The King James Study Bible on James 2:14-17 and Saving Faith
In November 1995, my mom presented me with a King James Study Bible. I had come to faith only a few months before, around June. I found the Bible in storage and was leafing through it, in preparation for writing the first draft of a Free Grace Study Bible. The contributing editors include, among others, […]
What Do Nominal Church-Goers Believe About Salvation?
In Joel Thiessen’s The Meaning of Sunday: The Practice of Belief in a Secular Age, he interviews a number of Canadians about their involvement with different “Christian” denominations. Frankly, I would consider every single person he interviewed a candidate for evangelism. No one gave any evidence of knowing or believing the gospel. I wouldn’t call […]
E. W. Kenyon on Eternal Life
I’m reading through a book by E. W. Kenyon on The Two Kinds of Life. Kenyon was a forerunner of the Word of Faith movement. He influenced Kenneth Hagin who influenced Joseph Prince. I hear rumors that Word of Faith teachers are catching on to the grace message. Joseph Prince is an example of that. […]
Where Did the Term “Free Grace” Come From?
We believe in Free Grace Theology—which is distinct from Calvinism, Arminianism, Lutheranism, Thomism, and other –isms. But where did the term “Free Grace” come from? Some people think it’s redundant. I wish it were. Historically, the expression “free grace” was used by both Calvinists and Arminians. For example, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached […]
More Apostasy and Idolatry at Union Seminary
Recently, Union Seminary in NYC had their students confess their sins to plants. Union Seminary is affiliated with Columbia University. It is considered one of the prestigious Ivy League seminaries (along with Yale Divinity School, Harvard Divinity, and Princeton Theological Seminary). Although it was founded by Christians, it began denying Biblical authority in the 19th […]
Hollywood’s Hell
Most people get their theological education from Hollywood. Show of hands—how many people think that Satan is the boss of hell? You know the image. It’s played as a joke—hell is where Satan rules, and the name of the game is torturing people. That’s his job and demons are his underlings. For example, that’s the […]
The Classical Understanding of Christ (Christology, Part 2)
Who is Jesus? What kind of a man is He? Was He a man at all? Why can He give believers eternal life? Christology is the branch of theology that studies questions about the person and work of Christ. As you can imagine, hundreds of books have been written to answer those questions. Where can […]
What Kind of Man Is This? (Christology, Part 1)
One day, after ministering to huge crowds, Jesus and the disciples went sailing when the Lord, being tired, fell fast asleep. Then the winds picked up a little. And the sea became choppy. It wasn’t enough to worry those seasoned fishermen, though. And Jesus didn’t stir. Then the winds became a storm. Waves splashed hard […]
Are You Saved by Reciting the Apostles’ Creed?
Question Is there a difference between intellectual assent and saving faith? Take, for example, the very many churches each Sunday which have the entire congregation recite the Apostle’s Creed. What percentage of those persons who recite orally the Apostles Creed are saved? Is reciting the Creed orally or silently a guarantee that one has saving […]
The Many Fruits of the Tree of Life
If you like fruit, here is an interesting feature about the tree of life, as described in Rev 22:2: In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for […]