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Absolutely Free: A Biblical Reply to Lordship Salvation

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Hodges argues very clearly and simply the case for the absolute freeness of the gift of salvation. He argues for a simple faith that needs no qualifiers, no contingencies, no long drawn out explanations of what faith is, what precedes it, what follows it, or what accompanies it. In short, he argues for a true faith alone. Though well argued, many others just cannot say "faith alone" and leave it at that - they must qualify it somehow. He argues that "free" means just that - free. He argues that a "gift" is just that - a gift, not something that we have a coupon book for that we must keep on making payments for the rest of our lives. This is one author who has let his yes be yes and his no be no, and for his integrity of conviction has suffered being called "Raca" by many professing believers.

There are no offers of salvation in the Bible that took 200 pages of text to deliver and understand before they could be received. Nor do any of the offers require the recipient of the offer to have thorough knowledge of a complicated theology that had not been invented yet. They didn't even have to read a copy of John or Romans (if they existed yet). They were asked to believe, and in that split second they either believed or they didn't. Hodges argues for a faith that is just that - faith (no qualifiers).

The teaching is rather simple as he leaves the more technical debate for the endnotes. This allows the reader to simply grasp the ideas while at the same time knowing that they can be backed up with solid exegesis.

"Absolutely Free," along with "The Gospel Under Siege" and "Grace in Eclipse" by the same author form a sort of mini commentary filled with verse by verse interpretation. Numerous difficult passages in the New Testament are expounded and the student will grow greatly in his knowledge by reading them. However you must read all three of them to get the full picture of Hodges' theology as each book is focused on a particular topic. After reading all three you will notice that the same themes repeat themselves throughout his writing.

If the concept of "faith alone" is true and correct, then Hodges' theology comes very close to defining it without changing its basic meaning. If we do not agree with Hodges, then perhaps "faith alone" is not the correct term for what we truly believe. We should not deceive ourselves. There are many books out there that do spend 200 pages of text trying to explain why "faith alone" really means faith plus something else. Hodges book just doesn't do that, so should we fault him for that? The book is both easy to read and to understand. In fact, it was an absolute joy to read.

I love this book. As someone who once promoted lordship salvation, this book is especially comforting. I had absolutely no assurance of my salvation back when I held the view of lordship advocates, and since realizing that salvation is really by faith alone, I no longer doubt my salvation. I glanced at the introduction to MacArthur's book "Saved Without A Doubt", and it is understandable to me why some in his congregation who are pretty solid Christians would doubt their salvation. I feel for the man who wrote the letter to MacArthur that was quoted at the beginning of his book; I know what he is going through. Anyone who holds to lordship salvation and thinks they can have assurance of their own salvation is kidding theirself...or either they do not understand how utterly wicked their own sins are in God's eyes. This book was very comforting to me, and in addition to helping me have assurance of my own salvation, it has encouraged me to be more of a soul winner, since the gospel is even simpler than I had imagined. Hodges' arguments are very scriptural and his exegesis is superb. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Zane Hodges' book, "Absolutely Free! A Biblical Reply to Lordship Salvation," has given me a newfound confidence and trust in the finished work of Christ.

Hodges' book is a reply to John MacArthur's book, "The Gospel According to Jesus." Hodges' book, compared to another MacArthur book on a similar subject ("Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus"), was truly a work of grace. Even in refuting MacArthur's arguments, Hodges showed considerable grace, refusing to engage in ad hominem attacks, a tactic far too frequent in Christian polemic works.

Honestly, my only complaint with the book is that it's an old work. But it answers the LS advocates honestly and openly, without resorting to rhetoric, even in 2007.

Reading MacArthur left me more confused than settled, but reading AF! made the topic of salvation clear to me. I am convinced, praise God!, that I am justified by faith alone apart from any works. The free grace position (so despised and maligned as the "no-lordship" or "cheap grace" position) at least tries to be consistent in its declaration that faith alone in Christ alone justifies and saves. Am I glad to finally leave the sinking sand and quagmire of lordship salvation (Neo-Puritanism), and to stand indeed on the promises of Christ, my Rock who is immovable and unshakeable!

And more important than Hodges' book is Jesus Christ's clear promise that "whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16b).

This book is a must-read for every Christian. Zane Hodges taught New Testament Greek at Dallas Theological Seminary for twenty-seven years. He very clearly presents the purity and simplicity of the gospel message to any reader who honestly seeks truth.

Let me approach this review from a different angle and share a recent personal confrontation last month with a pastor of a very large church in Colorado who holds a "lordship salvation" view of the gospel.

First, some personal background information to put this all into better context. I was raised as a Roman Catholic who often stated that I "was born a Catholic and would die a Catholic". I once told someone from another faith that when your church has been around 2,000 years, come and talk to me. However, God had a different plan for my life. I was saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ almost 20 years ago. It was not an easy decision for me to put faith for my eternal destiny (which every human being should obviously take very seriously) in the hands of Jesus Christ alone. Not in a church, not in any human works or attempts at being good enough, but to trust solely in Jesus Christ for my eternal salvation and His atoning death on the cross. All of my sins (past, present and future)were taken away at the moment that I put my faith in Jesus Christ, accepting God's free gift of salvation. This is anything but "easy believism". That term is a reprehensible insult to God, because as I later told this "lordship salvation" pastor, there was nothing easy about Christ's death on the cross.

It was also not easy to have my parents later boycott my wedding, or the sister whom I was always closest to say that she'd rather have a homosexual for a brother than a d@mn protestant,...and that she never wanted any ba%tard protestant children in her home. We had been taught under Roman Catholic theology that it isn't possible to be married in the eyes of God unless married in the Roman Catholic church, so any resulting children would be considered illegitimate.

At around the same time that I became a Christian, God brought the woman who would soon become my wife out of Seventh Day Adventism, in which she was raised.

Today, as evangelical Christians, we understand the critical importance of sound Biblical doctrine and the need to always be on guard against the doctines of men perverting the Gospel of Christ.

We recently started attending a church in Colorado that we thought was strongly evangelical. However, I heard the pastor one morning very emphatically state from the pulpit that "It is not enough for someone to put his or her faith in Jesus Christ to be saved, but one must also become a disciple of Christ." A red warning flag immediately went up in my mind that this was clearly not Biblical teaching. I e-mailed the church to see if I misunderstood this pastor's comment. I copied and pasted the doctrinal statement of faith from Dallas Theological Seminary into my e-mail and asked if the church's statement of faith differed. The pastor through his secretary stated that the subject was too complicated to discuss in an e-mail, so my wife and I set up an appointment to meet with him. We knew next to nothing about the lordship salvation controversy, but prayed prior to meeting with this pastor and prepared as best we could.

I have been in business for over 20 years and have met many types of people. The pastor of this huge, supposedly evangelical, church was one of the most prideful, arrogant and condescending individuals that my wife and I have ever met. He acted as though his distorted message of the Gospel was historical fact and accepted in every part of the church as true. He acted as though my wife and I were just totally lost. He even claimed that Dallas Theological Seminary would also agree with his view of the Gospel, which is obviously nonsense. Meeting with this individual was not a positive experience.

My wife was upset by this meeting and confused as to how anyone could distort the simple Gospel message and then preach this perversion to a huge church congregation. I asked her if she felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in this meeting. She said no. As an observation only, since only God knows if this pastor is actually saved, I asked her if she felt the presence of God in this man at all. She said no. In fact, she works in an intensive care unit with surgeons who are often known to be "full of themselves", and she stated that this pastor was more arrogant and prideful than any surgeon that she had ever met. Hodges book helps to explain why this is the natural result of those who adhere to this distorted view of the Gospel, since lordship salvation "...promotes a judgmental and pharisaical spirit within the church."

We grieve for those in this church and for their children who are being misled. However, it reminds us that all Christians must continue to contend for the truth of the Gospel and to continue to grow in our knowledge of Christ. I set aside my secular readings and purchased this book, along with "So Great Salvation" by Charles Ryrie and "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer.

Hodges book is a Godsend.

I have been following the heated debate between the "lordship salvation" advocates and the "free grace" advocates for a couple of months now. I urge anyone who reads the following to please try and understand what I am saying rather than reacting with anger and hostitlity. I'm not asking you to believe me, but I am asking you to read with an open mind and listen to what I am saying. My intent is not to attack, though it may seem that way at times, but rather to point out what I have observed regarding this issue. In my speech class I learned that when an opponant has no argument they resort to name calling among other dirty tactics to distract the audience from the real issue. This is precisely what I see the LS advocates doing whan they use such terms as "easy believeism" and "cheap grace." Since when was God's grace "cheap?!" That is a slap to God's face! The larger problem that I see is the LS camp wants to put Christians back in chains by burdening them with rules and regulations regarding their salvation; just like the Pharisee's of Jesus day. We cannot know whether a person is genuinely saved or not simply because we cannot see into their heart. Is that not essentially what the Lord said to Samuel in 1 Sam 16:7? God can see what we can not see.

The more I read about LS the more repulsed I become at the attitudes of those who believe in and the content of LS. Have you not heard of "free will?" An unbeliever can do good things as well as sinful things just the same as a Christian. So then how is it that Christians can't live sinful lives? Did God take away our free will so that we can only do what is good? Those who carefully study their Bibles will find that good works (non-salvific) are not the result of saving faith. We have free will to do as we please and we are capable of the greatest goods and the most wicked evils. Whether or not I'm a believer makes no difference in my behavior since I have free will. However, the Apostle Paul exhorts his audience to pursue sanctification. He demonstrates the futility and vanity of trying to achieve righteousness by the law in Romans 7; which flies up in the face of lordship salvation. I did a paper on the "I" in Romans 7 for my senior level Romans class so I'm semi-familiar with several of the interpretations. There is a key phrase that many commentators miss and in doing so they distort the entire meaning and the message Paul wishes to communicate in Romans 7:14-25. Remember Romans 3:23? All have fallen short and not a single one of us has been able to fulfill the law (God's perfect law given at Sinai, not the warped and bloated law of the Pharisee's). I have been practicing living by the Spirit (ch. 8 of Romans) and I have had far less trouble with sin than when I tried the Romans 7 approach of trying my hardest by sheer willpower and determination to to lick my sinful habits. I speak from personal experience on this.

There are far to many Christians who reduce the Christian life to a performance just as the Pharisee's did. The Christian life isn't about performence (how well we obey the law) but it is enjoing a relationship with our Creator and Savior who gave His life as a ransom so that we could walk with God isn the cool of the day as Adam did in the garden of Eden. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn an ounce of merit in God's eye's, and that includes submitting to and professing Jesus as Lord. It saddens me how demeaning a view the LS advocates hold of themselves never experiencing the "law of liberty" that James speaks of in ch.1:25. The law is a cruel perfectionist that either gives a pass or a fail grade. All have failed, only one has passed. The Lord Jesus has fulfilled tha law perfectly on our behalf, why then do so many Christians try to fulfill the law in their own power never allowing the Holy Spirit to do His miraculous work in the life of a sinner who has believed that Jesus is the Messiah? We can never hope to do what only God can do, yet we try ever so stubbornly after the manner of our former father, the devil.

James starts off in ch. 2 talking about showing favoritism towards the rich and mistreating the poor. James is not dealing with saving faith in 2:14-25. I gave a speech (same class I learned about name calling) to clear up some of the controversial issues surrounding James 2:14-26. I had a button up shirt with me for visual aid. I asked the audience to pretend my shirt was my faith. I then tossed it onto the table next to me and looked at it for a couple of seconds. I was also wearing a button up shirt and had them pretend that it was also my faith ( Since I couldn't change shirts in front of the other students I opted to explain that they should pretend that both shirts are one and the same). The shirt I flopped on the table represented "dead" faith. It wasn't moving or animated, but it was STILL a shirt. Sadly, Christians think that dead faith equals no saving faith, and nothing could be farther form the truth. A believer can be saved and yet have dead faith. I explained that the shirt is still a shirt, but it isn't animated or lively. I then started walking around causing the shirt that I was wearing to move and become animated (living faith; opposite of dead faith). It wasn't that I didn't have faith, but that my faith wasn't animated. Thus the needs of the poor are not being met and they go hungry and are without clothing in James' example. Near the end of my speech I came under conviction because I recognized my dead faith when I brought up a fellow student whose parents lost everything they had when their house caught fire. I said; "Will you have dead faith as I do and do nothing to help..." I promptly went to the SDO (Student Development Office) office to donate $100 to help my fellow brethren who were in need and in doing so I animated my faith.

God wants us to respond in love to His extreme generosity. He doens't want us to love Him because we feel obligated to, but because we sincerely desire to love Him as He first loved us. The message that Paul states loud and clear in Romans ch. 1-3 is that the obvious sinners have sinned; the moral person has sinned, and the religious have sinned. No one is worthy to approach the throne of God. But thanks be to God that He had mercy upon us when we were at our vilest, and He commanded His love towards us and He lavished His grace upon us when we deserved none of it. If Christians could only un derstand the grace of God.... wait, we can!! The parable of the "prodigal son!" What happened when the lost son spent his inheritence and and wound up eating the very food that he was giving to the hogs? He told himself that he was going to go home and become his fathers slave; at least they had food, clothing and shelter which he didn't have. He makes the journey home. His father who had been watching for his return saw him when he was still far away and broke into a full gallop to get to his son. The father was not in the least concerned about how his son had tarnished the family name and blown his inheritence. The father ran and fell upon his sons neck and kissed him (keep in mind the historical-cultural context) and expressed via his body language that he had already forgiven his son for what he had done. His son tried to tell his father what he had rehearsed in his mind but he didn't have a chance. His father yelled to his servants to bring the best robe, a ring for his finger, and to kill the fattened calf because they were going to have a huge party to celebrate his sons safe return.

God isn't about to let your sin get in the way of Him having a relationship with you. The one thing that LS advocates find so hard to accept is God's unconditional love towards mankind (John 3:16). Most human beings, beside lordship salvation advocates, have trouble believeing that God loves them even when they are murdering a fellow human being, a spouse engaging in an affair, a pedophile abusing a child, etc. God doens't just love us when we are good, He also loves us when we are at our worst (Romans 5:8). I have tasted (just barely tasted!) of such love in my own life and I believe this with all of my heart. God does not behave like us in that He loves us only when we deserve (or think we deserve) love. Love is a free gift (Romans 6:23), thus we don't have to submit to Christ, or profess Him as Lord. We aren't making a deal with God: "God, I'll submit to You, profess Jesus as 'Lord' and obey Your commands in exchange for eternal life." That type of Gospel is never mentioned in the Scripture. Jesus offered living water to the women (the one who had 5 husbands and was currently living with a man [John 4:4-26]) at the well in Samaria. He offered living water to this woman freely despite the fact that she had 5 husbands and was shacking up with the current guy. That is unconditional love! Isn't it fascinating that Jesus never demands or jumped all over this Samaritan woman for not committing to obey Him or verbally professing Him as "Lord?"

Jesus says of Himself; "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:29-30). Why then must we as Christians try to make the Christian life difficult by ladening ourselves as with rules and binding ourselves with the chains of regulations? Is that the freedom and life that Jesus offered us? If that is what Christianity is about then I don't want anything to do with a life of misery suffering under ruels and regualtions. Give me the freedom and the "law of liberty" of Christ!

I realize that this is not so much a book review as it is an explanation of the free grace position that Zane Hodges defends in 'Absolutely Free: A Biblical Reply to Lordship Salvation.' I heartily recommend this book. I look forward to reading one of John MacArthur's books to better understand LS and to give it a fair hearing. However, I doubt Mr. MacArthur will persuade me to change sides given what I have discovered in my own study of this issue. I would encourage all who read books, including this one, to read with an open mind and a grain of salt. Test everything that you read and see if there is any truth to it lest you be deceived by false doctrine that tickles your ears with it's sweet sound just before it delivers it's lethal poison.

I am extremely thankful for Hodges' book which finds itself within the quagmire and confusion of the message of the 'gospel' today. I will not waste space after many good and fairly-argued reviews have already been written. What is important though, and needed for better focus, is to comment on how clearly these negative reviews show the weakness of the FG view on integrating justification and sanctification as a whole, though many have (and continually) misrepresent the FG view altogether.

MacArthur essentially asks the questions, 'How are we to deal with the sin issue?' He essentially answers it as a Puritan would have, 'Great remorse, with confession, with mortification, with a turning from sin, a change of lifestyle, and a direct resolve to make Jesus Lord in every facet of life.' I think its fair to say here that MacArthur has progressively fallen in line with Puritan views on this question as time has passed. It seems the publishing of his book, 'The Gospel According to Jesus' was, in essence, a turning point in how he saw 'the gospel', at least in print. Other books he had written before this book were not as consistent and clear, but his views since then have remained the same (as shown in his 'Faith Works', 'Hard to Believe', etc.). Hodges and Ryrie wrote to respond to MacArthur, though each in a slightly different manner. I feel both responses are needed and fairly accurate.

Overall, Hodges does proceed in the completely opposite direction, and yes, this might be (at times) expressively too far. Yet, the book's purpose and context must always be kept in mind. Its a reply to MacArthur's book and it's position on the question 'How are we to deal with the sin issue?' If the context is consistently kept in view I believe the value of the work is clear. However, the problem of the FG view, in my opinion, is that it never has moved past this context (a reply Lordship Salvation) allowing it's response to this view become essentially it's response to every issue, becoming an almost polarized view not only from MacArthur, but to essentially everything else.

The problem lies not in Hodges' explanation of eternal life, faith as the only condition, etc., but in his explanation of how justification/sanctification interrelate. I think his theology on sanctification, though he's certainly not barren on the issue (see his 'Six Secrets of the Christian Life'), must certainly be more emphasized for an evenness to appear with his understanding of justification/eternal life (Rom. 5:18). There is a reworking which needs to take place in the manner of expression and coherance.

Overall, the book is an excellent response to LS. However, I still have some problems agreeing with his views on the 'Great Banquet table', the 'Outer Darkness', etc. I think his views here are not convincing, and they could be developments coming from his already formulated notions on the relation of faith and works. I feel there's too much discontinuity here at times outside the context of this reply. That's where I would caution the reader. Yet overall, this book is an important contribution to the clarity of the gospel and what its means for both the assurance of the believer, grace as the motivation of the Christian's life, and the clarity of the gospel in evangelism.

This work by Hodges is primarily topical, and as such lacks the "meat" that many may be looking for in the "Lordship Salvation" debate. It is firmly rooted in biblical study, but for those searching for a more exegetical approach, see the commentaries on James and the Epistles of John, and The Gospel Under Siege, by the same author.

This volume deals with concepts such as faith, discipleship, and repentance, which seem to have been confused and mishandled. Hodges' clarity of these subjects is extremely refreshing. This book seems to be the author's venue for tackling these issues in a topical manner.

Absolutely Free is a wonderful introduction to a fresh and inspiring way to understand the free message of the gospel.

If you want to understand the truth about receiving and growing in your eternal relationship with God through Christ, this book will clarify many issues for you. Zane Hodges battles the heresy of lordship salvation with the best weapon available, God's word; showing lordship salvation for what it really is: man's word. My only disagreement is that I believe receiving salvation is even simpler than he presents it and one does not have to know they have received it to have done so. Read this book!!

This is one of my absolutely FAVORITE books! It was a real help to me in my search for clear teaching on salvation. The writer does a tremendous job of showing what certain so-called "problem passages" of the Bible teach by examining the text of that passage instead of taking a certain theological bias and reading that bias into the passage. What one gets is clear teaching that squares with the passage and with the rest of Scripture.

One result of my reading of this book was a deeper appreciation and thankfulness for God's wonderful FREE gift of eternal life. This deeper appreciation and thankfulness was a strong motivation for me to serve my Lord more and more.

Many individuals have strong opinions about this book, I suggest that you read it for yourself and decide its worth based on the question, "What says the Bible?"

After reading "Absolutely Free" I am just as "absolutely" convinced, as I was before I read it, that true saving faith involves repentance, acknowledging Jesus as Lord, submitting to His Lordship and loving Him. If anything, I have become more convinced of this great truth that Zane Hodges denies in this book. There was so much defective theology in this book, I don't even know where to begin and I have to say that almost all of his logic that he used to defend his doctrine was flawed, obscure and, at times, ridiculous. If I could have given this book negative stars, I would have done so.

In Chapters 2 and 3, Hodges conveys a shallow view of what true saving faith is. He waters it down to merely believing the facts about Jesus apart from humility, repentance and love for the Lord. On page 37 he says "It is often claimed by those who teach lordship salvation that saving faith cannot be merely 'believing facts.' But this assertion is both misconceived and clearly wrong. It simply cannot stand up under biblical examination." He then goes on to try to prove this by saying that Martha simply believed the facts about Jesus in John 11:27. However, he neglects to consider the whole testimony of Scripture on what true belief is because in 2 Thessalonians 2:10, Paul says that people perish "because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved." This passage clearly teaches that true belief includes love for Jesus who is the truth.(John 14:6) Someone could merely believe the facts about Jesus but have no love for God and that is not true saving faith. Concerning the account of Martha, Hodges also claims that "it was not at all a question of what kind of faith she had. She either believed this or she didn't. It was as simple as that."(pg 39) However, when you take into consideration John 2:23-25, 6:14,66 and 8:30-32,44,59, these passages clearly show that there is a faith that doesn't save as evidenced by those who "believed" and then turned away and some of them even tried to stone Jesus.

In Chapter 5, Zane teaches that true saving faith does not have to persevere to the end of life and he says that the view of perseverance in the faith is "utterly unknown to the Bible."(pg 56) He also says "our faith in Christ should continue. But the claim that it absolutely must or necessarily does, has no support at all in the Bible."(pg 63) However, Hodges totally disregards passages like John 8:31, 1 Cor 15:1-2, Colossians 1:21-23, Hebrews 3:6,14 and 1 John 2:19 which clearly teach that perseverance in the faith IS an inevitable outcome of true salvation. If someone professes faith in Christ and then later denies Him and no longer believes in Him, that person did not lose his or her salvation but only proved that he or she never had it to begin with and therefore did not have true faith.

Hodges makes an unbiblical distinction between salvation and discipleship in chapters 6 and 7 and implies that they are two different things. He basically says that you can be a Christian without even being a disciple of Christ and later on indicates that those who do not continue in discipleship or obedience merely forfeit God's blessing!(pg 121) In speaking of the terms of discipleship, he says that "they have nothing to do with the terms on which we receive eternal life"(pg 68) and "no one can understand the New Testament who does not see the obvious difference between the gift of life and being a pupil of Jesus Christ."(pg 68) Jesus taught no such thing. In speaking to the multitudes about the cost of discipleship in Mark 8:34-38, Jesus was clearly talking about salvation because He says in verse 36 "for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and FORFEIT HIS SOUL." If you are not a disciple of Jesus, you lose your soul not your blessing.

In chapter 10, Zane tries to make us believe that James 2:14-26 is not talking about faith that saves from hell, but is only talking about faith that saves from physical death.(pg 121) This interpretation is without merit. James is obviously talking about faith that saves from hell because in verses 21 and 23, James reminds us of how Abraham's faith led to his justification and God credited it to him as righteousness. Zane also tries to convince us that "dead faith" in James 2:14-26 is true faith! He implies that if a faith is dead it must have been alive at one time.(pg 125) What reasoning is that? I like what John MacArthur said concerning this outrageous assumption when he said that "dead faith" does not mean that it was once alive anymore than Ephesians 2:1 would imply that sinners were once spiritually alive before they were "dead" in "trespasses and sins".

In chapter 12, Hodges insists that repentance has nothing to do with salvation by saying that "it is not essential to the saving transaction."(pg 146) He makes this claim because the gospel of John does not use the word "repentance," and says that that is an indication that repentance is not necessary for salvation.(pg 146-148) However, repentance is in the gospel of John by strong implication. John 3:36 says that "he who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who DOES NOT OBEY the Son will not see life..." It is true that we are saved by faith and not by works but this verse teaches us that true faith will produce obedience to Jesus. John 10:27 says that Jesus' sheep follow Him and Jesus said in John 14:15 that if you love Him, you will keep His commandments. All of these passages in the gospel of John are clear indications of repentance and plainly teach that repentance is not optional when it comes to salvation as Zane would have had us to believe. Zane tried to prove that repentance is a human work but Acts 11:18 and 2 Timothy 2:25 teach us that repentance is a work that God does in our hearts and Jesus said in Luke 13:3 and 5 that "unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

I could go on and on and on about this book but I think that covers the main points where Zane was way off base concerning the gospel. If you read this book or any of Zane's other works, make sure you read "The Gospel According to Jesus" and "The Gospel According to the Apostles" both by John MacArthur. Those books are true to the gospel and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. With that, I leave with one more closing thought about our Lord Jesus; "And having been made perfect, He became to all those who OBEY Him the source of eternal salvation." Hebrews 5:9