Topic Archives: Theology

From the Foreword by Michael Reeves, which gives us a helpful summary of Thomas Goodwin’s life, we learn that The Heart of Christ in Heaven Towards Sinners on Earth1, was first published in 1651. It soon became Goodwin’s most popular work. The book is in three parts. In the first, entitled, ‘Outward demonstrations of the […]

Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence can be found in Volume 4 of Flavel’s Works, published by the Trust.1 It is also available separately in a Puritan Paperback edition, The Mystery of Providence.2 For this review, Volume 4 of the Works was used, and the page numbers cited correspond with that. John Flavel (JF) […]

Then Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen!’ while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Nehemiah 8:6 God had promised through Jeremiah a return from the exile after seventy years (Jer. 25:11-12, 29:10) and indeed God […]

The doctrine of creation is one of the most fundamental areas of the Bible’s teaching. The first statement of Scripture is: ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’. It was he who did so; it was not evolution – a random, uncontrolled process – that brought everything into existence. And God created […]

Puritan Paperbacks which is the series into which this volume fits, may be familiar to some readers, and they will know what to expect from this addition to it, under the imprint of The Banner of Truth Trust. The latter is to be thanked for re-printing the 1861 edition of Goodwin’s treatise. It would have been […]

The Christian life is lived at the intersection of the ages, this present age and the age of the world to come that has already, in Christ, punctuated this present age. In Christ, believers are a ‘new creation’ (2 Cor. 5:17). Paul does not mean here that believers are inwardly renewed men and women, but […]

What would you say is the fundamental doctrine of the Christian Faith? For many of us, the instinctive answer would be, ‘justification by faith alone, in Christ alone’. There is no doubt, or should be no doubt, that this is a biblical and evangelical fundamental. Didn’t Martin Luther describe justification by faith alone, in Christ […]

This book is aimed at those new to the Christian faith who would like to understand more about 66 books that make up the Bible. After an excellent introduction, there is a chapter devoted to each book (except for 1 &2 Chronicles which are considered together). Pastor Crooks first of all outlines the background and […]

The title above, as many readers will recognize, is from answer 16 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (and Larger Catechism 22). It expresses a central truth of Scripture and reflects the universal confession of the church about Adam. Why then the added question mark? Not because non-Christians widely reject this truth, as they have for […]

‘How did we get here?’ is a question that is always relevant and often illuminating. Yet contemporary evangelicals don’t ask it as often as they should. In his book Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism, 1750-1858,1 Iain Murray tells a story that helps explain how evangelicals – Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and […]

Today [November 30, 2011] more than a million public-sector workers in the United Kingdom are on strike. Yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his autumn statement, which made clear the limited prospects for growth in the British economy this year and next, a situation which led analysts to predict that living standards in 2015 […]

Francis Nigel Lee died on December 23, 2011 in Australia. One thing he left behind is the story of the conversion of the man who murdered his father. In April 1994, I was invited to fly round the world and expound the Lord’s Prayer in the USA during September. Having acquired the plane ticket, as […]

The conversion testimony of Kevin McGrane, elder of Bury St Edmunds Presbyterian church. I was raised in a Roman Catholic family, my father having been born in Dublin of Roman Catholic ancestry. Baptism, Confession, Holy Communion and Confirmation followed in regular course. After junior education under Ursuline nuns, I moved to a boys’ grammar school […]

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9) The apostle has been referring to the fact that man was originally made a little lower than […]

Big events call for big celebrations – parties, food, balloons, streamers, noisemakers. But when God sent his Son to be born in Bethlehem, he came with much less worldly celebration than you might expect. In fact, many of the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, as recorded in Luke 2, were downright pitiable. What does God want […]

. . . if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9) Mainline Methodist minister Martin Thielen recently made this the title of a book he wrote in hopes of winning to the Christian faith sceptics, atheists, […]

It was the late Professor John Murray who pointed out that there was nothing supernatural in the emergence of Jesus from the womb of Mary – what we usually refer to as the ‘birth.’ The whole process of foetal and embryonic development was normal. We are told that when Mary’s ‘full time’ had come, she […]

On All Hallows’ Eve 1517, Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses or Statements to the door of the parish church in Wittenberg. Luther had little idea at the time of how incendiary these Theses were to become. But in God’s sovereign providence the Theses ignited a movement of protest that became the Protestant Reformation, and the […]

Jakob Herman did not have an easy childhood. Born into a Reformed family, he lost his father while still a child. Adopted by the family Pastor, young Jakob was sent to school, but when he was fourteen the Pastor died, and his mother was tragically killed just a year later. Befriended by Rudy Snell, a […]

And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). In our pluralistic, post-modern, western world few things irk people more than the gospel message of exclusivity. After all, absolute truth statements have caused major […]

It is beyond question that God wants ‘clean hands and a pure heart.’ What God desires is not one or the other, but both – doing the right thing for right motives. However, when we do what is as right as best we know it with as sincere hearts as we are able, we, our […]

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Paul’s marvellous proclamation is most often terribly misunderstood. I have been guilty of misunderstanding it myself. Romans 8 is not grounded in justification but sanctification. (If you would rather not follow this technical language then skip down to paragraph three). […]

My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth . . . (James 5:19). Perhaps you have a loved one who has left the faith. You are fearful, anxious, hurt, dismayed, and perhaps even angry. What can I write from God’s Word to encourage you? Why does this happen? What should you do? How […]

This is a fascinating selection of the writings of the great Scottish reformer John Knox first published in 1845. The text is unabridged and unaltered except that the spelling has been updated. Covering the period 1554 to 1558 the book includes 15 personal letters, 2 sermons, an exposition of Psalm 6 and a number of […]

Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals1, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9b-10.) A professing Christian husband and father leaves his wife of thirty years for a young woman the age of his daughter. […]