This week we consider the life and legacy of the great Scottish Reformer John Knox (c. 1514–1572). In particular, we focus on his preaching and ask what made it so effective.

Featured resources:

– Iain H. Murray, 'What can we learn from John Knox?', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 514 (March 2006). Excerpted from A Scottish Christian Heritage. 

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 'Remembering the Reformation', featured in John Knox and the Reformation and Knowing the Times. 

Books by or about John Knox: 

– The Works of John Knox (clothbound, six volumes, 3824 pages)

– The Select Practical Writings of John Knox (clothbound, 336 pages)

– John Knox and the Reformation (paperback, 144 pages)

Episode 73: The College Master: Laurence Chaderton

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There is much talk of awakening, revival, and 'quiet revival' in the churches in the West at present. While we wish to avoid the extremes of sensationalism and cynicism, it is right for us to hunger to see God move again, and to give ourselves afresh to studying how the Lord has moved in the past.

This week's piece helps us to reflect on one aspect of the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century: the Lord's work among young people and children.

Featured resources:

– Ian Shaw, 'Young People in the Great Awakening', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 169 (October 1977).

On the Great Awakening and men associated with it: 

– Jonathan Edwards, Thoughts on the New England Revival: Vindicating the Great Awakening (Clothbound, 304 pages)

– Joseph Tracy, The Great Awakening (Clothbound, 472 pages)

– Select Sermons of George Whitefield (paperback, 200 pages)

More from the author:

– Ian Shaw's article, Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784), in the present issue of the Banner of Truth Magazine (November 2025, no. 746).

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This week's bonus episode is an interview with Jeremy Walker, a pastor at Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley, West Sussex, just south of London. Jeremy has long been a friend of the Banner and serves as book reviews editor for the magazine. 

We sat down with Jeremy to talk about his Christian pilgrimage, call to ministry, some favourite books and, well, where he stands on the pronunciation of John Flavel's name. 

Note: Jeremy mentioned a book chapter that had helped him towards greater assurance and he identified that as a chapter on the fruits of the Spirit in B. B. Warfield's The Saviour of the World. In retrospect, we think that the chapter in question is actually that on 'The Spirit's Testimony to Our Sonship, Romans 8:16' in Warfield's Faith and Life. 

Resources Mentioned or Relevant

From the Heart of Spurgeon Podcast

If you enjoy the Banner Magazine podcast, you are likely to find From the Heart of Spurgeon most valuable. The episodes, of which to date there are 260, consist of Spurgeon sermons read by Jeremy Walker. 

Bunyan, John, The Pilgrim's Progress

Fuller, Andrew, The Works of Andrew Fuller (Banner one-volume edition). 

Spurgeon, C. H., Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress

Spurgeon, C. H., The Saint and His Saviour (available in a free pdf and epub version from Monergism)

Walker, Jeremy, The Brokenhearted Evangelist (Reformation Heritage Books)

Walker, Jeremy, Passing the Baton: How to Equip the Next Generation of Pastors and Teachers (EP Books)

Read Brad Franklin's review at 9Marks. 

Walker, Jeremy, Rooted and Grounded: A Light Modernisation of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith (EP Books)

Warfield, B. B., Faith and Life

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Some articles have what it takes not only to arrest the attention, but also to change the life. Maurice Roberts published just such an article in the August–September 1995 issue of the magazine. 

'Why Is There No Wrestling?' is a passionate plea for urgent prayer. It is a call to arms that is just as timely today — perhaps more so — as it was to its original readers thirty years ago. 

We read the piece in full in this week's episode. 

Featured resources:

– Maurice Roberts, 'Why Is There No Wrestling?', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issues 383–384 (August–September 1995). Read the piece as a web article. 

This week's featured article also appears in Maurice Roberts' paperback The Christian's High Calling, which is a compilation of pieces he wrote for the magazine. 

The Banner 2026 Calendar: https://banneroftruth.org/uk/store/calendar/banner-2026-calendar/

Truth Spoken in Love: An Anthology of Quotations from J. C. Ryle (edited by Daniel W. McManigal): https://banneroftruth.org/store/devotional-books/truth-spoken-in-love/

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The following address, the second of two on the subject, was given by Rev. Iain H. Murray at the 1988 Banner of Truth Youth Conference. 

Banner Resources on Assurance

William Guthrie, The Christian's Great Interest

Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth: Assurance in the Christian Life

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

Thomas Brooks, The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume III ('A Cabinet of Jewels', pg. 285–505)

James Fraser, Am I a Christian?

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The following address, one of two on the subject, was given by Rev. Iain H. Murray at the 1988 Banner of Truth Youth Conference. 

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There have always been calls for the church to de-emphasise doctrine. Sometimes these calls come from those who wish to promote 'unity' at any cost—enter the ecumenical movement. Sometimes they come from those who feel that the truths of the faith are encumbrances or 'stumbling blocks' to those who just want a simple faith. 

This week's episode shows why such calls are so misguided. There can be no true Christian ministry without a setting forth of what B. B. Warfield called 'the great Christian verities'. The great need of the church, in every age, is to treasure, set forth, and 'to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints'. (Jude 3).  

Featured resources:

– Michael Haykin, 'A Lesson from a Victorian Preface', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 457 (October 2001). 

– B. B. Warfield, 'The Indispensableness of Systematic Theology to the Preacher', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 613 (October 2014). This first appeared in Homiletic Review (Feb. 1897) and is featured in Princeton and the Work of the Christian Ministry, vol. 2, pp. 497–504 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2012). 

– C. H. Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry (1900, repr. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1960, 2023), p. 292. 

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Jeremiah Burroughs was a peace-loving Puritan. Without sacrificing the truth, he sought unity among those who professed it, and prayed, preached, and pleaded to that end. Indeed, Richard Baxter, who felt keenly the need for peace but struggled himself to promote it, once remarked that if all the Episcopalians had been like Archbishop [James] Ussher, all the Presbyterians like Stephen Marshall, and all the Independents like Jeremiah Burroughs, then the breaches of the church would soon have been healed. 

Article read this week:

– James Davison, 'The Irenic Jeremiah Burroughs', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 559 (April 2010). 

Further reading:

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (paperback, 232 pages.) 

This week's episode art features a detail from William Bell Scott (1811–1890), Bernard Gilpin making Peace among the Borders, takes down the Glove in Rothbury Church, circa 1570 (One of a series of eight oil paintings illustrating the history of the English Border). Public domain: see file on Wikimedia here. 

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In Psalm 31, David prays the following about those who fear the Lord: 

'In the cover of your presence you hide them

from the plots of men;

you store them in your shelter

from the strife of tongues.' 

In a world in which deception so often seems to prevail, and good reputations are tarnished by falsehoods, we need to realise afresh the power (and danger) of the tongue. We must lay hold of the God who can deliver us both from sinning with our tongues, and from 'the strife of tongues' when they are turned unjustly against us. 

Featured Resources: 

– Maurice Roberts, 'The Strife of Tongues', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 460 (January 2002). 

– Arnold A. Dallimore, Spurgeon: A Biography (1984, repr. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1985, 2014), p. 69.

Further reading:

John Flavel, Sinful Speech (Pocket Puritans)

N.B. the text of this Pocket Puritan is taken from 'A Caution to Seamen: A Dissuasive against Several Horrid and Detestable Sins' in The Works of John Flavel, Vol. 5 and 'The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation' in The Works of John Flavel, Vol. 6. 

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The system of false teaching known as Socinianism proved a thorn in the side of the Reformed churches for more than two centuries. Even today, the essential tenets of Socinianism are still with us, and aspects of it pop up in the teaching of such movements as Unitarian Universalism, 'Oneness' Pentecostalism, Christadelphianism, and among the Jehovah's Witnesses. 

As such, it is well for us to take a closer look at this movement, its key commitments, and how it emerged in the context of Reformation-era Europe. 

Banner resources relevant to Socinianism:

– The Works of John Owen, Volume 12: The Gospel Defended (Clothbound, 639 pages)

– The Works of Andrew Fuller (1 Volume, 1012 pages)

– William Cunningham, Historical Theology (Clothbound, 1408 pages)

John Owen's (tragically amusing) presentation of John Biddle's Socinianism, in the form of a satirical catechism, can be found on pages 588 to 590 of The Works of John Owen, vol. 12: The Gospel Defended. 

This week's podcast artwork features an image of a plaque in the Sozzini's palace in Siena which depicts Fausto and Lelio Sozzini. The etching on the plaque claims that 'During ages of fierce despotism, with their new doctrines they awoke the free thought'. 

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