Blog – Page 164 – Grace Evangelical Society

Job’s Faith Grew Through Suffering

July 11, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Job, Suffering

Job was extremely religious, extremely pious, and extremely good. Even God said, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1:8). But being blameless and upright doesn’t mean you know all there is to know about God

Leading Evangelical Craig Keener Says Arminians and Calvinists Question Once-Saved-Always-Saved As It Is Commonly Taught

July 10, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Craig Keener, Eternal Security, Once saved always saved, provisional salvation

Dr. Craig Keener is a leading New Testament Evangelical scholar. He has published commentaries on Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Revelation. He is a Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is an Evangelical Arminian. A friend recently sent me a link (see here) to his April 28, 2015, article

Did Jesus Support the Ecumenical Movement? (Mark 9:40)

July 9, 2019 by Ken Yates in Blog - against the Lord, Discipleship, Ecumenicalism, rewards

When I was an army chaplain, there were many who pushed for ecumenical understanding. This meant that doctrinal differences should not keep us from working and ministering together. We should not let denominational differences keep us from doing the work of the Lord. Sometimes Mark 9:40 was used to support this notion. Jesus is talking

Belief: Twelve Theses

July 8, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Believe, Faith, propositional

Question What is the Free Grace definition of belief? Also, what is “intellectual consent,” and is it more than a belief in a historical Jesus? I would like to understand.  Answer There are disagreements in Free Grace (and in Evangelicalism and Christianity) circles over those questions. Here is my answer in the form of twelve

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

The Meaning of All in the New Testament

July 4, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Hermeneutics, Matthew 2:3, Meaning of all in the New Testament, Romans 3:23

A friend asked this insightful question: You mentioned recently on a podcast that the word all does not always mean all in the New Testament. That seems to fit your texts ok, but does that not dilute the value of some of the assurance statements where it says He forgives “all sin,” etc.? How would

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

Demons, Prayer, and Fasting (Mark 9:29)

July 2, 2019 by Ken Yates in Blog - demons, fasting, Prayer

I have always found Mark 9:29 to be a strange and hard to understand verse. A man has brought his son who has a demon that caused the young boy to be deaf and dumb and tried to destroy him. Jesus cast the demon out. The disciples had tried to cast the demon out before

He Breathed on Them and Said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22)

July 1, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Acts 2:1-21, baptism of the Holy Spirit, John 20:22, permanent indwelling

A friend just sent in this super question: I just finished listening to your podcast about repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins and had a question about when the disciples received the Holy Spirit. I always thought the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples in John 20 when Jesus breathed on them in

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