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GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION

Jesus for Jerusalem

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On the night he rose from the dead, Jesus instructed his disciples to preach a new message of unconditional forgiveness. Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46–47, NKJV) The message of grace and forgiveness was for all nations, but it was particularly for the Jews. “Beginning at Jerusalem,” said Jesus, as though he knew there would be some who would deny grace to his killers. “God’s grace is for all, but those in Jerusalem get to hear about it first.” Then, before he ascended to heaven, he said it again. “Be my witnesses in Jerusalem …” (Acts 1:8b). There is a reason why Jerusalem is considered the birthplace of Christianity and it is not just because Christ died there. By the Lord’s command Jerusalem was the first place evangelized with the gospel. By the Holy Spirit’s direction, Jerusalem was the location of Pentecost. And by the apostles’ obedience, Jerusalem was the birthplace of the church. Jesus did not wash his hands of Jerusalem. [...]

Free Book for Subscribers

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Escape to Reality is eight years old this week! To celebrate, I want to give you a free PDF copy of my latest book, AD70 and the End of the World: Finding Good News in Christ’s Prophecies and Parables of Judgment. This offer is limited to the first 1,000 subscribers, so get in quick. How to get your free book: 1. Got to the AD70 website 2. Click on PDF 3. Click “I want this” 4. Enter this offer code without any spaces: princeofpeace 5. After the price drops to $0, click “Get” Can’t find your download, check your spam folder? The price didn’t fall? This means the 1,000 free copies have been snapped up. Enjoy your new book! My deepest thanks to my patrons, whose generosity makes these giveaways possible. Patrons also get the inside track when it comes to promotions and fun giveaways like this. And thanks to you, dear reader, for sharing the journey. Grace and peace, Paul

Can You Lose Your Salvation?

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Can you lose your salvation and become unsaved? When I first began writing about the gospel of grace this was a subject few people spoke about. It was too contentious, too uncertain, too hard. So one summer I set out to read every single scripture on the subject. Turns out there are about 300. About half of them say you can’t lose your salvation, while the other half seem to suggest you can. At first glance, these two groups of scriptures seemed to be in conflict with one another. One group was full of God’s unconditional promises; the other was full of conditional statements. But when I read these scriptures through Jesus-glasses, I found not one scripture that said you can lose your salvation. Although there are bad consequences to straying or falling from grace, having your Father unchild you is not one of them. (If this is news to you, I recommend reading this list of the top 12 promises regarding your eternal security. You will be encouraged!) Can you lose your salvation? No. Not a chance. God’s Word is crystal clear. So why do people worry that they can? They worry because they don’t know what makes the [...]

What about those who cry “Lord, Lord?”

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On four occasions, Jesus spoke about people who would cry out “Lord, Lord” yet not be received into his kingdom. Who are these people and what have they done, or not done, to find themselves on the wrong side of Christ? First, note that Jesus is NOT talking about believers. Whenever Jesus used the phrase “Lord, lord,” he was talking about people who don’t know him: In Matthew 7:21 and 22, “Lord, Lord” is the plea of the self-righteous who brag about all they’ve done for the Lord only to find their works count for nothing. In Matthew 25:11, “Lord, Lord” is the cry of the foolish and locked out virgins. In Luke 6:46, “Lord, Lord” is said by those who have not built on the solid foundation. In Luke 13:25, “Lord, Lord” is uttered by those who refuse to enter the narrow door. What do these Lord-Lord folk have in common? Jesus doesn’t know them. They may claim to prophesy and cast out demons, but Jesus calls them evildoers. They may be busy “working for the Lord” but it’s all dead works because they haven’t done the one thing that matters. They have not received from the abundance of [...]

The Many Benefits of Union

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Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. (Eph 1:3, GNB) You may know that you are blessed in your new life, but you may not know that 100 percent of your blessings come as the result of being one with Christ. Let us consider some of these blessings, starting with salvation. 1. Salvation What exactly is the basis for your salvation? It is your union with Christ. You are not saved because you said the magic words of a sinner’s prayer. You are saved because you are one with the Lord and his saving life is your life. Paul said he endured all things so others may “obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:10). We mislead people when we sell salvation as a ticket to heaven. It’s not that it’s wrong, it’s just woefully incomplete. Salvation is not about being put into a lifeboat but being put into Jesus (Ephesians 1:13). Besides, those in lifeboats aren’t really saved. They still need to be rescued. This is why Christians with [...]

What are the Shortened Days? (Matthew 24:22)

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If they made an historically-accurate movie about the fall of Jerusalem in AD70, two things would stand out. First, the magnitude of the city’s destruction would break your heart. (In a city home to 200,000, as many as a million people died. It was a unique and unprecedented genocide.) Second, if you were familiar with the scriptures, you would be amazed at the accuracy of Christ’s prophecies. Jesus made no less than 40 detailed predictions about the fall of Jerusalem, and every one of them came to pass in the time-frame he specified. In this extract from my new book, we will look at just one of those predictions, the one about the shortened days. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. (Matthew 24:22) Sieges could last years and Jerusalem was a tough nut to crack. When he erected his barricade around the city, the Roman general Titus could have expected to be camped outside Jerusalem for years. As it was, he penetrated the outer walls in a matter of weeks and was all done and dusted in a little over [...]

Happy Christmas and a Free Book for You!

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For the next 24 hours, my book Stuff Jesus Never Said is available free on Kindle. Grab your copy before they run out of 1’s and 0’s. Stuff Jesus Never Said is my most awarded-book. It’s full of good news that’ll put a smile on your dial and make you thankful for Jesus. Got friends who don’t read? Send them the download link and tell them Stuff Jesus Never Said is full of funny pictures. Got friends who haven’t heard the gospel and would never set foot in a church? Ditto. SJNS is free of Christian jargon and presents the good news in a humorous and disarming manner. This Christmas giveaway is funded by the generosity of patrons. Patrons are readers like you who have signed up to make a small monthly contribution. Patrons keep me writing. Patrons also keep this website ad-free and fund the giveaway of “grace bombs.” Patrons are truly partners in this gospel venture. Since it is Christmas, I want to thank you all for sharing the journey. If you commented on a post, thanks for joining the conversation. If you shared something I wrote, thanks for passing it on. And I particularly want to thank [...]

The Old is Good Enough (Luke 5:39)

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Here’s a verse that perplexes some folk: No one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, “The old is good enough.” (Luke 5:39) If the new wine is the new covenant, why would anyone prefer the old? People go with the law only because they haven’t tried grace right? The new covenant is better in every way – the Bible says so. Surely no one who has tried both would prefer the old. It doesn’t make sense. But it makes perfect sense to someone like me. The obsolete covenant Those of us who use desktop PCs occasionally get messages that say “this program is no longer supported by the developer.” This means the program has become obsolete, and we are supposed to download the newer and better replacement. Obsolete does not mean the program has stopped working, but it does mean we will no longer get support from the people who made it. The problem is some people resist change. If the old program is still working, we won’t replace it. We’ll keep using the old email program or the old browser and ignore the persistent reminders to upgrade. At first this is not a problem. Everything [...]

4 Myths about the Antichrist

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No end times’ sermon is complete without a reference to that eschatological bogeyman, the antichrist. For those who came in late, the antichrist is evil incarnate. He’s in league with the devil, and he is your worst nightmare. According to some, he will be responsible for the deaths of two out of every three people in these terrifying last days. Who is he? The antichrist is widely believed to be a charismatic figure who will take control of the one world government before persecuting Christians in a great tribulation. When I was a kid, everybody knew the antichrist was Henry Kissinger. It was obvious. But then Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols said he was the antichrist. So did Marilyn Manson. Some say the antichrist is Harry Potter or that freaky kid from The Omen. But those are fictional figures. The real antichrist is the pope. At least that’s what Protestants have been saying ever since the Reformation. And who do the Catholics think it is? Obama, apparently, although I imagine his stock has fallen since he left office. I guess now it could be Trump. Or Putin. Or that new Austrian leader. According to one movie I saw, the [...]

The Endurance of the Saints

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Image source There are nearly two dozen New Testament scriptures that speak of enduring or holding fast to the end. The wrong way to read these scriptures is to think, “I must sweat and strive and endure or be disqualified from the kingdom.” If the Christian race is a marathon, it begins at the finish line. Christ has already endured which is why, in him, we can have peace when troubles come. So why does the Bible contain so many exhortations to endure? Because you and I have a great need for endurance, and God has promised to supply that need (along with all our other needs) according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Php 4:19). It is essential that you see God as your need-supplier, otherwise you will get distracted by scriptures like this: There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name. This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. (Rev 14:11-12, NIV) The New International Version Bible makes it sound like your salvation is contingent upon your [...]

How to Get Your Book Published

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“Paul, can you tell me how to get my book published?” I sure can. I have been in the publishing game for 20+ years. I have published more than a dozen titles including a few award-winners. I’ve worked with traditional publishers and gone the independent route. And I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons, such as this one: Lesson #1: There has never been a better time to be an author If you have a book inside you, your options for getting it published are better than ever. “Well I don’t have a book inside me, and I don’t understand why you’re talking about this. I thought Escape to Reality was a gospel blog.” You’re right, and this is the wrong place for a discussion on the how-to’s of publishing. But I get asked the question at the top of this post so often that I thought I’d share my experience with all the writers and budding authors out there. Not a writer? You may want to pass this along to your writing friends. Want to be an author? Then read on. My heart is to help people do what I do, which is write about the gospel. Writing is [...]

Are Women Permitted to Teach? (1 Timothy 2:12)

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I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. (1 Tim 2:12) Oh dear. Don’t tell Joyce Meyer that women aren’t allowed to teach. Or my mum, my wife, or a gazillion other ladies who teach in church. They’re all sinning. They should stop teaching and be quiet. Paul said so. But wait a second. Paul endorsed several female teachers including Junia, Priscilla, Euodia and Syntyche. Was Paul confused about the role of women in the church? Or are we? What is Paul really saying? I want to offer a grace-based commentary of this troublesome passage and the surrounding verses. Credit where credit’s due, much of what follows was inspired by an essay on women’s service written by NT Wright: Let a woman learn… (1 Tim 2:11, NKJV) Whoa! Right there we should dip our hats to Paul the liberator of women. Consider the context. Under patriarchal Jewish religion, women had few rights. They could not enter the main part of the temple, they were forbidden to speak in the assembly, and they certainly weren’t encouraged to learn. The low view of women held by religious Jews is revealed in this [...]

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