Grace in Focus – September/October 2022

Uneducated and Untrained Men (Acts 4:13)
By Bob Wilkin Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. –Acts 4:3 Education in the first century was far different from what it is today. Children of the rich were taught how
We are His Masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10)
By John H. Niemelä For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10). Perseverance theology has treated this verse as a prooftext for Calvin’s infamous 1547 dictum: “It is therefore faith alone which justifies [cf. Eph 2:8-9], and yet the
Every Naomi Needs a Ruth
By Marcia Hornok “And how are you?” said Winnie-thePooh. Eeyore shook his head from side to side. “Not very how,” he said, “I don’t seem to have felt at all how for a long time.”1 WHEN DREAMS DIE One Bible person with an Eeyore outlook was Naomi. A famine uprooted her family, and they moved
The Bible Is Reliable, Part 1
By Dix Winston To defend the Bible, you must answer two questions. Is the Bible good history, and secondly, is it true history? Let me explain and illustrate. If someone told you his great-great-grandfather said he was Napoleon Bonaparte, it would be good history if the man actually said he was Napoleon Bonaparte. That is,
Works of Art for the Refrigerator (Matthew 25:20)
By Ken Yates INTRODUCTION If you walk into pretty much any home, you will see works of art. There will be paintings or nicely framed prints on the walls. You might see sculptures on an end table. Many homes display in a highly visible place professionally done family portraits. As a general rule, the more
A Review of Leighton Flowers’s “The Potter’s Promise: A Biblical Defense of Traditional Soteriology”
By Kathryn Wright Leighton Flowers is a former Calvinist Baptist minister and currently the Director of Evangelism and Apologetics for Texas Baptists. In The Potter’s Promise, he describes how he gave up on his belief in Calvinism. It took him three years of study to change his view. The start of the journey occurred when
H. A. Ironside (1876-1951)
By Bob Wilkin Henry (Harry) Allan Ironside was born on October 14, 1876, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Interestingly, Ironside quit school after eighth grade and never had any further formal education. Yet he authored more than twenty books. Some of his more famous works were Holiness: The False and the True, Except Ye Repent, Wrongly
Being Part of a Play (Mark 15:16-20)
By Ken Yates INTRODUCTION Most of us participated in a play while we were in school. I remember one I was in that was about the founding of the United States. I don’t know what kind of play that would be called. I would call it a historical play. But I have been told that
Elisha’s Great Faith
By Bill Fiess and Pam Esteven While listening through 2 Kings, I was impressed anew with Elisha’s great faith. Again and again, he faces problems that occur in ordinary life, yet Scripture never records that he becomes flustered. Instead, he demonstrates great faith in the Lord; time after time, he sees God’s power and deliverance.
Voice from the Past: Doctrinal Déjà Vu An Old Issue: Faith and Assurance*
By Zane C. Hodges *This article originally appeared in the February 1989 issue of what was then Grace in Focus newsletter.1 “What goes around, comes around,” people often say. And though they rarely do so, they could say it about theological controversy, too! Recently my attention was called to a hundred-year-old book entitled, Discussions by