Meet the Puritans

Can faith damn us? The Dutch theologian Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635-1711) argued that the first sin of Adam and Eve was unbelief. To state this differently, they exchanged faith in the Word of God for faith in the word of the Serpent ( The Christian’s Reasonable Service , 1:372-373 ). He argued that...

What if you told your wife you only planned to take her on a dinner date once a year during your anniversary so as to make the expression of your marriage relationship extra special? And for that matter, you would also plan to have all other meals separately until that time, so as to enhance the...

The first meeting between Vittoria Colonna and Michelangelo Buonarroti was the start of a long and deep friendship. It was also, in some ways, uncommon. As a famed noblewoman, Vittoria was used to the company of artists, poets, and writers, but Michelangelo was one of a kind. His words were few and...

As a young man in a fundamentalist Bible college I was exposed to a practice that perhaps can best be described as “hit-and-run evangelism.” The idea was to secure a profession of faith anyway you could. The technique did not require you to know anything about the person you were talking to. All...

Charles Spurgeon once said "Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister, indeed, it should be the main pursuit of every true believer."[1] In 2 Timothy 4:5, the Apostle Paul exhorts Timothy to not only preach the Word, but to do the work of an evangelist in order to fulfill his...

In an oft-quoted passage, Charles Spurgeon reflects on the nature of his calling as a pastor: “I am occupied in my small way, as Mr. Great-heart was employed in Bunyan’s day. I do not compare myself with that champion, but I am in the same line of business. I am engaged in personally-conducted...

"I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways." — Psalm 119:15 — Reading through the Bible in a year is a good practice, but one can easily fall into the trap of reading merely for distance. While there is value in covering the vast mountain range of Scripture, one must not neglect...

I recently happened upon a few articles by Henry Jansma on Thomas Watson’s “farewell prayer,” delivered in July of 1662. Watson and other ministers would be expelled from their pulpits a month later for failing to comply with the Act of Uniformity. The looming date of this “Great Ejection” was...

It is becoming a more common practice in some PCA churches for sessions to make the intentional decision not to ordain the deacons of the church. I could spell out in more detail my understanding of why that is, but instead I’d like to do something more focused. I’d like to explore the idea of...

Note: The Alliance is once again offering a year-long reading challenge for Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. Click here for more information . John Calvin, the great French Reformer who devoted most of his ministry to the church in Geneva, ranks amongst the most influential...