Autumn 2025 Update

Oct 3

Between Friends

Dear Friends,

September 16th would have marked David Gooding’s 100th birthday. Although he is ‘Absent from the body and at home with the Lord’ (as is etched onto his gravestone), his influence is still felt in the people he impacted through his books and teachings which demonstrate the genius of Scripture and the loving heart of God.

As R. T. Kendall put it, ‘Dr David Gooding was that exceedingly rare person who combined these three traits: intellectual genius, solid trustworthiness in the Holy Scriptures and unfeigned godliness.’

Myrtlefield House keeps David Gooding’s legacy alive so that all may know the glorious riches given to us in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). In this newsletter, we would like to share with you five of our aims and objectives:

Our vision

A world convinced that God still speaks today through the Bible.

Our mission

We produce resources at different levels and distribute them around the world in every language where we can meet a need. Our aim is to stir up a lasting desire to read, study and teach God’s word by encouraging a deeper understanding of the way he inspired it to be written. We do this primarily through the teaching legacy of David Gooding, whose ministry has helped countless people appreciate the significance of how God has ordered the structure, pattern and thought flow of each book of the Bible in order to communicate himself to the people he has created. And that work has equipped generations of Bible teachers to keep on teaching others.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom 15:4 ESV)

Our motivation

We do this work because we believe that anyone who honestly and thoughtfully engages with the beauty, wisdom and relevance of the Bible will encounter God’s ultimate revelation of himself in his Son, Jesus Christ. Those who trust in him as Saviour and follow him as Lord will continue to listen to his word, and so their lives will be rooted and built up in him, bringing fruitfulness, lasting joy and steadfast faith in God across successive generations, to his glory.

Let your roots grow down into [Christ], and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. (Col 2:7 NLT)

Guiding principles

Loyalty to the triune God as he has revealed himself in the canonical Scriptures.

Diligence to understand his word in the way he has inspired it to be written.

Interpretation of the Bible that allows theological positions to arise from the biblical text under the control of the Holy Spirit, rather than being imposed on the text.

Confidence in the power of God’s word to change lives and the societies we live in.

Engagement with a sceptical world to show how in the gospel God has provided for our needs in a way that answers our hardest questions and speaks to our deepest doubts, fears, hopes and dreams.

Charitable objectives

The advancement of the Christian faith in all parts of the world, through the spread and promotion of its truths and doctrines, and the encouragement of Christian teaching and education.

Staff Update

Our director of translations, Ben Thompson, is moving on to explore other career opportunities. We greatly appreciate the work he has carried out over these past years. We will be working hard at Myrtlefield to ensure that the translation of our books continues unimpeded.

How did you come to work for Myrtlefield?
’I had been considering a change in career from my previous job in consulting around the same time that Myrtlefield wanted to more actively pursue translation projects. Josh [Myrtlefield’s executive director] got in touch with me and asked if I would be interested in joining Myrtlefield to carry out Spanish translation work and also to manage and drive projects forward in a range of other languages. I was happy to have this opportunity and came on board shortly afterwards.’

What skills have you developed by working with us?
’My language skills have probably improved by exposure to the extensive material and some specific terminology. I have also had the chance to engage with a range of global language specialists and manage a wide portfolio of projects, which helped me to develop both technically and as a coordinator.’

What will you miss most about Myrtlefield?

‘I will miss the range of work I was able to be involved in, including engaging with and supporting partners in places such as Egypt and Kazakhstan. The chance to travel to Jordan was also a unique experience in this regard. I will also miss the rewarding nature of the work, in seeing new books appear online when I have been involved in their production. At a personal level, I am also very grateful for the flexibility Myrtlefield has shown over the last few years in enabling me to change my working rhythms as I completed an MA course in Theology.’

How can we pray for you?
’I would appreciate ongoing prayer for guidance as I consider options in both further translation work and study. I have a wife and young daughter, with another child on the way early next year, and so would appreciate prayer for wisdom and guidance in this busy phase of our lives.’

Translation

Special update: All our translations are now accessible on our main site, easily searchable by both language and book. For lower bandwidth, continue to use mh316.com.

Chinese - Editing work is now progressing on The Definition of Christianity and Key Bible Concepts. We are thankful for the editors that the Lord has provided and are seeking his wisdom for how best to make these books widely available in a publishing situation that is far from straightforward.

Hungarian - We have been asked to give serious consideration to translating and publishing The Letters of David W. Gooding for Hungarian readers. Please pray for clear direction for those seeking to do this.

German - The Bible and Ethics is one of the few books co-authored by David Gooding and John Lennox that has not yet been published in German, and we have been approached about that. Again, please pray for the publishers as they decide if this book is right for them to take on.

Dutch - A few years ago, Key Bible Concepts was translated into Dutch. The right publisher was not found at the time, so we are now deciding if this is something we should publish ourselves, or continue to seek a Dutch publisher.

Arabic - Translation work has begun on The Riches of Divine Wisdom, An Unshakeable Kingdom, According to Luke, and Christianity: Opium or Truth? Together with the translators in Egypt, we would appreciate your prayers as these translations progress.

Spanish – Translations of Christianity: Opium or Truth? and Key Bible Concepts will soon be ready to publish. These will become available to purchase on Amazon, and free to download on our Spanish site, Myrtlefield Español.

New Horizon
New Horizon is a seven day Christian festival that takes place in Coleraine every August, featuring guest speakers, music and book stalls. The main speaker this year was our trustee emeritus, John Lennox. John’s wife, Sally, suffered a heart attack on their first night here. We are thankful that they are now both back in Oxford, and would ask you to pray for Sally’s recovery.
Our books were sold on site through Cedar & Circle bookshop and gathered a lot of interest – particularly the *Encounters* series, which almost sold out! We thank God for the fellowship we enjoyed and the contacts that were made, and pray that the books will be a blessing to those who read them.

Podcasts

All twenty-three episodes of ‘Book by Book: Bible Intros with David Gooding’ have been published are are available to listen to on our website and all major podcasting platforms.

In this podcast, David Gooding provides high level overviews that help us begin to understand what individual books are saying, and why they matter now. He gives the big picture inside a little frame, and shows us that understanding the books in God’s library is meant to be as exciting as it is challenging.

Thanks to everyone who has engaged with the podcast and left encouraging and helpful feedback!

New Sermon Transcript

In Your Offspring Shall All Nations Be Blessed: One Study in Genesis 44–50

David Gooding explores the final chapters of Genesis, showing how God’s promises to Abraham begin to take shape through the stories of Jacob’s family and the roles of Joseph and Judah. He explains how Genesis 44–50 reveals God’s unfolding plan for blessing all nations, not just through individual heroes, but by forging a new people out of brokenness, reconciliation and self-sacrifice. By understanding this narrative, readers gain richer insight into how the roots of Christian hope and purpose are woven into the fabric of biblical history.

Books for ACTS Nigeria

Earlier this year we dispatched 900 books to Revival Movement Association, who will ship them by container to ACTS Nigeria for distribution to those whom they feel will benefit from them.

A Look Forward

From Symbol to Reality: The Journeys of the Son of God in John’s Gospel

The work on editing Dr Gooding’s teaching on John’s Gospel into book form is progressing. The edited work is now in the last few verses of John 9. We trust the wait will be worth it! And we value your continued prayers for Josh as he compiles and edits the material from transcripts, manuscripts and notes.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this excerpt:

[Excerpt] The gift of the faculty of sight in John 9

The way in which Christ performs this sign and the means he uses, point us to the third part of the answer to the question raised by this third journey in John’s Gospel. By what means will God reveal himself? What is the divine method of self-disclosure?

Here was a physically blind man, and the Lord gave him physical sight. He had been born blind and had never had the faculty of sight therefore, and Christ used his creatorial powers to give him the faculty of sight. It is an interesting thing that, in chapter 8, in the story of the woman, Christ ‘wrote with his finger on the ground’, reminiscent of what is recorded in Exodus when God with his finger wrote the law of Moses on the tables of stone (and wrote them twice), for Christ was the Lawgiver incarnate. Chapter 9 balances chapter 8, for now he spits on the ground and moulds it into clay and puts it on a man’s eyes. This is deliberately recalling what is recorded in Genesis 2 when God moulded man of pre-existent material: the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Here is the Creator incarnate, not simply healing a man, for the man never did have sight, but creating sight. In other words, this was a work of the Creator. Just as God had made man originally of the dust of the ground, so Christ now takes the dust of the ground to make clay and uses it as a means to give this man the faculty he never had before.

We should notice however what it was the man came to see when eventually he got his sight. He first of all saw Jesus physically (9:37). He had never seen him before of course. But more to the point, with his physical eyes opened he was eventually given the faculty of spiritual sight to see that Jesus was the Son of God; and he said that he believed, then bowed down and worshipped Jesus as the Son of God (v. 38).

We notice how different that is from chapter 7, where Christ urges people to use their moral judgment on his teaching and come to the conclusion that his teaching is of God. Then in chapter 8, he urges people to use their moral judgment on themselves, and admit that they are sinners, and find Jesus as God incarnate, their Saviour, who will die for them at Calvary. Now chapter 9 moves on a step. This is to discover who exactly Jesus is. He is not merely a great teacher, he is not only Saviour; he is the Son of God. How is that to be done?

It is at this point that the miracle is performed that acts as a sign to tell us that, if we are going to see Jesus as the Son of God, Christ will have to give us the faculty of sight to see it with. You don’t have to have a special miracle to see that you are a sinner, and you don’t have to have a miracle to see the brilliance and wonder of Christ’s teaching; but to see that Jesus is the Son of God you will need the gift of the faculty of sight.

If we are to see that Jesus is the Son of God it will take more than human wisdom; and it will take more than our faculty of moral judgment. It will take nothing short of revelation from the Father. We recall in Matthew 16 when our Lord asked his disciples, ‘Who do men say that I am?’ Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Our Lord Jesus replied: ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven’ (vv. 13–17). There is therefore a faculty of spiritual sight, that certainly Christ has to give us; or, if you like, the Father gives us.

Coming to conclude that Jesus is the Son of God is not simply the final result of some theological equation which we work out; nor is it the end product of some very careful philosophical reasoning. We are to reason and we are to think, as we shall soon observe as we move through John 9; but if ever we are going to see that Jesus is the Son of God, it will need more than our reasoning and more than our thinking. It will mean a divine revelation: we shall have to be given the faculty of sight. That is what the miracle is saying, and all of us who have come to see that Jesus is the Son of God will know by experience that it is so.

That could be taken to mean that there is nothing unregenerate people can do until God gives them the gift of spiritual sight. On the contrary, there is a tremendous amount that people can do in order for God to give them the gift of spiritual sight, and I base my claim on the story of this miracle, and in particular on the method and means the Lord used to give this man his sight, first physically and then spiritually.

A new book series: Seeing the Big Picture

We have begun to create short books (10,000 - 15,000 words each) that present David Gooding's overview of individual books of the Bible. These will complement our podcast series (Book by Book: Bible Intros with David Gooding) and provide Bible students with 'the big picture in a little frame'. We hope that these books will be a help in grasping the big idea of what God is saying in specific books, help others to rekindle their love for God's word as they see the wisdom and beauty of his revelation, and also to introduce a younger audience to the legacy of Dr Gooding's teaching. We are starting with Titus, Ruth and Colossians.

David Gooding Answers … five more questions!

Prayer Points

Myrtlefield House has finally purchased new premises! It is in need of some TLC before it could become a habitable office space. Do pray that the remedial works will go smoothly so we can move in by mid 2026, and that the Lord will use it for his good purposes.
Wisdom and guidance for Ben as he enters a busy phase of family life, and also considers opportunities for translation work and study.
For Josh as he continues editing our upcoming book on the Gospel of John.
For John and Sally Lennox.

Matthew Craig