Believing in Jesus for an Insecure Salvation?
We post many of the messages from our annual conference on our YouTube channel. We’ve been putting up one per week. I like looking at these videos and reading the comments. Our September 6 video is titled “The Changing State of Free Grace Theology” by Mike Lii. An anonymous comment grabbed my attention: “Is Mike […]
Why Didn’t John the Baptist Drink Alcohol? Luke 1:15
When an angel of the Lord announced to Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would have a son, the angel also told him many details about the coming child. One was that this son, John the Baptist, would be a person who did not drink wine or strong drink. Why was that the case? Why did […]
Does 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 Teach That the Exodus Generation Was Saved?
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock […]
Abiding in Christ Is Not the Same as Being Saved
In John 15:5, the Lord says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit.” This verse is often used by Bible teachers, preachers, and even seminary professors, to argue that all believers bear spiritual fruit. They maintain that “abiding in Christ” is the […]
How Could the Early Church Fathers Get the Saving Message Wrong?
William asks a great question: If you look into those who are considered the early church fathers and what the early church believed, you find some things that go against the free grace view. For example, they believed certain things such as having to maintain one’s salvation, and that repenting from sins is, in fact, […]
Are Zacharias and Ladd in Hades Because They Had Sinful Addictions?
Ravi Zacharias, a well-known American theologian, died in May of 2020. His worldwide ministry focused on apologetics, which involves defending the Christian faith. He was a much sought-after author and speaker in the Evangelical world. Millions of Evangelicals saw him as a valuable partner. That all changed soon after his death. It was disclosed that […]
Do Christians Look Different?
A reader sent me a video of a message on James 2 by Pastor J. D. Greear. In that message, Greear commented on Jas 2:13, saying, “There is no way that you could receive the kind of mercy that God gave you in forgiving your sins and then withhold mercy from others” (see here at […]
Tearing Down a House
In Matt 7:24-27, the Lord says that a believer’s life is like a house. He can build a valuable and sturdy house if he does the things the Lord tells him to do. If he is disobedient, the house will come crashing down. This, of course, has nothing to do with receiving eternal life, which […]
Is Believing in the Giver for the Gift of Everlasting Life One Belief or Two?
That question came up last night in my Zoom class on soteriology. We often say that there are three elements in the message of everlasting life: 1) Believing 2) in Jesus Christ 3) for everlasting life. We sometimes use John 4:10 to show that Jesus required that we believe in Him, the Giver, for the […]
A Light Shining in the Darkness
The Book of Second Kings ends on a very dark note. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to paint a bleaker picture of a nation. The ten tribes in the Jews’ northern kingdom had been defeated by the Assyrians about 140 years earlier. They had been taken off to Assyria as captives. Now the Babylonians […]