A Is for “Able to Believe”

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Bob and I wrote an article called “TULIP or ASSURE?” in which we briefly outlined what we thought was the Biblical alternative to the Five Points of Calvinism (and Arminianism). Our thinking has grown since then.  Previously, we defined “A” as “All have sinned.” That was too general a statement. I now prefer “Able to believe.” It gets at the heart of the issue.  The key issue in total
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Three Ways to Comfort Your Suffering Friend (Job 2:11-13)

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I was reading an article by a woman who lost her brother, sister, and her sister’s children in a car crash. Horrific. She was stunned. She walked around as if in a fog, unable to think clearly. Of course, friends offered to help. Several said, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.” She found that well-meaning, but unhelpful. The bereaved don’t want to impose
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God or Genie? A Lesson from Job

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Job.  He was the ideal man— righteous, upright, fearing God, shunning evil, and so concerned with holiness that he made sacrifices for sins that might have been committed by other people (i.e., his children, cf., Job 1:1-2, 5).  No wonder God was especially pleased with Job, twice saying that no one else on earth was like him (1:8; 2:3). Consequently, God supremely blessed what Job did. But not everyone was convinced of Job’s piety.  One
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Dramatic Irony in Job

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Have you ever seen a performance of Romeo and Juliet? Near the end of the play, Juliet takes a drug that induces a temporary, but deathlike, sleep, to avoid marrying a man she does not love. To add to the drama, her body is placed in a tomb. To all appearance she seems dead. But the audience knows better. 
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Just Let Him Go: Luther on How to Respond to Atheists

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I love apologetics. I started witnessing a couple of months after I became a Christian at the age of seventeen. The first group I went to was the local Muslim student association. I remember they gave me a tract alleging that Christians believe in three gods. “We do?” I said. From that moment on, I became invested in apologetics (or what used to be called “Christian Evidences”). The more
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National Conference 2019 PowerPoints

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Here are most of the power-points for the GES National Conference 2019 Bond_GES – Eph. 6 Faul_God’s Wisdom for Marriages Ken Yates Plenary GES 2019 Eph 1 Kenny Hodges Ephesians 3.1-13 GES (1) Lazar_BeRenewed_Eph4_17to24 Lee_GESNational2019_Lee_The Real Illuminatti Lucas_GESNational2019 Lucas NIemela_Pauls Hallelujah Chorus Eph 1 1 14 Thurman_GES Eph 4 WHY Wilkin_Plenary 1 Saved by Grace
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Christians Living Differently (Ephesians 4:18-19)

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I’ve been thinking a great deal about the doctrine of “separation.” It was, and may still be, a defining feature of the Fundamentalist movement. Sadly, I think that doctrine often took a legalistic form. It became part of what you needed to do to be saved or to prove you “really” believed. That doesn’t mean the doctrine of separation is itself wrong. It means we
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Asa Mahan’s Assurance of Salvation

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Asa Mahan (1799-1889) was an Arminian philosopher and theologian. He was Presbyterian, but at a time when many Presbyterians were becoming Arminian (following the so-called “New Haven Theology”). Mahan was also the first president of Oberlin College (when it was a revivalist school and not the uber-liberal place it is today). Mahan was also co-worker with
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What Is Love? (Ephesians 5:1-3) 

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Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. And do not let sexual immorality, or any impurity, or greed be named among you, as these are not proper among saints (MEV).  The Ephesians were called to “walk in
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