Posts by Mark Johnston

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Upheld by everlasting Arms

Mark Johnston
Feb 6, 2019
For those of us who are pastors, one of our regular responsibilities is to use scripture to minister to the specific needs of our people. This should never merely be spiritual equivalent of offering placebos to those who are struggling – a kind of psycho-spiritual pick-me-up to make them feel...

Whose ‘…Father who art in Heaven’?

Mark Johnston
Nov 28, 2018
Although the Lord’s Prayer is without question the best-known prayer the world has ever known, because it is the Lord’s Prayer we shouldn’t be surprised that it will continue to fill us with surprises until we see him face to face. This is true, in part, experientially. Prayer is the heart-cry of...

Polity and Ecclesiology

Mark Johnston
May 3, 2018
It is a very human trait, one from which even theologians are not immune: the tendency to make ourselves the default reference point for everything. We do it without realising it, because it is built into our subconscious. But it happens nonetheless. One particular locus of theology where this...

For the Joy Set before Him

Mark Johnston
Mar 31, 2018
It is one of those ‘stop-you-in-your-tracks’ type statements that crops up in the Bible from time to time. ‘Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (He 12.2). It is, of course, speaking of Christ and his sufferings...

City of Joy

Mark Johnston
Feb 27, 2018
The theme of joy in Scripture finds its focus in the joy of knowing God as our God and Saviour. As we seek his glory (as opposed to our own) we experience a joy that is utterly different from all the joys of earth combined. Nevertheless, amazingly, this joy can be found and experienced on earth...

Rehabilitating Mary

Mark Johnston
Dec 12, 2017
Christmas is fast approaching and images of Mary are everywhere – from cards to Nativity scenes – but she is strangely absent from many, if not most Protestant pulpits. Yes, she may be accorded a passing reference in the Christmas narrative, but she can come across very much as a bit-part, or an ‘...

The Great Neglected Mandate

Mark Johnston
Nov 21, 2017
Last words are important and often intriguing and none more so than the last words of Jesus. They are best remembered as expressed by Matthew at the end of his Gospel where Jesus tells the Eleven, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all...

Doctrine Alone

Mark Johnston
Nov 9, 2017
The season of the Reformation ‘ Solas ’ has just ended and we have been reminded of the ‘aloneness’ of Scripture, grace, faith, Christ and the glory of God. But, hopefully, we will have also been reminded too that none of these are ‘alone’ in an absolute sense. The Reformers never divorced...

The Marks of a Healthy Church: The Great Commission

Mark Johnston
Oct 31, 2017
Last words are important and often intriguing and none more so than the last words of Jesus. They are best remembered as expressed by Matthew at the end of his Gospel where Jesus tells the Eleven, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all...

Thomas Chalmers and ‘The St John’s Experiment’

Mark Johnston
Sep 26, 2017
For those familiar with Thomas Chalmers, his name immediately conjures up a plethora of thoughts regarding his stature as a Christian leader and also his gifts and achievements in the work of the church. He was a man of exceptional ability, but he was also profoundly concerned for the needs of...

A Theology of Vacationing

Mark Johnston
Aug 8, 2017
This summer has been no different than those which proceded it. At this time of year, you are possibly continuing to see references to the usual litany of 'Summer Reading recommendations for Pastors.' As end-of-summer vacations loom, men in the ministry feel the need to catch up on those weighty...

Laboring to No Purpose

Mark Johnston
Jul 9, 2017
I was speaking with some ministerial colleagues recently about a conference one had just attended. The conference had been great, but to his surprise, after one of the sessions, a friend next to him put his head in his hands and said, 'I'm a failure!' Having just listened to an inspiring account of...

These Present Sufferings

Mark Johnston
May 24, 2017
As I write, the United Kingdom is still reeling from the latest terrorist atrocity to be unleashed in one of our major cities. It was particularly horrific in that it was deliberately targeted at children and teenagers attending a pop concert . The grief of those affected has been broadcast widely...

Gethsemane and the Mystery of the Gospel

Mark Johnston
Jan 31, 2017
It is an integral part of the passion narrative, but it too easily becomes incidental to the message of the gospel. All three synoptic Gospels include an account of Christ in Gethsemane in some detail, each one from a slightly different perspective. But it is easy to lose sight of the significance...

Saving Ourselves and Others

Mark Johnston
Sep 6, 2016
Those who take the Bible seriously believe that its message is coherent and consistent. It does not contradict itself. Although it is presented through the multiple voices of its human authors, those voices ultimately speak with one voice: that of God himself. So, when we come across statements in...

Will the Church Survive?

Mark Johnston
May 10, 2016
Christians in the US and Europe are living in unusual times. Before our eyes we see laws enacted that directly oppose or subtly undermine the truths, values and principles the church has upheld for centuries. Despite their benefit to Western democracies, those democracies are destroying the very...

She is His New Creation

Mark Johnston
May 3, 2016
There is a popular notion that the church originated from a decision by a handful of followers of Jesus of Nazareth to start a movement. In the same way as other world religions started and grew through human determination and effort, it is often assumed that the Christian church is just a hugely...

Invisible Pastors

Mark Johnston
Apr 5, 2016
Any church that includes questions to ministers-elect in their ordination or installation to service will, in some shape or form, ask a question about the candidate’s commitment to the pastoral care of his people. This is very much in keeping with the practice of caring for the needs of God’s...

A Theology of Attitude

Mark Johnston
Mar 8, 2016
It is tempting to think theology is about articulating Bible truths accurately. But, while this is very much at the heart of the theologian’s task, it cannot be divorced from the attitude with which God’s truth is presented. There is, I believe, good reason for raising this detail – especially in...

Facing Up To Death

Mark Johnston
Nov 17, 2015
It is the unavoidable certainty in life; but also the great taboo. In the midst of life it is never far away; but many are afraid to contemplate it. Yet we find it in Scripture: a dark thread running all the way through its message. From the first warning about it in Eden (Ge 2.17) to the final...

That they May be One

Mark Johnston
Sep 14, 2015
If we were to ask the question, ‘Which is the most significant prayer found in the Bible?’ the answer would almost certainly be, ‘the Lord’s Prayer’ and understandably so. This was the prayer Jesus taught his disciples in response to their request, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’ and it has become the...

The Fear of the Lord

Mark Johnston
Jun 30, 2015
Given the frequency with which ‘the fear of the LORD’, or one of its variants, is mentioned in the Bible, it is more than a little unusual that so little seems to be said about it in the church today. In all too many cases a focus on the immanence and intimacy of God as revealed in Scripture has...

Inscrutable Providence

Mark Johnston
Jan 29, 2015
Over a year has passed since my family and I were forced to leave the US and return to Britain under rather unusual circumstances. We had moved to America in 2010 in response to a call from Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, PA for me to become its next Senior Pastor. Given that we had...

21st Century Challenges: Modeling What It Means to Be Human

Mark Johnston
Jan 21, 2015
In our first piece in this mini-series on challenges faced by the church in the 21 st Century we considered the challenge of getting the gospel out to those who need to hear it. The main thrust of this is, of course, the verbal and propositional communication of God’s message of redemption through...

The Homeless Jesus

Mark Johnston
Nov 10, 2014
I was talking recently with a dear friend who has been going through significant housing issues with all the mental, emotional and spiritual turmoil that have come with them, when she interjected, ‘But then I realised, Jesus didn’t have a home.’ And she was absolutely right. Our Lord himself summed...

From Nomads to a Nation

Mark Johnston
Nov 4, 2014
The Babel fiasco in Genesis, which we looked at in the previous instalment of this mini-series, is quickly followed in the timeline of salvation by the account of Abraham (Ge 12.1ff). This looks very much like a ray of light into what otherwise looks like a very dark landscape in a very dark world...

What Makes a Good Translation?

Mark Johnston
Oct 28, 2014
For almost as long as I can remember as a Christian I have found myself musing on the question of what makes a good Bible translation. I grew up in a part of the world in which, for many professing Christians, this was simply a non-question There was only one ‘good’ version and it was ‘Authorised...

Alone, But Never Alone

Mark Johnston
Sep 9, 2014
Fides sola est quae justificat; fides quae justificat non est sola . Latinisms can have a wonderful way of crystallising issues in theological reflection – so with this one: ‘It is faith alone that justifies; but faith that justifies is never alone!’ This isn’t just a statement about the alone-ness...

Effectual Calling and Trinitarian Balance

Mark Johnston
Aug 21, 2014
When the Banner of Truth Trust published the second volume of his Collected Writings in 1977, John Murray’s views on effectual calling sparked off animated debate in Reformed circles at that time. He challenged the formulation found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism that defines effectual...

Jesus and Adam

Mark Johnston
Jul 9, 2014
This article is the third and final piece of a three-part series on belief in an historical Adam. Part one is titled " Must We Believe in an Historical Adam? " and part two is called " What Man is to Believe Concerning God ." 5. The Historicity of Jesus and the Historicity of Adam There is, however...