Iain H. Murray turns 90 today

Iain H. Murray, one of the world’s most prolific Christ-centred historians, turns 90 today. With boundless energy and biblical wisdom, Iain has acted as a sure guide for the wider church on many theological issues in a writing career spanning almost 70 years.

Iain’s winsome and heart-warming biographies have won him respect from across the theological spectrum. The freshness of his work, arising from a gripping narrative style, is combined with a rare ability to trace God’s guiding providence in human history and speak directly to the issues facing the church today.

His books—numbering more than 30–range from stirring autobiographies of pastors and missionaries to lucid examinations of eras of church history. Popular biographies include Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, and J.C. Ryle; his two-volume set on Dr Martin Lloyd Jones remains one of the most significant evangelical biographies of the last generation.

Iain was converted in 1949 through the ministry at Hildenborough Hall in Kent. It was at Hildenborough later that same year that he first met Jean Ann Walters, who was to become his wife. Iain read Philosophy and History at the University of Durham with a view to the ministry. It was at Durham that he began to read the Puritans, whose writings were to become a lifelong passion. After a year of private study, he assisted Sidney Norton at St John’s Free Church, Oxford, in 1955–1956. It was here that The Banner of Truth magazine was launched, with Murray as its first editor.

From 1956, he was for three years assistant to Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel and there, with the late Jack Cullum, he founded the Banner of Truth Trust. With the world-wide expansion of the Trust, Mr Murray became engaged full-time in its ministry from 1969 until he responded to a call from St Giles Presbyterian Church, Sydney, in 1981. Iain is now based in Edinburgh with his wife. He is still writing and speaking today.

Read Andrew Atherstone’s fuller birthday tribute here.