Gospel Guidebook: Getting and Keeping It Right 
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Introduction
My name is Robert P. Terry and I created this website in order to archive some of my writings as well as to provide some links to content that I think is useful. I have written my core beliefs below and have provided my testimony on my About page. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at gospelguidebook@sent.com.
If you have not yet believed in Jesus Christ for eternal life, I would recommend reading the tract The Secret to Life's Meaning and watching the video The Gospel - Plain and Simple. If you are a believer, I would recommend my short book Jesus Christ the Savior of the World, as well as the short booklet Starting My New Life in Christ.
Disclaimer: This website contains my opinions and interpretations of the Bible and other related topics, as well as links to the opinions and interpretations of other people. I have been a student of the Bible for over 20 years, and have endeavored to provide accurate information, but it is never a good idea to blindly accept the teachings of anyone, so I encourage everyone to prayerfully read their Bibles and come to their own understanding of things.
Featured Articles
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Christians and COVID-19 Hysteria
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Is Universalism Compatible with "Eternal Punishment" in Matthew 25:46?
Core Beliefs
Free Grace
I believe that a person is saved and receives eternal life at the moment of believing in Jesus Christ, apart from any pre- or post-salvation works, repentance, obedience, prayers, confessions, water baptism, or anything else (John 6:47). I believe that salvation is a gift from God (John 4:10).
I interpret the verb "believe" as "accepting or receiving something as being true." This would include the "believe that" expressions in John 8:24, John 20:31, and 1 John 5:1. I construe the expressions "believe in," "believe into," and "believe unto" as being essentially equivalent to "believe that" and interpret them as "accepting or receiving someone as being truthful." These expressions would include John 3:15, John 3:16, and Acts 16:31. In the case of Abraham in Romans 4:21, his "being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform" basically equates to his "accepting the promise as being true and receiving God as being truthful." This understanding of the verb "believe" can be derived from passages such as John 3:11-12, 3:32-33, 12:47-48, and 1 John 5:9-10. In particular, it should be noted how John 3:11-12 and 1 John 5:9-10 basically equate "receiving witness" to "believing." As for the noun "faith," I interpret this word as having the same meaning as the gerund of "believe," i.e., "believing." While it would normally be wrong to load a verbal meaning into a noun, I am of the opinion that in salvific contexts, "faith" does mean "believing" in consideration of verses such as Romans 4:3 and Romans 4:5 where we see that the meaning of "faith" is in fact derived from the verb "believe." In particular, in Romans 4:3, the omitted noun in the final clause could very well be interpreted as the gerund "believing." For more information on this topic, please see my article Belief or Trust?
See the section on Salvation for various articles and links about Free Grace and related topics.
Oneness of God (aka Modalistic Monarchianism)
I believe in a strict Monotheism – that God is numerically one. I believe that the one God of the Old Testament, YHVH, became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, is both fully God and fully man, being the visible image of the one invisible God. Jesus' deity is none other than that of the Father. As it pertains to His humanity, Jesus was born of a virgin in time.
I don't intend to write much about the Oneness of God, but please see the section on Oneness for links to various articles, books, and videos on this topic.
Sovereignty of God (aka Predestination)
I believe in predestination, absolutely speaking, and limited free will, relatively speaking. In other words, I believe that we live as possessing a limited amount of free will, but behind the scenes, God is directing all things in accordance with His will (Ephesians 1:11). Furthermore, I say "limited free will" because there are certainly many things in life that we cannot control with our wills, being beyond our power and being subject to cause-and-effect relationships that shape every moment of our existence.
I don't plan on writing or linking to any material on the sovereignty of God, but I will say this: if you have believed in Jesus Christ for everlasting life, it only happened because God caused you to be born at a time and place in history with access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just think of the countless billions of people who were born before the Gospel was available or born in a country without easy access to the Gospel. And even among people born in countries where Bibles are abundant, look at how few people actually believe. We should never think of ourselves as being more worthy or better than other people. The only reason we believe is because God chose us before the foundation of the world to become inheritors of His great salvation. It is God's gift to us. Praise Him!
Universal Reconciliation (Biblical Christian Universalism)
I believe in the eventual reconciliation of all of God's creatures. My current understanding is that people who believe in Jesus Christ during this life receive a special salvation and will enter into glory upon death. People who die without believing in Jesus Christ will be saved in the afterlife, but will receive an inferior social status compared to those who believe during this life. I recognize that there are some "tough texts" such as Matthew 25:46 and 2 Thessalonians 1:9, but I believe that these texts need to be interpreted in accordance with the many plain and positive statements about God's intention and plan to save all of His creatures. Please see my articles God is the Savior of All Men, Is Universalism Compatible with "Eternal Destruction" in 2 Thessalonians 1:9?, and Revelation 14:9-11 and Christian Universalism for my opinion on various tough texts.
As far as the plain and positive statements about God's intention and plan to save all of His creatures, here are the most important ones in the New Testament.
| John 1:29 takes away sin of world | John 3:16 God loved the world | John 6:51 flesh for life of world |
| John 12:32 will draw all men | Acts 3:21 restoration of all things | Acts 17:28 all are his offspring |
| Rom 5:18 justification to all | Rom 11:32 have mercy on all | 1 Cor 15:22 all alive in Christ |
| 2 Cor 5:19 reconciles world | Eph 1:10 gather all in Christ | Eph 1:11 works all to his will |
| Phil 2:10 every tongue confess | Col 1:20 reconcile all things | 1 Tim 2:6 ransom for all |
| 1 Tim 4:10 Savior of all men | Titus 2:11 salvation to all men | 1 John 2:2 propitiation for world |
| 2 Peter 3:9 not willing any perish | Rev 5:13 every creature worships | Rev 22:2 healing of nations |
See the section on Universalism for articles on this topic.
Preterism
I had been a Dispensationalist for many years and wrote the Gospel Guidebook from the perspective of Dispensationalism. However, toward the end of 2020, my studies in Ephesians regarding the "one new man" persuaded me that my view on Dispensationalism may have been incorrect. This led to months of study and reevaluation of several key texts on the imminent return of Jesus Christ and the end of the age, such as Matthew 16:28, 24:31, and Revelation 1:1-3. Without going into detail here, my studies led me to a change in eschatology. I now believe in what is called Preterism. This is an eschatological system that views all of the prophecies in the Bible, including the Book of Revelation, as having been fulfilled in the 1st century AD.
I don't intend to write any articles on Preterism, but see the section on Preterism for links to books, articles, and videos on this topic.
Gospel of John
I prioritize the Gospel of John in all discussion involving what a person needs to do to be saved. When I wrote the Gospel Guidebook, I had given priority to the Apostle Paul's letters (partially because of my views on eschatology, as noted above). However, I have realized that the Gospel of John needs to be prioritized since it is the only book in the Bible that was written from the point of view of evangelism. For more details, please see my article on John 20:30-31.
Textus Receptus Greek New Testament
I believe that God has preserved the New Testament perfectly in the Textus Receptus tradition. I have written more specifically about this in my article Which Textus Receptus?
Spiritual Warfare
The Christian church and Western countries has been suffering moral and cultural decline since at least the second half of the 19th century. However, in the past few decades, this decline has been exponential. Sadly, most Christians don't seem to have gotten the memo and are rather completely oblivious or indifferent to the fact that there is a worldwide conspiracy to wipe us out. I say "fact" because it is undeniable that Western countries are the only countries in the world being flooded with tens of millions of immigrants of different moral and cultural values and ethnicities with the purpose of destroying God's arrangement by which He entrusted the "Greeks" (i.e., Western civilization) with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (found in the Greek New Testament) nearly 2,000 years ago. We are in the biggest spiritual war since the days of Noah. God always wins, but because of unrestrained and full-on ungodliness in our countries due to greed, idolatry, violence, injustice, consumerism, narcissism, evil technologies, "science," "wokeness," and every unnatural relationship and vile lifestyle, it seems inevitable that we will experience immense suffering in the short and mid term. If there was ever a Nineveh moment in our lives, it is now. If Christians would simply mourn and say "No!" to the tyranny and onslaught, even if it costs them their careers and lives, then by the grace of God, even at this late hour, I believe that God would forgive us and our ancestors and save our countries. Please see the section on Spiritual Warfare for more information.