Peter Masters
Peter Masters has been the Minister of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in central London since 1970. He founded the Evangelical Times, an evangelical newspaper, in 1967. He also directs the School of Theology, an annual conference for pastors and Christian workers at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
Sword and Trowel
Masters edits the international magazine Sword & Trowel.
Masters initiated the London Reformed Baptist Seminary in 1976, and directs the further studies of both pastors and aspiring pastors in the Tabernacle's adjunct seminary. The seminary went online from 2011.
Authorship
Masters has authored over 30 books, which have been translated into at least 28 other languages.
Broadcasts
Masters' sermons have been broadcast in the UK since 2003 on the Sky channel UCB. In 2013 the Tabernacle programme transferred to the Sky channel Revelation TV, and is broadcast every Saturday evening in the UK and also in the USA. These broadcasts include a sermon from Dr Masters and an accompanying apologetic or biographical feature. Current UK channels are Sky Channel 581, Freeview HD Channel 241 and Freesat Channel 692. Programmes are also broadcast on a number of overseas radio stations including in New Zealand and the US.
Distinctive ministerial emphases
The necessity of regular Gospel preaching
Masters has lobbied for the necessity of distinctive and frequent evangelistic addresses, and lamented the loss of this amongst evangelical ministers.
Separatism
By calling other ministers to remember and consider the Downgrade Controversy, Masters has advocated a duty of ministerial separation from churches that do not follow the major principles of historical evangelical doctrine, such as the necessity of regeneration, justification by faith without works, and belief in infallibility of the Bible. In this he has repeated the call of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his controversy with John Stott, to separate from non-evangelical churches, and followed in the tradition of E. J. Poole-Connor, the founder of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches.
Charismatic movement
Masters has opposed and challenged the teaching of the Charismatic Movement that New Testament sign gifts are still extant, arguing that the Bible contains the promise that it is both sufficient and complete, rendering new revelation both redundant and dangerous. This view has been described as cessationist. He has, upon the same grounds, critiqued claims of the gift of miraculous healing as spurious, lacking credibility and sometimes occultic.
Young Earth Creationist
Masters opposes Darwinism, which some evangelicals have seen historically as a form of humanist propaganda, and as a doctrine viewed as at variance with the first books of the Bible. He helped found the Newton Scientific Association, and has supported lectures and talks examining alleged weaknesses of the theory of evolution.
Selected works currently in print
Healing Epidemic, 1988 Necessity of Sunday Schools: In This Post-Christian Era, 1992 Should Christians Drink?: The Case for Total Abstinence, 1992 Biblical Strategies for Witness, 1994 Only One Baptism of the Holy Spirit, 1995 The Baptist Confession of Faith 1689: Or, the Second London Confession with Scripture Proofs, Revised edition, 1998 Do We Have a Policy?: Paul's Ten Point Policy for Church Health and Growth, 2002 Worship in the Melting Pot, 2002 Physicians of Souls: The Gospel Ministry, 2002 The Lord's Pattern for Prayer, 2003 God's Rules for Holiness: Unlocking the Ten Commandments, 2003 Men of Purpose, Latest edition, 2003 Heritage of Evidence: In the British Museum, 2004 The Mutual Love of Christ and His People, 2004 Not Like Any Other Book: Interpreting the Bible, 2004 Joshua's Conquest: Was It Moral? And What Does It Say to Us Today? 2005 Missionary Triumph Over Slavery: William Knibb and Jamaican Emancipation, 2006 The Faith, Great Christian Truths, 2006 Men of Destiny, 6th edition, 2008 Steps for Guidance in the Journey of Life, 2008 Church Membership in the Bible, 2008 Faith, Doubts, Trials and Assurance, 2006, World Dominion: The High Ambition of Reconstructionism, 1990, Psalms & Hymns of Reformed Worship, 1991The Personal Spiritual Life, 2013 The Charismatic Illusion, 2016 Charismatic Phenomenon, Jun 1988 The Preacher’s Library, 1979 Remember the Prisoners, 1986