The Free Grace Alliance

Times of transition cause one to contemplate the state of things. Having been with FGA since its inception, on the FGA council for 6 years, serving as president for the past 4 years, and now having recently stepped down to hand thing off to Dr. Roger Fankhauser, I thought I would reflect on where we are and what has changed.  Although it is true that we are not in danger of the Lordship salvation debate abating soon, it does seem that there has been a subtle transition in the Lordship camp. It seems that we have seen the moving away, slight as it may it be, from the “frontloading” error evidenced by the early works of the Lordship persuasion demanding that faith be attendant with remorse and a repentant change of life evidenced by obedience, full commitment and total surrender as a condition for receiving the free gift of eternal life. The subtle transition is seen in that the focus has now shifted to the “back-loading” of the gospel with the fixation on  assurance ...

Have you ever wondered how God can be in control of everything and still allow people to have free will? I think that for many Christians, this is a real conundrum. Sure, there have been “fights” between Calvinists and Arminians over this issue for 500 years; Calvinists argue that God is great and in control, and Arminians counter that God is good and offers salvation to all.   For many Christians, though, neither answer is sufficient because God says both in His Word. But how can both be true?  Well, this week John Correia, an FGA executive Council member, published a new book titled Refreshing Grace . This book takes a new approach to this often emotionally charged issue and explains the issue, and a fresh biblical solution to it, in an understandable way.   If you’re interested in the issue of God’s sovereign control and our free will in salvation, our prayer is that Refreshing Grace will help you understand the issue with more clarity and passionately pursue Chr...

Br Dr. Fred Lybrand Let's have a discussion. So, Rob Bell writes a book called "Love Wins" and it is basically all about heaven and hell with a final conclusion that Love wins out; God's love will ultimately persuade everyone to embrace Him and His heaven.  It sounds like universalism, but Bell and others are also denying it.  You can call it what you want, but if everyone gets in, then salvation is clearly 'universal' (hence the name). Of course this is unabashedly anti-scriptural (nice interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Vg-qgmJ7nzA ), but what is behind his conclusion?  Cynically we could speak in terms of fame and fortune as motivating Bell to depart from the historic / biblical Christian faith.  I, however, think there is a far more simple way to think about it theologically.  Bell has just imposed a hierarchy on the attributes of God.  The net result is that Bell has taken grace (he says love, but a lov...

Have you ever thought of preaching the message of God’s grace in terms of the probabilities and consequences that you’re right? Most of us are at least passingly familiar with Pascal’s Wager , a logical premise by which it was sought to say that the only reasonable course was to worship God because it had no negative consequences and only possible positive consequences.  While there are certainly deficiencies in the argument, it nevertheless has some merits. I was having a discussion with a student earlier this semester where this idea came floating into my mind.  My student had a friend who said, in effect, that if Reformed theology (i.e. Lordship salvation) leads people to be scared or lack assurance, then hey at least they are saved.  This got me thinking about the relative merits and dangers of preaching Free Grace versus preaching Lordship salvation.  This is not to debate the relative merits of the positions, but merely to look at the relative risks and dan...

By Dr. Fred Lybrand Okay, So I'm in the shower (weird how we think there) and I'm going over John MacArthur's view of John 15 about abiding (in my mind). I listened to MacArthur at a pace of 6 tapes a week for two years in my early days after coming to faith. He described the branches that were 'thrown in the fire' as false branches (Judas Branches). Lest you think I'm making this up, I tracked it down: There were the true branches and there were the false branches in the analogy. The true branches are represented by the eleven and the false branches are represented by Judas Iscariot. That whole thing flows out of the context of Judas' betrayal. And at that point, the "In Me" simply means "identification." I don't think you can push too much theology into that "in Me" and say that it means absolute conversion. It's attachment at that point, that's all. And I think you have a Judas branch, and I think what it...

We started a new semester at the school I teach at as an adjunct (the newly renamed Arizona Christian University).  I am teaching Acts-Revelation and have a new batch of bright-eyed students, ready to delve into their New Testament and explore it.  In that class I have a student who came to the class staunchly Reformed and perhaps turned off by the free grace position. (I invited her to follow this blog too!) We discussed on Facebook some of her concerns with the free grace position on eternal life; some of the concern was more perception than reality, more a caricature of what we believe than an interaction with what we really stand for. (it’s almost like we were talking politics or something!)  She was gracious in our discussion and we will have a fun semester of learning together, I am sure. Funny enough, after having this discussion with her I saw a blog entry from Michael Patton over at Parchment and Pen.  Michael was Dan Wallace’s intern at Dallas Theologic...

Over at Relevant Magazine, Craig Groeschel writes about different “lines in the sand” that represent various “stages” of faith in Christ.  Go read his article and then come back here for a discussion of the issue from a Free Grace perspective.  (the comments can be a bit snarky, so take my advice and don’t feed the trolls!) First of all, let’s thank God for opportunities like this to discuss the most important issue in the world: “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) Rather than bemoan the fact that the writer makes judgments that we disagree with, let’s rejoice that this gives us an opportunity to discuss a significant issue and once again trumpet the free gift of God through faith alone in Christ alone. The “lines in the sand” analogy is an interesting one.  In the analogy, the “third line” represents someone who has crossed into the territory that is fully committed to following Christ whatever the cost.  No matter the sacrifice, service to Christ out of...

I ran across a blog post from Lisa Robinson on Reclaiming the Mind today, and thought it was worth sharing.  This blog is “owned and operated” by Michael Patton of Credo House Ministries.  Dan Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary occasionally posts there as well, and Michael was his intern.  All that to say, the Reclaiming the Mind blog tends to be fairly Reformed in its soteriology. Go read the post and I think you will find some interesting and (mostly) agreeable thoughts from Lisa.  The question she asks is, how can I know if someone is a Christian"?  She had some significant time after her “conversion” (I use the italics meaningfully, as she is on the fence when it occurred) when she ignored Christ and lived the lifestyle of an unbeliever. I think it is worth reading and interacting with because it represents not a hard-line Lordship position, but rather a moderate position that questions, perhaps doubts, but allows for the fact that she may well have...

Over at A Biblical Framework , John Correia posted an everyday reminder of the truth of the free offer of eternal life in Christ. Check it out! Grace Modeled...and Abused .