Shawn Lazar – Page 74 – Grace Evangelical Society

Stepping Down

July 5, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - counselors, decision-making, pastor, pastoring

This past Sunday, I announced I was stepping down from pastoring the contemporary service at Gateway United Baptist Church. I started serving as an experiment. It was an experiment for the church to see if there was a demand for a contemporary service. The average age of the church was about seventy. They needed to

Suffering Opened Job’s Eyes

July 3, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Job, Suffering

Job’s three friends had a very legalistic view of the world and of God. They thought everything worked according to a clear and simple law of moral cause and effect—of reward and punishment—in which good people are blessed, and bad people suffer. So when they saw Job suffering, the only explanation for it, given their

Three Ways to Comfort a Suffering Friend (Job 2:11-13)

July 1, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Grace in Focus Articles

By Shawn Lazar 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 in shock. For days, she walked around as if in a fog, unable to think clearly. Of course, friends offered to help. Several said, “Let me know if

Asa Mahan’s Assurance

July 1, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Grace in Focus Articles

By Shawn Lazar Asa Mahan (1799-1889) was an Arminian philosopher and theologian. He was Presbyterian 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 ultra-liberal place it is today. He was

J. Dwight Pentecost on Eternal Security and the Promise of Life

June 28, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - eternal life, Eternal Security, J. Dwight Pentecost

Here is a great quote from J. Dwight Pentecost, writing in 1965, on why the promise of eternal life implies eternal security: The promise of God is a basis for our security. We go into a familiar passage such as John 3:16 where it is made so clear: “…God so loved the world, that he

J. Dwight Pentecost on Salvation

June 26, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - journal, Salvation, Soteriology

I’m writing a journal article on what Dallas Theological Seminary professors taught about salvation to the general public, from 1965-1995. I’m looking at books by DTS professors, aimed at a general reading audience. I want to know whether they leaned Free Grace or Lordship. (Be sure to subscribe to the journal to get these longer

What Are Some Free Grace Distinctives?

June 24, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog

Someone on Facebook asked what were some Free Grace distinctives. Here are ten things that I think make Free Grace distinct from other traditions. There are different schools of thought within the Free Grace movement. These ten things reflect our corner of the movement: 1) Saving faith is persuasion that the saving message is true,

Can Legalistic Thinking Explain All Suffering? (Job 3-14)

June 21, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Bildad, Eliphaz, Grace, Job, law, Zophar

Kūmāré is a 2011 documentary about a New Jersey man who pretends to be a guru from India—complete with accent—to see if he can get a following. The documentary is painful to watch because he does gather a following, and the people are totally convinced that Kūmāré is a spiritual man, with spiritual powers, who

We’re All Barabbas

June 20, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - atonement, Barabbas, substitution

One of my favorite novels is Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist, winner of the Nobel prize for literature. The novel imagines what happened to Barabbas after he was released: “He was about thirty, powerfully built, with a sallow complexion, a reddish beard and black hair. His eyebrows also were black, his eyes too deep-set, as though

A Is for “Able to Believe”

June 18, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Arminianism, Calvinism, Total depravity, total inability

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