Recommended Reading
Hebrews: Partners with Christ
A Book Recommendation
Kenneth W. Yates
Hebrews: Partners with Christ
(244 pages)
Free Grace Commentary Series
Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2019
Price: $22.00
The author, “Kenneth W. Yates, (DMin, Erskine Seminary; PhD, Dallas Theological Seminary), is Editor of the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society and pastor of Little River Baptist Church in Jenkinsville, SC” (Yates, Hebrews, back cover). Yates writes with a pastor’s heart making Hebrews both accessible and applicable to the flock.
Most commentaries on Hebrews come from one of two reformed traditions, either Calvinism or Arminianism. While the Arminian knows he has eternal life, his concept of that life includes the possibility of losing it due to apostacy. On the other hand, the Calvinist, convinced eternal life cannot be lost, never knows whether or not he has believed with the right kind of faith (saving faith). For centuries these two traditions have held hostage the book of Hebrews.
Yates acknowledges that eternal life can never be lost. On the other hand, the warning passages in Hebrews are not hypothetical in nature for the believer (Calvinism), instead they present the very real possibility of the believer losing something (Arminianism), but not eternal life.
If we are going to properly understand the message of the book of Hebrews, we must clearly understand two basic truths of Scripture. The first that the believer in Jesus Christ has been eternally saved once and for all. The second is that the eternally saved believer can fail and fail miserably. (Yates, Hebrews, 219)
According to Yates, the author of Hebrews reveals that failure in the Christian life entails the loss of reward and more specifically the opportunity to be partners with Christ. This commentary is a delightful ray of light in the otherwise dark theological continuum between Calvinism and Arminianism.
Frank Tyler
Turn and Live - in the Time of Covid-19
A Book Recommendation by Frank Frank Tyler
Since the US Supreme Court ruled abortion legal in 1973, abortionists have taken the lives of 61 million babies in America. Although social distancing forced the cancelation of many LGBTQ parades, the rainbow colored flag continues to prosper as a banner for counter-biblical morality. Is Covid-19 a temporal judgment from God? Many Christians believe so and are calling for repentance. But, just what is repentance? And, what role does it play in our lives as Christians? Dr. Robert Wilkin’s 2019 book Turn and Live: The Power of Repentance answers these questions biblically.
In the early 1980s, Wilkin wrote his doctoral dissertation for Dallas Theological Seminary on the doctrine of repentance, advocating the change-of-mind view (7).
Foresight - in Hindsight
A Book Recommendation by Don Crouse
I just finished reading the book Foresight by Marcos Eberlin. He’s a brilliant scientist with a PhD in chemistry. I don't have one of those. He’s also got a medal… the prestigious Thomson Medal. I don’t have one of those either. He also founded his own laboratory. The Thomson Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, in Brazil. And I don’t have one of those either. And he’s good looking. Okay, this is becoming depressing. But I do agree with his premise that the chemistry of life reveals planning and purpose.