Given Eternal Conscious Torment, Is God’s Justice Ever Satisfied?
A moral objection to eternal conscious torment (ECT) is that if sinners are tormented in hell for all eternity (or, to be more precise, the lake of fire), then God’s justice is never satisfied. Think of it like a mortgage—at some point, you pay it off and satisfy the debt. Or, with a prison sentence, […]
Arthur Pierson on the Difference between Eternal Life and Eternal Rewards
Arthur T. Pierson (1837-1911) followed Charles Spurgeon as pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle, was a consulting editor for the original Scofield Study Bible, wrote an excellent biography of George Muller, and co-edited The Fundamentals. Here is his description, published in 1894, of the difference between eternal life and eternal rewards: “With many disciples, the eyes are […]
Can Eternal Rewards Be Eternally Lost?
Question Are rewards eternally lost when they are lost? Or are you eligible to regain those rewards if you repent, return, and persevere correctly for that reward after having fallen away? Answer Thanks for the question. Here are some things to consider. First, once you lay up treasure in heaven (Matt 6:19-21), it seems to […]
Six Questions Regarding Assurance of Salvation, Part 4
The fifth objection is that if “assurance is of the essence of saving faith” were true, then from AD 100 until 1517, almost no one was born again. This is not a Biblical argument. If we based our theology on this type of reasoning, then we certainly would not believe that only people who profess […]
Six Questions on Assurance, Part 3
We are considering six objections to the teaching that assurance of everlasting life is of the essence of saving faith. In this blog we consider objections three and four. The third objection is that John 20:31 is saying someone can correctly perceive who Jesus is and yet not believe that by faith in Him, he […]
Six Questions Regarding Assurance of Salvation, Part 2
In this blog I will discuss the first two objections to assurance being of the essence of saving faith as stated in Part 1. Those two objections are that when a person believes in Christ, he has objective assurance, even if he is not sure he is eternally secure, and that 1 John 5:13 proves […]
Questions Regarding Assurance of Salvation, Part 1
I received the following email from a Free Grace friend I haven’t seen in maybe twenty years. My friend asks some tough questions, so hang with me. I hope I can answer his questions clearly. It’s been a while since we’ve been in touch, but I’d like to interact with you on the concept of […]
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, […]
The Importance of Understanding the OT to Understand the NT
I wrote a review of a book and published a form of the review as a blog post. That led to this excellent question: Hi, Bob, I enjoyed reading today’s blog post, Irresistible, by Pastor Andy Stanley. You made several astute points. However, in response to one of the main points you identified in Stanley’s […]
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 […]