The Magazine Podcast

The new minister has arrived. He loves the Lord. He loves the Scriptures. He loves the local church. But all is not well in the congregation he has been called to serve. What is he to do? How is he to build?  Long-time friend of the Banner, veteran pastor Peter Barnes, offers counsel to a young man in such a position.    Featured resource:  Peter Barnes, 'Approaching Pastoral Difficulties,' Banner...

Elijah's ministry to Israel at a time of rampant backsliding is a challenge and an encouragement to us in the days of apostasy in which we live. But what drove Elijah? What was his abiding concern—his activating conviction? Reed S. Rusniak takes us to the heart of the prophet's motivations.  This week's article, the first of a projected six-part series in the print magazine, is from the June 2026...

The Christian's great hope is the personal return—the Second Coming—of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his article 'Eagerly Awaiting the Saviour,' Mike Riccardi helps us grasp the nature of this hope, and work it out in our own lives.    Featured resource:  Mike Riccardi, 'Eagerly Awaiting the Saviour,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 629 (February 2016).   Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.b...

Grant Castleberry serves as a Pastor-Teacher at The King's Chapel, Raleigh, North Carolina. Grant recently concluded doctoral research into D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and in this bonus episode we discuss 'the Doctor' and his ministry emphases, as well as hearing Grant's own fascinating testimony to God's faithfulness and gracious calling.    More on The King's Chapel:  https://www.thekingschapel.com/  ...

Christian fellowship, contends our editor Mark G. Johnston, is the 'Cinderella' of the means of grace. That is to say, of the various means the Lord uses to build up His people, fellowship is woefully and unjustly neglected. This week on the podcast, we are encouraged to remedy this neglect, and discover afresh that there is no healthy church life–even Christian life–without Christian fellowship. ...

How are we to love and to set apart the Lord's Day? Why are we to love it and set it apart? Maurice Roberts explains, in clear and compelling terms, what relevance the Fourth Commandment has for Christians in the New Covenant.    Featured Resource:  Maurice Roberts, 'Sabbath Observance,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 392 (May 1996).    Be Part of the Next Chapter:  More information about our bui...

Thomas Boston was one of the outstanding Scottish ministers of the eighteenth century. This week we consider his faithfulness in two small parishes in the Scottish Lowlands, and God's sustaining of him in these difficult charges.    Featured Resource:  G. N. M. Collins, 'How Thomas Boston Beheld the Lamb of God which Taketh Away the Sin of the World,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 640 (January 2...

Our bonus episode this week is a conversation with Dr Robert Strivens, Banner of Truth Trustee and Director of the recently set-up Reformed Baptist Study Centre. We hear more about Robert, the work of the Banner trustees, and the hopes for the new study centre in this interview recorded at the recent Banner Ministers' Conference in Staffordshire.    Robert's recommendations:  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones...

This week's selection is an excursion into Pastor William Shishko's ministerial library, to see which books have fed him as a Christian and as a minister. The result will be of interest not only to other men called to shepherd the Lord's flock, but to every Christian with an appetite to know more of God.    (In Print) Books Mentioned in the Episode:  John Owen, The Glory of Christ (Volume 1 of The...

The doctrine of the cross of Christ is not merely a constituent part of the Christian system of belief - it is the beating heart of the Christian message, the saving reality which cannot be known or loved by man in a state of sin and rebellion. The cross mocks human wisdom, exposing its strength as weakness. Maurice Roberts helps us see that only divine wisdom, given by the Holy Spirit, enables us...

We need regular reminders of the reality and goodness of the glory that awaits those who belong to God. This week, with the help of Eric J. Alexander and R. B. Kuiper, we consider the glorious future of the Church of Jesus Christ.    Featured Resources:  Eric J. Alexander, 'The Coming Glory,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 370 (July 1994).  R. B. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ: A Scriptural...

Infanticide has become normal, acceptable, and even celebrated in the West and around the world. This week we take time to note two events which occurred in March and their significance for the Church's work and witness in defense of unborn children.  Featured Content:  Peter Barnes, 'Abortion: Kermit Gosnell and the Slide to Infanticide,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 599–600 (Aug–Sep 2013).   ...

John Newton was a prolific writer of pastoral letters - letters which have been used of the Lord to encourage, challenge, and counsel many people beyond their original recipients.  In this bonus episode, we talk with Grant Gordon, who has studied and collated many of Newton's letters. His volume Wise Counsel, representing many of Newton's letters to the Baptist pastor John Ryland Jr., has now been...

This week we continue our reading of R. B. Kuiper's sermon, 'Present-Day Antichrists' from his series of sermons on the 'signs of the times' contained in While the Bridegroom Tarries.  We follow this with a reading from Professor John Murray on Kuiper's final (and unfinished work) The Bible Tells Me So.    Featured Resource:  'Present-Day Antichrists' in  While the Bridegroom Tarries  (1919, repr....

R. B. Kuiper’s While the Bridegroom Tarries, which we publish in paperback, is a collection of sermons on the ‘signs of the times’ preached in the wake of the First World War. This week’s episode is Part I of his sermon from that collection entitled, ‘Present-Day Antichrists.’ In it, he explains the difference between ‘an Antichrist’ and ‘the Antichrist’, and critiques two contemporary movements f...

Many listeners will know that John Rawlinson, Banner of Truth General Manager since 1999, is soon to retire. John was recently asked to give an address summing up lessons he has learned over the years in Reformed publishing and resourcing.  On reflection, we felt that John's address, which has the character of a 'final charge' and exhortation, might be of interest to our podcast listeners and so s...

Few maladies are more common among Christians than 'too many books, not enough time!' What we often lack, however, is not time so much as the will and the strategy to read the books we have. Maurice Roberts helps us remedy this, and makes a number of excellent suggestions for the struggling reader.    Featured resource:  Maurice Roberts, 'Preparing a Methodical Assault on our Unread Books,' Banner...

The third instalment of The Covenanter Story tells of the martyrdom of John Brown at his home at Priesthill, Ayrshire. In this bonus episode we talk a little more about the place itself, and read a beautiful poem from George Paulin (1812–1898) which reflects on John Brown's life, death, and heavenly home-going as the poet himself conducts a visit to Priesthill.    Watch John Brown of Priesthill |...

This week, as our host recovers from a time of illness, we read a short selection from Adolphe Monod's Farewell (currently out of print). In this excerpt, Monod recalls a special time of Bible reading which caused him great humiliation as he pondered the use he had made of the inspired Scriptures.    Featured resource:  'On Reading the Bible,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 221 (February 1982). T...

In The Principle of Readiness and Acceptance, James Bruce III describes a pattern in God's dealings with us that is gracious and encouraging to all believers, and perhaps especially to those who, in the Lord's providence, are unable to do all that they would like for him.    Featured resource:  James Bruce III, 'Neglecting the Soul,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 491—492 (August–September 2004)....

Are you neglecting your soul?  The Scriptures make it plain that it is possible for us to do the outward works proper to the Christian—and to look impressive in doing them—while our hearts are far from God.  This is a perilous place to be. In this week's piece, with prophetic precision and pastoral encouragement, Maurice Roberts calls us from neglect of soul to an earnest tending of 'God's acre' w...

Puritans and Covenanters alike have garnered a reputation for being austere and glum. Sometimes that reputation is deserved, but often it is a most unjust caricature.  In this week's bonus episode we meet a jovial Covenanter - a man who, although serious and earnest in ministry, was approachable and joyful. He was also not averse to casting a fly.  William Guthrie of Fenwick was cousin to James Gu...

The Lord has given fathers and mothers a solemn responsibility in relation to their children. It is their high calling and great privilege to hold out the word of life to their sons and daughters by their gospel-sharing words—crucially—and in their gospel-displaying deeds, their example and personal piety.  This week's meditations from John Flavel and Ernest Reisinger awaken us to the gravity of t...

In the month of February we hope to focus on the story of the Scottish Covenanters. To help us grapple with the topic we sat down with David Whitla, Professor of Church History at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Whitla is a trustee of the Banner and did his doctoral work on the Covenanting lawyer Archibald Johnston of Wariston (1611–1663), and so he is well-pl...

How can we judge which books will be most profitable to us? Should a minister pursue breadth in reading or depth of reading early in his ministry?  These and other questions are addressed in this week's reading from Iain H. Murray's 1996 address, 'The Preacher and Books.'    Resource read:  Iain H. Murray, 'The Preacher and Books,' Banner of Truth Magazine Issue 389 (February 1996).    Similar res...