Bob Wilkin – Page 229 – Grace Evangelical Society

2019 National Conference Report

May 27, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Bible exposition, Ephesians, GES national conference

The conference ended two and a half hours ago. I’m sitting at my desk in the office, reflecting. Here are some of the highlights as I remember them: We covered every verse in Ephesians over the four days. The plenary messages and the workshops were very well received. J. B. got a free Christian mug

Repentance and Salvation in the Old Testament

May 24, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Ezekial, Isaiah 55:7, Jonah, Repentance

Introduction The English word repent is only found ten times in the OT, and one of those ten (Num 23:19) is a statement that God does not repent. In the remaining nine places, the underlying Hebrew word is shuv (or the noun teshuvah), which is most often translated as turn. The noun repentance is not

Assurance and Ongoing Faith

May 23, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assurance, Faith

Shawn Lazar, Ken Yates, and I received the following question via email: I read the affirmations of faith on the website (https://faithalone.org/beliefs) and saw a line that seems out of sort with what I have heard from GES teaching: “That is, as long as a person believes in Jesus for everlasting life, he knows he

Update on Sharon’s Battle with Cancer

May 22, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Cancer, Grief, Suffering, Surgery

On December 19, 2018, Sharon, my wife of 42 years, went in for a fairly routine surgery to remove a football-size benign ovarian cyst. It turns out that the cyst was filled with cancer. And then the cyst burst and spread the cancer. Since then Sharon has had five chemo treatments. The first four lasted

The Difference Between Backsliding and Apostasy

May 21, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - apostasy, Assurance, Backsliding, Hebrews 6:4-8

Free Grace people are united in saying that born again people are not immune to backsliding. Even Lordship Salvation people agree, though they would say that backsliding can’t last too long (but they don’t know how long is too long). But Free Grace people are not quite united on the question of apostasy. Do born

Asking Jesus for the Living Water (John 4:10)

May 17, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Asking for everlasting life, John 4:10, John 4:14, Living Water

The following comment recently appeared in a comment on one of our blogs, “According to Jesus, if you knew the gift of God and knew who He is who offers the gift to you, you would ask Him for the gift, and He would give the gift to you. John 4:10.” Though surely well intentioned,

Good Works by Non-Church Goers

May 15, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - 1 Corinthians 15:58, good works, Hebrews 10:23-25

In a recent blog I suggested that Eph 2:10 is about local churches doing good works and thus about believers doing good works in and through their churches. I then got this question, “Perhaps I’m reading too much into your comments about doing good works through the local church, but do you think believers who

The Nature of Saving Faith

May 13, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assensus, saving faith, Understanding

Recently I wrote a blog in which I said that before faith in Christ can occur, a person must understand the promise of everlasting life which the Lord Jesus makes to the believer. This led to an interesting question from a reader: “Where does it say in the Bible that understanding is a condition for

Created for Good Works (Ephesians 2:10)

May 9, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assurance, Ephesians 2:10, good works, Perseverance

There is a great effort by many to soften the meaning of Eph 2:8-9 by suggesting that verse 10 means that while works are not the means of salvation, they are the necessary result of it. For example, Francis Foulkes writes, “But probably it is the whole course of life that is on view here.

To Die Once (Hebrews 9:27)

May 7, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Hebrews 9:27, NDEs, People who die twice, The age of accountability

Recently I received a question about Heb 9:27: “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” The questioner said, “Would it not follow from that that it is also appointed for men once to live?” I had said in a blog that I thought that children who died before the