By Dix Winston Imagine reading the great Russian novel War and Peace by starting at the book’s midpoint. It would make no sense to you. Who is Pierre Bezukhov, or Audrey Bolkonsky, or the Kuragan and Rostov families? And why is Napoleon invading Russia? It would be difficult, if not impossible, to understand the author’s

By Ken Pierce Matthew 11:1-15 and Luke 7:18-23 record parallel accounts of a fascinating exchange between Messiah and two disciples of Yochannan ben Zecharyah (John, the son of Zechariah, better known as John the Baptist or, more accurately, John the Baptizer), in which Jesus relayed a covert message to his incarcerated cousin. Herod Antipas had

By Iheanyi Njokui Introduction Romans 8 is one of the great chapters in the Bible. Its teaching about how the Holy Spirit operates in enabling the believer to defeat the forces of evil has always been recognized as of the utmost importance. Leon Morris suggested that while there are problems in understanding some of the

By Mike Lii Introduction At the 1997 Grace Evangelical Society National Conference, Zane Hodges gave a message titled, “Assurance Is of the Essence of Saving Faith.”1 His title differs from “Assurance Is the Essence of Saving Faith” only by the addition of the word of. This has led many to confuse the two statements. GES,

By Mike Lii and Bob Wilkin Introduction Have you heard it charged that those of us who accept the Focused Free Grace position teach “easy believism”? Those who level such a charge usually mean that we make salvation too easy by not requiring that people turn from their sins, commit their lives to Christ, and

By Ken Pierce The story of the woman with an issue of blood testifies convincingly to both the awesome power of faith placed in Jesus Christ and the importance of taking Him at His word. Unfortunately, some story elements may escape twenty-first-century readers less familiar than she was with the Tanakh (the Torah—Law, the Neve’im—Prophets,

By Marcia Hornok and Leah Gingery In November 2023, we sat around the dinner table with our adult children and spouses and reviewed our “Praise Notebooks” for the year. Holding our youngest daughter’s hand, her husband said somewhat drolly, “Highlight for January—my wife didn’t die. Highlight for February—Leah still didn’t die. March—Leah is still alive.”

By Ken Yates I think many readers of this blog can relate to my church background. The churches I attended when growing up did not really teach the Bible. I never heard a sermon in which the speaker looked at the context and explained the meaning of the verses that were read. Once the Bible

By Mike Lii I. Introduction: Evangelism Based on the Forgiveness of Sins Have you ever heard the gospel presented as follows: “Believe in Jesus so that all your sins—past, present, and future—will be forgiven.” This kind of gospel presentation tells one to believe in Jesus for “the forgiveness of sins.” Is a gospel presentation that