GraceConversation.com

Dear readers, Please take a fresh look at the post New Policy on Comments from several weeks ago. I must commend the readers for the tone of the comments. Since that post, the tone of the conversation has dramatically improved, and it’s greatly appreciated. However, many comments remain off subject. It’s partly my fault, because [...]

by Jay Guin Todd and I have said what we planned to say, but this is a difficult stopping point, because there are so many more Biblical teachings that we’d love to share with Phil, Mac, and the readers. We’ve not covered falling away as described in Galatians 5. We’ve not touched on Romans 8 [...]

by Todd Deaver How can salvation be by faith and not works, and yet works be the necessary consequence of salvation? It’s clear from many of Dad’s remarks that Jay and I have failed to communicate to him our understanding about the relationship among faith, works, and obedience. So here we want to try to [...]

by Todd Deaver One of Dad’s True/False questions to us was, “Obedience to Christ is essential to salvation.” We answered, True, if obedience is properly understood. Perfect obedience is not essential to salvation. Dad objects to this answer in his response: Regarding obedience to Christ being essential to salvation, Todd and Jay say that such [...]

by Jay Guin Now let’s compare what these passages teach to the stated position of the conservative advocates. * Notice how all three books speak expansively of salvation being a continuous state of being — not an occasional, off and on sort of thing. Those who walk in the light have their sins continuously purified. [...]

by Jay Guin The conservative Churches of Christ often start with the assumption that the rules dramatically change after salvation. They assume the standard gets tougher, that God holds us to an ever-higher standard. And in the sense that God wants us to grow and mature, that’s true. But does the salvation bar rise ever [...]

by Jay Guin The indwelling of the Spirit has been controversial in the Restoration Movement going back to Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, who disagreed on the subject. And we believe the scriptures make much better sense when the work of God through the Spirit is fully credited. We are fortunate that Greg, Phil, [...]

by Jay Guin Now that we have a foundation in the thought of Hebrews, we can consider the Roll Call of the Faithful in Hebrews 11. (Heb 11:1-2) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. [...]

by Jay Guin We’ve made some pretty audacious claims about the meaning of 1 John. A good way to test them is to see whether an independent source supports the same conclusions, and so we’ll briefly review the theology of Hebrews. Does that author agree with our conclusions regarding 1 John? The saved and the [...]

by Jay Guin Love and righteousness Beginning with chapter 3, John makes the same points again, but often with greater explanation or emphasis. (1 John 3:10-11) This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right [does righteousness/justice] [...]