Book Review: In the Shadow of the Rock
By John Hooper
IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROCK by Geoffrey Thomas. Reformation Heritage Books 2022; 325 pages, hardback. ISBN 978-1-6017-8867-2 Price: £24.50 from Ossett Christian Bookshop.
Why does an evangelical pastor write an autobiography? As a self-indulgent ego trip? Surely not! Geoffrey Thomas is disarmingly aware of the dangers and the weakness of his own flesh in that regard. In his preface he recalls the autobiographical works of Augustine, Bunyan, Spurgeon and others; works which have impacted for good on the lives of a great many readers over the course of history. “Surely none of them did it for 100 percent completely spiritual reasons,” he writes, “we are too corrupted by sin to hit that target in anything” (page xv). In that tone of honest self-deprecation, he begins and continues throughout the book. It is a self-portrait that shows us Geoff Thomas “warts and all,” to borrow the language of Oliver Cromwell. But In the Shadow of the Rock is much more than an autobiography. It tells us as much, if not more, about others as it does about its author. It is, as Derek Thomas writes in his endorsement, “a window into the evangelical/Reformed church of the last seventy years and more.”
Geoff Thomas describes affectionately his childhood in and around Merthyr Tydfil, his family, and others under whose influence he came. Converted at the age of 15, he says, “I became a Christian at the right time in my life” (page 71). His travels over the course of his life – and still continuing, as the Lord gives him opportunity and strength – have brought him into contact with a great many of the Lord’s people in the UK and overseas. He introduces us to a few of them, some because they were an influence on him and his ministry, and others because in the Lord’s goodness and grace he was enabled to be of spiritual help to them.
I was itching to get to chapter 6, covering his three years at Westminster Theological Seminary, and I was not disappointed. The thumb-nail sketches he draws of each of the men under whom he sat, including John Murray, Cornelius Van Til and E. J. Young, are captivating. Equally absorbing is chapter 9. Many of us will have some awareness of the impact of liberal theology but in this chapter Mr Thomas shines a spotlight on one particular town, Aberystwyth, and describes the spiritual changes he witnessed over the fifty years of his pastoral ministry there. He describes the state of Christianity in the town on his arrival, the decline and closure of churches that was taking place, a pattern replicated in cities, towns and villages across the UK.
But at the same time the ground was being prepared for something else, a lively work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of young people drawing them away from spiritual deadness and back to the authority of an inspired, infallible Bible with its gospel of sovereign grace. In Aberystwyth the work Mr Thomas describes among students in the 1960s was little short of remarkable. He tells us, “A hundred students in the UCCF in Aberystwyth used to meet each Saturday night…” (page 205). He lists approaching fifty ministers and missionaries who can look back to student days in Aberystwyth and the influence that Alfred Place Baptist Church in particular had on their life and ministry.
There is in this book a warmth that reflects the warm heartedness of its author, and a joy that is truly the joy of the Lord lived out in his life and ministry. While Mr Thomas does not stand with the Bible League on the issue of the New Testament text, there can be little doubt that His ministry has been greatly used of the Lord over many years and we esteem him highly for it. I warmly recommend his book.