The Ability to Believe

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Question Shawn, in recently countering Calvinism, you mentioned man has the “ability to believe or not believe”.  I agree with this, however it conflicts with GES’ normal position that “believing is passive”.  Bob often says “one either believes or he does not” and this not by decision of his will.  If man does not “decide
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Talk Faith (Deuteronomy 11:18-19)

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My daughter Daphne will be starting 1st grade in the Fall. We’ve been homeschooling her for Kindergarten and sending her twice a week to a co-op for classes with other homeschoolers. I knew she was making good progress in math. She’s learning to draw well. And she’s supposed to be learning Spanish at the co-op
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Taken on Testimony

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“On a scale of 1 to 10, how’s your pain?” Often, my kids will come and say they have a headache or a tummy ache, or their throat is sore, or they hurt their knee. I can’t feel their pain, but I can sympathize and guess what it feels like based on my own experiences.
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The Beauty of Peace (Mark 5:34)

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In our church, we are going thru the Gospel of Mark. In Mark 5 there is the wonderful account of a woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years. According to Lev 15, this meant that this woman had spent those 12 years in an experience of walking death. Everyone she touched became
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Missing the Boat on Faith

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Truth Aflame is a Charismatic and Evangelical systematic theology written by Larry Hart, who is professor of theology at Oral Roberts University. I have the first edition. There is a second available here. I was skimming through what he wrote about faith. Hart starts off well: “It is through faith alone—faith plus nothing—that we are
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If Faith Is Intellectual Assent, Then What Is Believing in the Heart in Romans 10:9-10?

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After a recent blog (see here) in which I argued that faith is simply intellectual assent (and in which I referred to a Grace in Focus Magazine article by me and Bill Fiess on trust), I received an excellent question via email. Here is part of the question: Romans 10:9, which contains the phrase “believe
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Is Faith a Decision?

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In a recent blog you can see here, entitled “Might a Fuzzy View of Faith Lead to a Lack of Assurance,” I suggested that faith is simply being persuaded or convinced that something is true. Saving faith is being convinced that the Lord Jesus was telling the truth when He said, “He who believes in
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