We have developed a quadrant model for describing soteriological compromises. The biblical message of salvation is summarized as Faith Alone in Christ Alone (FACA). Two ways to reject this are by rejecting the sufficiency of FACA or the necessity of FACA. Each of these two sides has differing extremes: On the side that rejects sufficiency, a near alternative is Works-Assisted Condition while a distant alternative is Works-Assisted Merit; on the side that rejects necessity, a near alternative is Christian Pluralism while a distant alternative is Christian Universalism.[Read More]
evangelism
Book Review: Zane Hodges Did Not Change His View on the Gospel
Kenneth Wilson has written a book entitled Heresy of the Grace Evangelical Society: Become a Christian Without Faith in Jesus as God and Savior. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of GES, but you will not find many of them in Wilson’s book. Indeed, he actually had the opposite effect from what Wilson wanted. The day it was released, Grant Hawley of Free Grace Alliance disavowed Wilson’s work, which is no surprise since Wilson called Hawley’s views heretical. Several of Wilson’s fans have come out to say that this book caused them to question his other works, which is quite reasonable. Kenneth Wilson is most well known for his studies on church history. I appreciated an article that he wrote last year for SBL and even quoted it positively in our recent volume on current issues in soteriology,1 but having seen how poorly he represents his contemporaries, we are left wondering how well he deals with theologians of old. In the same volume, I criticized Christian Pluralism, which is the position that Wilson takes, so in retrospect, I would have loved to interacted with his book there, but perhaps that is a discussion for another day.[Read More]
Four Examples of Colossians 4:2–6
It is unlikely that you will argue over apologetics with an atheist until he becomes a believer. There are many benefits to apologetics in evangelism, but in the end, an unbeliever needs to accept what is written in the Bible. Namely, he needs to believe in Christ for eternal life. If he does not believe that God exists or that Christ is risen, etc., then he will not accept Christ’s offer of salvation. Even if he does believe in fundamental apologetic truths, he can still reject the Gospel and instead rely on his works for eternal life. We must use the Bible in evangelism.[Read More]
The Magic Elf Analogy
Roman Catholicism is a false religion. The gospel according to Roman Catholicism is not salvific. This is a point where most Christian Pluralists will disagree with Faith Alone in Christ Alone.
When we say “Faith Alone in Christ Alone,” we refer to the school of thought that a man is saved when he believes in Christ Alone for salvation, rather than believing in his own work, or, by extension, in some combination of Christ’s work and his own works. When we say, “Christian Pluralism,” we refer to the school of thought that a man does not need to believe in Christ for salvation, but can rely on his own works instead, so long as he has some belief about Jesus. There are various camps within both of these schools of thought, but that’s the issue in a nutshell (read a more thorough and boring article here or download a full book here).[Read More]
Can you tell the difference between an atheist, a liberal, and an evangelical?
Can you tell the difference between an atheist, a liberal, and an evangelical?
Seems like it should be easy enough, right? Well, not exactly…
I have been teaching on apologetics in church lately. A few weeks ago, I did a presentation on bible manuscripts (available here, but only in Russian), and last Sunday, I spoke on the reliability of the biblical autographs (see the whole thing here).
As an introduction to this Sunday’s talk, we played a game. I took quotes from different sources and had our congregation guess if the quote came from an atheist, a liberal, or an evangelical.
On Reconciliation, Soteriology, and All that Jazz (2 Cor. 5:18–20)
Jesus did some things for everybody and some things for believers only. It is important to understand this to maintain a consistent theology of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone. If we confuse the work done for everyone with the benefits given to believers, then we could mistakenly think that faith alone in Christ alone is unnecessary. Likewise, if we confuse what Jesus did for believers and what Jesus expects from believers, then we could mistake faith alone in Christ alone as insufficient.[Read More]