You won't want to miss the 2008 National Conference as we focus on "Building a Grace-Driven Church"!  FREE GIFT FOR REGISTERING BY SEPT 1st!  (see conference brochure)

Topics include: "What is a Grace-Driven Church?", "Grace, Sin and the Church: The Hardness of the Gospel," "Grace-Driven Evangelism Ministry", "Grace-Driven Discipleship Ministry", "Grace-Driven Missions Ministry", "Grace, the Church and Higher Education," "Grace-Driven Mentoring,"...& more!  

Click Here! to download the Conference Brochure and Schedule

Click Here! to register online (download registration form & email it to us)

WHO: Anyone passionate about the grace message!

WHEN: Monday, October 6 – Wednesday, October 8, 2008  (Conference begins at 12:00pm on Monday & ends at 12:30pm on Wednesday.)

WHERE: LaQuinta Inn & Suites Arlington North, Arlington, TX (SEE BELOW)

WHY: To encourage & connect Free Grace Leaders...Excellent plenary speakers on the topic of a "Building a Grace-Driven Church," plus outstanding breakout workshops and plenty of time to interact, meet, build relationships, share ministries, etc..."Round-Table Discussions"

COST & REGISTRATION DETAILS AVAILABLE HERE!

NEW THIS YEAR...Join us on Tuesday night for a special banquet featuring musical guest, Starla Harbin (www.starlightministries.com).

HOTEL INFORMATION

The 2008 FGA National Conference will be held at the

LaQuinta Inn & Suites Arlington North

Arlington, TX

The LaQuinta Inn & Suites Arlington North is a brand new, all interior hotel located at the intersection of I-30 and Hwy 360, 8 miles south of DFW Airport in Arlington, TX.  It is directly across the street from Six Flags Over Texas. Amenities include free 24-hour shuttle to/from DFW, outdoor heated pool, fitness center, full continental breakfast,& high speed internet access in all rooms.

Special conference rates are $89 for 2 double beds & $99 for king.

Call the hotel at 817.640.4142 and mention "Free Grace Alliance" to receive the special rate. (These rates are guaranteed until September 1st, so book now!)

One of the suggestions that arose in the course of our discussion was the need for a clear, quick-reference guide on the distinctives of the free grace gospel, as contrasted with opposing views of the gospel being propagated in various corners of evangelical Christianity.   What a great suggestion!   Sometimes we are guilty of preaching to the choir and we forget that not everyone is well-versed in the evangelical crisis over the gospel.   Allow me to take a moment to provide a succinct overview of four key points at issue in the debate over the nature of the gospel.   Essentially, I am answering the oft-asked question: What is the FGA and what makes our ministry different from the vast array of other evangelical organizations out there?

·          Salvation is a FREE GIFT.   First and foremost, we believe that eternal salvation is an unconditional free gift.   Unfortunately, not all evangelical organizations make this a priority.   Some actually avoid focusing on the freeness of salvation and instead focus on terms like commitment, surrender, obedience, repentance of sins, etc.   Yet, we believe strongly that the gospel must always be presented with such clarity and simplicity that no impression is left that our eternal salvation requires any step, response, or action in addition to faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ.   As our old hymns state so clearly, “Jesus paid it all!” and “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling!”

·          Good works are NOT a requirement for eternal life.  A second point of distinction is our view that good works are not required as proof of one’s eternal salvation.   Many evangelical leaders teach that if a Christian is not doing good works, he is not really a Christian.   The addition of visible, outward, good behavior as so-called “proof” of salvation amounts to bringing works into the salvation equation through the back door.   It is what I call “back-loading the gospel” with works.   In other words, some people will claim that eternal salvation is “free” on the front end (“Faith alone!” they cry!), but then they add requirements of good works on the back end.   In contrast, we believe spiritual growth, which is distinct from eternal salvation, is God’s expectation for every believer.   Yet this growth is not automatic, nor is it necessarily manifested uniformly in every believer.

·          You can be SURE of your eternal salvation!   A third point of distinction relates to the doctrine of assurance.   Because we believe that eternal salvation is a free gift, wholly apart from any good works on our part, we believe that assurance of one’s eternal salvation is the birthright of every believer.   Assurance is founded upon the objective testimony of God in His written Word, not the often inconsistent and unreliable behavior of believers.   The moment you trust solely in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died and rose again to pay your personal penalty for sin, He gives you the gift of eternal life and you can be sure you are eternally saved.   In contrast, many evangelical leaders teach that it is healthy to doubt your salvation.   Doubt, they suggest, causes you to live obediently.   But the teaching of Scripture suggests just the opposite.  Fear that I might not be saved is never a good motivator to live a godly life.   Such an approach puts the focus on our works and off of God’s grace.  We believe that you can be sure of your eternal salvation based on the promise of Jesus Christ who said of those who believe in Him, “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.” ( John 10:28)

·          FAITH ALONE is the sole means of receiving eternal life.   A fourth point that separates the FGA from many other evangelical organizations is our commitment to faith alone as the sole means of appropriating God’s free gift of eternal life.   While many Christian leaders will say they believe in faith alone, their definition of faith is often something altogether different than the biblical definition.   Often faith is alleged to contain elements of surrender, commitment, pledge of obedience and a promise to follow Christ unwaveringly.   But to redefine faith is such a way is to turn it on its head!   Such a concept of faith makes it out to be nothing more than an act of obedience rather than an expression of simple trust.   By contrast we believe that faith simply means confidence in the truthfulness of something.   Thus to have faith in Jesus Christ alone for eternal salvation means to have confidence that He is who He claimed to be and He will do what He promised to do.   This stands in stark contrast to those who say faith is unwavering allegiance.   We believe that the sole means of receiving the free gift of eternal life is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whose substitutionary death on the cross paid our personal penalty for sin.   Furthermore, we believe that the Person and Work of Jesus Christ cannot be separated as the object of our faith.   Saving faith is not confidence in some unknown, masked superhero.   Saving faith is a personal response, apart from our works, whereby we are persuaded that the finished work of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has delivered us from condemnation and guaranteed our eternal life.

These four points are central to what makes the FGA different.   They represent our passion…our heartbeat.   If you share these passions, come join us!   The enemy is on the prowl and now more than ever we need to work together graciously and enthusiastically to advance this Gospel of Grace, and to communicate this message with a positive and gracious tone toward all others, both inside and outside the Free Grace Alliance.

Warmly,

J. B. Hixson, Ph.D.
Executive Director, FGA

Having said what we are, it sometimes helps to say what we are not.

Hixson’s work has provided a needed remedy for the doctrine of salvation in our current postmodern climate.   First, it has attempted from a balanced grace view to give a clear and precise definition of the gospel of eternal life.   In a day weighed down with the absence of clarity and the expansion of uncertainty, this is a welcome breath of fresh air.   Second, it provides a keen analysis of varying approaches to the preaching of the gospel of eternal life that dominate so much of North American culture especially involving media personalities.   I have not seen this analysis brought together in one place.   In light of these two factors, Hixson’s book is well worth the effort of a careful read.

Dr. Mike Stallard, Academic Dean and Professor of Theology
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA

Click here to see what other experts are saying about this book.

Visit www.gettingthegospelwrong.com to order this book.

Our Distinctives:

In God's Presence
Grace School of Theology will provide training and faculty mentoring designed to encourage you to grow in God's grace.

In Difficult Challenges   
Grace School of Theology will equip you to accurately interpret, understand and apply God's word.

In a Changing World
Grace School of Theology will provide you with a foundation for a consistent system of theology to help you think biblically.

In the Local Church
Grace School of Theology will help you develop ministry skills modeled and taught by practitioners who have proven effective in ministry.

In Houston  
Grace School of Theology is a non-denominational evangelical school with a local faculty based in greater Houston, the nation's fourth largest city.

The leaders of TFG include men like John Piper, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, and other well-respected evangelical pastors and scholars.   While we appreciate their passion for the centrality of the Scriptures in ministry and we also share their perspective on a number of important issues of our day such as a resolute resistance to open theism, the Emergent Church movement and other postmodern evangelical aberrations, we cannot support their perspective on the nature of the gospel. 

They are correct in their assessment that the gospel is being eclipsed in our churches today.  Unfortunately, I am afraid their solution is not the proper corrective.  When it comes to the definition of the gospel and precisely what one must do to have eternal life, these men come from a traditional reformed soteriology (doctrine of salvation).  They have adopted the recent (relative to all of church history) redefinition of faith that grew out of the Roman Catholic influence during the 16th Century Reformation Era.  According to this view, faith involves a lot more than simple trust in the certainty of a promise.   Rather, the Reformers delineated a three-fold concept of faith, foreign to Scripture, wherein faith is said to involve the components of human volition and commitment.   While we owe an enormous debt to the great Reformers (PTL! for Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.), despite their best efforts they were not able to let go entirely of Roman Catholicism's penchant for works-based justification. 

The Reformers rightly recognized that the NT conditions eternal salvation on faith and faith alone, and they rejected some of the obvious works like baptism as being instrumental in securing salvation.  But they still felt that salvation must somehow include elements of human good works.  Thus, in order to make Scripture fit their theological presuppositions (understandably built upon 1200-1300 years of Roman Catholic dominance), they redefined the meaning of "saving faith" to include elements of good works as being instrumental in securing eternal life.  The men of TFG have adopted this view.  They insist that in order to be saved, a person must make a pledge of obedience and commitment to Christ wherein he promises to forsake his sin and walk righteously as a true expression of faith.  Thus, salvation becomes a commitment of one's will rather than the receiving of a free gift ( Rom 3:24; 5:15-16).  Some contemporary advocates of Reformed soteriology, such as James Montgomery Boice, even liken the salvation experience to a marriage covenant where the sinner must make a vow to God and promise to be good in order to be saved!

Similarly, Joh Piper, writes, “There is no doubt that Jesus saw some measure of real, lived-out obedience to the will of God as necessary for final salvation.”  (What Jesus Demands From the World, p. 160)  According to the view of the TFG leaders, if one does not stick with this commitment, it proves that his faith was not real and therefore he is not truly saved.  So they champion the cause of "faith alone," but what they really mean by "faith alone" is "faith plus good works which must necessarily be included or it is not really saving faith."

By contrast, I believe the Bible teaches that a person is saved simply by believing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died and rose again for his personal sin, and gives him eternal life on the sole basis of his faith in Him and Him alone for it.  If we read carefully what the TFG leaders are writing, the component of human performance as a non-negotiable element of saving faith, is pervasive in their writings.  I believe the Bible presents a clear distinction between the free gift of salvation (justification) and the high cost of discipleship (sanctification).  We need to avoid the temptation, especially in these troubling times with so many carnal Christians and so much prevalent immorality, to frontload the gospel message with a list of requirements.  At the same time, we also need to be careful not to backload the gospel with works by claiming that someone's faith is not "real" just because they happen to be walking in the sinfulness of the flesh at a given time.  The issue of sinning believers is an issue of sanctification, not justification. 

But again, I appreciate these men and their passion to speak out against sin (a rare occurrence in these postmodern times!).  We just have an honest disagreement on precisely what it means to believe the gospel.  To me it is a simple matter of faith alone in Christ alone, the Son of God who died and rose again for our personal sin and offers freely to us the gift of eternal life.

It is because of movements like TFG and the writings of many popular evangelical authors that the ministry of FGA is needed now more than ever.   Please continue to pray for and support this ministry as we seek to promote the free grace gospel throughout the world.

Warmly,

Executive Director, FGA

jb@freegracealliance.com

Ph. 281-989-9813

The FGA is having a special membership drive during the next three months.  If you believe in our mission, we are asking you to help in one or more of the following ways:

1. If you are not already an official member of the FGA, JOIN TODAY by clicking here http://www.freegracealliance.com/join.php.   

2. If you already are a member, please make a personal commitment to RECRUIT FIVE PEOPLE--friends, relatives, acquaintances, coworkers, etc.--to join the FGA.  You can email them a link to our web site, or at the bottom of our E-Newsletter there is a button you can click to forward our newsletter to others.  Help us increase our membership.

3. If you are able, please INVITE THE FGA TO YOUR CHURCH for a regional conference so that we can introduce our ministry to others.

4. Bring a friend with you to our NATIONAL CONFERENCE this October.  For details click here http://www.freegracealliance.com/articles.php?id=63.

With your help, we believe the FGA can experience significant growth in the coming months. 

We are looking for churches to host FGA Regional Events across the country.  This could include a single message during a Sunday service, a 3-4 day conference, or anything in between.  If you are interested in hosting an event in your area, please contact our Executive Director, Dr. J. B. Hixson, for more information at jb@freegracealliance.com or 281-989-9813.  Help us spread the message!