Ian Hamilton Resources

I was asked recently to give a talk on the DVC (the Da Vinci Code for the uninitiated). To be honest, I was in two minds whether to agree to the request. The DVC is a phenomenon, but a phenomenon that will soon disappear over the horizon. Like a shooting star it has grabbed the […]

Sometimes you read something or hear something that takes your breath away. I was sitting recently in a conference listening to a friend richly expound a central theme in the ministry of Jeremiah. He then quoted some words of Geerhardus Vos that were literally stunning. Commenting on God’s words in Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved […]

It is deeply salutary to reflect on the unrelenting way the devil sought to overcome our Lord Jesus and to divert him from his calling to be the Redeemer of God’s elect. At the outset of his public ministry we find our Lord being tempted by the devil in the desert: “If you are the […]

God’s word is full of “very great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4). One of his most precious promises is found in Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” Our gracious God has committed himself to teaching, guiding and […]

Two years ago a young friend of mine died. Before he died he penned a “Parting Letter” to his wife (175 pages). The Letter is a moving testimony of God’s grace to a dying believer. As my friend concluded his letter he quoted these words of John Owen: “Jesus Christ is all, and in all; […]

Every Christmas we face a great problem. We are so familiar with “the Christmas story”, that it is so easy for us to miss its staggering wonder and glory. Truth can become so familiar to us that it no longer grips our minds and quickens the pulse of our hearts. With this in mind, I […]

How Important And Relevant Is Truth? Perhaps the most significant growth point in a Christian’s life is when it dawns on him or her that doctrine matters. Too often there is the fatal (and I mean fatal) tendency for Christians to assume that doctrine is an optional extra, something that is not really needful to […]

I have been wondering these past days what thinking people (we should all be thinking people!) made, and are making, of hurricane Katrina. The devastation is mind numbing and hard to take in. Thousands killed; hundreds of thousands left homeless; children bereft of parents and parents of children; a great city and many smaller communities […]

The great mission of our Saviour’s church is evangelical – we are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Too often the church has strayed from its God-given mission and drifted into a “social gospel,” behaving as […]

It is only too easy for Christians to become daunted and deeply pessimistic. The world we live in is a dark, and presently an ever-darkening, place. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is increasingly and publicly mocked and marginalized throughout society, particularly in the media. Our Government passes legislation that defies the living God. […]

I cannot recollect commenting on, far less criticising, a Prime Minister in our congregational monthly letters – but I am going to do so now, with sadness, and yet with resolve. Last month, our PM, Tony Blair, stated that abortion should not be an issue in the forthcoming election! Just who is this PM who […]

The Christian faith and controversy go hand in hand. Wherever the gospel of God’s grace in Christ is planted it will inevitably provoke controversy and opposition. The reason is not so hard to seek: the gospel confronts and provokes the sin-ingrained self-will and “auto-soterism” of this fallen, God-denying world. The armour-piercing truth of God’s word […]

At the December 2003 Westminster Conference held at Westminster Chapel Ian Hamilton of Cambridge Presbyterian Church gave a stimulating paper on the life and work of Charles Hodge. The following are his opening words. The remainder of this paper and the five others are now published in “Knowing the Mind of God” and can be […]

Ian Hamilton (Cambridge) Peter Marshall was a Scotsman who became the Chaplain to the United States Senate in the late 1940’s. He wrote some words that speak powerfully to our morally decaying society and to an evangelical Christianity that has its focus in all the wrong places. "The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal […]

Many Christians are haunted by their past. It can tyrannize them, paralyze them, and all but crush the life out of them. It is undeniably true that one of Satan’s many anti-Christian devices is his bringing our pasts to our remembrance, to humble us, distract us, turn us in upon ourselves, and leave us with […]

Ian Hamilton, the pastor of the Cambridge Presbyterian Church in England, and William Harrell, the pastor of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia are old friends. Both adopt the Scottish tradition of writing a monthly letter to their congregations, and independently of one another the following were the letters they wrote in the past weeks […]

During Samuel Rutherford’s time in London, where he was a delegate from the Church of Scotland at the Westminster Assembly, two children from his second marriage died. He wrote sorrowfully of this to another bereaved parent: "I was in your condition; I had but two children, and both are dead since I came hither … […]

When our Lord Jesus came to the tomb where Lazarus lay dead, he wept. Our Lord knew better than anyone that God is sovereign. He knew that Lazarus’ death was not an unfortunate happenstance, but part of God’s sovereign plan. He knew that everything God does is good and right. But when he came to […]

In recent months I have attended the funerals of two dear friends and much-respected ministers of the gospel. Both their funerals were deeply moving occasions, as hundreds gathered to honour the lives and ministries of two of God’s choicest servants. As I have reflected on their funerals, one feature common to both has indelibly impressed […]

There are times in the life of faith when all the lights seem to go out. Perhaps, as yet you have never known this experience. Perhaps you have only ever known the sweetness of the Lord’s gracious love bathing your soul and reassuring your heart that he is yours and you are his. If this […]

Three addresses on Jonathan Edwards’ exposition of I Corinthians 13 given at the November 2003 Reformation and Revival Conference by Ian Hamilton of Cambridge Presbyterian Church: (1) Jonathan Edwards was a stratospheric Christian but he was pre-eminently a pastor and paramount in all his concerns for his congregation was to impress upon them that love […]

Given by Ian Hamilton, of the Cambridge Presbyterian Church, during the Aberystwyth Conference I am no expert on Rutherford, and I have been selective in what I have chosen to speak on him. How are we to glory in a man who viewed himself as a ‘sad piece of clay’? If we are to understand […]

  Ezekiel 33:11 "Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the SovereignLord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. but rather that they turnfrom their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, Ohouse of Israel.’" What urgency we meet in this 33rd chapter of […]

In the life of faith, what ultimately matters is not how well you begin, buthow well you end. The history of the church from the days of Adam is litteredwith the sad wreckage of men and women who, for a time, appeared to be trueChristians. They spoke like Christians, worshiped like Christians, witnessedlike Christians and […]

Instead of rejoicing, our Lord broke out with violent weeping and He tells us why. It is because of things He knew. by Ian Hamilton The Church of Christ is full of unsung heroes. They do not, on the whole, possess the kind of spiritual gifts that get them noticed and give them a" name". […]