The Magazine Podcast

There are many pitfalls in preaching. One area which many preachers struggle with is application. And yet, in a sense, application is the whole of preaching. David Vaughn's letter to a fellow Christian leader in the December 2025 issue of the magazine addresses this very subject. 

Featured resources:

– David Vaughn, 'What can we learn from John Knox?', Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 514 (March 2006). Excerpted from A Scottish Ch...

This week, by kind permission of Dr Robert Tracy McKenzie, we read his insightful piece on the motivations of the Mayflower Pilgrims. As we mark 405 years since they made landfall in Provincetown, Massachussetts, what can we learn of spiritual benefit from their reasons for going to the 'New World'? 

Original article: 

https://faithandamericanhistory.wordpress.com/2017/11/12/why-the-pilgrims-really-came-to-america-2/ 

Books by ...

Of all of the great imperatives found in Scripture, few are more crucial than that found in Proverbs 4:23: 

'Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.'

If we fail to do this, all else will be in vain. This text was taken by Warren Peel, pastor at Covenant Christian Fellowship in Galway at the recent Banner Conference in Australia (February 2025). The conference theme was 'A Lifetime in Ministry.'...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 episod...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 afre...

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, it...

As summer turns to autumn in the northern hemisphere, we do hope this note finds you doing well. This week we bring you an audio recording of Iain H. Murray speaking on 'John Knox' at the 2003 Youth Conference in Leicester, England. 

More resources on John Knox:

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

– The Works of John Knox (6 Volumes, 3824 pages)

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Knox and the Reformati...

This week we bring you a conversation with Rev Jim McCarthy of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Statesboro, Georgia. Jim is the author of a new exposition of the two (yes, two) minor prophets who were sent by God to Nineveh, a leading city (and later capital) of the Assyrian empire. Join us as we consider what these two biblical books have to say to us today. 

The Two Prophets To Nineveh (paperback, 120 pages) will be released on Octob...

This week we read some words of comfort and counsel suitable for all weary believers, and especially for pastors who feel stretched beyond what they can bear. 

Featured Resources: 

– C. H. Spurgeon, 'The Minister's Fainting Fits,' in The Minister's Self-Watch & The Minister's Fainting Fits (booklet), (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2025), p. 40–42. This lecture also appears in Lectures to My Students by the same author. 

– Rober...

Arnold Dallimore's name has long been associated with the Banner of Truth. Noted for his biographies of Spurgeon and Whitefield, Dallimore (d. 1998) was an Ontarian 'small-town pastor' whose writing labours took place against a backdrop of financial pressure and ministerial responsibility, and without the advantages of local research facilities. We take time this week to go 'behind the scenes' and find out more about this patient s...