Articles

When a doctor steps into the room and tells you, “I’m sorry . . .it’s malignant,” you have heard words that are about the hardest for anyone to hear. They are words that pack an emotional wallop, and can shatter your sense of wholeness in an instant! I’ve heard those words three times. The first […]

Geerhardus Vos’ Biblical Theology is well known to Banner of Truth readers and is foundational to understanding his writing. Recently an anthology of Vos’s writings has been published and the book has been reviewed by Sinclair Ferguson in New Horizons January 2006, the magazine of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. A Geerhardus Vos Anthology is edited […]

“Having turned away from Jewish and Christian faith, a Europe based solely upon the Enlightenment cannot long survive. The Europe that is declining in population is a Europe more rational than Europe has ever been, more scientific, less religious, less pious, more mundane, wealthier, more consumerist, more universally close to living etsi Deus non daretur […]

Several years ago I attended a huge rally at a Baptist church in Calgary, Canada. Tony Campolo was the main attraction. I had heard one of his humorous CDs but hardly knew the man. I figured he was your typical “evan” and was prepared for an evening of humourous fundamentalism. To great applause Campolo came […]

It is rather audacious to claim that we are reformed. It can also be misleading when we call ourselves Reformed Churches. For this might imply that we believe that our denominations are truly reformed; or, even worse, that at some point in the past we were or became reformed and that the task of reform […]

Contemporary Western culture wants a Jesus who either stays a cute baby in a manger or who grows up to rail against pollution or gun control, big business or labour unions. Absent from contemporary thought is the wonderful and terrible declaration that God, eternal Jehovah, shattered the silence of centuries, rent the heavens, and invaded […]

Review Article The author of “The Life and Labours of Asahel Nettleton”, Bennet Tyler, was a pastor for many years in South Britain, Connecticut, where he knew Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844) intimately. He eventually became the president of Dartmouth College. He is famous for his polemics against the liberal Nathaniel Taylor and the New Haven theology, […]

“Some women were watching from a distance,” (v.40) Mark begins, and you might think that these were a group of curious onlookers, horrified by what they saw and so standing at a distance, but still constrained to see what was happening. They were ‘watching’, we are told, and that word is instructive. In several of […]

The disciples had been imprisoned. And after they were miraculously released, by an angel, they were again arrested and brought before the council. When Gamaliel urged caution in dealing with them, the Apostles were beaten and released. But, although they were commanded not to “speak in the name of Jesus”, they could not give up […]

As part of my mandatory military service, I was sent to live on a Kibbutz near the southern city of Eilat. Since I knew English, one of my duties was to care for the English speaking guests and volunteers. One day a big torsoed, black bearded man arrived. We called him Black John. He had […]

The other day I was reading Psalm 4 (I must confess that the older I become the more often I am drawn to the Psalms). In Psalm 4, David writes the following sentence, which has always somewhat puzzled me. He writes, ‘How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame’? What was David’s […]

John Pont, member of the church at Hanover Chapel, Tunbridge Wells for forty-one years, fell asleep in Jesus on April 24th, 2005. John Pont was born on December 12th, 1929. At that time his parents lived in the old chapel house at Matfield. His father was the caretaker. Although his father helped in the building […]

Green Eye of the Storm, by John Rendle Short. This well-known author from Australia has defended the creation narrative in Genesis 1 by describing the “controversy between science and Christianity” in the lives of Arthur Rendle Short (1880-1953), Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888), George John Romanes (1848-1894), and the author. The lives of these four men […]

The doctrine of election is often slandered as the enemy of missions, evangelism and a passionate faith in Jesus Christ. Few things could be further from the truth. In reality, this doctrine is a great motivation to missions and evangelism and it leads to a great love and joy in Christ. In addition, the doctrine […]

The 20th anniversary thanksgiving celebrations were a great success. Apart from a few administrative hitches, most of which only the organisers would have been aware of, the meetings went “according to plan”. We have received a lot of positive feedback from both the church members and the visitors who were present. To God alone be […]

So, you’re thinking about planting a church. That’s a great idea! You’re not alone. Aspiring to establish a new church is a good and necessary work, as we join others through the centuries in the regular exposition of Scripture, the development of a disciplined body of believers, and the right practice of Christ’s ordinances for […]

Today at our service to worship and celebrate God our Savior, we found ourselves confronted by a throng of about 500 men, women, and children who had come to prevent us from baptizing two believers. Apparently they had heard the good news from Arad, from which the two belong to the congregation there, and the […]

We often hear the observation that those who accept the Bible as the Word of God frequently differ from one other in their interpretations so . . . “what is anyone to believe?” It is true that we do not all agree about everything, and that that accounts in large measure for the rise of […]

I was born in a Christian family. My father came from a very high class Hindu Brahman, or priestly family. One day, when he was going to his office, he saw some Americans selling Mark’s Gospel on the streets. This was in the 1960s, when communism was coming to India, so he thought it was […]

“You shall love your neighbour as yourself” Mark 12:31 The Faces in the Crowd As I reflect on Catholicism I realize that faces come to mind, not a system, not a monolithic structure, not a demonic institution. I remember people who were very, very nice. To be sure, this is my own personal experience, but […]

Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry by James M. Garretson The most recent studies of Princeton Seminary include David C. Calhoun’s two-volume presentation of its history up to 1929, Mark Noll’s study of the influences of common sense realism on both the Princeton Seminary and its neighbor; Princeton University, and Lefferts A. […]

The collected works of John Bunyan fill more than two thousand pages in three thick volumes, The Acceptable Sacrifice; or The excellency of a Broken Heart was unexpectedly the last of his manuscripts that Bunyan himself handled. On a mid-August morning in 1688 John said goodbye to his wife Elizabeth, mounted his horse, and left […]

Walter Marshall’sDoctrine Of SanctificationCompared With The Keswick View AN ABSTRACT OF A RECENT WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY DISSERTATION Many proponents of the Keswick movement have claimed that the distinctive teachings of Keswick can be traced back to Walter Marshall, a Puritan theologian and pastor, author of The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (1692). Theologians in the Reformed […]

There were 130 people present at the annual Carey Conference in January. There was much said that was helpful and the session at which delegates from different parts of the world spoke of the work that they were doing was particularly moving. Each conference needs one session in which a new dimension of the Word […]

Have you no words? Ah! Think again,Words flow apace when you complain,And fill your fellow-creature’s earWith the sad tale of all your care. Were half the breath thus vainly spentTo heaven in supplication sent,Your cheerful song would oftener be,Hear what the Lord has done for me! William Cowper, 1731-1800 We all are familiar with complaints. […]