Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Art Lindsley, Ph.D
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KNOWING . OING &DC S L EWIS INSTITUTE Winter 2009 A Teaching Quarterly for Discipleship of Heart and Mind PROFILE IN FAITH Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Art Lindsley, Ph.D. C.S. Lewis Institute Senior Fellow IN This IssUE artyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) Bethan Phillips, also a doctor (with whom is called by some the greatest he had two children, Elizabeth and Ann). 2 Notes from preacher of the last century. He His preaching started to get noticed in Brit- the President M by Tom Tarrants had an impact on many leaders of this gen- ain and America. In June 1937 he preached eration. J.I. Packer at the age of 22 heard in Philadelphia when G. Campbell Mor- 3 C.S. Lewis and Lloyd-Jones preach in London. Packer said gan was in attendance. Campbell Morgan J.R.R. Tolkien by Earl Palmer that he had “never heard such preaching.” was moved to ask him to be his assistant at It had for him the force of an electric shock, Westminster Chapel in London. 4 Are Emergents Rejecting the Lloyd-Jones bringing him “more of a sense Lloyd-Jones was being considered at that Soul’s Existence? of God than any other man” he had known. time for the position of president of the Cal- by Scott Smith George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobi- vinistic Methodist College in Bala, in North 6 Creation, Fall, lization, said that Lloyd-Jones’ Sermon on the Wales. He was inclined to accept this offer Redemption Mount was the greatest thing he had ever if it came, but the college turned him down. by Art Lindsley read. John Piper said that when reading the Lloyd-Jones’ main advocate on the board of 8 To Increase same work, he was deeply moved by the the college missed his train and was not Humility “greatness and weight of spiritual issues.” present to argue his call to be president. So by Jeremy Taylor Lloyd-Jones was born in Cardiff, Wales, Lloyd-Jones accepted the call to Westmin- 10 How Accurate Is on December 20, 1899. He moved to London ster Chapel and remained there until he the Bible? with his family at age 14. He went to medi- retired in 1968. John Piper commented on by Ken Boa cal school at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, this situation: 16 Recommended where in 1921 he got his M.D. and became Reading chief clinical assistant to Sir Thomas Horder. I can’t help but pause and give thanks for the 25 Questions and Horder described Lloyd-Jones as “the most disappointments and reversals and setbacks in Answers on acute thinker I ever knew.” From 1921 to our lives that God uses to put us just where he C.S. Lewis 1923, the Lord worked deeply in Martyn, and wants us. How different modern Evangelical- 31 Thoughts to he felt an increasing call to leave medicine in ism in Britain would have been had Martyn Ponder order to go into the ministry—to preach. Lloyd-Jones not preached in London for 30 years…Praise God for missed trains and 32 Resources In 1926 he took a church in Wales at Landfield, Aberavon. In 1927 he married other so-called accidents. (continued on page 12) In the legacy of C.S. Lewis, the Institute endeavors to develop disciples who can articulate, defend, and live C. S . L EWIS INSTITUTE faith in Christ through personal and public life. E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 7 6 NOTES FROM THE PRESIDENT by Thomas A. Tarrants, III, D. Min. President, C.S. Lewis Institute Dear Friends, n past issues we have looked at preaching and scripture as God-appointed means for restoring the health of the church. In this issue we explore the place of prayer. IIn the New Testament, prayer is regarded as an essential part of our relationship with God, healthy church life, and effective ministry. Jesus, in spite of the full life he lived, made regular prayer a high priority in his life (Luke 5:15-16). If he needed prayer, how much more do we! His example so impressed the apostles that they declined other important ministry opportunities because their priorities were to “devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). Note that prayer was their first priority, then scripture. They knew that prayer was the indispensable foundation for understanding God’s word and for preaching it in the Special Feature power of the Holy Spirit and thereby building up the church. In nearly every letter he wrote, Paul either spoke of his prayers for his readers or asked their prayers for him and his ministry. Knowing its power, he was devoted to prayer, and urged believers to do the same (Col. 4:2 ). Few pastors today are devoted to prayer as their first priority in ministry. They either do not see the importance of it or they allow the busyness of ministry to crowd it out. As a result, their preaching lacks power and impact and the church suffers. Recent research found that pastors spend an average of only 39 minutes a day in prayer and many are discour- As individuals and in small groups, people aged about their prayer life. Here is where the congregation can play a quiet, un- in the church can meet regularly to pray seen, but major role in the renewal of the church. As for the pastor’s personal and family life and individuals and in small groups, people in the church for his preaching. Amazing things happen can meet regularly to pray for the pastor’s personal and family life and for his preaching. Amazing things hap- when God’s people earnestly pray. pen when God’s people earnestly pray. Peter, for exam- ple, was in jail awaiting execution; the church prayed and God sent an angel to free him (Acts 12:1-19). There are many examples in the Bible and in history of God answering prayers for the re- vival of his people and the advance of his kingdom. Meditate on 2 Chronicles 7:14 and pray for your pastor and church! (Email us at [email protected] for a free copy of the classic booklet, Praying for Pastors.) Page 2 • KNOWING & DOING | Winter 2009 C.S. Lewis Feature C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by Earl F. Palmer, M.Div., D.D., Litt. D. Preaching Pastor in Residence, The National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C. S. Lewis was able to make close ing the heroic sufferings and early death in friendships. And those friendships extreme poverty of my mother who brought Cinfluenced and shaped his own jour- me into the Church; and I received the as- ney at most of the important turning points tonishing charity of Francis Morgan. But I of his life—except for one: his love for and fell in love with the Blessed Sacrament from marriage to Joy Davidman. His older broth- the beginning.” Tolkien would faithfully at- er, Warren, was the only friend who knew tend the mass every day of his life, and he about that. Lewis made that decision and would name his first son, who would him- the steps that led to it by himself. Joy David- self become a Roman Catholic priest, John man was a beautiful gift from the Lord that Francis Reuel Tolkien. A kind and strong The Rev. Earl Palmer is both of them deeply appreciated. priest, Francis Morgan left a profound im- a prolific author and a fea- tured speaker at seminaries, Most of Lewis’s friends were baffled by print upon J.R.R. Tolkien. universities, and churches. Lewis’s marriage to Joy Davidman. But it For the young C.S. Lewis, the most for- He served for more than 50 Specialespecially Feature baffled J.R.R. Tolkien, one of his mative influence upon his life and mind years at University Pres- closest friends, and caused a strain in Lew- byterian Church in Seattle, was that of his mentor and tutor, W.T. Kirk- Washington. He and his is’s and Tolkien’s relationship. Nevertheless, patrick, who taught Lewis as a private, live- wife, Shirley, have three the richness and depth of their friendship in student when Lewis was 16 and 17 years grown children and seven outlasted that strain. old. Lewis would later write this of Kirkpat- grandchildren. Tolkien and Lewis shared much in com- rick, in a letter to his father in 1921: “I owe mon. Both had lost their mothers to death to him in the intellectual sphere as much as at an early age, and Tolkien had lost his one human being can owe another…it was father as well. Both as young boys made an atmosphere of unrelenting clearness and close friends with fellow students at school rigid honesty of thought that one breathed who shared their love for stories. Both were from living with him, and this I shall be the young soldiers who fought in the First better for as long as I live.” World War on the French front. Both were Tolkien’s career path developed out of seriously wounded, both saw death in bat- his love of language. He began as a lexog- tle, and both lost close friends in that brutal rapher, went on to Leeds University, and war of the trenches. then to Oxford University, where he even- As a lad, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and tually became the Merton Professor of Eng- his brother suffered the untimely death of lish Language and Literature.