Grace Evangelical Society

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Grace Evangelical Society
AbbreviationGES
Formation1986 in Dallas, Texas
Type Advocacy organization
Purpose"The aim of GES is to promote the clear proclamation of God's free salvation through faith alone in Christ alone, which is properly correlated with and yet distinguished from issues related to discipleship."
Headquarters Denton, Texas, USA
Region served
Worldwide
Executive Director
Bob Wilkin
Website http://www.faithalone.org/

Grace Evangelical Society (GES) is an evangelical Christian advocacy organization based in Denton, Texas, whose purpose is to promote Free Grace Theology. Founded in 1986, GES is a non-profit, evangelical publisher specializing in books that deal with soteriology from a free grace perspective. GES also holds an annual conference at Southwestern Baptist School of Theology's Riley Center in Ft. Worth, Texas. The executive director, Robert N. (Bob) Wilkin, speaks across the country at churches and regional conferences and has written several books. The ministry critiques certain ideas in evangelism and theology, especially strains of Covenant theology, Puritanism and Lordship salvation.

Contents

History

GES was founded in June 1986 when dispensationalist Bob Wilkin sent out newsletters to likeminded associates regarding soteriology within conservative American churches. [1] Wilkin had obtained a BS at the University of California at Irvine in 1973, a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1982, and a PhD at Dallas Theological Seminary in 1985. [2] In 1988, the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society (JOTGES) was founded; Arthur L. Farstad became its first editor. That same year, Zondervan published The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur Jr., a work which would crystallize the influence of Lordship Salvation Theology in Dispensational circles. [3] In 1994, the GES published The Epistle of James, Proven Character Through Testing by Zane C. Hodges, the first title in a project conceived as single book-length commentary for each NT book. [4] As the representative of the GES in public debates, Dr. Wilkin has engaged Progressive Dispensationalist and former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, Darrell Bock, and the Calvinist apologist and writer James White.

Projects

The Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society (JOTGES) was first published in 1988, and is published semi-annually.

GES has two commentary projects. The first is a long-term effort in publishing verse-by-verse commentaries of each book in the NT (The Epistle of James: Proven Character Through Testing, Hodges, 1994. The Epistles of John: Walking in the Light of God's Love, Hodges, 1999). [5] The other is the two-volume Grace New Testament Commentary published in March 2010, a 1300-page hardcover commentary on the entire New Testament containing work by thirteen contributing authors, including J. Paul Tanner, Gary Derickson, Dwight Hunt, Hal Haller, Rene Lopez, Al Valdes, Zane Hodges, and Bob Wilkin.

Related Research Articles

Dispensationalism is a religious interpretive system and metanarrative for the Bible. It considers biblical history as divided by God into dispensations, defined periods or ages to which God has allotted distinctive administrative principles. According to dispensationalism, each age of God's plan is thus administered in a certain way, and humanity is held responsible as a steward during that time. Dispensationalists' presuppositions start with the inductive reasoning that biblical history has a particular discontinuity in the way God reacts to humanity in the unfolding of their, sometimes supposed, free wills.

Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) is a modern English Bible translation from Holman Bible Publishers. The New Testament was published in 1999, followed by the full Bible in March 2004.

John F. MacArthur American pastor and author

John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. is an American pastor and author known for his internationally syndicated Christian teaching radio and television program Grace to You. He has been the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, since February 9, 1969. He is also the chancellor emeritus of The Master's University in Santa Clarita, California, and The Master's Seminary in Los Angeles, California.

Hyperdispensationalism, mid-Acts dispensationalism or Bullingerism) is a Protestant conservative evangelical movement that values biblical inerrancy and a literal hermeneutic. Opponents of hyperdispensationalism are traditional dispensationalists, like John Walvoord and Charles Ryrie, classic Acts 2 Pauline dispensationalists, and ultradispensationalists.

Paul King Jewett (1920–1991) was a Christian theologian, author and prominent advocate of the ordination of women and of believer's baptism. He taught systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is credited with helping develop Fuller into one of the largest seminaries in the country.

The "lordship salvation" controversy is a theological dispute regarding key soteriological questions within Evangelical Christianity, involving some non-denominational and Evangelical churches in North America at least since the 1980s. The dispute spawned several books, pamphlets, and conferences. According to one website advocating Lordship Salvation, "the doctrine of Lordship salvation teaches that submitting to Christ as Lord goes hand-in-hand with trusting in Christ as Savior. Lordship salvation is the opposite of what is sometimes called easy-believism or the teaching that salvation comes through an acknowledgement of a certain set of facts." Another website critical of it defines it similarly, however: "As defined by its own advocates, Lordship Salvation could more properly be called "Commitment Salvation," "Surrender Salvation," "Slaveship Salvation," "Servantship Salvation," or "Submission Salvation" since in actuality the debate is not over the Lordship of Christ, but the response of a person to the gospel and the conditions which must be met for salvation."

Daniel B. Wallace

Daniel Baird Wallace is an American professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, the purpose of which is digitizing all known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament via digital photographs.

Douglas J. Moo is a New Testament scholar who, after teaching for more than twenty years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, has served as Blanchard Professor of New Testament at the Wheaton College Graduate School since 2000. He received his Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews, in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Ben Witherington III is an American New Testament scholar. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church.

Lewis Sperry Chafer

Lewis Sperry Chafer was an American theologian. He founded and served as the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary, and was an influential proponent of Christian Dispensationalism in the early 20th century. John Hannah described Chafer as a visionary Bible teacher, a minister of the gospel, a man of prayer with strong piety. One of his students, Charles Caldwell Ryrie, who went on to become a world renowned theologian and scholar, stated that Chafer was an evangelist who was also "an eminent theologian."

Zane Clark Hodges was an American pastor, seminary professor, and Bible scholar.

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The Masters Seminary

The Master's Seminary (TMS) is the graduate seminary division of The Master's University and Seminary and is located on the campus of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. It is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC).

In Christian theology, good works, or simply works, are a person's (exterior) actions or deeds, in contrast to inner qualities such as grace or faith.

Craig S. Keener is a North American academic and professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.

Richard Charles Henry Lenski was a German-born American-naturalized Lutheran pastor, scholar, and author who published a series of Lutheran New Testament commentaries.

Simon J. Kistemaker was a New Testament scholar. He served as Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary. Kistemaker studied at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary before obtaining a Th.D. from the Free University in Amsterdam. He served a term as president of the Evangelical Theological Society, and completed the New Testament Commentary series that was commenced by William Hendriksen. Four of Kistemaker's volumes in this series won the Gold Medallion Evangelical Book of the Year Award. Kistemaker died at his home in St. Petersburg, Florida on September 23, 2017.

Textual criticism of the New Testament

Textual criticism of the New Testament is the analysis of the manuscripts of the New Testament, whose goals include identification of transcription errors, analysis of versions, and attempts to reconstruct the original.

James Allen Borland is an American evangelical professor of biblical studies and theology at Liberty University and former president of the Evangelical Theological Society.

J. Paul Tanner

J. Paul Tanner is the Middle East Director of BEE World and a research professor and writer in the field of Old Testament studies. He has taught at the International School of Theology-Asia (Philippines), East Asia School of Theology (Singapore), Singapore Bible College, and Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary.

References

  1. ↑ "Grace Evangelical Society – About". Archived from the original on 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  2. ↑ Arthur L. Farstad: An Introduction to Grace Evangelical Society and Its Journal, JOTGES 1 (1988).
  3. ↑ J. Kevin Butcher: A Critique of The Gospel According to Jesus, JOTGES 2:1 (1989).
  4. ↑ GES Online Bookstore
  5. ↑ GES Online Bookstore
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