Articles

Sitting in the pews listening to the pastor preach can be very trying if you have a burbling, wiggling ten-month-old on your lap and a three-year-old intent on colouring the hymnal beside you. You’re in a quandary. You do not want to disturb those in neighbouring pews, but you do want your children to learn […]

Gresham Machen, professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary (1929-1937), wrote the following introduction to The Narrow and the Broad Way, a book of sermons by J. Marcellus Kik (published bv Zondervan in 1934). This piece has not been included in any previous bibliography or compilation of Machen’s works, and was spotted by Richard […]

A discussion of chapter 3 of The Westminster Confession of Faith, presented at the Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in December 2007 by Rev Hugh Cartwright. R B Kuiper comments that it behoves us to remember that we are dealing with a profound mystery, that we are here on holy ground […]

We have received some correspondence regarding the article by Jeremy Walker, ‘John Owen and The Death of Death in the Death of Christ’, posted on the website April 17, 2007.1 The comments received and Pastor Walker’s reply appear below. Dear Editor, I found Jeremy Walker’s supposed review of John Owen’s Death of Death2 to be […]

Not many people can say they have been to seminary. I have been to two: the first for two years to train as a Roman Catholic priest in Ireland; the second was a Reformed Seminary in London. Like most young boys growing up in Ireland in the 1980s I was brought up as a Roman […]

BORIS OLEINIK OF THE CITY OF KIROV In 1986 Boris was conscripted into the Soviet Army for military service. His unit was sent to the disaster at the Chernobil nuclear power station. He suffered perilous levels of radiation. Earlier this year lumps began to appear on his body which grew and became increasingly painful as […]

It was with some relief, and thankfulness to the Most High, that we stepped onto the tarmac at Odessa airport on the very chilly, grey afternoon of Friday, February 15, after one cancelled flight, two delayed flights, and an enforced overnight stay in London en route. I was accompanying Rev Donald Ross, interim moderator of […]

The Question Should we sing Psalms only? ‘Exclusive Psalmody’ is the teaching that, in the worship of the church, we should sing all, and only, the 150 Psalms found in the biblical Book of Psalms. We are not allowed to sing hymns. Hymn singing is sinning against God. There is no unity on this question […]

How does God regard our worship? We may get some insight from the verse: ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight’ (Prov. 15:8), where sacrificing and prayer are taken as two examples of acts of worship. Yet it seems very strong language […]

The pure in heart are blessed by their seeing God (Matt. 5:8), and those who see God see all things rightly in his perfect light (Psa. 36:9). It is therefore no wonder that the Word of God emphasizes the vital necessity of men having pure hearts, while those who believe the divine testimony of Scripture […]

Grey Hazlerigg once wrote, ‘A truth out of place and out of season may work in Satan’s hands like a lie.’ So Satan has often perverted the truth of predestination and God’s sovereignty to lull sinners into idle slothfulness. Fatalism is evil. God is not in it. There is no purpose, no point, no religion, […]

. . . the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and your wife by covenant. [Malachi 2:14] Every Christian man knows pornography is sinful and that it will rob his soul of vitality, destroying his marriage and […]

What is the use of a prayer meeting? There are many uses. Believers are encouraged and strengthened; the cause of God is maintained; the truth of God is watered after it is sown; and prosperity is rained down through the opened windows of heaven, according to the Lord’s promise. In the beginning of the year […]

Cyril John Pocock, (always known as John), faithful deacon of the church at South Moreton for fifty-five years, passed away on November 24th, 2007, aged 89 years. The following details are taken from his own writings: I was born at Gainfield Farm, Buckland, on March 14th, 1918. My father, Mr. Jacob Pocock, was a minister […]

Mission Statement The Project has as its objective the transformation of society through faith in Jesus Christ, using the life and works of John Newton as one great example.1, 2, 3 The Better Hour During February 2008, The Better Hour, a documentary on William Wilberforce, was shown on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television channels right […]

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. [Ephesians 4:25] I suggested in the previous article1 that we are prone to listen to the lie of the devil, namely that worshipping the creation rather than the Creator Redeemer brings Shalom, well being, prosperity, […]

Sin is a corrupting, spoiling, God-dishonouring disease. It manifests itself in a defiance of God’s Law, a rejection of God’s Son, and a dismissal of God’s church. Sin is multi-faceted. It betrays itself essentially by its self-oriented, earth-bound perspective on life. Its horizon is the stars, not the Creator of the stars. Its desire is […]

It was at the end of the period when judges ruled in Israel. This was a time of repeated departures from God – when ‘every man did that which was right in his own eyes’, without any thought of what the Most High saw to be right. The Philistines invaded the land and the first […]

How blessed I was to be able to join a visit to my son and daughter-in-law and their children with attendance at the annual Banner Conference in Leicester. Are there any other conferences its equal in the world? Perhaps there are, such as our own Grace Ministers’ Conferences every January here in South Africa. The […]

Several years ago while living in Jerusalem I noticed how the Jews kept the Sabbath. Around 3 p.m. on Friday afternoons the weekend rush hour traffic would increase as workers made their way home. Most of the working mothers were trying to arrive at the market in time to buy needed supplies. This frenzied pace […]

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. [Ephesians 4:25] I had the privilege recently of speaking with Dr. Peter Jones at the Connecticut Valley Conference on Reformed Theology and the topic was modern paganism. My job was simply to prepare the way […]

Over the past weeks I have been reading through The Letter to the Hebrews. It has, as ever, been a fascinating, sobering and richly encouraging read. The Letter, as you will know, was written to Hebrew Christians who had become influenced by false teaching and were under pressure to give up on Christ and return […]

‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.’ [Ephesians 5:25-27] For fifty years I have believed that […]

In his address ‘Modern Theories of the Atonement,’ given in 1902, B. B. Warfield observed the revolt against penal substitution that gained momentum in the late nineteenth century. He noted that this revolt prompted an immediate and equally powerful defence. However, ‘this defense only stemmed the tide, it did not succeed in rolling it back.’ […]

Day One GWYNN WILLIAMS – OPENING SERMON Gwynn Williams from the Welsh Evangelical Church in Cardiff based his opening sermon on the text I Thessalonians 1:5, ‘Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.’ A Christian in the small Welsh town of […]