All Truth Is God’s Truth

The Christian Philosopher/ Theologian Author Holmes reminds us of the above truth. That being said, a good book is a good book no matter who published it. Let me invite you to a book that Grace Theology Press did not publish but it is a great resource for those interested in Free Grace theology as a system of biblical theology.

Dr. Ken Quick, pastor and professor, wrote a dissertation in 1987 and has updated it. I knew Ken in school at Dallas Seminary and read his work from the day he finished it. I enjoyed it greatly and continue to benefit from it every year I review it. He was the first to coin the distinction of Eternal Security and Eternal Significance. Using this paradigm, he explores the systems of Calvinism, Arminianism and then explains Free Grace theology as the via media of truth.

I have included a brief look at the book in hopes that you see the scope and sequence of his work. I believe you will find it a very helpful analysis and synthesis of both biblical texts and theological truth.

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Preface to the Revision

July 2012

Some background on this document may be helpful to the reader. Revising it almost 25 years later, not much has changed in my thinking.

I am a fool for tough questions. I love them, grappling with them at every chance, and it was the motivation behind this document. I wrote this dissertation as a part of my pursuit of my Doctor of Ministry degree from Dallas Seminary back in 1987. It was a project far more fitting of a PhD degree, but it was an exploration driven by a desire to “get to the bottom” of a number of tough questions regarding areas of difficult Scripture, theological conundrums, and future Christian experience in the Kingdom that I encountered in my pastoral ministry. My sense was that most believers don’t like to even think much about the Kingdom, and have only vague ideas of what will be a part of our experience of eternity. The Church had divided around the issues of sovereignty and free will, around eternal security and eternal insecurity, and I sought resolutions to some of these debates and divisions.

I have sadly discovered that there is a lot of really bad, illogical, or just plain shallow thinking that has governed the views of even the most adept theologians and biblical scholars. I attribute this to the narrowing of thinking resulting from the “two camps” of Calvinism and Arminianism. Many of the challenges here related to some of the most debated portions of Scripture in the Gospels and Epistles, even in Revelation where these two camps take up positions against one another in unhelpful ways.

I sought to come up with a clear understanding that would explain these challenges and clarify the debate. What I discovered as I dug through the commentaries and theologies is that, though not many of the writers ever talked about the issues related to what I came to call “eternal significance,” many of them accurately described the principles governing it as they sought clarity of exegesis for these tough passages. However, because there was no “grid” on which to hang their ideas, they failed to develop them. Only a few, such as the great old Brethren scholar and commentator, G. H. Lang, seemed to have had a clear notion of what Scripture presented the future Kingdom to be and how we fit in it.

Why “eternal significance”? Because the only thing even related to it that ever got serious discussion at all was the concept of “rewards.” But “reward” is a very weak term to describe the overall impact on our future that faithful, hard-working, sacrificial, enduring discipleship brings. Plus, in our culture, seeking reward is almost always seen as mercenary, and therefore somewhat “ugly” in nature. However, almost all of us strive for excellence and for advancement in our work. We are ambitious for everything from making the dean’s list to becoming a manager or supervisor, to having the best dog in the dog show. These things motivate our hard work, and we are thrilled when our hard work pays off.

God built us to be motivated this way, and though He has saved us by grace apart from works, He now has set us free in order to serve Him, and “created us in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph. 2:10). Moreover He has left us here rather than taking us home so that we can prove ourselves worthy of the Kingdom to which He has called us by doing these works. Proving ourselves worthy has profound things which result as a consequence, things of eternal significance. Thus the name. I have sought to fill out some of the mysteries which inhabit our potential future in Christ’s Kingdom. I may have raised many more questions than I answered, but it will at least get a new, fresh discussion going, something our present theological structures desperately need.

Thanks for reading.

Dr. Kenneth Quick

Associate Professor, Capital Bible Seminary

Lanham, Maryland

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Foundations for the Doctrine of Eternal Significance

Chapter 1

Rethinking Eternity Security

Introduction

“What I want to know from you is, if I commit adultery, what will that mean to me when I go to heaven?”

I couldn’t believe she was asking the question! The young wife and mother who sat across from me had been a model Christian woman. No doubt had existed concerning her conversion, for she gave clear testimony of the fact, and had been very active in ministry. She had shown a deep grasp of the Scripture, and her prayers to God had been personal and warm. But an unhappy marriage, with all its attendant shattered dreams, had embittered her and left her open to temptation. She had found a man where she worked with whom she had fallen in love. She now wanted to know the eternal ramifications of the sin of adultery.

My answer to her at this point was going to have more than a temporal impact. I was confronting the truth about this woman’s eternal destiny if she willfully chooses to sin as a believer. As a shepherd of the flock, I needed to know if there was an answer to give her that might deter this sin from happening, and motivate a righteous response in its place.

Pastors and Christian workers constantly face similar situations, though perhaps not as brashly as this woman put it. At such times they tend to revert to the theological system they have embraced for their answers. The possible answers are few.

The Need to Reconsider the Options

At the risk of seeming simplistic, most evangelical theologians would agree that two theological systems presently govern their possible responses: Calvinism and Arminianism. Within these systems, a wide variation of opinion resides, but there is also some consistency. Those who follow a Calvinistic approach affirm the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or that a person, once saved, cannot lose his salvation. Those who are of Arminian persuasion would affirm that it is possible for a person who has once been saved to separate himself from God forever. He can “lose his salvation.”

Both Calvinism and Arminianism can lead to confusion in relation to the motivations for serving God. People who consider these the only options may be inadequately prepared to answer the question of the woman in our opening illustration. Sensing this, Hunt says:

The urgency of reconsidering the problem (of perseverance) can hardly be overemphasized. Seen in its biblical perspective, the perseverance issue strikes at the heart of one of the most dire problems of Christendom, the tragedy of uncommitted church members.… There is no significant evidence that nominal Christianity is any less an inadequacy of either Calvinists or Arminians. Presbyterians are hardly more or less courageous than Methodists.

What is there to reconsider? Does a third option exist beyond the security of Calvinism and the insecurity of Arminianism? Lewis Sperry Chafer says, “The two claims—that the Christian is secure and that he is insecure—present a complete contradiction and no middle ground of compromise could possibly be found.” (Italics mine)

Another option does exist, one which has failed to be considered seriously by theologians though there is an enormous amount of Scriptural material on it. It is an option which brings a measure of harmony to the two contradictory views of eternal security. Most Christians would welcome such an option, because the answers Calvinism and Arminianism give regarding security and insecurity are inadequate, using the unhelpful or wrong motivations to deter sin and to inspire sacrifice. It is my belief that the Scriptures offer a different solution, a solution which will be developed after examining the weaknesses of the other systems.

Kenneth Quick, Living for the Kingdom: Eternal Significance as Motivation for the Christian Life (Kenneth Quick, 2012), 1–7.

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I hope you sense the flavor and flow of the book. It can be purchased through Logos software for $15.00. It is not only a biblical theology but it also is good pastoral theology that can help you feed, lead and protect the flock of God.