Articles

Who is the Wretched Man of Romans 7? In Romans 7 we find the statement, ‘O wretched man that I am!’ It is made by no one less than the Apostle Paul. A question that is often asked is, does he speak here as a regenerate or unregenerate person? The answer to this question is […]

. . . the word of God which performs its work in those who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13c How many times have you heard secular educators and politicians say, ‘If only we can upgrade our schools, have better trained teachers, give our children the best possible environment, then surely they will learn and change their […]

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 […]

Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown . . . When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. (Jonah 3:4, 10) Business as usual in the church will not […]

Who will possibly stay in a relationship with a girl-friend or boy-friend ‘until death us do part’ unless there is a deep devotion to that one person above all others, a commitment that is based on comprehensive knowledge and respect? That is the essence of marriage, leaving all others and cleaving to the other until […]

‘For I hate divorce,’ says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘and him who covers his garment with wrong,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.’ (Malachi 2:16) Any pastor or Christian marriage counsellor will tell you that eventually the Christian seeking a divorce will […]

Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes? (Matthew 22:12) After two Schools of Evangelism in Arua, Uganda the week of May 21, our team travelled to the local prison which houses seven hundred and fifty men. Some are in for what they call ‘defilement’, various sex crimes. One man we met, age […]

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 […]

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again, and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. (Matthew 13:44) When you walk through the doors of your company each morning it is all about making money. […]

In Psalm 45, the Psalmist addresses the divine, eternal King, who rules righteously: ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre’ (v. 6). But in the next verse, the Psalmist goes on to speak of this divine King’s God: ‘Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: […]

We rejoice in thanksgiving to God for the fellowship of some 60 pastors, leaders and students from all over Mexico who assembled in Hermosillo, Mexico, April 26-29, 2012 for Siglo 21 Conferencia de Liderazgo. Francisco Orozco has summarized the experience in these words: ‘For three days, plus the Lord’s day, these men heard theological, historical […]

Get up. Let us go from here. (John 14:31) After the Passover meal with his disciples, after washing their feet, after comforting them with the promise that he was going to his Father in order to prepare a mansion for them in glory, after promising the Helper, the Holy Spirit who would bring to their […]

Dr Palmer Robertson is a much appreciated speaker at Banner of Truth Ministers’ conferences and an author whose works the Trust publishes.1 Now he is settled for the next four months [May-August 2012] in a sabbatical spent in England, which is the home of his wife Joanna. Since 1992 he has been lecturing and preaching […]

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 letter was written by Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards, to her brother, James Pierpoint of New Haven about the visit of the evangelist, George Whitefield, who came to Northampton in October, 1740.1 October 24, 1740. Dear Brother James, I want to prepare you for a visit from the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, the famous […]

So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. (Acts 17:17) My wife and I were in Athens, Greece a year or so ago while I was teaching at the Greek Bible Institute and preaching at […]

The Christian believer is always living in an inescapable tension! Much as we would love to be free of this tension, until we leave this earthly scene and enter the nearer presence of our great and gracious God, we will be engaged every moment of every day in this tension. I hardly need to spell […]

. . . but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you, whenever I go to Spain – for I hope to see you in passing. (Romans 15:23-24) We know that Saul of Tarsus was a ‘can do’ man […]

The cleverness of the clever I will set aside. (1 Corinthians 1:19) In a church world enamoured with technology, strategy, personality, and hyper-contextualization we would do well to take seriously Paul’s marvellous declaration in 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16. Paul, without question, was a massive intellect, one of the brightest men to ever live, yet he tells […]

It’s the time of the year that ministers send in their booking forms and fees for the Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference in Leicester.1 I missed the first conference in 1962 but I attended the second in 1963 and I have attended almost all of them since that time. It still remains, after almost fifty […]

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 […]

And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number. (Acts 5:14) Roland Allen, in his book, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church 2, puts forth a clear distinction between the way the apostolic church grew and how our churches in the west grow. The church […]

The Christian life is full of extraordinary ‘highs’ and unsettling ‘lows’. This is something young Christians are often unprepared for. And yet God’s Word could not be clearer that our spiritual good requires that the Lord lead us through dark valleys as well as lifting us up to expansive mountain tops. This is why reading […]

How do we deal with doubts that arise against our faith? My question does not directly include how we answer the doubts of others. Our attempt to answer others’ doubts and objections has its place in the realm of what is called apologetics, but while it is legitimate and necessary at times for us to […]