Phil Arthur has been pastor of Free Grace Baptist Church since 1988. He comes from the North East of England and after studying history at Cambridge he returned to his home area where he worked as a teacher and then a college lecturer before crossing the Pennines to Lancaster.Phil is married to Barbara, a teacher and has three sons.In addition to his ministry at Free Grace Baptist Church, Phil is a regular contributor to the Westminister Conference and is now a member of the conference committee. He was Joint Managing Editor for Grace Publications Trust for ten years and is now Consulting Editor. He was responsible for editing a popular series on Church History called “2,000 Years of Christ’s Power”.Phil has lectured in Church History at London Theological Seminary and served as a guest lecturer at Grace Ministerial Acadamy in Manila.

As a life long supporter of Sunderland Football Club, Phil reckons he has seen a number of lifes ups – but far more of its downs!

Phil is the author or a number of devotional commentaries which you can buy online at the Evangelical Press website.

Patience of Hope. 1 and 2 Thessalonians Simply Explained
Evangelical Press 1998

Paul’s epistles to the Thessalonians were written to a young church and one that was facing persecution. Yet, in the midst of their difficulties, these new converts were noted for their ‘work of faith, labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ’. In the way that he dealt with their problems, the apostle has left Christians in all ages with teaching ideally suited for the challenges they face.

In his first epistle we have a priceless opportunity to look into the heart of Paul himself and discover the burning passion for Christ and his gospel which made him the man that he was. Both the apostle himself and the believers at Thessalonica set us an example in evangelism and their concern to bring others to faith in Christ.

Paul’s instructions to these new converts on the practical implications of holiness, and how to love an orderly life that was pleasing to God and would not bring the gospel into disrepute, have much to say to people brought to Christ today from a background of religious pluralism and a moral climate where anything goes.

In these two epistles we also find two of the clearest statements in the whole New Testament about the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the age. We too can find encouragement in the face of present difficulties as, like the Thessalonians, we in our day seek to ’serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven’.

Strength in Weakness- 2 Corinthians Simply Explained
Evangelical Press 2004

The future of the Christian cause depends to a large degree on the quality of the next generation of spiritual leaders. Where will these men find role models? To whom will they turn for inspiration? There is the ever-present danger that they will do as Paul’s rivals did in Corinth and turn to the world outside the Church and try to emulate the qualities that make for success in secular life. Indeed, it is not exaggerating to observe that the churches of the modern West, like the Church at Corinth, face a crisis of authority and leadership. In 2 Corinthians we have both a stern warning that we should avoid styles of leadership that are worldly, perhaps even cultic while cultivating the kind of leadership that Paul himself showed, leadership that was self-sacrificing and self-giving, a model of loving service based on the character of Christ himself.

‘This sensitively-applied exposition … the author keeps us glued to the page through a lively style. It is encouraging to find him drawing on personal experience to illustrate and confirm the points he makes.’

No Turning Back. An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Grace Publications 2002

It’s a brave man who tackles Hebrews – not because of its difficult places (though it has them), but because of its depth and richness. Surely it is not only the crown of Scripture but also one of its fathomless deeps!

Philip Arthur is among the bravest of the brave, and within a very manageable compass, he has done excellently. His whole book is a model of the pastor engaged in the preaching/teaching task at the core work of his calling, and to this task pastor Arthur brings learning, clarity, diligence, many a well-turned phrase, careful patience in unravelling the Scriptures and an over-riding devotion to the Lord Jesus matching that of Hebrews itself. We can learn from him, not only what Hebrews is saying, but how to bring the Word of God to the people of God.

Happily he does not bypass difficulties nor ‘heal the wound lightly’. The treatment of 6:4-8 is a case in point, true to the text and to the Reformed stance which animates the whole. Possibly too much is made of a supposed original address to Jewish Christians, leaving a slight sense that application to those of us without a Jewish background is somewhat ’secondhand’. It is also a pity when he takes occaisional side-swipes at thos with whom he disagrees, yet without taking time to deal fully with the issue in question. Tiny blemishes on a truly fine book.

Alec Motyer: Evangelicals Now. September 2003. (with permission)

No turning back is also available in French as Retour impossible.

Christ All Sufficient

Colossians & Philemon simply explained

Paul, under house arrest in Rome, wrote two letters which were both sent to Colosse at the same time and by the same messenger, a man named Tychicus.

One of the letters we know as the epistle to the Colossians. It is packed with good things. Not a word is wasted. There was a problem in the church at Colosse, and it was this that prompted Paul to write. It seemed that there was a real danger that an impressionable young church might be seduced away from uncomplicated and straightforward devotion to Christ. There was a new mood in the church, a worrying tendency to be influenced by currents of thought from outside, from society at large — a danger that is still present in our own day.

The most important consequence of the new teachings was that they would wean people away from Christ in subtle ways by making them preoccupied with other things in addition to him. In order to counter this emphasis, Paul wrote a letter that is full of Christ. Read it, and it will work wonders for your confidence. In a variety of ways it makes the point that Christ is magnificent, that nothing can compare with him, and if we have Jesus, we have enough.

The second letter, the epistle to Philemon, was addressed to one of the members of the church in Colosse and related to another person from the same town. It is a highly personal letter, written from one Christian to another, and it has a fascination all its own. At its heart is a theme that is vital for all Christians — that of forgiveness. Christians are, by definition, a forgiven people, and forgiveness is an ongoing necessity in all our relationships. Few things bring the cause of God into more disrepute than Christians who begrudge reconciliation.