Over the years, books published by the Banner of Truth Trust have profoundly shaped and in some cases changed the trajectory of the ministries of many pastors. In turn, those ministries have nourished and influenced countless Christians. These stories, extracted from the Trust’s 2015 publication You Must Read, highlight examples of Banner books that have had such a shaping effect.
For the past twenty years it has been our pattern, as elders at Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio, to read through a book together. The objective is to grow in our understanding of Christian doctrine and to become increasingly united in heart and mind. I have a vivid recollection of the occasion when my fellow elders were introduced to What is an Evangelical? by Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Having read the book and benefited from it immensely, I was very keen to see how they would receive it. I placed a copy on the table at each man’s place and before the book was even opened there was a strong reaction at first. This was on account of the photograph of ‘the Doctor’ on the front cover. The picture of Martyn Lloyd-Jones could hardly be described as warm or welcoming, and the elders, most of whom had never seen Lloyd-Jones, had some fun at the expense of the rather dour and tight-lipped expression on the preacher’s face. ‘So, is this what an evangelical looks like?’ they asked! They learned quickly that the serious demeanour was on account of his high view of preaching, a view which to a man they now share.
I grew up in what I describe as a semi-Arminian Baptist church. It wasn’t that I was taught that particular doctrine of salvation. I simply absorbed it. I had never even heard of Calvinism or Reformed theology. When I was thirty years old and in Christian ministry, a friend asked me to read a small booklet on the doctrine of election. I was shocked and deeply offended by its teaching. I put the book aside without even considering its message. The next day in an unusual way, the Holy Spirit opened my understanding to see that the doctrine of election is indeed true, and that I was a believer because God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).
Shortly after that I left for Europe on a transatlantic passenger ship. During the five days’ voyage I read through the New Testament and saw the doctrine of election taught repeatedly throughout its pages. I don’t remember how I learned of Banner of Truth books. Probably it was through my friend back in the United States. But I discovered a Christian bookshop near where I was living, and they carried all the Banner’s books in print at that time. My first purchase was Robert Haldane’s Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans in October 1961. Other Banner commentaries soon filled my small bookshelf, and by the time I returned to the States in 1963, I was committed to Reformed theology.
I think I was in my twenties when I first read Thomas Brooks’ Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. My original copy (I still have it at my desk, always ready to hand) fell apart with use, wear, and marking. I had it re-glued professionally, but it fell apart again from continued usage. Brooks so helped me that I bought the six-volume set of his collected writings as soon as possible. Only later did I learn that he was a favourite of C. H. Spurgeon (which did not surprise me). Brooks has been a pastor and a mentor to me through his writing. Precious Remedies is one of my favourite books for at least three reasons. It helped me more with sermon application than any other book I had read up to that point. That was huge for me.
The two-volume biography of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Iain H. Murray has had a profound influence on me for many years. Some books have a short non-shelf life. Not these two volumes. I don’t know of any resource more sound, clear, convicting, insightful, and eye opening than the insights I’ve gleaned from Murray’s biography of Lloyd-Jones. I think you will see why this two-volume biography stands as one of the most singularly helpful works I have ever read.
William Nigel Kerr, professor of church history at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, approached me in September of 1982, and asked about the subject of my research project in his seminar. I suggested that, of the four possible subjects, I should probably do Bunyan because he was a Baptist. Owen would be desired by all, and I had misgivings about Baxter. The only other alternative was a Puritan I’d not heard of, ‘Richard Sibbes’. At this Kerr’s eyes lit up, and he guided me—did he physically pull me?—over to the section of the library where the nineteenth-century Grosart edition of Sibbes’ works was. He pulled out the first volume, opened it to The Bruised Reed and asked me to sit down and start reading it. I did. And I was so taken by it that I purchased one of the new Banner of Truth reprints of it, took it home, and started reading it to my wife. She loved it! And we were both edified by these sermons all over again, 350 years after they were first preached in London in 1630. Such is the miracle of book publishing!
In the early decades of the twenty-first century, it is clear that a … new and far more comprehensive recovery of Charles Spurgeon was largely made possible by the work of Iain H. Murray and the Banner of Truth Trust. A central contribution to this renaissance of interest in Spurgeon must be directly traced to Iain Murray’s own The Forgotten Spurgeon. First published in 1966, it exploded on the playground of the evangelicals, awakening at least a portion of them to the real Charles Spurgeon—the man and his message. From a teenage boy, I grew to love Charles Spurgeon … an inspirational mentor and to this day the Spurgeon that I met in Iain Murray’s The Forgotten Spurgeon has been my constant companion, counsellor, and friend.