Martyn Lloyd-Jones: His Life and Relevance for the 21st Century by Christopher Catherwood

Author:Christopher Catherwood [Catherwood, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2015-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

The third question will get us to the heart of what he actually believed and stood for as an evangelical Christian. One of the major defects of much of the study on Martyn Lloyd-Jones, even the thoughtful and academic research now appearing, is that it completely omits the global aspect of Dr. Lloyd-Jones. It is fascinating to look at him as a Welshman, for instance (see Engaging with Martyn Lloyd-Jones). But the “whole problem,” to use one of his favorite phrases, is that books tend, perhaps understandably, to be very British-centered. His major ministry was of course at Westminster Chapel from 1938–1968, and he lived for most of each year in the United Kingdom, especially as he ceased to be able to travel so much. But he spent much of the year, when in better health, in the United States. And his link with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students lasted from the late 1930s until his death in 1981.

IFES was by definition an entirely evangelical organization. It was also global, with member movements literally all over the world. Today in 2014 it remains evangelical, having a basis of faith in which Lloyd-Jones played a major drafting role.

His time with IFES was wholly positive and thoroughly evangelical, with none of the negative connotations that his denigrators wish to bestow upon him. In chapter 4 we noted his three talks to the IFES titled “What Is an Evangelical?” Those talks define how he perceived the term evangelical. However, as we all know, times change, and in 2015 we can see that however controversial he might have been at the time, he was also being prophetic. Those were three talks, but it was a single address in 1966 that caused controversy.

I must note that not all of the Doctor’s own family agreed with him in his lifetime (although some did then and zealously do so now). His brother-in-law and oldest friend was Ieuan Phillips. When Phillips died, the Doctor told his wife (Ieuan’s sister) that he had lost his best friend. Yet when Phillips was asked not just to stay in the Welsh Presbyterian Church (known to most as the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists), but to become their moderator, he did so. The two brothers-in-law did not agree, but that never altered their deep and close friendship that spanned decades.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones never broke friendship with theologian Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, of Westminster Theological Seminary and an ordained Anglican minister. The same was true of his friendship with John Gwyn Thomas, a Welshman as well as an Anglican vicar. Ironically, Thomas was the successor at St. Paul’s in Cambridge to Herbert Carson, one of the select number of leading evangelical Anglicans to secede in response to the Doctor’s call.

Lloyd-Jones was also very close to his brother, Sir Vincent Lloyd-Jones. Sir Vincent was High Church, or Anglo-Catholic. But the two brothers were devoted friends, loved making everyone laugh, and discussed deep matters of faith. While Sir Vincent remained Anglo-Catholic to the end, the Doctor’s family strongly believe that the two brothers had reached a good understanding of each other.

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