Blog – Page 55 – Grace Evangelical Society

What Can We Learn from Word Frequency in John’s Gospel?

November 8, 2023 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Belief and Life in John’s Gospel

Dave Wyant, one of the students in my soteriology class, shared a chart he saw where someone compared word frequencies in John and the Synoptic Gospels. I have created my own chart, highlighting the words I think are most important for Free Grace Theology. Bolded numbers indicate words or expressions emphasized by many or few

The Southern Border and the Message of Grace

November 7, 2023 by Ken Yates in Blog - Acts 8:2, Missions, Spanish resources

For most people in the US, the southern border is an area of grave concern. There is a sharp increase in human trafficking in our country. A flood of deadly drugs is pouring across the border, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans each year. With eight million people coming into the

What Does Fit for the Kingdom of God Mean? Luke 9:62

November 6, 2023 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - fit for the kingdom, Luke 9:61-62

This question came up in my Sunday School class yesterday. It is an excellent question. A man came to Jesus and said, “Lord, I will follow You, but first let me go and bid them farewell who are at my house” (Luke 9:61). The Lord replied, “No one, having put his hand to the plow,

Taking Biblical Warnings Seriously

November 3, 2023 by Ken Yates in Blog - 2 Tim 2:2, flee lusts, Sin

In April 1980, my wife and I had just moved to Wichita Falls, TX. I had to go downtown to get my telephone service turned on. I was in a room of around 100 people who were there for the same reason. Just as my name was called, a siren went off in the streets.

What Does “Let the Dead Bury Their Own Dead” Mean? Luke 9:60

November 2, 2023 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - let the dead bury their own dead, Luke 9:59-60

This question came up in my Sunday School class yesterday. It left me wondering what the Lord meant. Jesus told a man, “Follow Me.” The man said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father” (Luke 9:59). The Lord replied: “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom

Typecasting the Pharisees

November 1, 2023 by Kathryn Wright in Blog - legalism, Luke 14:1-14, Luke 7, Pharisee

The New Testament doesn’t sugarcoat the Jewish religious leaders of the first century. They are described as whitewashed tombs, snakes, and greedy. Ultimately, the religious leaders kill their own Messiah. Because of these examples, and the overall tenor of the NT, the word Pharisee carries a negative connotation for most Bible students; many automatically typecast

How Can a Person Be Saved and Cursed by God?

October 31, 2023 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Blessing and cursing

David asked this excellent question after a recent YouTube video by me on faith plus works salvation: If a person believes in Christ alone for salvation and later falls back into works, he is still saved, just fallen from grace [Gal 5:4]. Yet Paul says that if a person turns to faith plus works for

Unable to Hear God’s Word (Luke 1:62)

October 30, 2023 by Ken Yates in Blog - Gabriel, Heb 5:13-14, Jas 1:19, Jas 1:22, Obedience, Zachariah

Everybody familiar with the Christmas story knows that Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, was not able to speak for the nine months his wife Elizabeth was pregnant. This was because Zachariah did not believe the word of God spoken to him by Gabriel when the angel told him about John’s coming birth. Many,

Don’t Let Anything Other Than Scripture Guide Your Beliefs and Practices

October 27, 2023 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - sola scriptura

Christians are to base our beliefs and our practices on God’s Word. Yet there are at least four influences, other than the Bible, that can get in the way of our accepting the teaching of God’s Word: 1) a word or impression supposedly from God; 2) church history (councils, creeds, pastors, authors); 3) experiences we’ve

Destroying the Word of God (2 Kings 22:1-8)

October 26, 2023 by Ken Yates in Blog - Josiah, Scriptures, study

In the accounts of the kings of Israel and Judah–few of whom were godly–there are many events that seem somewhat strange to modern readers. One of them is found in 2 Kings 22. Josiah was one of the few godly kings. When he was a young man, he wanted to restore the temple of the