Author Archives: botukadmin

This question can be embarrassing, can’t it? Why do you worship on Sunday? Doesn’t the Bible say that the seventh day is the time God consecrated for his people? Where does the Bible say that Christians should sanctify the first day of the week, rather than the seventh day? It’s a good question, you will […]

FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2017 I slept fitfully, but was up before five and my oldest daughter Eleri took me to a Finchley station where I got the Heathrow Express for £6. There were no queues to the check-in and brief lines through the security X-rays. I walked to a pleasant restaurant for a full English […]

It is with deep regret that we must announce that after a long battle with Alzheimer’s the wife of Stuart Olyott, Doris, passed away during the Banner Ministers’ Conference. Much prayer had been made for her at that time and for Mr Olyott the day before she died. There was much thanksgiving for her life […]

Am I a real Christian? There is not a true Christian who has not asked himself or herself that question, in fact every Christian should be examining his life to see if redemption is his or her privilege and eternal blessedness. As we come to the Lord’s Supper we do so renewing our awareness of […]

We have made these studies of the so-called Great Heresies because they represent significant false steps in the history of Christian teaching; in each of them a true teaching is distorted, and so becomes false. Each precipitated a crisis that forced the Church to look deeper into the Scriptures and consider the fullness of God’s […]

This series is in three parts, the first (Williams’ early years and conversion) can be read here, and the second (his marriage and ministry) can be read here. The Later Years The revival of 1762 may have broken out at Llangeitho, but it was given impetus by the works of William Williams, in particular the […]

This article is part two of a series. The previous section (Williams’  early years, conversion, and call to ministry) can be read here. Writings and Married Life William Williams moved to the farmhouse at Pantycelyn, by whose name he is generally known, soon after his marriage in or around 1747. His bride, Mary Francis, had […]

This year sees the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of William Williams of Pantycelyn, the ‘sweet singer’ of the eighteenth century Welsh revival and pre-eminent hymn-writer of Wales. The third of the great figures of the Methodist revival after Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland, Williams is claimed by Wales as a whole to a […]

Sixty years ago a friend of mine was a preacher in a Reformed congregation in Grand Rapids. The practice in that congregation was that at the close of the sermon the elders stood in the front of the church and the preacher came and shook hands with each of them. Thus they showed to all […]

Grieving, Hope and Solace is the title of a book written by Al Martin (cruciformpress.com, 116 pages, 2011). It comprises a series of sermons preached after the death of his wife Marilyn after 42 years of marriage. The author sent me a copy when I experienced a similar loss last year and I found it […]

“. . . I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren.” – Romans 9:2,3 Why is there so little evangelistic zeal in today’s Reformed and Evangelical church? We love to teach our great theology, especially […]

Jerry Bridges died in his eighty-sixth year on March 6, 2016. Once or twice I shared the speaking duties with him at a couple of conferences and enjoyed getting to know him. He wrote a little autobiography, God Took Me By the Hand, which threw light on his humble origins in the Depression years of […]

To write a brief review of these seven precious volumes seems superfluous, to say the least. When I was an incumbent in the Liverpool Diocese, 1981-1986, the Suffragan Bishop of Warrington told me that the Diocesan staff still receive letters from overseas, addressed to Bishop Ryle, despite his ‘promotion to glory’ in 1900! Our memory […]

The only remedy for apostasy The idea that professing Christians may not be true Christians is something not easily acknowledged in the present climate of the church. One finds it even more difficult to believe that ministers, with acknowledged gifts and abilities, whose teaching may have been blessed to many, could after all be themselves […]

‘To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen.’ -1 Peter 1:1 In 1934 German theologian Karl Hartenstein coined the term missional, what he called a living concept rooted in the Missio dei (Latin, the sending of God). Ed Stetzer (President of LifeWay Research of the Southern Baptist […]

Apart from the occasional mealtime conversation at a Banner of Truth Conference, to my great disadvantage, I did not really get to know John Marshall. John J Murray’s succinct, yet fulsome, biography paints a most helpful portrait indeed. I read it in one sitting (it’s only just under 70 pages) and found myself satisfactorily informed, […]

‘Here I stand, may God help me’ Some of the most life-changing events in the history of the church have come about due to a stand being taken by one man at a critical juncture. In this year, 2017, we are commemorating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the door […]

Who Can Have Effectual Prayers? The righteous are not people who are better than others. Except as God looks on them in favour, they have nothing. It was so with Elijah, Moses, and Paul, as we have seen. Effectual fervent prayer, therefore, is a gift and it always will be a gift – even for […]

“Pray, then, in this way,” -Matthew 6:9 Our Lord Jesus makes some amazing promises to us concerning prayer. He says, “And all things you ask in prayer believing, you shall receive,” (Matthew 21:22). He says, “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened to you,” (Matthew […]

‘Pray, then, in this way.’ -Matthew 6:9 My good friend, Archie Parrish, has taught me and many others some very valuable lessons about prayer. He says that we should always pray with a kingdom focus. By this he means that even if you pray for your spouse’s healing from cancer, or for your adult child who […]

The title of this article is the text that Charles Hodge took for a sermon he preached following the death of J W Alexander.1 Alexander (1804-1859) was briefly a professor in Princeton Seminary, but spent most of his ministry as a pastor in New York. The text is part of Acts 9:20: ‘And straightway he […]

Times are a changing. There has been a shaking among some nations of the Western world. Latent forces have been asserting themselves. Some layers of society have found a voice. Leadership has brought change to Europe and to the United States. Is this the beginning of better things for our Western civilisation? One would hope […]

‘Yes, the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its produce.’ – Psalm 85:12 George Frideric Handel was born in Germany in 1685 and was a devoted Christian in the Lutheran Church. While living in Italy as a composer of Italian operas, when this form of musical entertainment began to wane in […]

The Great Heresies – 4 Introduction The study of what historians refer to as ‘the Great Heresies’ is no mere intellectual or antiquarian exercise, but shows the main lines of error that have affected the Church over the centuries. In Gnosticism we are confronted with the lure of claimed secret knowledge, and of a matter-spirit […]

‘Wilt Thou not Thyself revive us again that Thy people may rejoice in Thee.’ – Psalm 85:6. On January 20 the USA witnessed the swearing in ceremony of Donald J. Trump to become the forty-fifth President of the United States of America. While I am expectant of economic progress for all due to President Trump’s economic […]