Doctrine for Life
When Christ raises his people from the dead, few places on earth will have such a glory as Bunhill Fields, London, where many Puritans and Non-Conformists lie buried. Its monuments testify to the authors of some of the greatest English Christian writings of all time—from the stories of John Bunyan to the theology of Thomas Goodwin and John Owen and to the hymns of Isaac Watts.
“God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” The Westminster Assembly penned these words, and many other wise affirmations of the Christian faith, as they met in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey. Sinclair Ferguson spoke to us at the site where God blessed the church with some of its greatest confessional and catechetical statements.
John Bunyan (1628–1688) studied in Christ’s school of sorrows during his dozen dark years in prison. The lessons that the tinker learned there blazed forth in some of the most beloved Christian books of all time.
This video from NCFIC aims to underscore the importance of Sola Scriptura as foundational for the church, not the church being foundational for Sola Scriptura. This is one of the most fundamental differences between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism that we are celebrating in this 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Thomas Halyburton (1674-1712), professor of divinity at St. Andrews, was one of Scotland’s greatest theologians. His “Memoirs” record a remarkable spiritual journey, culminating in one of the most remarkable deathbed testimonies ever recorded in church history, and his “Great Concern of Salvation” details with remarkable clarity how the Spirit works salvation. Halyburton, who died at age 37, has long been one of my favorite writers and greatest heroes.
August is here already—the month of our annual PRTS Family Conference. Attached please the finalized version of the program, which we thought you would like to see in advance. Several of the speakers—such as Dr. Michael Haykin and Dr. Carl Trueman—are known throughout the world as experts on the Reformation. You won’t want to miss this special celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Registrations are coming in briskly now from all over North America, but there is still room for another 150 to 200 people. Please sign up for the August 24-26 conference and attend for as much of the conference as you can.
Please pray that the Lord will be glorified by all that is said at this year’s event and that His people will be edified.
Here are two letters with photographs that summarize my travels to various conferences and countries over the past year. Many thanks for praying me through these journies.
In the early seventeenth century, those who dared to separate from the Church of England paid dearly for their religious convictions. But out of their sufferings sprang a movement that crossed the Atlantic: the Pilgrim Fathers.
This is an exciting day for Reformation Heritage Books and Naphtali Press—James Durham’s sermons have finally arrived after years of work! James Durham (1622–1658), pastor of Glasgow’s “Inner Kirk” and one of Scotland’s brightest lights who died at age 35, left behind a treasure trove of solid and savory sermons that are masterpieces of Reformed, experiential truth. Spurgeon said of his sermons, “If I had lived in Durham’s time, I should never, I think, have wanted to hear any other preacher; I would have sat, both by night and day, to receive the sweet droppings of his honeyed lips.” You can do that now!
Finally, all of Durhams’s 133 extant sermons have been brought together in two massive volumes, in a beautiful, critically edited, newly typeset edition, with an excellent introduction by Chris Coldwell. The first volume contains his fourteen moving sermons on the unsearchable riches of Christ delivered as Communion sermons, several sermons on the blessedness of dying in the Lord, and scores of additional sermons, many of which have been almost impossible to obtain even on the antiquarian book market. These sermons address themes such as covenanting with God, adhering to Christ by faith, remission of sins through Christ’s blood, and sweet communion with Christ in heaven. Volume 2 consists of Durham’s well-known but out-of-print sermons on Isaiah 53—seventy-two sermons in all on Christ’s sufferings for His people which together form a classic comparable to Friedrich Krummacher’s “The Suffering Savior.” The sixty-ninth sermon on making use of Christ’s intercession is a masterpiece that is alone worth the price of both volumes.
John Berridge (1717–1793) was a living example of the power of the gospel as it broke forth in the Great Awakening. Converted at age 40, he became a burning and shining light to others.
