In the early 1860s, J C Philpot, as editor of the Gospel Standard magazine, was involved in controversy with other Baptists who maintained that the Lord Jesus Christ was not the true and only begotten Son of God the Father, but was only a son by office, birth or resurrection. This book was written to gather together the points he had made in various magazine articles as a defence of the orthodox, Reformed doctrine that the Lord Jesus is the true, proper Son of God from all eternity.