The Unsaved Christian: Reaching Cultural Christianity With the Gospel

The Unsaved Christian: Reaching Cultural Christianity with the Gospel. By Dean Inserra. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2019. 203 pp. Paper, $14.99. I have often said and written that most Evangelicals need evangelizing. So, I agree in principle with Inserra. However, there is a major difference in how he and I identify an Evangelical who is […]

Grace, Faith, Free Will—Contrasting View of Salvation: Calvinism & Arminianism

Grace, Faith, Free Will—Contrasting View of Salvation: Calvinism & Arminianism. By Robert E. Picirilli. Nashville, TN: Randall House, 2002. pp. Paper, $19.99. Normally we do not review books that were published more than a few years ago. However, I just came across this book. It is by someone who calls his view Reformed Arminianism (e.g., […]

We Will Not Be Silenced

We Will Not Be Silenced. By Erwin W. Lutzer. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2020. 280 pp. Paper, $14.43. Erwin W. Lutzer served as senior pastor of Moody Bible Church for 36 years. He is a featured speaker on radio and has written several books. This is his most recent. There is a spiritual, cultural, […]

The Potter’s Promise: A Biblical Defense of Traditional Soteriology

The Potter’s Promise: A Biblical Defense of Traditional Soteriology. By Leighton Flowers. NP: Trinity Academic Press, 2017. 175 pp. Paper, $16.91. Leighton Flowers is a former Calvinist Baptist minister and is currently the Director of Apologetics for Texas Baptists. In The Potter’s Promise, he describes how he gave up on his belief in Calvinism. It […]

Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife

Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife. By Bart D. Ehrman. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2020. 326 pp. Hardcover, $28.00. What can an agnostic historian with atheist leanings tell us about heaven and hell? To those of us who believe the Bible, not much. Yet, he can tell us two important things. […]

Five Points Towards a Deeper Experience of God’s Grace

Five Points Towards a Deeper Experience of God’s Grace. By John Piper. Glasgow: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2017. 96 pp. Paper, $9.99. John Piper is a popular writer and retired pastor. He is a devoted proponent of Reformed Theology and Calvinism. In this short book, Piper tries to answer the question, “How did God save […]

Examples of the Four Soils in the Gospel of Mark

Kenneth W. Yates EDITOR I. INTRODUCTION The Parable of the Four Soils is found in Mark 4:3-8. The Lord interprets the parable in 4:15-20.1 At face value Jesus says that the Word concerning Him and His coming kingdom will go out through His teaching and the teaching of His disciples. People will respond to that […]

An Unconventional God: The Spirit According to Jesus

An Unconventional God: The Spirit According to Jesus. By Jack Levison. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020. 226 pp. Paper, $21.38. Levison is the W. J. A. Power Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. This book deals with the role of the Holy Spirit […]

Different Meanings of Salvation in Five New Testament Books

Robert N. Wilkin Associate Editor I. INTRODUCTION Tremendous confusion results when one misinterprets the meaning of sōzō and sōtēria. It is not simply laypeople who wrongly assume that the words saved and salvation in the NT almost always refer to regeneration. Many scholars do as well. But there is good reason to believe that these […]

The Table of the Lord, Part 2

Eric Svendsen1 I. THE ALLEGED SEPARATION OF THE EUCHARIST FROM THE COMMON MEAL In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul addresses the Lord’s Supper as it relates to the unity within the assembly of the Corinthians. It is evident from Paul’s words in this passage that the Corinthians were partaking of an entire meal, not just the […]