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Topic Archives: Theology

What a remarkable volume to receive just now, in the early part of the 21st century! It is truly historically unique, containing as it does so much under one beautifully-produced cover. It is a joy to those committed to the Reformed Protestant Biblical Faith, and a timely publication in the midst of the gathering apostasy […]

Category Book Reviews
Date August 31, 2018
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In some churches, it is a word that conjures up images of an angry and capricious God who acts arbitrarily to save some, but consigns most sinners—including deceased infants—to eternal perdition. For many professing Christians, it is the mother of all swear words. Let the pastor breathe it in the presence of the deacon board […]

Category Articles
Date August 22, 2018
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We need a category for revival in all of our churches. Without it, we may miss out on the great blessing that God offers. Without it, we may spend our lives toiling for the wrong things, and we may shortchange the future generations. Revival, in the historical sense, is an in-breaking of the kingdom of […]

Category Articles
Date August 15, 2018
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Proverbs has always been one of my favourite books. When as a young man it was called to my attention that there’s a chapter for each of the thirty-one days in a month, I began the habit of daily reading the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month. After doing so […]

Category Articles
Date August 13, 2018
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On May 10, 1716, Jonathan Edwards wrote a letter to one of his ten sisters, Mary. Written when he was twelve years old, it is the earliest known letters by Edwards. The very first paragraph was about wakening. That is to say, the earliest sentence that we have from Jonathan Edwards is about awakening. Edwards […]

Category Articles
Date August 1, 2018
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‘Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee.’ —Psalm 119:11 From time to time I have people ask me how I go about memorizing Scripture. These same people also have asked me to write about this topic. So here I go. First of all, I have found that […]

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Category Articles
Date July 27, 2018
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I was brought up in the kind of evangelical church that drummed into us as children that Jesus died ‘to save us from our sins’. The cross of Jesus was the centre of the message at summer camps, holiday Bible clubs, and youth group talks. The message was that Jesus had died in my place, […]

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Category Articles
Date July 25, 2018
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Human life, body and soul together, filled David with wonder. The study of the uniquely-designed human being (Psalm 139:13-14) should bring us also to glorify God for his marvellous works. In his book Hallmarks of Design (pp.164-194), the scientist Stuart Burgess gives ten unique features that God has given human beings: Upright posture. Man is the only […]

Category Articles
Date June 18, 2018
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The doctrine of justification is undoubtedly among the most important and most disputed doctrines in the history of the Christian Church. Central to the recovery of the faith once delivered to the saints at the time of the Reformation, it has been at the centre of assaults on that faith ever since. These assaults continue […]

Category Book Reviews
Date June 11, 2018
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‘Short and engaging little books that offer real spiritual meat, but are accessibly written for the modern reader.’ The Banner of Truth is excited to introduce a new series on the Christian Faith: Banner Mini-Guides. The series is divided into five sections: Key Truths, Christian History, Christian Living, the Christian Mind, and Christian Mission. Each […]

Category Announcements
Date June 6, 2018
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It has long been observed that the eye sees all else but not itself. As a preacher, I am sometimes called upon to use a translator. Issues like accents and mannerisms are raised, and my default position is that I have none. It is everybody else who has an accent and some unusual mannerisms. As […]

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Category Articles
Date April 13, 2018
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We must not forget the self sacrifice of one man who on March 23, 2018, gave his own life so that one particular person might live. It happened in the old French town of Carcassonne, and many have prayed for the gospel church in that town for decades. Then on Friday 23rd March an Islamic […]

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Category Articles
Date April 6, 2018
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It is worth asking the question: What difference does it make to believe in the resurrection of Christ, as opposed to not believing it? Death is clearly the great reality and the great leveler of life. Fools die and wise men die – as do kings and paupers, celebrities and nonentities. Princess Diana dies, and so too Kerry Packer […]

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Category Articles
Date April 2, 2018
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‘God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.’ — Acts 17:30 A few weeks ago I raised the question of why there is so little preaching of repentance in the modern, western church when the Scriptures are replete with references to it. I suggest three reasons for this. The first has […]

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Category Articles
Date March 21, 2018
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‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ — Matthew 4:17 In what Biblical scholars call Jesus’ early Galilean ministry (beginning in Matthew 4:12), after his baptism by John and his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus began his ministry in Capernaum which was located on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Matthew […]

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Category Articles
Date March 12, 2018
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‘But we have the mind of Christ.’ — 1 Corinthians 2:16 A Pew Research poll,1 released on December 16, 2015, asked the question, ‘Should homosexuality be accepted by society?’ The percentage who are ‘okay with that’, in all denominations, not just historically liberal ones, but also conservative ones, is very large, and the trend continues […]

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Category Articles
Date March 9, 2018
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‘In grammatical terms, then, the words repent and believe both function as a synecdoche — the figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole. Thus, repentance implies faith and faith implies repentance. One cannot exist without the other.’ When the gospel is proclaimed, it seems at first sight that two different, […]

Category Articles
Date February 14, 2018
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Articles take a time to reach Aberystwyth, but if they are online, they are floating about somewhere or other and they may finally touch down in out-of-the-way places. So it was that I came across Rachel Miller’s fascinating blog entitles A Daughter of the Reformation and the following article that she wrote… three years ago. Yes, […]

Category Articles
Date January 29, 2018
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Many of us are vexed over the state of our nation and our society today. Sometimes we might feel like echoing the cry of Jeremiah: ‘Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people’. (Jer […]

Category Articles
Date January 24, 2018
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We remarked in an earlier article that contemporary evangelical theology has, to a significant extent, affirmed a view known as the eternal subordination or submission of the Son. This is sometimes abbreviated to the acronym ESS or alternatively, EFS, the eternal functional subordination of the Son. We previously looked at the teaching of Scripture in […]

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Category Articles
Date January 17, 2018
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Contemporary evangelical theology has recently, to varying degrees, affirmed a view known as subordinationism. This is the view that, within the Godhead itself, the Son is eternally subordinate to the Father. It is the purpose of this article to look at what Scripture tells us about the relationship within the Godhead between the Father and […]

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Category Articles
Date January 15, 2018
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‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap.’ , Jeremiah 30:18 The gospel is something which comes from God: ‘Thus saith the Lord’. I shall deal with this principle more in detail later on. […]

Category Articles
Date January 3, 2018
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If My people will. . . pray and seek My face. . . then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and will heal their land. , 2 Chronicles 7:14 We must humble ourselves if we are to see revival; ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ they only, ‘for theirs is the kingdom of […]

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Category Articles
Date November 20, 2017
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The church today is crippled with a comparative absence of strong and full assurance and, perhaps worst of all, most of us are scarcely aware of it. We live in a day of minimal, not maximal, assurance. How do we know this? Assurance is known by its fruits: a close life of fellowship with God; a tender, filial […]

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Category Articles
Date November 15, 2017
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In 2012, a new five volume edition of the minutes and papers of the Westminster Assembly (1643-52) was published (Oxford University Press). This was the fruit of years of work by Rev. Chad Van Dixhoorn. This monumental work will probably form the basis for study o the Westminster Assembly for the remainder of this century […]

Category Book Reviews
Date November 13, 2017
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