Category Archives: People

The ‘perfect preacher’?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Tim Keller, in his recent book, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Scepticism, p50, notes:

Theodore Beza was a younger colleague and successor of John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed branch of Protestantism during the Reformation. In his biography of Calvin, Beza recalled the three great preachers in Geneva during those years— Calvin himself, Guillaume Farel, and Pierre Viret. Farel, said Beza, was the most fiery, passionate, and forceful in his sermonic delivery.
…

The Day the Revolution Began

Walking With Giants Posted on by

I’ve been going through Tom Wright’s important new book The Day the Revolution Began: Rethinking the Meaning of Jesus’ Crucifixion (SPCK, 2016) with a fine tooth-comb.  Here I offer a synopsis of what I think Wright is saying.

Part One: Introduction

1. A Vitally Important Scandal

In appearance, the death of Jesus was just another tragic failure.  In reality, it launched the most important revolution the world has ever seen.  From now on, everything would be different.  …

Wanted: prophetic discernment

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In Micah, chapter 2, the prophet suddenly turns from a message of stern warning to one of hope.  It strikes me that to know when people are living under God’s frown, and when they are living under his frown requires a level of discernment that we might characterise as ‘prophetic’ .

In this connection, I was interested in a note concerning the Puritan Nicholas Byfield.  He ‘was known for his excellent scholarship, judgment, and aptitude, in addition to his ministerial skills.…

Preach love, as well as truth

Walking With Giants Posted on by
Whatever captures the heart’s trust and love also controls the feelings and behavior.  What the heart most wants, the mind finds reasonable, the emotions find valuable, and the will finds doable.  It is all-important, then, that preaching move the heart to stop trusting and loving other things more than God.  What makes people into what they are is the order of their loves – what they love most, more, less, and least.  That is more fundamental to who you are than even the beliefs to which you mentally subscribe. 
…

Preach reality, as well as truth

Walking With Giants Posted on by
To engage the heart is also to engage the imagination, and the imagination is more affected by images than by propositions.  Here, we are talking about what are usually termed “sermon illustrations.”  Over the past generation, preachers have recaptured the importance of story.  Common sense tells us that stories capture interest and stick in the mind, and so preachers are often advised to lace their sermons liberally with narratives.  However, we should think a bit more deeply about why they are so effective. 
…

Unhappy birthday

Walking With Giants Posted on by

I am reminded by this post by Justin Taylor that it is 50 years ago today – Tuesday, October 18, 1966 – that an event took place that shook British evangelicalism to the core.  The after-shocks can still be felt today.

That event was a meeting of the National Assembly of Evangelicals, held at Westminster Central Hall, London.  At that meeting, Martyn Lloyd-Jones was understood by many to be appealing for evangelicals to secede from doctrinally mixed denominations, and should come together in a ‘fellowship, or an association, of evangelical churches’.…

God blesses truth

Walking With Giants Posted on by
Brethren, I do not believe that God will set his seal to a ministry which does not aim at being strictly in accordance with the mind of the Spirit.  In proportion as a ministry is truthful, other things being equal, God can bless it.  Would you have the Holy Spirit set his seal on a lie?  Would you have him bless what he has not revealed, and confirm with signs following that which is not true.  
…

Lost boys

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Tom Wright, bless his heart, has a habit of turning things on their heads, so that we see them at a completely different angle.  Sometimes this is infuriating.  But at other times it is fascinating and enlightening.  So…

Much of the discussion about the Bible’s teaching on the relationships between men and women, between husbands and wives, has focused in recent years on the role and status of women.  But this can disguise the fact that in our own day it’s harder than ever to be a boy.  …

What is legalism?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Legalism is a distortion of obedience.  It is guilty of:-

  • a skewed purpose, seeing good works as ways of earning God’s favour;
  • an arrogant attitude, leading to contempt for those who do not make the same effort to gain God’s favour;
  • a loveless focus on self, squeezing kindness and compassion out of the heart.

In the New Testament, legalism is found in two main forms:-

  • Jesus confronted legalism in the Pharisees, who boasted of their privileged status as children of Abraham and their law-keeping.  
…

An ethic of hope

Walking With Giants Posted on by

An ethic of hope pervades the New Testament:-

  1. It is an ethic of pilgrimage: one should see oneself in this world as a stranger traveling home (1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:13).
  2. It is an ethic of purity: everyone who really hopes to be like Jesus when he appears “purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).
  3. It is an ethic of preparedness: we should be ready to leave this world for a closer relationship with Christ our Lord at any time when the summons comes (2 Cor.
…