Writing on David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981) died three years before I was born, but somehow, I feel like I know the man. I was first introduced to the Welsh Lloyd-Jones by two Scotsmen, Sinclair Ferguson and Alistair Begg. I noticed both Ferguson and Begg would reference or quote Lloyd-Jones in passing in various messages. Begg recommended the two-volume Iain Murray biography at a Basics Conference I attended at Parkside Church in the early 2010s. And I think I immediately went to the Parkside bookstore and purchased my copies.

At the time, I was just beginning work on a Ph.D. at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Church History, which started in 2015. Throughout my Ph.D. coursework, I focused on studying and writing about some of the significant theological figures of the church. I took seminars on the life and theology of St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, and B. B. Warfield. Also, I studied extensively the American Puritan, John Cotton, and even Billy Graham, whom I researched at the Graham Library at Wheaton College. Needless to say, I was too busy reading other things to touch the Lloyd-Jones biography. After passing my comprehensive exams in 2019, I still had not settled on a subject from American Church history. I wanted to focus on a pastor-theologian who could serve as a model for my ministry. I contemplated writing on the American preacher Asahel Nettleton (1783–1844), but my ideas did not seem to get off the ground.

At the beginning of 2019, I finally began reading volume one of Iain Murray's biography, The First Forty Years (1899–1939), with some friends in ministry in Dallas. So much of Lloyd-Jones resonated with me. We met weekly to discuss facets of Lloyd-Jones's ministry and theology. When I left Dallas in 2019 to become the senior pastor of Capital Community Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, knowing my increasing appreciation for Lloyd-Jones, those men gave me a poster for my office wall with the famous Lloyd-Jones quote on preaching: "What is preaching? Logic on Fire! Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire."

After finishing volume one in Raleigh, I immediately started reading volume two, The Fight of Faith (1939–1981). It begins with the German Luftwaffe dropping bombs on London, some landing just hundreds of feet from Westminster Chapel, where Lloyd-Jones was then the co-pastor with the great G. Campbell Morgan! I remember reading The Fight of Faith throughout my first year as the pastor of Capital in 2019 and 2020. It was somewhat of an existential experience for me. I remember being gripped by the magnitude of his preaching ministry and the type of God-centered ministry that came to bear as a result of his faithfulness. I remember thinking it seemed nearly as if it were a completely different Christianity from what I had been exposed to. After beginning to listen to Lloyd-Jones through the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust app, I could put my finger on what it was: the presence of God upon His life and ministry. There was a true sense of glory. A genuine unction that was almost unprecedented in modern times. Lloyd-Jones had authentically encountered God, and the presence of God thundered through this little man—once a prestigious medical physician turned preacher of the gospel. I remember thinking when I finished reading The Fight of Faith that I would never be the same person again. Upon finishing, I immediately decided that I needed to switch my dissertation focus to something related to Lloyd-Jones. I would never have another opportunity like this.

Michael A.G. Haykin

So, in 2021 and 2022, I kept reading Lloyd-Jones, working my way through Lloyd-Jones' book after Lloyd-Jones' book. My favorites are Faith on Trial, Romans 5, and The Sermon on the Mount. Switching dissertation focuses meant that I needed to switch supervisors, so in 2023, Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin, a renowned church historian and someone deeply acquainted with Martyn Lloyd-Jones, took me on as my supervisor for the dissertation. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to write this dissertation under Dr. Haykin.

You are probably wondering about the angle I am taking in my dissertation thesis. To truly understand who Lloyd-Jones was, you must understand him in light of the two formidable influences on his life. The first was his medical training and work at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London under the King's physician, Lord Horder. The ability to logically diagnose diseases and then prescribe treatment would dramatically impact Lloyd-Jones as a physician of souls. This area has already been masterfully explored in a Ph.D. dissertation by Ben Bailie, who now pastors a church in Florida. The second influence that proved monumental in influencing Lloyd-Jones was his eighteenth-century heroes, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris, and John Wesley. These men formed and shaped Lloyd-Jones's understanding of the Christian life and ministry. He believed that the eighteenth-century revivalists, especially the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, displayed the Protestant Reformation at its best. They were the Reformation at its zenith. This was because they combined the Reformation doctrines with warm, experiential piety. Light and heat were present in an unusual way in their ministries. My dissertation focuses on this second historical emphasis and Lloyd-Jones's work to bring the eighteenth century to the forefront of twentieth-century evangelicalism. It is tentatively entitled: "An Eighteenth-Century Man": David Martyn Lloyd-Jones as a Pastor-Historian. Right now, the chapters are titled:

• Chapter 1: Introduction and a Company of Pastor-Historians

• Chapter 2: Lloyd-Jones the Historian

• Chapter 3: "An Eighteenth-Century Man"

• Chapter 4: The Eighteenth Century: Paradigmatic for Revival

• Chapter 5: The Eighteenth Century: Paradigmatic for Preaching

• Chapter 6: The Historical Work of Retrieval: Impacting Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism

• Chapter 7: Conclusion

In the coming months, as I shepherd my own family and pastor and preach at Capital Community Church in Raleigh, I will, by God's grace, write and finish this dissertation. I would appreciate your prayers, encouragement, and accountability! I pray that this work will greatly benefit my family, congregation, and the church at large. I know it will at least benefit my soul if no one else!

From time to time, over the next year, I will provide updates on the dissertation and the research I am doing. I hope it all contributes to a recovery of God-centered Christianity in America and beyond.