The Mileses

Paul and Olena Miles with Grace Abroad Ministries

soteriology

Works-Universalism: Contradiction or Middle Ground?

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]

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]

Trends in Ecotheology (Excerpt)

The following is an excerpt from a paper entitled, “Kingdom Postponement: A Watershed Doctrine for the Dispensational Worldview,” presented at the 2021 Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics.[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]

Book Announcement! “Current Issues in Soteriology”

Next week (May 27, 2021), we will be launching the website of The International Society for Biblical Hermeneutics (www.biblicalhermeneutics.org). We will also be launching our first ISBH volume, which will consist of papers presented at the symposium on “Current Issues in Soteriology.” The volume will be free and available on kindle.

In the mean time, sign up for ISBH updates and announcements at www.biblicalhermeneutics.org.

Here is the preface from that volume:

[Read More]