Radmacher Addresses Hodges, COSF*

On the tuesday evening of October 7th, at the banquet of the Free Grace Alliance National Conference, Dr. Radmacher announced the winner of the Trophy of Grace for 2008: Dr. Charles Ryrie. While he was giving a speech before introducing him to the stage, Dr. Radmacher announced he was giving away a copy of a newly published book to everyone in attendance. He has written the foreword of this book, titled The Salvation Controversy, written by Dr. Michael Cocoris [1]. Among other noteworthy contributions to Free Grace, Dr. Cocoris was the succeeding pastor of the Open Door Church where Dr. J. Vernon McGee once pastored.

The following is the unabridged copy of his forewording remarks in The Salvation Controversy:

FOREWARD

As a young pastor, 52 years ago, I invited Haddon Robinson, a friend from college days, to come to our church for one of his early evangelistic meetings. Our little church was packed as he served spiritual food for both the regenerate and the unregenerate. For me, it was a life-changing experience from zeal without knowledge to a balance of enthusiastic knowledge as I listened to his careful exposition of the free grace of God (Rom 3:24) to which our people gave rapt attention.

As we spent hours together, I asked him how he learned such exposition of Scripture and he offered to show me by turning me to James 1:19-25 to develop my first expository message "How to Listen to a Sermon": The preparation before the message, the participation during the message, and the practice after the message. (Later in seminary I learned that it was an outline from Howard Hendricks.) But my appetite had been whetted and he strongly encouraged me to attend seminary again: this time at a seminary founded by Lewis Sperry Chafer where they specialized in the teachings of the grace of God.

Two faculty members in particular, Dr. Charles Ryrie and Professor Zane Hodges, were used by God to clarify what I would call justification salvation and sanctification salvation. Faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone plus nothing brings the free gift of everlasting life, the declaration of the believer's righteousness, and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. But the stewardship of that life requires our best efforts and committment if we are to earn the rewards that Jesus Christ desires to give to all believers at the time of the Bema which will determine our capacity to magnify Christ in our reign with Him in glorification salvation. Dr. Jody Dillow has written powerfully about this in his book The Reign of the Servant Kings (Dan. 7:18, 26-27). The spread of this message was heralded worldwide though the pulpit and ministry of Dr. J. Vernon McGee of the famous Church of the Open Door and he was succeeded at that church by the author of this book, The Salvation Controversy, by Dr. Mike Cocoris. It was in his ministry at C. O. D. that Mike and I became close friends and I witnessed the clarity of both his pulpit ministry and writing skills. In 1987, when I was given the task of developing the Nelson Study Bible (now called The NKJV Study Bible), I selected 40 authors. Dr. Cocoris was one of them and all of them had only one book for which to develop study notes except for Dr. Cocoris. Over the ten year period (1987 to 1997) I found myself calling on Dr. Cocoris to rewrite and clarify the notes of several books of the Bible because of his clarity and precision as well as his practical application.

When I read the manuscript of The Salvation Controversy I encountered the same skills that I have found in his other books as well as The Nelson Study Bible (now called The NKJV Study Bible). One very helpful clarification that brought joy to my heart related to the ongoing discussion that we are experiencing among free grace students and writers. We who are united in our belief about faith alone in Christ alone plus nothing have not yet been able to come to agreement about the minimum that must be believed in order to receive everlasting life. Some believe that John 20:31 is sufficient and others believe that the hermeneutic of progress of revelation would require more such as the death and resurrection of Christ. But whatever side we may take in that issue, we all agree that we are commanded to preach the death and resurrection of Christ along with the Apostle Paul who said "we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:23-24). On this, all free grace people are agreed.

I pray that this book will bring as much joy to your heart as it has to mine.

Earl D. Radmacher, Th. D.
President, Grace Bible Institute and Seminary of the Northwest



* COSF stands for "content of saving faith." There is disagreement concerning the amount of truth that must be understood and accepted in order to receive eternal life, once hearing the message of the good news of salvation in Christ.

[1] Cocoris, Michael G. The Salvation Controversy. Santa Monica, CA, Insights From The Word, 2008.