The Ten Most Misunderstood Words in the Bible
Overview
If you do not understand what God is saying, then you don’t believe what he is saying. To believe something requires that you first understand. There is a lot of confusion about certain words that occur in the Bible. This confusion isn’t merely among laypeople, but among pastors, missionaries, professors, evangelists, and parachurch workers as well.
While all the words in the Bible are important, some stand out as especially so. The 10 words discussed in this book are foundational to our eternal destinies and our eternal well-being.
In the Logos edition, all Scripture passages in The Ten Most Misunderstood Words in the Bible are tagged, appear on mouseover, and link to your favorite Bible translation in your library. With Logos’ advanced features, you can perform powerful searches by topic or Scripture reference—finding, for example, every mention of “faith” or “Hebrews 11:1.”
- Discusses common myths about saving faith
- Provides 11 additional words in an appendix
- Includes a study guide
- Faith
- Everlasting
- Saved
- Lost
- Heaven
- Hell
- Repentance
- Grace
- Gospel
- Judgment
Top Highlights
“Believing in Christ is the sole condition of everlasting life. There is no such thing as special types of faith called heart faith and head faith. Saving faith doesn’t include commitment, obedience, or turning from sins. It is merely the conviction that Jesus is speaking the truth when He says, ‘He who believes in Me has everlasting life’ (John 6:47).” (Page 12)
“Repentance is turning from one’s sins in order to escape temporal judgment. The issue in repentance is not who is born again and who is not. The issue is who is walking in open rebellion against God and who is not. The consequence of turning from one’s sins is not the gaining of eternal life, but the improvement of and extension of one’s life here on earth, whether for the believer or unbeliever.” (Page 109)
“‘If everlasting life could be lost, then it has the wrong name.’” (Page 24)
“If you become confused on this point, John 3:16 takes on a whole new meaning: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever surrenders his entire heart, mind, and will to Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ Such an understanding of John 3:16 will not result in anyone being born again.8 In addition, that view makes assurance of your eternal destiny impossible. You will go through life wondering if your commitment and obedience is sufficient. Every time you have a major argument with your spouse, curse another driver, or do anything which you confess as sin, you will wonder how a fully surrendered person could do that.” (Page 10)
“The Bible is consistent. Whenever it speaks of the free gift of everlasting life that everyone who simply believes has right now and can never lose (by far the most common references to everlasting life), the Bible always uses a present tense verb (e.g., John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47). And the few times when the Bible speaks of everlasting life as a potential future reward for work done, the future tense is used. There should be no confusion on this point.” (Page 29)
- Title: The Ten Most Misunderstood Words in the Bible
- Author: Robert N. Wilkin
- Publisher: Grace Evangelical Society
- Publication Date: 2012
- Pages: 224
Dr. Bob Wilkin received his ThM and PhD from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has served as a campus evangelist with Campus Crusade for Christ, a hospital chaplain, a pastor, and a Bible college professor, and he is the founder and executive director of the parachurch organization Grace Evangelical Society (www.faithalone.org).
Dr. Wilkin has written seven books covering assurance of salvation, eternal rewards, key words in the Bible, final judgment, difficult New Testament texts, clarity in evangelism, and Calvinism. He is the editor of and a contributor to The Grace New Testament Commentary and he has written hundreds of magazine and journal articles. Bob regularly speaks across the country and occasionally speaks overseas.
Reviews
15 ratings
cmeric
12/21/2023
Larry Edwards
7/28/2018
to be fair I only made it to ch.3 with his definition of Faith as only knowing who Jesus is and what he did. Is it posable for a person to be saved against their will simple by gaining that Knowledge. Is not part of that knowledge that Jesus is Lord. Don't get me wrong I believe in eternal life. but I find it odd that someone dose not think you need to acknowledge Jesus as your Lord to be saved/ have eternal life but dose think that you have to believe in eternal life to be saved. sorry I have to give a one star to this book it is to high a rating.
Kevin R Shultz
10/12/2017
I appreciate the the attention to detail and the clear teaching of these "Words" from a biblical context.Glenn Crouch
5/18/2016
I started out quite enjoying this book, and I do agree with the Author that it is vital that we examine and re-examine Scripture to see if we are using "words" in the way that they are intended. Even further, I agree with many of the criticisms that the Author raises about the misuse of the "words" he has chosen, and even agree with many of his conclusions about how the "word" in question should be used. So what changed as I continued to read? Well several issues I think, and any one of them probably would not have been a problem. However all of them made the book a little less satisfying for me. First, the Author assumes that the Premillennial Hermeneutic is not only correct, but the only option available. Whilst I lean far more to an Amillennial approach, I have no problem reading theology by most reasonable Premil authors. However on a few occasion the Author seems to build a significant part of his argument on a Premil approach, when I think he could appeal to a far wider audience if he didn't do that. A Young Earth Creationist viewpoint is similarly assumed but that isn't forced on the reader like the Premil side of things. Second, the Author keeps referring to when he did his doctorate he believed A, and now that he has really looked at Scripture he believes B. That is marvellous and all well and good. But it gets painful I think the number of times this is used. Plus (and this may be just me) he seems to come across as discovering all this "real meanings" and kind of ignores others who have gone before. In fact, some of the words in question, I have never accepted what the Author indicates as the "wrong meaning" and have always seen what he indicates as the "right meaning". So perhaps the Author's enthusiasm is just lost on me... Third, the Author seems to be repeatedly attacking Reformed / Calvinist Authors of note. Can't say that I am a big fan of some of the Authors he mentions. However given the voluminous output of these Authors, to claim that they believe something from a sentence or paragraph quoted; and to then tear that argument down - does seem a little of a "straw man" type approach. Don't get me started on his arguments for adult full immersion Baptism as the only Scriptural approach ;-) I also think that the Author is not really allowing for any of the "words" to have levels of meaning, and that this may make for better dialogue with those he disagrees with (mentioned above). On the plus side, this book does make you think - and that it will make you think about your understanding (and whether that understanding is Scriptural) is a good thing. Just think it had a lot of potential that it didn't take advantage of :) Oh, and it would've been really nice at the end of each Chapter if there was a nice little Bibliography of other books to read on the topic!Prophet_kevin
4/1/2016
M. David Johnson
3/27/2015
James
3/6/2015
Richard Summitt
1/17/2015
David Loo
12/4/2014
Seems like an interesting read. I too read the excerpt, and I guess I'll have to read further to see what exactly the author is (or is not) saying. I also did save some money, as the same book is only $1.04 (Canadian dollars, or $0.99 USD) on Amazon. Of course, while reading in Kindle, I lose the convenience of linking directly to my bibles and other references; but the savings is significant.James Mills Jr.
10/29/2013
