Author Archives: botukadmin

What is biblical friendship? Drawing inspiration especially from the Proverbs, Paul Beardmore describes the nature, purpose, joys, and pitfalls of friendship. The following material was first presented in a Sunday School class at Grace Baptist Church, Carlisle, PA. Friendship, let alone biblical friendship, is largely absent from our culture today. The challenge of finding a […]

While a ‘new biography’ no longer, Iain Murray’s Jonathan Edwards (1987) is a book which fires the mind, warms the heart, and calls us to fervent prayer. Sharon James explains how the book has proved an encouragement to her time after time. When the Banner of Truth published Iain Murray’s Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography […]

In Exodus 18 Moses spends a whole chapter on his father-in-law Jethro. I think it’s safe to assume that Moses didn’t promise to give him a prominent spot in his book in order to win brownie points with the in-laws! So why then is this chapter here? One of its main purposes is to do […]

This review was first published in the 2022 edition of the New Horizons magazine and has been shared with permission. * * * The Lord Jesus once said, ‘every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old’ (Matt. 13:52). The treasures from […]

This review was first published in the 2022 edition of the New Horizons magazine and has been shared with permission. * * * In this pamphlet, OPC pastor Jeremiah Montgomery addresses the often vexing issue of assurance of salvation. Having walked the ‘valley of the shadow of doubt’ for more than twenty-five years, his purpose […]

Do you find yourself constantly surprised by the things that God says are important as you read through Scripture? I found this, yet again, just a couple of weeks ago when I came to preach on Exodus 16 and was confronted by a whole chapter about manna. More space is given to it in Exodus […]

It is a question worth pondering as to whether there is much serious prayer being offered up in our busy age. There is undoubtedly a welter of other things being attempted: files of paper are prepared on a host of topics; memoranda by the score are recorded; statistics are noted; committees are formed and then […]

In the book of Revelation the apostle John is taken up through an open door into the throne room of the whole universe. We watch through his eyes as the Lord Jesus appears before the throne of God and takes a scroll from the right hand of God. This densely-worded scroll contains God’s blueprints for […]

‘See Mary weeping.’ So runs the invitation in the Townend-Getty Easter hymn, See What a Morning. Mary has come to Jesus’ tomb on the morning of the first day of the week and stands outside it weeping. Why is she weeping? She gives us the answer herself: ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I […]

The other week I came across one of those sayings that sticks in your mind and makes you think: ‘An expert hits a target no-one else can hit; a genius hits a target no-one else can see.’ It struck me that there is a third level we could add: ‘the Lord hits a target no-one […]

Gentleness is tender strength. Without the tender heart, strength could do damage. Without the strong hand, tenderness could prove ineffectual. Gentleness, then, is a function of strength. There is nothing either harsh or weak about gentleness, but rather pity of heart and power of hand combined attractively and effectively. While it knows nothing of heartless […]

Why Baxter? His theology was not entirely sound. His desire to promote church unity sometimes betrayed him into seeking common cause with those who were far removed from the biblical faith. Although an able controversialist, he confesses: ‘I am too much inclined to such words in controversial writings which are too keen, and apt to […]

Later in 2022, the Banner will be re-issuing the Memoir of Alexander Moody Stuart by his son, Kenneth Moody Stuart. Principal John Macleod, in his Scottish Theology, commented that there were ‘few ministerial biographies that are better worth reading.’ Join the waitlist to be informed of when this inspiring title is released. This article is […]

It was my privilege to grow up in a home with Christian parents. There were things I knew before I truly believed them. And so it was that I sat in the second year of my middle school, probably about nine years old, listening to my teacher tell a joke about hell as part of […]

Perhaps you have been disappointed and distressed by tales in the past year of men, often prominent men, who have departed from the faith. Some have drifted from the truth, others have given themselves to particular sins, several have adopted crass fads and carnal fashions. In some cases, you were sadly unsurprised. In others, you […]

As Machen lay dying on New Year’s Eve, 1936, he wasn’t thinking about any of his many and considerable achievements throughout his life. He dictated a telegram to his colleague John Murray in which his last words are recorded, ‘I’m so thankful for [the] active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.’

Picture life as a journey, a journey from birth to death. We are born, we live, and we die. That’s how it was for Jesus. Life was a journey for him too. When he made our nature his own, he made our journey his own as well. At both the beginning and the end of […]

To help us in the dealings of our lives we should have such a conception of God as not to limit him in our thoughts. When we are in extremity we must not tie him to this thing or to that thing. He can make matter out of nothing. Why should we limit the unlimited […]

Why bother coming to the prayer meeting? In the pecking order of many congregations, it is somewhere below the much-lamented evening service. In the priorities of too many Christians, it seems to have little value. It’s the one we can afford to miss. It’s the one to which we don’t, or maybe wouldn’t, take our […]

If you would strengthen your faith to suffer great and hard things, study much the book of the Revelation, which is a standing cordial for the relief of the saints, in anti-christian times; and study and read and commend to your children, the Book of Martyrs, where you have examples to the life of the […]

One of the most difficult things at present for the Reformed Christian is to strike a balance between yesterday and today. This is not perhaps surprising. The Reformed Christian believes that in the sixteenth century the Reformers recovered the biblical faith, and that no Protestant ministry has excelled that of the seventeenth century. Reformers and […]

While the metaphorical bucket of cold water may not be a distinctively British phenomenon, it certainly seems to be an outlook that many here have perfected, and doubtless others besides. Some cultures and societies seem easily enthused. In some places you could give people the chance to go out and hit themselves with wet sticks […]

The Psalmist sang, ‘All the ends of the world shall re­member and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee’ (Psalm 22:27). Another Messianic psalm foretold, ‘He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth: They that dwell […]

One consequence of the individualism that blights the modern evangelical is the loss of what the Puritans called the Christian man’s calling. This loss is partly a cause and partly a result of the present impotence, and derives from the idea that people are primarily non-material beings with non-material1 needs and throw-away bodies. Creation is […]

The following is an extract from Thomas Manton’s commentary on Jude. * * * Of all graces, love needs keeping. Why? (1) Because of all graces it is most decaying (Matt. 24:12, Rev. 2:4). Flame is soon spent, graces that act most strongly require most influence, as being most subject to abatement; we sooner lose […]