Blog | Grace Evangelical Society

At Peace in the Furnace

June 19, 2018 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - doctrinal emotive behavior therapy, doctrine, peace

What is the cause of your anger, anxiety, worry, and frustration? If you’re like me, you often externalize the blame. You point to something external to your feelings—such as other people, or adverse circumstances—as the cause of your emotional trouble and bad behavior. Just get rid of the adversity and the mental stability will follow, you

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Do Judgment Seat of Christ Rewards Last Forever or Just 1,000 years?

June 18, 2018 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Eschatology, Eternal Rewards, Millennium, Overcomers, rewards

In a recent blog I suggested that missed rewards would be missed forever. One person strongly disagreed and commented in response that “rewards are for time, 1000 years, not eternity.” Someone else responded to that comment with this question: “Where does the Bible tell us that rewards are just for a short time? It is

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The Moving Option

June 15, 2018 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Bible study, Free Grace church

I get weekly phone calls and emails from people seriously hungry for a Free Grace church. They don’t have one in their area, and they suffer for it. Bob and I usually encourage people to begin a Bible study at home and grow from there. But that is hard to do. Or we tell them

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Negative Consequences at the Bema?

June 14, 2018 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Bema, Eternal Rewards, Judgment, Judgment Seat of Christ

I received the following email: I understand the deadly consequences of unrepentant sin in this life. But I don’t get the idea of negative consequences at the Judgment Seat of Christ. What deadly consequences would there be? In 1 Cor 3:10-15 it sounds like any wood, hay, or stubble works will simply be burned up.

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Cottrell’s Continuing Assurance

June 13, 2018 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Arminianism, Assurance, continuing faith, Jack Cottrell

In his book, His Truth: Scripture Truths About Basic Doctrines, Jack Cottrell, an Arminian theologian, wrote on the subject of assurance. He did not give a name for the view he defended. I think it would be appropriate to call it the “I hope I keep believing” view. On Cottrell’s view, salvation is by faith

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How Can We Activate Saving Faith?

June 12, 2018 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assurance, evangelism, Faith, saving faith

Take a look at this moving email I just received: I have believed I was saved for a long time. But it was not until last year that I finally heard a proper presentation of the gospel of free grace. The evangelical world is crazy mixed up out there. I was brought to a Reformed

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Jack Cottrell Hopes He Will Keep Believing

June 11, 2018 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Arminian, Arminianism, Assurance, Continuous faith, Cottrell

Jack Cottrell is an Arminian theologian. If you want to read a serious Arminian, start with him. Cottrell wrote a summary of his beliefs—a short systematic theology—called His Truth: Scriptural Truths About Basic Doctrines. The last chapter is on assurance. At the beginning of the chapter, he identified two prominent errors regarding assurance. The first

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Greg Laurie’s Take on Repentance and Salvation

June 8, 2018 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - 2 Cor 7:10, Acts 17:30, Acts 3:19, Greg Laurie, Repentance and Salvation

On May 18 of this year, Greg Laurie posted a blog entitled “Close, But Not Close Enough.” You can read his blog here. A reader of our blog asked what I thought of Laurie’s blog. Laurie cites three passages in his article. The main passage he cites is 2 Cor 7:9-10: “Now I rejoice, not

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Jack Cottrell Confuses Eternal Security and Perseverance

June 7, 2018 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Arminian, Continuous faith, Cottrell

Jack Cottrell is an Arminian writer and theologian. He writes from within the Stone-Campbell tradition. If you’d like to read an Arminian who believes in inerrancy and tries to be a Biblical theologian, I recommend his work (though, not all his conclusions!). His Truth: Scriptural Truths About Basic Doctrines is Cottrell’s short (116 pages) summary of

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Give Paige Patterson a Fair Hearing

June 6, 2018 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - #metoo, conservatives, liberals, Paige Patterson

Paige Patterson was recently demoted, then fired, as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. There was intense one-sided coverage, followed by a quick decision by SWBTS. Personally, I’m always suspicious when “justice” is mostly tried in Social Media. I’m especially suspicious when only one side is covered. And frankly, I’m also on guard when a

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