We are placing a few excerpts from this volume to show you how it may be useful to you.

We plan to have each lesson on audio CD so that it may be played in the CD players in your automobile. If you do not have a CD player, but do have a tape player, you may purchase, for about $50.00, a CD player that will have an adapter to let you play the CD’s just as you would a tape player. Likewise, you can listen to the CD’s with this player while walking or in the privacy of your own home.

The theme of this years’ lectureship is well known by the readers of the Harvesters, and those who visit our Web Site. However, new things are forthcoming for the lectureship.

We were limited to about 25 listeners on the website at any given time in the past. It will be broadcast live again this year, but with an unlimited access capability.

Plans are underway to offer a CD of the lectures from 2000 through 2004. This material will be placed in a format that will enable you to find topics, and author in a PC with CD-Rom. It will enable you to locate sections as you have need, and you will be able to copy and paste this material into your own materials. We only request that you give credit to the source of the material you use. Each CD will load automatically when placed in the CD drive of a computer (PC).

We plan to have each lesson on audio CD so that it may be played in the CD player in your automobile. If you do not have a CD player, but do have a tape player, you can purchase for about $50.00 a CD player that will have an adapter to let you play the CD’s just as you would a tape player. Likewise, you can listen to the CD’s with this player while walking or in the privacy of your own home. This year’s hard copy of the book will contain a copy of the printed text on CD. We are placing a few excerpts from this volume to show you how it may be useful to you, and provide a few comments that should encourage any student of the Bible to want to listen to the lecture and to read and reread the research done by each writer or speaker. I am using a prepublication version of the CD and am taking the following quotes from it and citing each author to show the contribution made to this study by these writers.

E. Claude Gardner, “Briefly, there are three facts about grace that are evident. First, grace is taught in the Bible extensively. All who will go to heaven will do so only by the grace of God. Second, the church and preachers of yesterday and today believed and taught the subject of grace. Other synonymous names were also used such as mercy, love, and clemency. Grace was not discovered in our generation, as some have averred. It is true that some have discovered in the last quarter of the twentieth century unbiblical grace, which is a revision of Calvinism. . . .Third, wherever truth is taught, error will arise to oppose it.”

Billy Lambert, “The blessings enjoyed “in Christ” are almost as numberless as the stars of heaven. What are some of those ‘spiritual blessings’? First, there is no condemnation. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’ (Rom. 8:1). Second, the reality of being a new creature, or creation. ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2 Cor. 5:17). Third, there is salvation. ‘Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory’ (2 Tim. 2:10). These three passages should be sufficient evidence to show that ‘spiritual blessings’ such as freedom from condemnation, being a new creature, and salvation are found only ‘in Christ.’”

Steve Atnip, “God’s grace is sufficient to save the souls of people, to bring them through life’s great struggles, and to help them persevere on to eternal glory. Life’s struggles should always be viewed as an opportunity for God’s grace to create strength out of weakness. Let us always remember that the assistance proffered by God to humanity is fully sufficient to accomplish his purposes. People, however, may frustrate that great grace by stubbornly opposing the will of God by their own will. Grace is not sufficient to save people apart from their own will. Neither is grace sufficient to help a person persevere to eternal life if that person does not will to imbibe of God’s grace as it instructs him or her in the word of God.”

Editorial Comments, Index items are presented to demonstrate that our people have persistently taught on the grace of God. To state that we have neither understood nor emphasized grace is to manifest an ignorance of this important concept, or it is a malicious misrepresentation of the facts. We have cited the Millennial Harbinger articles on grace beginning in 1850 through 1869.

The index of articles from the Gospel Advocate through 1988 was provided by brother Neil Anderson, Gospel Advocate Company, February 7, 2003. I have rearranged them by date of publication for this appendix. We are grateful to brother Anderson for providing this index, and trust it will be of help to those wanting information on where and when our brethren have addressed the subject of grace. From the years 1989 to July 2003, I have consulted the index of the December issue of the Gospel Advocate each year for articles relating to the subject.

Hugo McCord, “True it is that ‘the law was given through Moses,’ while ‘grace...came through Jesus Christ’ (Jn. 1:17). However, it is a misinterpretation to conclude that there was no grace in the Old Testament (Cain was spared the death penalty, Gen. 4:12; 9:6, and David also, 2 Sam. 12:13; Lev. 20:10), and that there is no law in the New Testament: ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ’ (Gal. 6:2).”

V. P. Black, “Sin is the worse thing known to man. Every pain, sickness, death, and sorrow is the result of sin. Sin promises the real thing and cheats with the shadow. Sin promises silk, but gives shroud. Sin promises liberty, but gives slavery. Sin promises hope, but gives despair. Sin promises happiness, but gives sorrow. Sin promises peace, but gives death. Sin is as treacherous as Absalom who would do us obeisance and steal our hearts from God. Sin is as hypocritical as Judas who would betray us to death with a kiss. Sin is as deceptive as left handed Ehud who would extend his right hand in fellowship, and with his left hand, plunge a dagger through the stomach. Sin is the eldest born of hell, for it was the sin that made him the devil. Any person that can believe that sin does not carry with it individual and national calamity is as foolish as the person who could believe that a spider’s web would keep a huge boulder from rolling down a mountain side.”

If you are not here in January, we will miss you.
Editor.

2004 Lectureship Schedule [CLICK HERE]