Michael L. Brown - The Grace Controversy: Answers to 12 Common Questions

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THE GRACE CONTROVERSY

by Michael L. Brown, PhD

Published by Charisma House

Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group

600 Rinehart Road

Lake Mary, Florida 32746

www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Modern English Version. Copyright 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations marked CJB are from the Complete Jewish Bible. Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the English Standard Version. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NAS are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

All Scripture quotations marked NET are from the NET Bible (New English Translation). Copyright 19962006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Copyright 2016 by Michael L. Brown, PhD

All rights reserved

Cover design by Vincent Pirozzi

Design Director: Justin Evans

Visit the authors website at www.AskDrBrown.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Brown, Michael L., 1955- author

Title: The grace controversy / Michael L. Brown.

Description: First edition. | Lake Mary : Charisma

House, 2016. | Includes

bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016006420| ISBN 9781629989198

(trade paper : alk. paper) |

ISBN 9781629989204 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Grace (Theology)

Classification: LCC BT761.3 .B748 2016 | DDC

234--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016006420

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

CONTENTS

I T SEEMS LIKE every few decades a fresh wave of teaching on the subject of grace sweeps through the church. Often it brings a needed corrective, since it is very easy for believers to fall into a legalistic mind-set, almost forgetting what Jesus did for them on the cross. At other times the message goes too far, mixing dangerous error with glorious truth.

This is where we find ourselves today with what many are calling the grace revolution. There is a wonderful emphasis on grace, but in many cases it is an exaggerated emphasis, one that goes beyond what the Scriptures say and even introduces serious error. I, along with other leaders, have called this modern, exaggerated message hyper-grace, and I devoted an entire book to the subject titled Hyper-Grace: Exposing the Dangers of the Modern Grace Message.

The book was released in January 2014, and very quickly we began to receive requests from around the world, asking for the rights to translate the book as soon as possible. Last year I returned from a ministry trip to Europe with copies of Hyper-Grace in Italian and Dutch, and when I got home, there was a copy of the Finnish translation of the book on my desk.

This points to how widely this hyper-grace message has spread around the world and how urgent it is that we address its errors. Yet there is no denying that many have been helped by this same message, or at least by parts of it. How do we sort this out?

In Hyper-Grace I cited most of the main hyper-grace teachersmen whom, with rare exception, I consider brothers in the Lord, despite their exaggerated messageciting their actual words and getting into in-depth scriptural and theological discussion. Not surprisingly, the book was more than three hundred pages long, since I was eager to be fair to those I differed with and was even more eager to exalt biblical grace while correcting hyper-grace.

This book is an entirely new work, adapting very little content from the previous book and using a wholly different approach. (I also adapted some paragraphs from my 1999 book Go and Sin No More: A Call to Holiness.) The discussion here is much simpler; with the exception of one short quote, no hyper-grace teachers are cited; and I have written the book to answer twelve of the most common questions believers have after being exposed to the hyper-grace message (which I also refer to as the modern grace message).

As for the structure of this book, each chapter is complete in itself, but while the chapters can be read in any order, there is a logical progression, with the later chapters building on the earlier ones. So it is best to read this little book from beginning to end. But, to repeat, the chapters can with profit be read in any order, and I will always refer you back to an earlier chapter for more insights when relevant.

I also want to make a note about some of the terminology I use. In recent years I have increased the call for teachers, preachers, professors, and Bible translators to stop using the name James in place of Jacob in reference to Jesuss So throughout this book I use Jacob with James in parentheses.

With this book my goal is to edify and strengthen and encourage, and my goalreally, Gods goalis to see people flourish in Gods grace: biblical grace, glorious grace, amazing grace. When believers fully embrace it, they will have no need for the exaggerated and erroneous message of hyper-grace.

For those wanting more in-depth discussion of the themes in this book, I encourage you to get a copy of Hyper-Grace and work your way through the many endnotes and references. You can also visit my website, AskDrBrown.org, for many free, relevant resources, including audio, video, and written materials.

My prayer is that you will be established in Gods grace as you read this book, and so I echo the doxology of Paul, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor. 13:14, NIV).