Topic Archives: Theology

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

‘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 […]

‘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 […]

‘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, […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

‘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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. 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, […]

The Enlightenment, emerging in 18th-century Germany, rejected all supernatural religion, stressing the all-sufficiency of human reason. Its rationalistic spirit penetrated deeply into German Protestantism, and by the 19th century it was making its impact on Protestantism worldwide. It undermined belief in the inerrancy and authority of the Bible, encouraging a radical form of Higher Criticism that had a long-lasting […]

Derek Thomas talks about writing Ichthus with Sinclair Ferguson. Watch as he breaks down the theme of the books, and talks about why the life of Christ is just as significant as his death. FULL VIDEO SHORT VIDEO