Articles

2014 is sure to be greeted with numerous attempts to turn over a new leaf. Every year we hear the calls for New Year’s resolutions. Since we are clearing the slate, desiring to make a new start, it makes sense that we would set out our goals for the new year. We hope to shed a few (or more than a...

It is a commonplace among many Christians that nothing that is not God accounts for God. He is not built up out of anything less than or prior to himself. Indeed, God’s being is not the consequent of any activity or reality that precedes him in any way. He gives to all, but receives from none (Acts...

There are so many reasons that I praise God for my marriage. One of them is that I don’t have to date anymore! What does a guy do on a date? Drawing from my book on manhood, The Masculine Mandate , let me offer some guy rules for Christian dating. First, let me refer you to Genesis 2:15, which I...

This is Part 5 of a 5-part series. No truth today seems more self-evident in our culture than the fact that God is love. But this is not understood in its biblical setting where John immediately defines the nature of this love by saying that Christ was sent “to be the propitiation for our sins” (I...

Professor and pastor Dr. Derek Thomas joins Jonathan Master to discuss the important Christian doctrine of sanctification. In this video, Dr. Thomas answers the question, "What is sanctification?" For more Alliance video, please visit our YouTube channel, located here .

This is Part 4 of a 5-part series. Read Part 5 here , back to Part 3 here . In sanctification, it is God’s holiness that requires that we become separated from what is fallen in life and separated to God and his purposes. And yet this holiness works hand-in-glove with God’s love for love is the...

I believe that our churches should be devoted to consumer-driven worship. That is, we should identify the target audience of our worship service: our consumer. We should then conduct studies to determine what our target audience likes in worship. What will make our consumer come back? What will...

From the end of 2008 to 2013 I was the lead teaching pastor of a large non-denominational church in the northeast. During my time there I was told by various elders to lead the church in a more “broadly evangelical” direction. By others I was encouraged to lead the church to become more narrowly...

Although not particularly popular, either in our present secular milieu or in bearing our present ecclesiological amnesia, I continue to believe that having, holding, and requiring a confession is good for us. In short, a confession is good for our health, even if it, at times, requires medicine...

I recently attended a Christian meeting where candidates for ministry were introduced. The introduction involved their testimony as Christians and their sense of calling to the ministry. It was so encouraging to hear them all say that “the gospel” had gripped their lives. They were convinced that...