Ian Hamilton
1. How did you become a Christian?
Through the life and consistent witness of a boy at school. He invited me to a gospel meeting where I heard John 3:16 for the first time, was overwhelmed, and turned to the Saviour.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
Like the apostles, ‘give yourself to prayer and the ministry of the word’. Like the early church, ‘devote yourself to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers’. Seek to master, as best as you are able, one of the church’s significant theologians eg. Calvin, Owen, Edwards, Warfield, Murray.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
Consistent, but less than it should be; above all lacking in passion for the Lord’s glory and the salvation of the lost. I have not remotely done what we read in Isaiah 62:6-7, ‘You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.’ There are over 3,100 language groups today who have never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ. That should be more of a prayer burden than it has been.
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion; John Owen on Communion with God, The Glory of Christ and The Holy Spirit; John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied.
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
Three Scottish ministers, Eric J. Alexander, James Philip and William Still. Along with them, the books published by the Banner of Truth.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
Allowing worship to be shaped by culture and not by Scripture; compromising the Bible’s teaching on gender; forgetting that ‘without holiness, no one will see the Lord’.
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
The Lord’s patient, long-suffering love is my greatest encouragement. Alongside that, the unfailing love of my dear wife and the faithful friendship of a few generous-hearted brothers. What discourages me, apart from myself, is the readiness of evangelicals to engage in ministry and evangelism apart from prayer and dependence on the Holy Spirit. The church meeting corporately for prayer has become peripheral and tangential, when it should be central and fundamental.
8. What makes you laugh?
Listening to my children banter (they are all very witty) and watching my grandchildren interact with each other.
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
The words of Proverbs 3:5-7: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.’
10. Which Biblical person (other than Jesus) do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
A strange question! Perhaps Jonah – ‘How were you able to pray so coherently while being buffeted inside the belly of the great fish?’ (I am not good with motion).
