Christians Denying the Lord (Mark 14:27-31)
One of the many strange things we hear Christians say is that a true Christian will never deny the Lord. Of course, when this is said the hearer almost always thinks of Peter. Peter clearly denied the Lord three times. What about him? The answer that is often given is that Peter only temporarily denied […]
Eternal Life Is Christocentric
Free Grace theology should be thoroughly Christocentric, not least of all because eternal life itself is entirely Christocentric. What I mean is, eternal life is centered around Jesus. By contrast, how many religions are man-centered, works-centered, Mary-centered, saints-centered, money-centered, or even cult-leader-centered? But eternal life is about Jesus. How so? You are called to believe […]
Believing That Jesus Is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31)
A fan of the GES blogs and daily radio program writes: Thank you so much for the work you do, for the GES website, the blog, and the radio program. It has meant a great deal to me. I’m hoping you can help put my mind at ease as I have really been struggling with […]
Three False Calvinist Assumptions
I was explaining Free Grace theology to a Calvinist when he said that I really believed in salvation by works! That’s not something I’ve ever been accused of before, so I was curious why he thought that. During our conversation, it became clear to me that he was making three big assumptions that are worth […]
God Allows Confusion to Exist Regarding the Saving Message
A friend, Paul, wondered at a comment I made that I use commentaries by people who hold to Lordship Salvation: I was reading your most recent blog Recommended Bible Study Tools, and at the conclusion of listing several lexicons, concordances, Bible dictionaries and commentaries, you indicated that many of these resources do not come from […]
Jesus Is Not the Father
I recently heard a worship leader, in a moment of extemporaneous prayer, say, “Jesus is the Father and the Spirit and the Son!” I’m going to chalk that little bit of heresy to (1) the leader being young; (2) theological education being low both within and without the churches; and (3) the teaching of Trinitarian […]
Coronavirus and a Left Turn (Acts 16:6-8)
The novel coronavirus has been a colossal pain for just about everybody. It has caused all of us to change our plans. This is also true when it comes to how we want and plan to serve the Lord. In my case, I had plans this summer to teach Bible courses in a couple of […]
Three Differences Between Jesus and the Grim Reaper
You’ve seen cartoons of the Grim Reaper, haven’t you? Artists depict his skeletal figure as clad in a black hooded cloak, carrying a scythe, waiting to reap his next victim (for the history of the figure see here). If you read the news, the Grim Reaper is all over the headlines. There are riots and […]
New Testament Commentaries I Recommend
Leon Morris. The Gospel According to Matthew. Eerdmans. 781 pages. R. T. France. Matthew. Tyndale Series. 416 pages. Alfred Plummer. The Gospel According to St. Mark. 392 pages. Vincent Taylor. The Gospel According to St. Mark. Second Edition. 696 pages. Kenneth E. Bailey. Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the […]
Old Testament Commentaries I Recommend
Derek Kidner. Genesis. Tyndale Series. 224 pages. Allen P. Ross. Genesis. R. Alan Cole. Exodus. Tyndale Series. 239 pages. Allen P. Ross. Leviticus. Gordon J. Wenham. Numbers. Tyndale Series. 240 pages. Walter Riggans. Numbers. The Daily Study Bible Series. 251 pages. Peter C. Craigie. Deuteronomy. NICOT. 424 pages. J. A. Thompson. Deuteronomy. Tyndale Series. 320 […]