In Honor of F. Leroy Forlines: Man of God and Integrity
Today marks the day of the funeral of Mr. F. Leroy Forlines (1926–2020). Like so many across the Free Will Baptist and Arminian landscape, we lament his passing. To say that he influenced generations of people through his writings is an understatement. Many of our members contributed to a festschrift in his honor, The Promise of Arminian Theology, published in 2016; that same year the Free Will Baptist Commission for Theological...
Political Ethics from 1 Timothy 2:1–8
We have recently experienced another tumultuous election season. “Don’t remind me,” you’re thinking. Now I recognize that talking politics is risky business. And yet I also recognize that the Scriptures are sufficient for life and godliness. This principle means that God’s Word has a word for all Christians at all times. It does not necessarily mean that the Scriptures address every contingency specifically. But it does mean that...
Awakening to Independence
Religious belief and practice directly influence society in myriad ways. However, the extent and character of its impact is a contested matter. Historians of colonial America have often argued that the First Great Awakening significantly influenced the development of the War for Independence. Paul Johnson, Harry Stout, and Rhys Isaac have each attempted to explain the connection between these historical events. Unlike revisionist...
Laying Hold of our Tradition: Free Will Baptists and the Laying on of Hands
by Joshua R. Colson The laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Spirit after baptism is foreign to most modern Baptists. In the 1600s, however, a movement emerged among English General Baptists to institute the practice in their churches. The inclusion of the rite as a gospel ordinance in both the Standard Confession (1660)[1] and the Orthodox Creed (1679) makes this fact plain.[2] What’s more? Although discontinued “by the...
Book Review: Being Mortal
The ethics of life and death continue to be an area for Christians to explore and seek to understand. I remember my first few weeks serving as a chaplain resident on trauma rotation at the University of Kentucky Health Care. The vicarious trauma that I witnessed left me paralyzed. More specifically, the fear of my own mortality became overwhelming. I witnessed the brevity of life each day with code blues, car wrecks, and traumatic...
Finding Your Christian Identity Between Individualism and Collectivism
It does not need to be repeated (but here I go) that our country is incredibly divided. It seems like there are few, if any, ways in which we are unified as a nation. At a broad level, we stand at odds on a variety of issues, not least of which includes politics. Of course, it is not a sin to disagree. If anything, we need to learn how disagree better. Yet, with so many disagreements we find ourselves grouped with others on various...
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