Don’t Treat Jesus Like a Spiritual Product
Do you ever feel like you have to “sell” Jesus? Or church? Or youth group? You want to have a spirit of excellence in all you do, of course (cf. Col 3:23). If you want to preach or write or publish or make PowerPoints or put on a conference or make music or do anything […]
Aaron Rodgers Rejects Eternal Conscious Torment
Famed Super Bowl winning and future Hall of Fame quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers, lit up the internet when he spoke about how he rejected the faith of his family, the faith he was raised in. In an article entitled, “NFL Quarterback Aaron Rodgers Questions How Anyone Could Believe in God” (which […]
Contradictions in a Family Catechism
I’ve been reading Winfield Bevins’s Grow at Home: A Beginner’s Guide to Family Discipleship. It is a simple introduction to every parent’s responsibility to teach his or her children about Jesus. The book (or booklet) contained little new information for me, but it might be helpful to a family thinking about this issue for the […]
Does “Dead” Always Mean “Unable”? (Luke 15:11-32)
One area of theology that needs to be rethought is the doctrine of total depravity, particularly the ability or inability of the unregenerate to respond in faith to God. Often, Calvinist and Lutheran theologians will appeal to the use of the word “dead” to prove that someone is unable to respond. After all, how can […]
Reaching Out to a Seeker (Mark 12:35-37)
In Mark 12:35-37, Jesus points out to the scribes that they have a deficient view of the Messiah. They correctly understood that the Messiah was going to be a descendant of David. But the Lord shows them, from Psalm 110, that they didn’t realize the Messiah was going to be more than simply a son […]
Paul Had Nothing
Those of us in the Free Grace movement tend to come from small churches and work in little ministries, with few resources, and even less (worldly) prestige. And that can be discouraging, especially when we look at the big ministries churches and their cool, cutting edge, and expensive buildings and activities and programs (as recommended […]
Does Faith Create a Relationship?
Readers of this blog are well aware of the danger of Lordship Salvation or works salvation, which denies that you can be eternally saved by faith alone in Christ alone for eternal life. But are you also aware that it is also possible to emphasize “grace” to unbiblical extremes? That, in fact, some people emphasize […]
The Assurance Debate Goes Back a Long Time
The Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) is an association of thousands of Evangelical educators, theologians, and pastors from around the world. To join, you need a Master of Theology degree or better. I joined ETS in 1982 when I received my Th.M. from DTS. My first ETS annual meeting was in San Diego, California, in November […]
The Bible and the Fundamental of the Fundamentals
Our upcoming National Conference will be on the Great Doctrines of the Bible. I will be speaking on the Bible (i.e., Bibliology). How important is the doctrine of the Bible to the rest of theology? More specifically, how important is the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy to the rest of systematic theology? Here’s a great quote […]
When God Is Humiliated (Daniel 1:2)
Many times we might think that God could never be humiliated. But that is not entirely correct. One of the great prophetic books of the OT, the Book of Daniel, opens with this theme. We know the story well. Daniel and his three friends were among those Jews who were taken captive to Babylon around […]