Earlier this year, my wife and I heard Chuck Swindoll speak on this passage. His explanation led to some fruitful discussion between Sharon and me. Swindoll took a view I’d not heard before. He suggested that all three of these verses concern discipleship. Lordship Salvation advocates normally understand these three verses to all refer to

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians Is Heavily Concerned with the Judgment Seat of Christ (Bema) Understanding why an author is writing is vital to understanding what he means. Only in the last few years have I realized that in Philippians, Paul’s overriding concern is that his readers will be vindicated at the Judgment Seat of

I’ve received many calls and emails about my Mar-April article on the necessity of belief in eternal security. Three questions in particular need clarification. I wasn’t saying that if you’ve never believed that assurance is of the essence of saving faith, you’ve not yet been born again. One reader wondered that since I admitted to

by Brian Fisher*   The spiritual hunger of college-aged men and women has manifested itself in recent years through a ministry called Passion led by Louie Giglio. In January of 1997 two thousand students attended the first Passion Conference in Austin, Texas. In January of 1998 five thousand students attended the second conference. In January

The issue of when eternal life starts came to the forefront in our annual conference this year (Feb 27-Mar 2, 2006). Both Zane Hodges and Bob Bryant said that if a person has never been sure that he is eternally secure by faith in Jesus, then he has not yet been born again. Yet an

One argument I hear a lot is that since the Scriptures often refer to believing in Jesus using the present tense, this means that only those who endure in faith in Christ until death “truly believe.” Often the present articular participle is cited. That is the expression ho pisteuōn in Greek. It means the one

My wife is a recovering bulimic shopper. One weekend she would buy five outfits. The next weekend she would return four of them and get her money back. Our MasterCard bill always had lots of credits on it. Sharon rarely bought anything in a store with a no-return policy. She wanted the ability to return

by René A. Lopez For some, a radical life change is “Mission: Impossible,” especially if their track record reads like a grocery list. Mine certainly did. In only five years, from 1986 to 1991, I was arrested almost forty times for criminal activity ranging from burglary, grand theft and armed robbery to cocaine possession and

Luke 15 is the great repentance chapter. It has three parables related to repentance: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. I regularly speak on the parable of the prodigal son. I suggest that he represents a believer who strays away from God and then comes to his senses and returns to

Recently I attended a conference in which a main session speaker said that the statement by Paul, “then each one’s praise will come from God” (1 Cor 4:5), shows that every believer will have some good works and will receive at least some praise at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Bema). I’ve heard that claim