By Bob Bryant1
I. INTRODUCTION
Last year, when it was announced that the theme for the 2023 GES conference was “Vital Free Grace Issues,” I thought that if Bob [Wilkin] asked me to speak, I knew what I wanted to talk about. He asked me to speak, so I am going to talk about “2006 Revisited.”
During the 2006 GES conference, some vital Free Grace issues were raised. They were brought to light and, to our surprise, they had been somewhat hidden up until that time. I was talking to Bob about this last night, and he considers 2006 a turning point for GES and the grace movement in a good way.
What happened in 2006 might be a surprise for some of you. But, if you were there, you will probably never forget it. It was quite dramatic.
About 360 people attended the 2006 GES conference at the Crowne Plaza in North Dallas.
The next year 160 attended the conference. That tells you that something must have happened at the 2006 conference.
II. TWO MESSAGES
It seems the changes were in response to two messages given at the 2006 GES conference: “Saved or in a State of Grace?” by Zane Hodges,2 and my message entitled, “Eternal Security: Do You Have to Believe It?”3
Zane and I did not consult one another when we prepared these messages. We planned them separately. Not until we got close to the conference dates did we compare notes. I told Zane that I thought we were speaking on the same topic. He said he agreed.
Even though the topic was the same, the two messages were quite different in approach. I am going to briefly summarize my message and then briefly summarize Zane’s.
A. My Message
I started my message by saying that I was going to describe a person. I wanted those attending to think about somebody they knew who might be such a person. It could be a friend, a relative, or a co-worker. This person is full of good works, a faithful church member, prays, and reads the Bible often. He believes Jesus is Lord, believes Jesus died for our sins, and believes that Jesus rose from the dead. But he has never believed that in Jesus he is eternally secure.
My question is: Is this person saved? Is this person born again? Is this person going to heaven or, to put it another way, could it be that a person who has never believed he is eternally secure saved?
I said it briefly in 2006, and I will say it today. There are different synonyms and different ways of saying eternally secure. You could say, “once saved always saved,” or “as a child, I knew I would live with Christ forever.”
As a child, I would have said that I knew for sure I was going to heaven, and nothing could change that. I knew for sure that I had a relationship with God that I could never lose. Those are all synonyms for the term eternal security.
When I asked if this hypothetical person who never believed he was eternally secure was saved, the keyword in the question was the word never. If you miss that word, you will miss a very important point. I wasn’t talking then, or now, about somebody who was once sure that he was eternally secure and is not sure now. I am talking about a person who has never been sure or believed that he is eternally secure.
So, could a person be saved who has never believed that he is eternally secure? Many would answer “yes” to that question. What they are thinking is that eternal security is a follow-up doctrine that a born-again Christian may or may not embrace.
Let’s go back to that question. Could it be that a person is saved who has never believed that he is eternally secure? What is most important is how Jesus answers that question.
1. Passages in John where Jesus answers the question
I want us to see that He does answer that question in His conversation with the woman at the well in John 4. He said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you ‘give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” Notice, that Jesus tells the woman that there are two things she must know: the gift and the Giver.
John is writing this so the reader of the Gospel of John will know that there are two things the reader needs to know: What is the gift, and Who is the Giver? Jesus tells the woman that if she knew those two things, she would have asked Him, and He would have given her living water.
Jesus goes on to tell her, and us, what the gift is.4 Speaking about the literal water in the well, the Lord told her that whoever drinks that water will thirst again. But, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” That is the gift, and He makes it very clear that this is a gift you could never lose. It is defined by the term itself: everlasting life.
He made sure that she and the readers understood that once you have it, you will never thirst for it again. It is permanent. You cannot lose it.
Now, the woman got one part of it right. To begin with, she said to Him, “Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.” She thought He was talking about literal water. She still did not know that He was talking about everlasting life. Later, she got it, but the point here is that she knew it was permanent. Once you drink this water, you will never thirst again.
As we read on in John 4, we see that this woman did come to understand what the gift is. It is everlasting life, and she did believe in the Giver, Jesus, for that life.5
What I want to underscore is very important. Jesus is presenting the message of eternal security. He is teaching eternal security to an unsaved woman. He talks about life that you can never lose. You can never thirst for it again once you have it. He is not giving this to a Christian as a follow-up doctrine. He is speaking to an unsaved person as a part of the essential truth that she needs to believe to gain everlasting life.
We see Jesus do this repeatedly. He did it in chapter 3 with Nicodemus. He said, “You must be born again.” At the time Jesus was talking to him, what did He teach Nicodemus? What did He say to him? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That is what He is telling Nicodemus. God offers life that you can never lose once you have it. It is not probationary life. It is everlasting life. When you believe in Him for it—Jesus says, “When you believe in Me for it”—you have it.6
Here is my point. In John 3:16 Jesus is not teaching eternal security to a saved person as a follow-up doctrine. He is teaching eternal security to an unsaved person as an essential truth that he or she must believe in order to gain everlasting life.
When we come to chapter 5, we see Jesus again encountering Jews who sought to kill Him. What is He going to say to Jews who are trying to kill Him? Well, we do not have to guess. Jesus “answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.’”
Jesus is teaching eternal security in John 5:24. He says that once you believe in Him, your past, present, and future are taken care of. It is a done deal. In the past, you have passed from death to life. In the present, you have everlasting life right now. In your future, you shall not come into judgment.7 The one who believes in Him is eternally secure. He is not giving a follow-up message to a believer as a follow-up doctrine. He is teaching eternal security to unsaved people––even the Jews who wanted to kill Him––because that is the essential truth. This is what they must believe in order to gain everlasting life.
In John 6, Jesus again encounters some unbelievers. He says to them, “You have seen Me and yet you do not believe.” What is Jesus going to say to people who do not believe in Him? In the very next verse He says, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” He is teaching eternal security. “All [no exceptions] that the Father gives Me shall come to Me.” This means those who believe in Him. “The one who comes to Me [each and every one] I will by no means [no exceptions] cast out.”
This is eternal security as clearly as it can be taught.8 To whom is Jesus speaking? He is not speaking to believers as a follow-up doctrine. He is teaching unsaved people about eternal security because He knows that it is an essential truth that they must believe to be saved.
Notice what He says to these same people in verse 39—to these that He said see Him but do not believe. He says, “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.”
Jesus is teaching eternal security to these unbelievers. He is saying, “Your eternal security does not depend upon your obedience to Me. It depends upon My obedience to the Father. The Father commanded Me—the Father sent Me—and told me that of all that He gives Me, I cannot lose a single one.” If one person believed in Jesus for everlasting life and then was lost, that would be on Jesus and His disobedience. But Jesus cannot disobey the Father, therefore the believer is eternally secure.
Jesus is not teaching this as a follow-up doctrine to someone who is saved. He is teaching it as an essential truth that unsaved people need to know in order to be saved and have everlasting life.
This continues in John 10. Jesus encounters more unbelievers. He says to them, “You do not believe, because you are not of My sheep.” What is Jesus going to say to these people who do not believe and are not His sheep? Well, here is what He tells them about His sheep: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
Jesus teaches them, with the simplest and clearest visual illustration, that once you believe in Him, He and the Father hold you in their hand. The Father holds you in His hand. You cannot escape once you are saved. You are always saved. You are eternally secure, and nothing can change that. And once again I remind you that Jesus is not teaching this as a follow-up doctrine to people who are saved. He is teaching it as an essential truth. The truth of eternal security is being presented to unsaved people as essential truth that they must know. They must believe it in order to be saved and have eternal life.
Let me summarize what we have seen so far. We have looked at Nicodemus in chapter 3, the Samaritan woman in chapter 4, the Jews who sought to kill Him in chapter 5, those who would not believe in chapter 6, and those who are not His sheep in chapter 10.
We just read the clearest and strongest messages that you can find in the whole Bible about eternal security. He is teaching it to unsaved people. The message of eternal security is the saving message of Jesus. It is as clear as it could be that Jesus is telling unsaved people that you believe in Him for the gift, and the gift is everlasting life that you can never lose. You must know what the gift is and then believe He is the Giver who can give you that gift.
As we keep reading in the Gospel of John, we see Jesus continue to refer to eternal security. However, the next passage I want to discuss involves a believer. Jesus said to Martha these famous words, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”
That is eternal security. Once you have life, you can never lose it. You can never—once you have spiritual life—lose it.9
This time, He is presenting this truth to Martha, who is a believer. Her brother Lazarus has died. He is reminding her of the truth that she already knows. It is a comfort to her in the loss of her brother. John records this in chapter 11 because John has a strategic reason for putting it in the Gospel of John. We know what that reason is because he tells us at the end of the book: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
John records this conversation with Martha in order to communicate once again to the reader—the unbelieving reader—that eternal security is an essential part of the saving message that must be believed in order for a person to be saved and have everlasting life.
One more passage in which Jesus teaches eternal security concerns Peter. Jesus says to him, “The rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.” Then, He immediately adds, “Let not your heart be troubled…In My Father’s house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you.”
Peter was already eternally secure, and he knew it. Peter needed that reminder because he was going to mess up. The Lord tells him that he is going to sin terribly, and he is told not to forget that he is eternally secure. The Lord will not let him go. He has a secure place in His Father’s house. John records this for the unsaved reader of the Gospel of John so that the unsaved reader will know that if he or she believes in Jesus for eternal life, even if he or she messes up, like Peter did, he or she will still be secure.
So once again, the message for the unsaved reader is that eternal security is part of the saving message of Jesus. It is an essential truth that must be believed in order to be saved and have everlasting life.
2. A summary of my message
Allow me to go back to the question I raised earlier. Could a person who has never believed that he is eternally secure be saved? As I said, many would answer “yes” to that question. But Jesus and John would not. They would say “no.”
I would like to look at this question from the other side of the coin and ask it this way: Do you have to believe in eternal security in order to have eternal life? Jesus and John answer “yes” to that question. That is a summary of my 2006 message on eternal security.
B. Zane Hodges’ Message
I feel inadequate even to begin to summarize what Zane Hodges said. There is no substitute for Zane himself, so I will just try to give some highlights of his message, “Saved or in a State of Grace?” It is a brilliant message. If you haven’t heard it, go online and listen to it. It is very creative, very intriguing, and very engaging. Let me describe the background.
He talked about two friends named Jason and Eric.
Jason believes he is eternally secure. Zane called him a “card-carrying GES member.” Eric does not believe that he is eternally secure and Jason, as he should be, is concerned for his friend Eric. So, they get into a conversation about Acts 16:31, which says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”
Here is what Jason says to Eric: “Eric, in Acts 16:31 you have turned the word saved into a conditional, guaranteed-only-in-the-present, benefit. So really, Acts 16:31 should say, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be safe for the time being.’ You didn’t believe that you got saved from hell forever.”
So, Eric says, “Are you trying to tell me that I am not saved?” Jason replies, “I am trying to tell you that you are not even temporarily saved. You believed in Christ for something that God doesn’t give.”
Zane explained that Eric believed in God for probationary life. God doesn’t give probationary life. Then, Zane said that just because a person uses Biblical language to describe what they believe doesn’t mean they actually believe Biblical truth.
That is an important statement. That is one of the most profound statements you will ever hear. Just because somebody uses the Biblical language, “I’m saved,” does not mean that they are saved. Just because they say, “I believe in Jesus, and I am saved,” does not mean they are saved because they may be using Biblical language that isn’t really what the Bible is saying, in terms of its definition and truth.
That was a quick background on Zane’s message, and those were the two messages from 2006 that I wanted to review.
C. Looking Back and a Present Perspective
I am no longer in 2006 but in 2023. Looking back, I tell you that what Zane and I said that day was nothing new. If you were there, it felt as if people were saying, “Well, this is new.”
No, it wasn’t new. I am going to prove it to you.
Back then, in 2006, I didn’t think I would have to prove it. I just assumed that everybody knew this was nothing new.
In 1989, Zane wrote Absolutely Free! I don’t know if he would have called it his signature work, but at the time it was. When that book came out, I thought it got everybody’s attention, especially people in GES. This was clearly before the 2006 GES conference.
Here is a statement from Absolutely Free!: “A person who has never been sure of eternal life has never believed the saving message of God.”10
You know, when I read that in 1989, I had to pause and read it again because, I thought, “I’ve never heard it put like that. But, of course, that is true.” It took me about thirty seconds to think that through and I realized, “Well, of course that is true.” I had just never heard it so clearly put as Zane did at that time.
Let me move forward ten years to 1999, when Bob Wilkin’s book, Confident in Christ, came out. Here is a quote from Bob Wilkin: “A person who has never had assurance that he is eternally secure has not yet been born again.”11 That is pretty clear, strong, and straightforward. And that is exactly what I said in 2006. And that is exactly what Zane said.
To be honest with you, before the 2006 conference, I thought that this was nothing new. I was under the assumption that everybody in GES had read Absolutely Free! and Confident in Christ. When those books were written there was no uproar, and I remember saying to Zane that I didn’t know if I ought to teach on this at the 2006 conference because I felt I would just be preaching to the choir. I thought everybody would say they already knew and believed it. It was nothing new. That is what I thought. I had no idea how that day—that conference—was going to end.
I don’t know whether it was at the very end of the conference, but somewhere toward the end, there was a panel discussion. The plenary speakers were all lined up, and all the people in the room were to interact with the speakers in front. But they didn’t interact with the people in the front. They interacted all over the room. This person and that person wanted to say something about those two messages.
It was exciting. If you had been there, you wouldn’t have taken a nap. It was charged. I had no idea that this was coming. I want to give you three highlights—three quotes—from what happened in that panel discussion.
About fifteen minutes in, Bob Wilkin stood up and said he wanted to take a survey. He asked how many of the people in the room were born again before they believed they were eternally secure. Now, take in that question: How many of you were born again before you believed you were eternally secure?
Fifty percent of the people in the room raised their hands. It took my breath away. It really did. I just couldn’t believe it. What I learned—what we all learned—at that moment was that those fifty percent believed that eternal security is a follow-up doctrine for a Christian and not an essential truth that must be believed in order to gain everlasting life. They were saying they didn’t believe it until later.
I am convinced that those people were saved later than they thought. They were not born again until the day they were sure they were eternally secure, but they thought they were saved before they knew they were eternally secure.
If you think that through, let me tell you what it means. Those people had to have believed that salvation is by faith plus works until they knew they were eternally secure, because if you don’t believe you are eternally secure, then you can only be believing that you have to do something to stay saved. That means you must maintain your salvation by works.
So, all of a sudden it was dawning on me that I was part of this panel discussion and that fifty percent of the people there entertained, or definitely believed, the thought that a person who trusts in Christ plus their works––let alone does not believe that they are eternally secure––could be saved.
It was an amazing moment. Fifty percent of the people at a GES conference didn’t believe that you have to believe in the Giver for the gift of everlasting life.
Let me tell you something. Those two messages didn’t create that difference. That difference existed before the conference even started. We just didn’t know it. We thought everybody believed the same thing until the 2006 conference came and light was shed on the fact that we didn’t all believe the same thing about the saving message of Jesus. Wouldn’t you agree that the saving message of Jesus is pretty important?
Here is another statement that was made by one of the most popular speakers and leaders of GES. He was highly respected and had a lot to say at this meeting. Here is one of his quotes: “My parents were wonderful Christians who, as far as I know, never believed they were eternally secure. So, if what Zane and Bob are saying is true, then my parents are in hell, and I have a hard time accepting that.”
That is a heartbreaking quote. He doesn’t want to believe what the Scriptures say because he doesn’t want to think that his parents might be in hell. Hopefully, you realize that that is no way to try to determine theology—to go by your feelings and your desires of what you want for somebody. You have to start with: “What did Jesus say?”
A third quote from this same person is the one that I guess hit me the hardest. He said, “If what Zane and Bob are saying is true, then we should be evangelizing Methodists, Nazarenes, and Assembly of God people.”
I will tell you what I thought when I heard that: I wished my mother were there because I wasn’t expecting what he had said. I know my mother would have had something to say at that meeting. My mother would have said:
I grew up a Methodist. I was a Methodist until I was thirty-four years old. I believed what the Methodist Church taught me. I was living by what they taught me. I believed that to get to heaven, Jesus had to do His part, and He did it when He died on the cross for my sins. But I also believed what the Methodist Church taught me and that is to get to heaven I had to do my part, which was to try to live a good life. Hopefully, at the end of my life, God would accept me based on my works.
One day, when I was eight years old, my mother took me and my younger sisters for swimming lessons. While we were out in the water, the mothers were on the shore talking, and this woman named Lynn Mulchin invited my mother to her church in a neighboring town. My mother accepted that invitation. My mother taught me through childhood and all the way through my teenage and even adult years that this was a turning point in the life of our family. When we got into that church, we heard a different message. We heard that Jesus said, “He who believes in Me has everlasting life.”
My mother took that message to heart and realized that Jesus wasn’t asking her to live a good life in order to earn everlasting life. He was telling her just to believe in Him for what He offers. It is a free gift—the Giver for the gift. My mother came to see that Jesus said that “he that believes in Me has everlasting life” and that everlasting life doesn’t begin when you die. It begins the moment you believe. You can know that you have it right now, and once you are saved, you are always saved. My mother saw those issues as going hand-in-hand––that eternal security is the saving message of Jesus.
My mother drilled it into me. Once you are saved, you are always saved. She told me that I should never quit thanking God for Lynn Mulchin, who invited our family to her church, where we could hear that message. She said, “I hate to think where our family would be right now. We would maybe have been lost forever if somebody hadn’t evangelized us.”
I think my mother would have said that if she had been at the 2006 conference and had received the opportunity to speak.
Now, let me talk about a couple of things that happened after the 2006 conference.
III. AFTER THE 2006 CONFERENCE
A lot of things happened after the 2006 conference, but I would like to tell you about two very small meetings related to it that I think were important.
A. The First Meeting
In 2006, Zane Hodges, Bob Wilkin, and I met. Zane asked Bob and me to come to his office because he wanted to talk about the 2006 conference. He wanted us to talk about where he thought the simple focus should be for GES in the future. He made it very simple. He said we should identify our message as the saving message of Jesus.
Now, that is a very profound statement. We might have tended to assume that we were doing that, but in Zane’s viewpoint, we were not doing enough of it––that is, just saying that, we are coming back to what Jesus said. What were Jesus’ words when He talked to people about everlasting life? What did Jesus say? We need to keep coming back to Jesus and what He said.
Zane said that we needed to keep it as simple as we can, and that is as simple as we can get. Believe in Jesus for everlasting life. That is what Jesus said repeatedly: “Believe in Me for everlasting life.” Or, as He told the woman at the well––and it all goes back to John 4:10 in my mind––believing in the Giver for the gift.
There it is, right there. It is so simple. You have to know what the gift is and believe in the Giver for the gift. Just come back to that. Keep it simple: Believe the Giver for the gift.
That is the saving message of Jesus. The saving message of Jesus is not: Believe that Jesus died for our sins. Now, you could not have everlasting life if Jesus did not die for your sins, but Jesus never told anybody to believe that He would die for their sins in order to go to heaven. He never said that. That is not the saving message of Jesus. It is the saving truth behind the message, but it is not the message that Jesus told people.
As you look at those two statements (“Believe in Jesus for eternal life” and “Believe that Jesus died for our sins”), they are very important for us to think about. Bob Wilkin thought a lot about it, as have other people. But I am singling out Bob because I did a search on the GES website for the 2006 conference. It is very interesting how many articles the 2006 conference provoked Bob to write.
You need to look up one of those articles and read it: “Four Free Grace Views Related to Two Issues.”12 He wrote this in 2009, as he was still thinking about the aftermath of the 2006 conference.
Until the 2006 conference, we thought there was one Free Grace position. After the 2006 conference, we realized there were four Free Grace views related to two issues. These differences existed before the conference. They just came to light because of the conference.
So, what are the four Free Grace views related to the two issues? First, here are the two issues: Believe in Jesus for everlasting life, and believe that Jesus died for our sins.
When it comes to the second issue, Bob points out in his article that some expand it. They might say you have to also believe that Jesus is God, or that He was born of a virgin, or that He is coming again. Some add up to six things, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s focus on just this one.
The first Free Grace view is the one that Bob, Zane, and I hold to, and hopefully, you do as well. The unbeliever is to believe in Jesus for everlasting life. I hope that is your view.
But some who call themselves Free Grace say “No, it is both. You have to believe both that Jesus died for your sins and believe that He gives everlasting life. If you don’t believe both, then you cannot be saved.” This would be the second view.
The third view is the unbeliever must only believe the second line. He needs to believe that Jesus died for his sins. You can exclude the first line. If you believe that Jesus died for your sins, the result is that you get everlasting life. It is not that you believe in Jesus for everlasting life. You believe that He died for your sins. God then gives you everlasting life even though you do not know that you have it. You found out later that He gave it to you. That is the third view.
Concerning the fourth view that Bob addresses in his article, he says he knows hardly anybody who holds it. But some people do not believe that you have to believe either one of these two statements. There are Free Grace people who say you don’t have to believe in Jesus for eternal life or believe that He died for your sins. I had never heard of that, but in recent months Mike Lii has told me he has heard of it. And that view is: Believe that Jesus was sent from God.
Some people who call themselves Free Grace say you don’t have to believe in Jesus for everlasting life, and you don’t have to believe that He died for your sins in order to be saved. You just have to believe that He was sent from God.
Now, I have gone over four Free Grace views. Some people call themselves Free Grace, but we are not all on the same page with each other. The prophet Amos said, “How can two walk together unless they be agreed.”13 If we do not agree on the saving message of Jesus, how can we walk together? It is sad, but it is true.
The GES conference in 2006 did not create these differences. These differences existed before the conference. The conference just brought them to light. We are not saying the same thing that people need to believe. We have different saving messages. We cannot walk together if we are not in agreement on the saving message of Jesus.
Just to review the 2006 meeting with Zane, Bob, and me, it was determined that we should identify our message as the saving message of Jesus: Believe in Jesus for everlasting life. There was another meeting on June 19, 2006.
B. The Second Meeting
Bob [Wilkin] met with some GES speakers in June 2006. This was a private meeting involving about ten people. One of the men told Bob that GES would lose numbers and financial support over this. Bob said he was prepared for that and was ready to die for this issue.
Thank God for you, Bob Wilkin, because you have lived that out. You haven’t been afraid. You haven’t backed down. You stood up for the saving message of Jesus and gave leadership that we very much need to this organization. I thank God for you. Thank you for being willing to die for that message: Believe in Jesus for everlasting life.
IV. CONCLUSION
I want to conclude with Zane’s conclusion, as well as mine, from the conference in 2006. Zane said that if you have a good friend who thinks he could lose his salvation, or if you know anybody like that, do not just assume they are eternally saved if they themselves do not believe they are. If you take that attitude, you are not being responsible in handling the truth of God. Tell people what God says and tell them what He means by what He says.
In my conclusion at the conference, I said that we have an obligation to talk to people everywhere about eternal security because eternal security is what Jesus talked to people about. It is an essential part of the message that they must believe in order to receive everlasting life.
I want to conclude with a quote from my mother, even though she didn’t say it. She is in heaven now, and I will talk to her about it when I get there. But I am going to put words in her mouth, and I know she would say, “That’s OK, Bob.”
This is what my mother would have said in 2006, and she would say it again now in 2023: “Please be like Lynn Mulchin and evangelize people like me and my family—people who are not yet saved because they have not yet believed that they are eternally secure.”
1 This article is from the transcript of Bob Bryant’s presentation. Certain small changes were made for readability. Footnotes were added later for support. Listen to his original presentation at: https://FaithAlone.org/audio/2023-ges-national-conference-vital-free-grace-issues.
2 Zane Hodges, “Saved or in a State of Grace,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ZlkA4X5KI. Accessed February 8, 2024.
3 Bob Bryant, “Eternal Security, Do You Have to Believe It?” Grace Evangelical Society, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=NLB-rLXtx1k. Accessed February 8, 2024.
4 See, Zane C Hodes, A Free Grace Primer (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2011), 17-24.
5 Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 287.
6 Robert N. Wilkin, “The Gospel According to John,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 376.
7 Hodges, Primer, 152.
8 Joseph C. Dillow, The Reign of the Servant Kings (Hayesville, NC: Schoettle Publishing Co., 2006), 510.
9 Robert N. Wilkin, Faith Alone in 100 Verses (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2020), 68-69.
10 Zane C. Hodges, Absolutely Free!: A Biblical Reply to Lordship Salvation (Dallas, TX: Redención Viva, 1989), 51.
11 Robert N. Wilkin, Confident in Christ: Living by Faith Really Works (Irving, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 1999), 96.
12 Bob Wilkin, “Four Free Grace Views Related to Two Issues: Assurance and the Five Essentials.” FaithAlone.org, Grace Evangelical Society, July 1, 2009. https://faithalone.org/grace-in-focusarticles/assurance-and-the-five-essentials. Accessed February 8, 2024.
13 Amos 3:3.
