Topic Archives: History & Biography

This month marks 500 years since the day which is conventionally identified as the beginning of the Reformation. On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther, a monk and theological professor in Wittenberg University, nailed to the church door a set of 95 theses, statements intended for debate. They were provoked by the unscrupulous sale of indulgences […]

500 years ago, the Church in Western Europe was awash with influences calling for much-needed reform. Most of these influences flowed from the Renaissance, whose Christian scholars were weighing the contemporary Church against what they found in the Bible and the writings of the early Church fathers. Their greatest figure, Erasmus of Rotterdam, had in […]

Tomorrow, on the 31st October 2017, we commemorate what was the beginning of the Reformation under Martin Luther. One of the features of his life and work was the central place that the Scriptures played in the spiritual revival that brought about the Reformation. Luther did not think of himself as a Reformer; the reformation […]

This is the second half of a two part article on the character and writings of William Williams. Part one may be found here. * * * Like all those touched by the eighteenth century awakening, Williams Pantycelyn was led to see that the vital matter is grace. Williams’ characterisation of the years immediately before […]

The author previously published an article on William Williams of Pantycelyn’s life. The three sections can be found here: Part One , Part Two , Part Three * * * Having traced a little of the life and experience of William Williams, it is now time to look to his character and his theology. Williams […]

This is the second half of a two part article. The first part can be found here. Semi-Pelagianism Yet the death of Pelagius was not the end of his speculation; not only were there still those who followed him, but there were those who tried to develop a ‘middle way’ between the strict Biblical teaching […]

Pelagianism can be regarded as the last of the ‘Great Heresies’; after Pelagius, heretics have, for the most part, been either reworking old heresies, or have been very limited in their influence. Pelagius, on the other hand, created a false teaching that challenged the Church to consider issues that had previously been taken for granted, […]

A delightful man’s body was buried under a tree in a country cemetery in rural Kentucky sixteen months ago. Mike Morrow’s soul had taken its heavenly flight the previous Friday, and his earthly ‘tent’ was laid to rest in Union Cemetery, immediately beside the Union Baptist Church building where Mike had pastored for sixteen years. […]

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. , Proverbs 31:10 I well remember the time I was allowed to take a series of eleventh grade American Literature class in a local high school and give the ‘other side’ of the story about the Puritans of the seventeenth century. They […]

Few biographies of Spurgeon mention Johann Gerhard Oncken. The most extensive mentions are those of G. Holden Pike (Life and Work of C. H. Spurgeon) and Spurgeon himself in his Personal Notes in The Sword and the Trowel. Writing an appreciation of ‘our friend, Mr J. G. Oncken’ soon after his death in 1884, Spurgeon […]

This article is taken from a sermon preached by Christmas Evans in 1800, based on Romans 3:25 When our world fell from its first estate it became one vast prison. Its walls were adamant and unscaleable, its gates were brass and impregnable. Within, the people sat in darkness and shadow of death, without, inflexible Justice […]

Peter Jeffery was raised in Neath, coming from a fine Welsh working-man’s terraced home. He never lost his roots in that grand culture and communicated the gospel to the people there in a way that they easily understood. Wherever in the world he traveled people grasped his message and loved his preaching. He came at […]

An extract from Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987) pp. 198-200. (The ordination of J. Gresham Machen took place on June 23, 1914, at Plainsboro, NJ, just outside Princeton. Although few details have been preserved of the occasion, as Stonehouse reveals, the re is a manuscript […]

A Trip to Prague I had never been to Prague and had the scantiest knowledge of the Czech Republic, but one day I was reading a newspaper and in the Travel section saw a cheap three day excursion offered to Prague. I thought about it and booked a flight and an hotel there. The Czech […]

John Hurrion was born in Suffolk, circa 1675, in a period when those who had stood apart from the Church of England after the Act of Uniformity of 1662 were undergoing persecution. Almost the only knowledge we have of his youth is this statement: ‘In his younger years, he was brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.’1 […]