Brother, the name of a church is not a determiner of their theological stance.
When we are speaking of 'Free Grace' here it is not the name of a church, but a theological view point. Yet even in this view there are variations that most don't even realize
Basically and most essentially it is the opposing view to Lordship salvation.
NOTE: Let me add a clarification.. When I said they are closer to modern day Arminians, which include various groups like 'Word of Faith' types.. that is not to say THEY hold to the same. Classical or Reformed Arminians (just as classical Wesleyans) hold more to a Lordship type view. Whereby if a person is saved, they are saved by calling upon Him to both save them and lead them. Free Grace makes a distinction in that a person can call out to God to save them (Justification) but discipleship or leading them is a separate aspect known as sanctification and should not be confused as being the act of the salvation process because it appears to make salvation more a bargaining process and a free gift. IE.. you can be saved if you promise to be discipled
Thanks for that, Allan. I fully agree that the name of a church does not necessarily determine what that church believes - here, For example, we have a denomination known as the United Reformed Church (or URC for short), but it is certainly not Reformed in the sense of being DoG/calvinistic.
However, the links I gave were to sites of churches that not only
call themselves "Free Grace"; they also
believe in salvation by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone, to the glory of God alone, set out in the bible alone - the so-called "Five Solas" of reformed doctrine.
Take the first church I linked to,
Free Grace Baptist Church Belvedere, Kenk, UK. I followed the link, and when I clicked on the tab "What We Believe", I saw that it started like this (my bold):
[SIZE=-1]We are an independent baptist church, in fellowship with the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (south east) in the United Kingdom.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]We are a reformed and evangelical baptist church and believe the Bible to be the final revelation of God to man. our church is based upon the 1689 Second London Baptist confession of faith and the ‘Doctrines of Grace’, sometimes called the five points of Calvinism.[/SIZE]
The same with the others.
Free Grace Baptist Church San Antonio, Texas (sorry! I had that linking to the church in Sidcup in my earlier post) starts its "What We Believe" section:
While we believe wholeheartedly in the inerrant and infallible word of God as preserved in the 66 books of the Bible (39 books of the OT and the 27 books of the NT), we also share the belief of C.H. Spurgeon and countless others who expressed the conviction that the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith presents a reliable summary of what the Bible teaches.
Your comment about the Free Grace position being the opposing view to Lordship salvation puzzled me. "Lordship salvation" is not a phrase I know well. I used to think it was simply a denial of the idea that it is possible to have Jesus as your Saviour without having Him as Lord, but in a thread some years ago on the BB, I seem to remember discovering that the phrase means more than that, including the supposed need for full
understanding of Christ's lordship for a person to be saved. I have yet to come across a church or individual Christian who believes that. I am sure that the churches I linked to are
not opposed to the idea that Jesus is Lord, but
would be opposed to the notion that it is possible to have Jesus as your Saviour without having Him as Lord, and to the idea that you have to understand His lordship perfectly in order to be saved.
Apart from all that though, to me, the word "free" is redundant when coupled with grace. It wouln't be grace if it were not free.
Thanks again for your post, Allan.
