heritage Books (2014), clothbound, 440 pp, $35.00/£18.99, ISBN 9781601782984. The page references in the text are to this volume. Miller was the second professor appointed to Princeton Theological Seminary, in 1813. He and […]

REFORMATION DAY 2014 The date that marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation is October 31, 1517. No one could have known it then, but what happened that day set in motion an earthquake whose aftershocks are still being felt in the western churches today. That earthquake had three epicentres, one in Wittenberg with Martin […]

It is strange to write about a life-changing experience that I cannot remember. However, I am told that around 5.45 p.m. on Thursday, August 29, 2013, I was riding my Harley home from the church to lead a Bible study at our house when a car turned and hit me broadside on my left. Then […]

An address given at Bethel Chapel, Luton, on Lord’s Day afternoon, 8th June, 2014, on the occasion of the Sunday School Anniversary. Usually on these occasions I try to speak of something that is topical, but something that will be profitable and for the honour and glory of God. For a long time, my thoughts […]

Tim Challies interviews Dr. Joel Beeke 1. When the Puritans spoke of zeal, what were they referring to? By zeal they meant the fruit of the Spirit, especially love, exercised to a high level in the soul and activity of life. Thomas Manton said that godly zeal is ‘a higher degree of love,’ indeed the […]

As one who owes a debt of gratitude to the ministry of the Rev Kenneth A MacRae (1883-1964) it would not be right to let the 50th anniversary of his death (5th May) pass without a short tribute to his memory. He exercised a powerful ministry over 50 years in the Free Church of Scotland […]

Go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel (Jeremiah 7:12). Thirty-seven year old Asahel Nettleton, the powerful Presbyterian evangelist, was exhausted. He had been preaching several times daily in […]

An address by John J Murray to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) on Tuesday 20 May 2014. We are commemorating this evening the quincentenary of the birth of John Knox. We are doing it in a nation that has airbrushed him out of history. We are doing it in a […]

A transcript of the sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Dr David Samuel at the 125th Anniversary Service of the Protestant Truth Society. The service was held in Kensit Evangelical Church, Finchley, North London, on Saturday 24 May 2014. May I say first of all it is a great privilege to be asked to preach […]

An extract from Chapter 5, ‘The Hope and Puritan Piety’ in Iain Murray’s The Puritan Hope,1 due to be reprinted (2014) in a new, larger format. At the outset it has to be admitted that an interest in unfulfilled prophecy is not always conducive to Christian piety. The Christians at Thessalonica were only the first […]