One of my favorite preachers was a man named Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the long-time pastor of Westminster Chapel in London.  Last week (1 March) marked the 29th anniversary of his death.  Below is a nice 10-minute  introduction to his life:

Iain Murray, his official biographer and former assistant, has written wonderful biographies:

• D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939
• D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Fight of Faith 1939-1981
• Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace

If you wish to read a collection of his personal correspondence here’s a nice link: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Letters 1919-1981.

If you’d like to hear him preach you may do so online (for free) at Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recording Trust.

Crossway Books continues to publish new volumes by Dr. Lloyd-Jones.  These volumes were edited from transcribed sermons by his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Catherwood. You can find these works here.

Lastly, a few years ago Mark Dever interviewed Lady Elizabeth and her husband, Sir Fred Catherwood, about her father: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Reflections on His Ministry with His Family.

Gerald Bray’s recent editorial in the Churchman regarding the formative influence of Calvin upon Anglicanism:

The precise shape of that Protestantism however owes more to John Calvin than it does to Henry VIII, who never really broke with the traditional Catholicism of his youth. Calvin never visited England, but he corresponded with people there and welcomed British exiles in Geneva during the reactionary reign of Mary Tudor. It was in Geneva, under his auspices, that the best and most influential early English translation of the Bible appeared (in 1560) and relations between the Swiss city and the British Isles would remain close long after his death. Calvin’s mentor, Martin Bucer, fled to England in 1548, and although he died there within a year, he made an impact on English theology and worship that can still be detected in the Book of Common Prayer. The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion follow the outline of Calvin’s Institutes to a surprising extent, and their content is similar. It is no exaggeration to say that the theologians who shaped Anglican identity in the Elizabethan era were deeply indebted to Calvin, whose major works were quickly translated into English to become the staple diet of the new-style ordinands being turned out by the universities during those years.

Read the rest.

October 31, 1517.  Wittenberg, Germany.  A Roman Catholic monk nails to the door of Castle Church, which housed one of Europe’s largest collections of relics, 95 theses disputing the teaching of the Roman Catholic church regarding confession, absolution and the corrupt practice of selling indulgences.  For the next 29 years Martin Luther, first seeking to reform the church, and failing, would hammer out the ideas and beliefs which would re-shape Christendom.  Below are the 95 Theses that lit the fuse of the Protestant Reformation:

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.

In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

• 1. When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said “Repent”, He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.
     continue reading "The Monk Who Defied A Pope"

to our bookstore, Common Grounds.

Here’s a book review of the new biography of John Calvin.  Tim Challies writes:

It is here at last. For years now I have been waiting for a great biography of Calvin—the kind of biography which I would recommend without hesitation for those who would want to learn about the life of the great Reformer. In a year that has seen the arrival of at least half a dozen biographies of Calvin, this one, I believe, stands as the best. Written by Bruce Gordon, professor of Reformation History at Yale University, it is titled simply and properly, Calvin.

Biographies of figures as controversial as John Calvin tend to be written by unabashed fans or ardent enemies. There is a lot of biography that reads like hagiography and a lot that reads like pure slander. This was the case with Calvin himself and his earliest biographers—either they were his closest confidants, singing his highest praises or they were men who feared and despised him, fabricating outrageous charges against him (such as Jerome Bolsec who, ten years after Calvin’s death, wrote an account of the Reformer’s life in which he accused him of sodomy and suggested that he had died from crab lice). Even today, many of the biographies seem to focus undue attention on Calvin’s great accomplishments without wrestling with his notable faults and foibles. This new biography is an exception as Gordon writes from a position of notable objectivity. He seems a little bit detached from his subject, almost as if he has had to become a somewhat-grudging admirer of Calvin through immersing himself in the man’s life. Throughout the book he is willing to credit Calvin for what he did so well but he is also willing to call a spade a spade, whether that means pointing out pride or temper or youthful arrogance.

continue reading "Coming Soon"

I ran across an old article by John Piper recounting a fascinating exchange between two great Anglican evangelicals: Charles Simeon (the father of Anglican evangelicals) and John Wesley.  I appreciated the graceful engagement between these two men of faith who held the Gospel in common but differed in other matters:

Simeon:  Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions. Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?

Wesley:  Yes, I do indeed.

Simeon:  And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?

Wesley:  Yes, solely through Christ.

Simeon:  But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?

Wesley:  No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last.

Simeon:  Allowing, then, that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?

Wesley:  No.

Simeon:  What then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother’s arms?

Wesley:  Yes, altogether.

Simeon:  And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?

Wesley:  Yes, I have no hope but in Him.

Simeon:  Then, Sir, with your leave I will put up my dagger again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election, my justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things wherein we agree.

Read the rest of the article.