The Puritan Hope (Iain H. Murray)

Description

Subtitle: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy

Today the Church’s hope in respect to her mission of discipling all nations is in eclipse. The world gives Christianity no future and evangelicals themselves doubt whether the cause of Christ can ever attain to a greater triumph before his Second Advent. Must the prospects for succeeding generations be darker than those of today? Can we even expect any period of history to intervene before the Advent of Christ? How can readiness for Christ’s coming be consistent with the belief that revivals are yet to be given to the Church? Such questions are brought to the fore in The Puritan Hope and the author, employing both exposition of Scripture and much historical and biographical material, sets out the case for believing that it is not ‘orthodox’ to indulge in gloom over the prospect for Christianity in the world.

Table of Contents

Author

Iain H. Murray was born in 1931, and was educated in the Isle of Man and at the University of Durham. In 1957 he co-founded the Banner of Truth Trust whilst serving as assistant to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster chapel, London, and served as Editorial Director until 1996. With this he combined serving as minister of Grove Chapel, Camberwell, London (1961-69), and St. Giles’ Presbyterian Church, Sydney (1981-84). He is the author of many books, including the lives of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Jonathan Edwards, and J. C. Ryle, among others. Iain and his wife Jean live in Edinburgh, and he continues to speak and write.

Endorsements

“With whole-hearted commitment to the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures Iain Murray argues with exegetical competence and fairness for the position of worldwide revival in history before the Second Advent of Christ. This is the Puritan Hope. It involves the conversion of Gentile multitudes and the certain prospect of the national conversion of the Jews, apart from a reign of Christ on earth, which is based on a careful exegesis of Old Testament prophecy and Romans eleven. The means for this accomplishment will be by the preaching of the gospel of sovereign grace and the powerful operations of the Spirit of God. The author envisages objections to this view by millenarians and answers cogently. In the present sad state of the Christian Church this book should prove to be a tonic.”

– David Freeman (1901-1984) was a founding minister of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church who served as pastor at Grace (later New Covenant) Presbyterian Church (OPC), Philadelphia, PA (1936-1946), Knox Presbyterian Church (OPC), Philadelphia, PA (1949-1962), and Grace Presbyterian Church (OPC), Fall River, MA (1962-1967). For three years, he labored within the bounds of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) in a work of evangelism among European Jews who had escaped from the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. He himself was born a Jew and converted to Christianity.

“In this his most recent title, the author reaches new heights, presenting a winsome portrait of the Puritan divines, focusing upon their extraordinary vitality and the understanding of history which undergirded it.”

– James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) was a well-known Reformed Bible teacher, author, and pastor who ministered for many years at Tenth Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Philadelphia, PA, where he founded the City Center Academy (now The City School) and the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He served as Chairman of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy from 1977 to 1988.

“Perhaps the most important practical aspect of this study is its demonstration of the influence which the ‘Puritan Hope’ had on the beginnings of the modern missionary movement. Carey and others, who attempted great things for God because they expected great thingsf rom God, were far from giving any place in their thoughts to that pessimism over the furutre of the Church’s work in the world which here and there, in more recent generations, has acquired the status of a new orthodoxy … Mr. Murray has written a book of high importance, which deserves to be studied and pondered by evangelical Christians.”

– F. F. Bruce (1910-1990) was a world-renowned Scottish conservative evangelical New Testament scholar who championed the historical reliability of the Scriptures and was commonly known as the “Dean of Evangelical Scholarship.” He taught at the Universities of Edinburgh, Leeds, Sheffield, and Manchester (where he was for nearly two decades the Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis)

“Tracing this ‘Puritan Hope’ from Calvin to Spurgeon, Iain Murray raises visions to which Calvinists may once again aspire. His book could be a landmark, if it is studied and its inspiration caught widely among those who are seeking a Power which promises – yea, who promises – to effect more changes in human history than too many of us have even dared dream of.”

– Lester DeKoster (1915-2009) was Director of the library at Calvin College and Seminary from 1951 to 1969, where he also taught as Professor of Speech. From 1969 to 1979, he edited The Banner, the denominational magazine of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC).

“I think it is a fine piece of work and the chapter dealing with the imminence of the advent (N.T. sense of imminence) in relation to other data of an exegetical and historical nature is masterful.”

– Prof. John Murray (1898-1975) was Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary from 1930 to 1966.

“This book made me think. Like many other Christians I am deeply concerned with the disintegration of moral values so evident on every side, but at the same time I have had little hope that it could possibly be any different … Since reading this book I have asked myself this question – ‘Is my gloomy assessment of the present world situation an example of understanding the signs of the times or is it a reflection of the pessimism that so permeates the mood of the world?’ … In a most interesting survey of Puritan writings and Bible exposition, he certainly makes out a case that what many people believe is Scriptural teaching on the future was so little known in past days that in 1813 David Bogue referred to premillenialism as ‘one of the oddities of Church history’.”

– C. D. Brooks in The Australian Baptist