Customer Reviews

The Reign of the Servant Kings: A Study of Eternal Security and the Final Signficance of Man

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Outstanding book. Although hefty in size, Dillow has taken on the hefty task of outlining a third system of theology which differs from both Arminianism and Calvinism. This book deserves the highest praise for Dillow's attempt to continue what the reformers began long ago: that is set the gospel free from introspection & doubt and base it on grace through faith alone. The alternative systems hold to such views as conditional security and perseverance in holiness, which cloud the free offer of sonship and undermine assurance. More study is definitely needed to define this system. It seems the greatest weakness of the traditional systems of theology is their failure to incorporate the field of lexical semantics into their exegesis. This Dillow has begun to do and it reveals a refreshing and inspiring look at the New Testament.

The rebuttal to this volume by Crenshaw, as with most lordship salvation proponents, falls short of answering Dillow's exegesis (by simply restating his own position), and continually seeks shelter in "what the reformers have said." At some point, we must set the reformers aside and take a good look at what the Word of God itself is telling us. If this leads to a whole new theological system, then so be it.

This is a deeply thoughtful work that will take hours of study to work through. The ideas in this book fill in the missing elements of the "reformation" of the 16th century. I am convinced that if you take the time to study this book, it will help you to grow in God's love.

I am reading it again and doing a group study to push me to a deeper understanding. Praise the Lord for this work!

The Reign of the Servant Kings clears up an endless amount of confusion. Dillow rejects both Calvinist and Arminian views of eternal security and points to Scripture to show that you can indeed know you are saved. Through reading this book, the Word of God sings to me with clarity and purpose in a way it has never before. It was a shock to learn of the overwhelming amount of scripture that is obviously mishandled for the purpose of the pet doctrines of some. Through Dr. Dillow's insights, the security and significance of the believer become tangible, and the Lord is greatly magnified. Read this book immediately and pass it to your brothers and sisters in Christ. It will be an eternal blessing to yourself and to those you love. Do not hesitate, it is well worth your time.

I'm no theologian but I read this book on the recommendation of my pastor after I expressed difficulty reconciling the parts in the Bible about rewards in Heaven and being concerned about my motivations here on earth.

I have to say that the experience has changed my life course. Dillow presents a thorough, bible based analysis that finally made sense of the Christian life on earth and reconciles the difficulty between Arminianism and Calvinism. His book is extremely motivational for me.

This is Dillow's magnum opus. He covers all the bases concerning the gospel, assurance, eternal security, perseverance, and rewards. He takes a stand that is somewhere between Calvinism and Arminian. The Scripture index is invaluable. It let's you quickly find out what he has to say about passages that you want help understanding, or that you just want to know what the interpretive options are

Dr. Jody Dillow has done a wonderful service by writing this book. It does a super job of distinguishing between eternal life, which is conditioned upon faith alone in Christ alone, and eternal rewards, which is conditioned upon faith working through love.

Jody handles many difficult texts, explaining them clearly and succinctly. The Scripture index in the back makes this a handy resource anytime you have a question about a passage.

Jody is a personal friend of mine. I know him to be a gracious Christian gentleman, a man of high character. He is also a Bible scholar of the first order. I highly recommend this book.

Bob Wilkin, Ph.D. Author of Confident in Christ: Living by Faith Really Works.

Jody Dillow's work is thoughtful, and careful, and a direct contrast to the isogesis of Reformed and Covenant theology, which interprets scripture to support it's beliefs, rather than developing a theology through exegisis of God's revelation. One thing is clear, God's Spirit did not write His Word, the Bible, with dual meanings on the issue of eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone as the basis for receiving the free gift of eternal life. So, get ready to make a choice - you can't believe that eternal life in Christ is a free gift, and simultaneously believe that eternal life is given by God upon the conditional requirement that we will also agree to obey and follow Christ as Lord, after we receive the free gift of eternal life. That would be a contradictory statement, and not an offer of FREE grace. Dillow's work exposes the flawed arguements of Calvinist belief in this area, allowing the truths of God's record to speak for themself. Those who are proud of their contributions to God, who boast in their surrender to God, and of the works they offer to validate the genuineness of their conversion - they will hate the message of grace found in this book. They have a lot to lose in the way of their own pride, in what they have committed to God, if they would actually accept the premise of free grace. Pride is absolutely blinding, just as the Pharisees who knew God's word were blinded by their pride to see that God's grace truly is free. Grace is free, and it frees us to really live in Christ and become all God intends, rather than to be a slave to sin. Those who love the freedom of real life in Christ, to follow and serve Him through grace and love rather than fear - will love this book. If you hate God's grace, and want to promote Lordship salvation - you will devise ways to denigrate this work. It is one of the best!

This book explains how and why the believer is eternally secure in The Lord Jesus Christ/Yahshua and His ETERNAL "Work On The Cross." The author goes through Scripture passage after Scripture passage to explain the security of our "So Great Salvation." He also deals with so-called problem passages, and explains how many of these passages are dealing with loss of reward, not salvation. He strips us of our legalistic interpretations of Scripture in a meticulous/rational manner.... If you want to hang on to your legalistic/blasphemous views on Salvation (if you believe in lordship/works salvation) don't read this book. The truth will offend you. Actually, it already has.

Reign of the Servant Kings is a well-researched, well-written Calvinistic defense of the Christian's unconditional eternal security. The two opposing, alternative theologies, considered at length, consist of the more traditional kind of Calvinism, as well as Arminianism, both of which are in conflict with the author's thesis, which claims that Christians are able to live in defiance of the biblical warnings and commands to persevere, and yet remain secure in Christ.

The book strongly emphasizes the exegetical approach to biblical interpretation, rather than the wholistic and mystical approach. Thus, the book is very objective, providing abundant citations of biblical and historical contexts, word-studies, and other little known facts. Not much time is spent arguing from wholistic, more subjective interpretation, except in opportunities which seem to lend obvious support to his thesis.

In discussing the more traditional, Five-Point Calvinism, the author reveals and refutes its fifth point's claim guaranteeing the final perseverance of the saints in basic, holy living. It does so by citing the many biblical warnings to Christians against falling into gross sin and suffering eternal loss as a result. Some examples are found in John 15, Heb 6 and 10, 2 Peter 1-3, and Rev 3. He persuasively shows that the warnings are genuine and straight forward, not hypothetical or irrelevant, and that they are intended primarily for Christians.

Closely related to the above arguments are those against the Arminian claim that major failure results in loss of security in Christ. The author objects to this by maintaining that the same passages cited above are not warnings of loss of final salvation, but rather are warnings of loss of temporal blessings, treasures in heaven, etc. Thus the author spends much time developing and defending a wide variety of distinctions within important biblical words and phrases, such as salvation, justification, eternal life, knowing God, inherit the kingdom of God, having one's name in the Book of Life, sharing in the Tree of Life, and many more. These distictions serve to allow each word or phrase to be interpreted to signify final salvation concepts, or temporal salvation concepts--whichever suit the needs of the author's thesis in any given passage. This was persuasive, and even instructive, regarding a few words, like salvation and judgment. However, most of the distinctions seemed to lack wholistic soundness, and were subjectively rejected by this reader as being abusive of exegetical methods. Thus, some crucial defenses of unconditional eternal security were found unacceptable.

This book is a great resource that can be useful to all Calvinists and Arminians alike. It is strong enough to train the best seminary students, as well as being so user-friendly that it can be understood by everyone. It may be a milestone book, and the most serious students of the Bible ought to have their own copy