By Ken Pierce Few would rank the book of Job as one of the Bible’s top ten books, yet it is a book that has much to say about real life challenges that pepper the believer’s experience today. Circumstances and cultures change, but the trials, tragedies, and traumas afflicting believers remain very much the same.

By Art Farstadi During the hundreds of years in which the notorious Spanish Inquisition was in force to root out and destroy “heresy,” there was a ceremony called the auto da fe, which is Portuguese for “act of faith.” In Spain, Portugal, and their New World colonies, Protestants, Jews, and other religious nonconformists were frequently

By Ken Yates Every one of us have heard a gospel presentation that started off like this: “You must recognize that you are a sinner.” I visited a church website recently that described how one could “have a relationship with Jesus Christ.” It said that “it starts with admitting that you are a sinner.” To

By Bob Wilkin Have you ever said, “Praise the Lord”? If so, what did you mean? There is a lot of confusion in Christianity about what the expression means. Most people think that we praise the Lord when we 1) say the words Praise the Lord, or 2) have happy feelings during worship. But neither

By Zane Hodges This article originally appeared in the November-December 1994 issue of Grace in Focus. INTRODUCTION In the previous issue, we discussed a problem some Christians have with the subject of rewards. Some are troubled by the doctrine of rewards because it seems to suggest “merit” instead of “grace.” We saw that this point

By Bill Fiess Recently, a friend from Zambia (a young student studying to be a pastor) asked me about tithing. In the Zambian churches, tithing is considered by many to be a condition for keeping your salvation. He stated (in an email): Some do question someone’s salvation if they can’t give the tithe. I can

By Bob Wilkin Most Focused Free Grace advocates have never heard of Robert Sandeman (1718-1771). He was born in Scotland and planted churches there. In 1760, he came to America and planted churches here, dying in Danbury, CT, in 1771. He was just fifty-three. His father-in-law was John Glas, a Scottish minister who profoundly influenced

By Ken Pierce And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: (1) God was manifested in the flesh, (2) Justified in the Spirit, (3) Seen by angels, (4) Preached among the Gentiles, (5) Believed on in the world, (6) Received up in glory (1 Tim 3:16, numbers added). Not long after the demise of

By Ken Yates Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?” (Mark 7:5)…[Jesus said] “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are

By John H. Niemelä Did imprisonment cause John the Baptist to doubt? Did this courageous herald of the Messiah fail to finish strong? Over 99 percent of Christians would assert something like the following: “Matthew 11:2–3 is clear about John’s struggle at the end of his life. He developed an Elijah complex as he collapsed