Guest review from the book club!

The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1899-1981, by Iain H. Murray

Reviewed by Jason U.

Although this is Iain Murray’s shorter biography of the great Welch and English preacher of the early 1900s, it does not disappoint. Lloyd-Jones began life as a rising star among London’s medical elites, only to be saved by God in his early twenties and called to a ministry of shepherding and evangelism in a difficult mining town in Wales. He would later be called to London’s Westminster Chapel where he would pastor his congregation for over thirty years. It was in London that his influence would grow not only because of his powerful preaching but also because of his influence among other pastors and ministries. Although many viewed his critiques of ecumenical movements as divisive, it was really a love for the inerrancy of the Bible and the purity of gospel fellowship that he called many to repent of their sinful convictions and associations. Toward the end of his life he presciently realized that producing books would be the only way to have a lasting impact on the Kingdom once he was gone - he was right! Encouragingly, he ended well. In his final days when he was unable to even talk he wrote on a paper to his family, “Do not pray for healing. Do not hold me back from glory!”� The testimonies of how “the Doctor” affected individual people are worth the price of the book. The town drunk who was saved after being invited to a Sunday evening service, the spinster sisters who were reminded of their Bridegroom the evening before they died in a London bombing run, and his refusing to work with a compromised Billy Graham ecumenical project are just some of the great stories Murray recalls. There are a few slower spots in the books, but even those spots help set the context for just how impactful ML-J’s life was given the climate at the time.