Articles

by Grant E. Christensen

Matthew 9:35-38 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. {36} Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. {37} Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. {38} Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." (Italics and underlining added)

Just as He began His third tour of the cities and villages of Galilee while seeing the distressed condition of those living within the region, Jesus commanded His disciples to pray one of the clearest evangelistic prayers in the New Testament: “ Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” So often, we Christians have approached this prayer hoping that God would raise up another Billy Graham or those trained in evangelism, thereby limiting our expectations to a select few—those gifted and trained. Yet, Jesus, in choosing the twelve, did not begin with calling priests, scribes, or Pharisees. Instead, He called ordinary fishermen and even a tax collector. Immediately following His command to pray, Jesus sent out these very ordinary men to reap a plentiful harvest, knowing that the workers were few.

by Evangelist Frank Tyler

As America engages the 2020 elections, the media paints a portrait of our nation rife with riots, unemployment, and malaise—all the while reminding us that this election is an epic turning point in American history. Symbolically the choice would seem as simple as whether or not to wear a face mask. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Though no one openly addresses it, for you and I as Christians, the epic moral issues surrounding reproductive or abortion rights oppress our collective conscience.[1] Afterall, what loss of life from a pandemic will ever compare with 61 million American babies lost in their mother’s wombs since Rowe verse Wade (1973)? [2] Where is the discussion of this vital moral issue in the election of 2020? Buried in the staging and seldom on the lips of any candidate, abortion rights fold into the larger agenda of women’s rights, and no one seems willing to question the rights of over 50% of the electorate. Where do Christians find hope?

by Evangelist Frank Tyler

Introduction

Sharing our faith with others remains the single most intimidating thing we do as Christians. Fear of loss, fear of failure and fear of the unknown are but some of the fears brothers and sisters experience when doing the work of evangelism. Most Christians attempt to resolve these tensions by more intently studying the good news and cross in order to be better prepared for an opportunity to share. While the study of God’s Word is always an important part of our worship of Him, evangelism requires a somewhat counter-intuitive approach. We must learn to pray, trust the Holy Spirit and keep our message straight-forward and simple.[133]

by Evangelist Frank Tyler

Preface

This article began as a letter to my daughter Jen and son-in-law Dale to answer questions they had regarding Calvinism. When I discovered my grandson Caleb would attend Multnomah Bible College soon, I revised this letter and added footnotes to help him understand these issues in greater depth. From the perspective of equipping others to do evangelism, the ongoing conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism undermines assurance of eternal life; simply put, an individual cannot share what he does not know he has: namely, everlasting life. If the issues surrounding Arminianism and Calvinism are beginning to percolate into the spiritual life of my family, perhaps other brothers and sisters share similar concerns for their families.

by Evangelist Frank Tyler

Introduction

In last year’s 2018 TTVF Journal, we learned that Jesus’ testimony to Nicodemus reveals God’s chesed or loyal covenantal love in giving His Son for the salvation of the world, both Jew and Gentile. [82] As a teacher of Israel and a Pharisee, Nicodemus might well have been taken aback with Jesus’ promise: For in this manner, God loved ( chesed) the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16; underlining added for emphasis). [83] Despite his high standing within Israel, we learned that as an individual, Nicodemus was a mere whoever in need of eternal life.

by Dr. Robert N. Wilkin
Executive Director for The Grace Evangelical Society

Reprinted from The Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Spring 2019. *

I. Introduction

Over the past few years I have read articles and books by leading Evangelicals arguing that the concept of repentance is found in the Gospel of John. They have suggested it is a major error to conclude, as I and others have, that because the words repent and repentance (metanoeō and metanoia) do not appear in John’s Gospel, then repent-ance must not be a condition of everlasting life. [35]

By Apologist Don Crouse

Introduction

Are you smarter than dirt? My guess is that most of us think we are. Well hold on to your mortarboards, boys and girls, because dirt is a lot smarter than you think. There is one area where dirt has challenged and confounded the collective intellect of mankind for millennia. And I've been trying to figure out a way to talk about this topic for years. Well, I'm not getting any younger and dirt isn't getting any smarter, so I thought it's time to give dirt the opportunity to show us how stupid we really are compared to its basic elemental abilities. You see, dirt has done something that no human has ever done. Dirt has created life from, well, dirt! People can't do that. Sure it had a little help from water, but I can't believe we're still not as smart as mud. However, based on all the science I've looked at, that seems to be the case. So let's take a quick look at life and see if you're smarter than dirt.