Blog | Grace Evangelical Society

Repentance and Salvation in the Old Testament

May 24, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Ezekial, Isaiah 55:7, Jonah, Repentance

Introduction The English word repent is only found ten times in the OT, and one of those ten (Num 23:19) is a statement that God does not repent. In the remaining nine places, the underlying Hebrew word is shuv (or the noun teshuvah), which is most often translated as turn. The noun repentance is not found at all in most English translations of the OT.

Assurance and Ongoing Faith

May 23, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assurance, Faith

Shawn Lazar, Ken Yates, and I received the following question via email: I read the affirmations of faith on the website (https://faithalone.org/beliefs) and saw a line that seems out of sort with what I have heard from GES teaching: “That is, as long as a person believes in Jesus for everlasting life, he knows he has

Update on Sharon’s Battle with Cancer

May 22, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Cancer, Grief, Suffering, Surgery

On December 19, 2018, Sharon, my wife of 42 years, went in for a fairly routine surgery to remove a football-size benign ovarian cyst. It turns out that the cyst was filled with cancer. And then the cyst burst and spread the cancer. Since then Sharon has had five chemo treatments. The first four lasted over five hours. The doctors

The Difference Between Backsliding and Apostasy

May 21, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - apostasy, Assurance, Backsliding, Hebrews 6:4-8

Free Grace people are united in saying that born again people are not immune to backsliding. Even Lordship Salvation people agree, though they would say that backsliding can’t last too long (but they don’t know how long is too long). But Free Grace people are not quite united on the question of apostasy. Do born again people

National Conference 2019 PowerPoints

May 20, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog

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

The Messiah and Eternal Life (John 6:68-69; 11:25-27)

May 20, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Christ, Christology, eternal life, evangelism

Some people say we must believe that Jesus is the Christ, without necessarily believing in Him for eternal life or any other kind of salvation. By contrast, we argue that when you believe that Jesus is the Christ—i.e., the Savior—you must have some understanding of the kind of salvation He brings. To believe in Jesus as

Asking Jesus for the Living Water (John 4:10)

May 17, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Asking for everlasting life, John 4:10, John 4:14, Living Water

The following comment recently appeared in a comment on one of our blogs, “According to Jesus, if you knew the gift of God and knew who He is who offers the gift to you, you would ask Him for the gift, and He would give the gift to you. John 4:10.” Though surely well intentioned,

Christians Living Differently (Ephesians 4:18-19)

May 16, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Ephesians, holiness, separation

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

Good Works by Non-Church Goers

May 15, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - 1 Corinthians 15:58, good works, Hebrews 10:23-25

In a recent blog I suggested that Eph 2:10 is about local churches doing good works and thus about believers doing good works in and through their churches. I then got this question, “Perhaps I’m reading too much into your comments about doing good works through the local church, but do you think believers who

Asa Mahan’s Assurance of Salvation

May 14, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Asa Mahan, Assurance

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