Author: Drew Costen

The word “repentance” (μετάνοια/“metanoia” in the Greek Scriptures) simply means a change of one’s mind. Under the Gospel of the Circumcision it can technically include a change of actions as well, but under Paul’s Gospel it simply means that you’ve changed your mind about being able to do anything at all to contribute to your… Continue reading Believing the Gospel IS repentance

Most Christians believe that they can choose to believe the Gospel on their own, and in fact believe that one’s choice determines where they will spend eternity. The problem is, this idea is essentially salvation by works or salvation by self, and is really nothing more than humanism dressed up in religious garb. Yes, the… Continue reading Having to choose to have faith is salvation by works

I watched a debate between a Christian and a member of the body of Christ the other night, over whether Universal Reconciliation was scriptural or not. There’s a lot that I could discuss about it, but one thing stood out in particular. The “against” debater pointed out that Jesus stated some people would not be… Continue reading Not everyone will be saved, and yet everyone will be saved

“But God won’t force people to go to heaven to live with Him against their will,” he said when he found out I believed in Universal Reconciliation. “Forcing someone to do something against their will is called rape, and God wouldn’t do that.” “I should probably point out that I’m not saying He’ll let them… Continue reading Is God a gentleman?

Trying to refute the idea of the Snatching Away (or the Rapture, as he called it), I recently had someone tell me that Jesus only returns once, saying, “There’s nothing in the Bible that indicates Jesus will return from heaven to the earth twice.” And you know what? He’s absolutely right. Jesus only returns to… Continue reading Jesus only returns once

What is heaven like? And where is it, anyway? Nearly everyone who believes in God has asked these questions at some point in their lives. The answers they’re normally given, unfortunately, are generally vague guesses or assumptions, or simply statements saying “we can’t know for sure.” The truth, however, is that Scripture actually answers these… Continue reading Heaven isn’t what you think it is

I’ve written about some of the street preachers of downtown Toronto before (see here and here), but I came across some of them again yesterday while on a walk, and once again the duplicity of the words they preached jumped out at me (although I believe they almost certainly had no idea how deceptive what they… Continue reading Salvation by superiority

While most members of the body of Christ agree that the CLV is one of the most accurate English versions of the Bible translated so far, it’s not always the easiest to read, being a literal version and all, so I decided to write my own paraphrase of what might be the most informative explanation… Continue reading The end result of Paul’s Gospel

There’s an important principle of Bible study that has been ignored by nearly all Christians, and because of this, Christianity is full of unscriptural doctrines. You see, God defined what was considered to be sinful for Israelites in the Mosaic law, and basically told them everything they needed to know about life and death in… Continue reading Reading the Bible out of order