Free Grace Soteriology

Free Grace Soteriology

Preface to the Third Edition

From what began as a set of class-notes to the first revised edition a lot of changes were needed. Since that first revised edition a number of other suggestions have made it necessary to revise Free Grace Soteriology once again. Many have said that Appendix A should come at the beginning of the book. It shows how the teachings of Augustine set forth the ultimate and final requirement for anyone to spend eternity with God: perseverance of the saints. According to him, a person can be regenerated, saved, and be a genuine believer, but still not be elect if he does not persevere faithfully in his Christian walk until the end of his life. That’s what the Catholics teach today, but it’s also what the Calvinists teach, and that’s also what the Arminians teach. According to the Calvinists, if a person does not persevere faithfully until the end of his life he never was elect. And according to the Arminians, if a person does not persevere faithfully until the end of his life, he loses his salvation. So, all three groups park their cars in the Vatican parking lot. And that represents about 99% of Christianity. It’s so important to understand this commonality between Catholics, Arminians, and Calvinists that we have moved Appendix A from the first and second editions to the front of the book in this edition.

Since the writing of the first edition almost twenty years ago, a number of theological issues have popped up on the radar screen that we’re not there at that time. One of those is the subject of universalism. More and more Christian pastors (Rob Bell) and philosophers (Thomas Talbott and Gregory MacDonald) have thrown their hats into the ring of universalism. So, we thought it necessary to address that issue.

Finally, the fog covering the relationship between faith and works gets thicker and thicker. Some authors, who have graduated from conservative, evangelical schools, have concluded that justification is by faith plus works (Alan Stanley and Matthew Bates). Still others have made perseverance part of the essence of saving faith (D. A. Carson). While we agree that consistency demands that the theology of these men should lead to justification by faith and works, twenty years ago they were not admitting it. Now they are. So, we want to address some of these works as well.

As always, we never pretend to have the last word in theology. That belongs to God. But we continue search for the system which has the greatest degree of consistency, comprehensiveness, congruency, and coherence. We are presenting the soteriological slice of that theological pie in this book.

David R. Anderson

June, 2017