I met Bruce Wilkinson, then the head of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland Oregon in June of 1987. He was teaching a one-week class on eternal rewards. Each day after class a group consisting of Bruce, Earl Radmacher, Zane Hodges, Gerry Breshears, Josef Tson, Mike Cocoris, and I

Philip Gulley is a Quaker minister and novelist whose fiction I greatly enjoy. Gulley is best known for writing in a humorous, Americana style, about the town of Harmony, Indiana, in a way similar to what you might hear on A Prairie Home Companion. Gulley also writes theology. His views reflect the extreme left of

Princeton Theological Seminary was going to give Tim Keller the “Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Witness.” Then critics complained about Keller’s traditional views that women and LGBTQs should not be ordained and the offer of the prize was rescinded. You can read about it here: Princeton Theological Seminary reverses decision to

A little more than a decade ago James White, a Calvinist apologist, and I debated the issues of faith and assurance in Oklahoma City. Today I received word from Shawn that White had criticized me and GES for our view on assurance (which came from a 5-minute video Shawn and I did which someone sent

Have you ever seen the scrambled words test? You are presented with a paragraph of text, and even though the words are scrambled, you can still read it without too much effort. Even though the letters are in the wrong order, your mind can still figure out what each word is, and make connections based

I’m the kind of person who overthinks things. There’s about three or four thousand books in my home library that can attest to that (not counting the books in my office library). And if my wife is reading this, yes, I need them all! But I’m learning to go back to basics. I’m learning to

After I wrote a blog about meeting the Lord in the air, a pastor friend, Dave, asked me the following questions: If the 24 elders represent rewarded saints, then I’ve assumed that the Bema would take place in the clouds following the Rapture since the 24 elders are worshiping around the throne during the events

This past weekend I was in Tampa to speak at Bayside Community Church. I flew in on Saturday, arriving a little after noon. That gave me time for lunch and a walk along the bay before supper. I even saw a few dolphins and a sting ray. I had a great supper and then I

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses (1 Timothy 6:12).   What does it mean to “lay hold on eternal life”? Don’t believers already have eternal life? So why would we have to

Bob often mentions the name of R. B. Thieme, a pastor from Houston, who had an unusually influential ministry. Bob considers Thieme one of the first Free Grace theologians. Several Thieme-influenced churches, and many Thieme-influenced people, are very friendly to our ministry. So I thought it was about time for me to become familiar with