YouTube Videos
The Only Condition for Eternal Salvation A couple of months ago, Bob and I sat down to record a Q&A session. Lucas Kitchen filmed it, and edited our conversation into 30 or so 2-4 minute video clips. We hope that these videos will be used by God to reach a whole new audience with the […]
Pilgrims and Politics
In light of the recent election results I am reminded of how easy it is to have our loyalties, hopes, and ambitions tied to the princes and powers of this world. Peter’s exhortation in 1 Peter 2:9-17 reminds us that Christians are a people set apart by God’s mercy, for His service, called to live […]
And Then the Onion Broke
by S.C. Lazar Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov contains what is perhaps the most depressing illustration of salvation I have ever encountered. It is called the “Parable of the Onion” and it was brought to my attention by a Russian Orthodox seminarian as proof that Orthodoxy did not have a legalistic understanding of salvation. After reading […]
Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire? J. D. Greear on Assurance
Assurance Lost In a recent article in Christianity Today (“Should We Stop Asking Jesus Into Our Hearts?” Posted 7/13/2012), pastor J.D. Greear writes about his struggle to attain assurance of salvation. Greear recounts how his assurance was lost after a Sunday school lesson on Matthew 7:21-23, that pointed to the possibility of false professors. The […]
The Enormity and Elusiveness of Repentance
Whenever I hear it said that repentance is a condition of eternal salvation, I think of St. Sisoes the Great (d. 429). Sisoes was one of the first great monastics—St. Anthony’s successor—who lived deep in the Scetian Desert, in an area known today as Wadi El Natrun. I think of Sisoes because of the story […]
Extended Conference Abstract Deadline!
We have extended the deadline for submitting abstracts for the GES National Conference to November 1st! The theme for the upcoming conference is Free Grace and Sanctification. Don’t be shy, everyone is encouraged to apply to do a presentation! We are also looking to give time for Free Grace ministries to present what they do […]
Foundations For Christian Ministry – Colossians 1:9-14
Victor Street Bible Chapel, Dallas, TX
Faith Taken Captive
“Faith itself has been taken captive by legalism.” ~Gerhard Forde Ever since Paul’s fiery denouncement of Judaistic law-keeping in Galatians and Romans, the Christian tradition has recognized, if only grudgingly, that legalism is the death-knell of faith in Christ. Even those churches most closely identified with deeply legalistic tendencies (I am thinking of Catholicism and […]
A Religion of Gratitude & Grace
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthains 15:57) Christianity is foremost a religion of gratitude. Or so says C. F. W. Walther, developing an insight from Luther: Luther says that the Christian religion is—in a nutshell—a religion of gratitude. All the good that we Christians […]
A Critique of the Crossless Gospel
A Critique of the Crossless Gospel. By Daniel J. Lash Rome City, IN: Weston Street Bible Church, 2011), 44 pp, free. In his booklet, A Critique of the Crossless Gospel, Daniel Lash addresses what he considers to be some important errors involving GES and the writings of Bob Wilkin in particular. While I found myself […]