The Claim by Dr. Matthew Bates: Pistis Means Faithfulness in Salvific Contexts Recently (June 3, 2017) I was involved in a debate about saving faith on Moody Radio’s Up for Debate program. I debated Dr. Matthew Bates, author of Salvation by Allegiance Alone. You can listen to the debate by clicking here. The host gave

We just got the book, Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? in our office last week. So I’ve only had a chance to give it a fast read. However, I’ve seen enough to be disturbed. Actually in the Foreword Dr. Craig Evans anticipates my reaction, “Many Christian readers of Dr. Licona’s book will be

  A few months back I committed to doing an on-air debate on the issue of justification by faith alone. I thought I’d be debating a Lordship Salvation person, but I did not know who until two days ago. I’ll be debating the author of Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel

Yesterday I received a call from a Pastor friend in Nebraska. Someone who attended his church took exception to him referring to believers as sinners. The man said, “Believers are saints, not sinners.” Evidently the man was coming from a Calvinist tradition. He thought that believers cannot stray very far or for very long. Thus

About 25 years ago a friend of mine we will call “Steve” told me that his Southern Baptist Pastor has mentioned the book The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He said it was a great book. So Steve bought the book and read it. Even though Steve was a Free Grace guy, he was

Yesterday I listened to three theologians talk about the authority of Scripture. I was surprised when one of them said, “We don’t read the Bible individually. We read it in community.” That sounded postmodern to me. The speakers did not go on to give a clear explanation of what this meant. I thought it meant

We recently (Mar-Apr 2017) published an article by me about heaven and hell in our magazine, Grace in Focus. I showed that believers will live forever not in heaven, but on the new earth. I received this email question: “I just read the article on heaven and hell. Wow. The Mormons have believed that for

A New Book by Matthew Bates Matthew Bates received his Ph.D. from a Catholic school (Notre Dame) and he teaches at a Catholic school (Quincy University). He indicates in the introduction that he hopes “this book will ultimately contribute to the healing of that long-festering wound between Catholics and Protestants” (p. 6). Bates’s theology is,

My thanks to all who prayed for our conference on eschatology last week. It was such an encouraging time. Here are some of the comments that the conferees put on their evaluation forms: “Spot on!” “Full of hope + GRACE!” “Wonderful!” “Great.” “Thoroughly enjoyed it.” “Excellent.” “Great topic.” “Best ever!” “Outstanding!!!” “AWESOME!” “Wonderful!” “Timely, pertinent,