Resources

John Howie’s The Scots Worthies offers stirring mini-biographies of the great roll-call of the Christian heroes of Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The following excerpt is the first of these: a short sketch of the life, ministry and death of Scotland’s first Reformation martyr. PATRICK HAMILTON was born about the year of our Lord […]

The following is an excerpt from J. Gresham Machen’s The New Testament: An Introduction to its Literature and History, soon available in clothbound format from the Banner of Truth. This is Chapter 23, ‘The Supremacy of Christ’, which is found on pages 159–167. Study material: The Epistle to the Colossians and the Epistle to Philemon Connection between […]

The Banner will release a new anthology of J. C. Ryle quotes in the next few weeks. The following is the introduction to the work by the compiler, Rev. Daniel W. McManigal (Grace Presbyterian Church, Florida): ‘Of the making of many books, there is no end’ (Eccles. 12:12). What you are holding in your hand […]

Banner trustee Donald John MacLean (Westminster Seminary UK) reviews Fred Sanders’ Fountain of Salvation: Trinity and Soteriology (Eerdmans, 2021, 221pp., pbk £19.99) in the latest issue of the Banner of Truth magazine. Fred Sanders is one of the leading contemporary evangelical voices on the doctrine of the Trinity and contributions by him on any matter related […]

John Calvin was a prolific correspondent. He wrote to civil rulers and dignitaries, to fellow reformers, and even to figures who would later stray from the path of orthodox biblical faith. One such man was the Italian Lelio Sozzini (1525–1562) who would, together with his nephew Faustus Sozzini (1539–1604,) spark the movement that became known […]

The following article appeared in the August–September edition of the Banner of Truth Magazine. To receive a monthly selection of helpful articles on theology, church history, the Christian life, and contemporary issues, subscribe to the magazine in print or digital formats. Introduction The Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council, was convened in AD 325 […]

The March 2006 issue of the Banner of Truth Magazine (no. 510) was dedicated to the memory of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, on the 25th anniversary of his death. That issue included some fascinating detail about how Dr Lloyd-Jones (henceforth ML-J) assisted Arnold Dallimore in the writing of his two-volume biography of George Whitefield. The article […]

The following article is featured in the present issue (743–744) of the Banner of Truth Magazine, Aug–Sept 2025. The world is a needy place; it lies in darkness and the only remedy is gospel light. This should weigh on us, as it weighted on the Lord Jesus. As he himself was engaged in preaching the […]

What did the Puritans believe about unfulfilled prophecy? Was there a single view, or a range of positions, when it came to the church’s earthly prospects? These and other questions are deftly handled by Iain H. Murray in The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy. The following excerpt, on the future conversion of Israel, […]

The following excerpt is from Frans Bakker’s Praying Always, truly one of the hidden gems of the Banner’s backlist. ‘And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.’ — Luke 18:13 After the Israelites had […]

The following article appeared in the February 1982 issue of The Banner of Truth Magazine. In May, 1789, Adam Rankin, having travelled from Kentucky to Philadelphia for the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, made the following query: ‘Whether the churches…have not fallen into a great pernicious error by […]

The following excerpt is from John Calvin’s sermon A Rock of Offence, which is featured in Behold My Servant: Sermons on Isaiah 52:13–53:12, translated from the French by Robert White. Who will believe what we preach? And to whom will the arm of the Lord be revealed? 2 He will grow up before him like a young […]

The following excerpt is from Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (1954; repr. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth 2019, 2020). The unwearied and effective manner in which Machen brought into sharp focus the centrality of the Christian view of history and its decisive significance for the understanding of the gospel must be noted. […]

The following is taken from Archibald Alexander, Thoughts on Religious Experience, page 279. “Let not the infirm and aged say that they can now do nothing for God. They can do much; and for ought they can tell, more than they ever did in the days of their vigour. It is a beautiful sight to see men […]

Beginning on 26 September 1680, John Owen preached three consecutive sermons from 1 Corinthians 15:31, opening up Paul’s statement ‘I die daily.’ At points he is intensely personal, preaching to himself, preparing for his own death which took place almost three years later on 24 August 1683. He was also aware of other noteworthy men […]