Dearest Friends, Two weeks ago I had the privilege of finishing a class on Soteriology (the Doctrine of Salvation) at Baptist Bible College of the Caribbean. While these classes are always a blessing, the Lord used our time together in this class to bless my heart in a great way. Leading up to this point most of the classes dealt with things that the students already had a basic understanding of. For instance, my Life of Christ Class in September added depth to their understanding of the stories they had heard for many years.
Theology however introduces subjects they had not thought about before.
In the Soteriology class I emphasized Scriptures teaching of an "unlimited Atonement" as opposed to the view of Calvinists that Christ only died for a certain group of the people, the elect. This subject meant the students had to gain a Biblical understanding of subjects such as election, predestination, and foreknowledge. Understandably these kinds of subjects led to lots of questions, and very animated conversations. The blessing was to see them slowly understand the Biblical view of election;
God sees from eternity past those who will accept Him in faith (in my case asking Jesus to save me on the way to the grocery store at the age of five)
He chooses to save them (election) based upon their response of faith to the Gospel
The blood of Christ can save all people, but it is only applied to those who receive the gift of the Gospel
With God's help our class encouraged them to wrestle with the deeper theological truths of Scripture (as I like to call it the steak) instead of being satisfied with basic truth. Please pray with me that this excitement and hunger for the deeper truths of Scripture will continue. As their classes continue they will obviously go deeper and deeper, so its easy to sometimes become discouraged with an increased course-load, or not being able to understand something clearly.
Also pray that the professors (myself included) would continue to balance deep truth with practical application. Its increasingly important for us to explain not only the theological truth, but why it matters, and how it can be applied to their personal life.
Thank you for standing with me as I continue to reach, teach, and send the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
In Christ,
John Wilburn
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