The Error of Prevenient Grace

Prevenient grace is the theological equivalent of affirming total depravity
while crossing your fingers.

Recently I was directed to this quote from Arminian apologist Roger Olson:

The Four Spiritual Laws and Four Biblical Observations

We have long held to the belief that Bill Bright’s Four Spiritual Laws (FSL) exemplifies the self-contradictory false-gospels that dominate the Christian marketplace. A brief moment of sober, biblical reflection on these “laws” is revealing:

Does John 15 Teach that a Child of God Can Lose His Salvation?

John 15 is about fruit bearing, not eternal salvation.

The misinterpretation of John 15 is a common stumbling block for many professing Christians. Many insist that the Lord's teaching in this passage is related to matters of eternal salvation. Such interpretations turn a blind eye to the fact that the Lord said to his audience, "Now ye ARE CLEAN through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3) Those previously spoken words included great and precious promises of the eternal deliverance of God's people based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

The Problem of "If We Ask" Salvation

Theologian, we have a problem...

In a recent Internet conversation with a fellow Christian of another order, I was confronted with the following statement:

"Being saved by grace is a gift from God that He gives freely to all, if we ask Him." (Anonymous)

This belief is by far, by FAR, the most common belief regarding eternal salvation among professing evangelicals today. So universally accepted is this statement that to oppose it places one outside the camp of Christianity in the eyes of a great many professing Christians. Matters of popularity notwithstanding, what is the proper response to such a statement in light of the testimony of the scriptures?

Born Again: The Doctrine of Effectual Calling by Elder Michael L. Gowens

By Elder Michael L. Gowens

The hour is coming and now is when the dead 

shall hear the voice of the Son of God, 

and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25)

"Sovereign Grace" is an expression calculated to suggest that God is sovereign in the salvation of sinners. What does that mean? It means, specifically, that He takes the initiative, moving toward man to bestow salvation, not because He is obligated to bless, but because it is His sovereign pleasure to bless. There is no external compulsion upon the Almighty to bestow salvation on sinners. It also means that God is in absolute control of the work of salvation and nothing can thwart His plans. There are no external limitations upon His power. God is sovereign in the salvation of sinners.

Can an Unregenerate Man Seek God?

"Ho, everyone that thirsteth..." (Isaiah 55:1)  Is this dead fellow thirsty?

There is a great deal of preaching under the moniker of "sovereign grace" in the Christian marketplace today. I am firmly convinced that the VAST majority of such teaching cannot be logically reconciled with the fundamental precepts of grace (TULIP), and that such teaching is nothing more than well-meant-offerism cloaked in a thin veneer of grace terminology. A biblical analysis of the statements made in such sermons is revealing....