Articles

Here’s something that happened just over seven hundred years ago. On the 24th of June 1314 a famous victory was won by the Scots over the English at a place called Bannockburn. I mention it not because I am a Scot and Bannockburn is one of the outstanding events in our national history but rather […]

The following first appeared in the February 1991 issue of the Banner of Truth Magazine (Issue 329). Over the years, the Trust has published several books by Dr R. B. Kuiper. However, there are many readers throughout the world who are more familiar with the titles of Kuiper’s books than with the man himself. It […]

Many think that Jesus was a “great teacher,” but often such people do not know what He taught about Himself: Jesus Christ said that He was the Messiah the Jews had awaited for over 700 years. John 4:25–26: ‘The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When […]

The following was first published in the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood 6, no. 1 (2001): 21-23. It can be found on the Grace to You website here, and was first republished on the Banner website on March 1, 2000. Near the end of his life, Augustine of Hippo meticulously reviewed everything he had […]

The following is sourced from a talk on Samuel Rutherford given at the 2003 Aberystwyth Conference by Ian Hamilton, then of Cambridge Presbyterian Church, and now Associate Minister of Smithton Free Church, Inverness. ‘I am no expert on Rutherford, and I have been selective in what I have chosen to share about him. How are […]

This is a reprint of an article that was first published in the Banner of Truth magazine, July – August 1968. His words remain searching and pertinent today. * * * The Value of the Gospel No men in the world want help like them that want the Gospel. A man may want liberty, and […]

John Calvin is thought of, principally, as a theologian. Of course, he was that. But, as Andrew W. Blackwood once told me, in his day he was first of all considered a preacher. Too few of his sermons have been preserved.1 English translations are mainly in 16th century English!2 Nevertheless, the more I read them, […]

The concluding piece in Iain H. Murray’s three historical articles on the Great Ejection. EVEN though Farewell Sermons had been preached in many parishes on Sunday, August 17, there was a widespread feeling of uncertainty throughout the nation with regard to the direction and character of coming events. Something of this uncertainty can be detected […]

Iain H. Murray provides an insight into the experience of the Puritan ministers facing expulsion from the Church of England in the portentous summer of 1662. Read the previous post, on the build-up to these events. THOUGH many of the Puritan ministers were far removed from the intrigues and disputations going on in London, they […]

On 24 August 1662, the English Parliament passed an Act designed to exclude and ‘utterly disable’ a group of religious ministers within the Established (i.e. Anglican) Church. The immediate effect of the Act of Uniformity of 1662 was the forced departure of over hundreds of gospel ministers from the churches they served. Moreover, it represented […]

HEAVEN IS BEING WITH CHRIST Heaven means Jesus Christ, that is, being with Jesus. That is the only heaven there is. It is Christ’s home and he is never away from his home for a moment. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was often asked why we are not told more in the New Testament about life beyond […]

The following appeared as Ian Hamilton’s editorial in the December 2022 edition of The Banner of Truth Magazine. In this, my penultimate editorial as Editor of the Magazine, I want to direct your—and my—thoughts upwards. In his fine exposition of The Excellencies of God, Terry Johnson focuses in one chapter on the Blessedness of God […]

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 […]

The publication of a complete and uniform edition of Manton’s works is a great boon to the readers of English theology. Many of his best writings have been hitherto inaccessible to all who have not long purses and large libraries. The few who know him would gladly testify, I am sure, that Thomas Manton was […]

Approximately halfway between the Scottish cities of Perth and Dundee, on the southern slope of the Sidlaw Hills above the fertile landscape of the Carse of Gowrie, nestles the small settlement of Kilspindie. Next to its seventeenth-century parish church stands the walled family tomb of the Stuarts of Annat. On the far interior wall of […]