Ronald Smith continues discovering the Truth and living in the Power of God.
A viral Facebook post says free will is an illusion and the root of pride. It gets one thing right about people who try to run their own lives. This reply looks at foreknowledge, Joseph, the cross, and what Wesley taught, and shows why the question matters for willful sin.
Read this post →A viral graphic says “Bride of Christ” isn’t in the Bible. The exact phrase isn’t in the King James Version, but the idea is all through Scripture, and the passages that use it keep returning to one question: faithfulness. This post looks at what the marriage pictures say about willful sin, the way back, and the One who makes the bride holy.
Read this post →Grace covers me anyway, so what’s the point?” is the sharpest question people ask about the book. This post answers it by showing that grace has two meanings, forgiveness and enabling power, then gives six reasons 1 John 3:9 still matters, using Scripture, Wesley, and the evidence around us.
Read this post →A viral video from Christian Faith Archive says many American megachurches have quietly dropped two doctrines: the reality of hell and the sinfulness of sin. This post checks that claim against Jesus’ words, John Wesley, and Lifeway Research’s 2025 survey data. It ties the result to the book’s Trap Two and to 1 John 3:9.
Read this post →“We’re married in our hearts” is spreading as a way around the biblical standard. This post lines it up against the 95% premarital-sex statistic and the book’s Trap One (it isn’t sin) and Trap Two (nothing will happen). It answers with Jesus, Scripture, Wesley, and Romans 13, and ends with the way back: make it a real marriage or end it.
Read this post →A viral infographic gives six reasons “Arminianism is unbiblical.” This post agrees with what it gets right (salvation is of the Lord) and answers each of its six claims from Scripture and Wesley. The answers cover election, depravity, Romans 9, resistible grace, perseverance and who gets the glory.
Read this post →The "Once Saved, Always Saved" debate argues about whether willful sin can cost you your salvation, but it skips the real question. Once willful sin is defined (Hebrews 10:26), why would a believer who knows better, is equipped with the Holy Spirit, and understands the consequences choose to disobey God at all? The post answers the "too tempting" excuse with 1 Corinthians 10:13 and other promises. It argues that zero tolerance for willful sin shuts the debate down at the point where it belongs.
Read this post →A reel made the case that "getting closer to God" is a fallacy. It pictures a sliding scale, while John 15 describes a binary: you abide in the vine or you don't. This post agrees, answers James 4:8's "draw near to God," and separates what can grow (fruit, fellowship) from what can't (attachment). It argues that willful sin is the dividing line.
Read this post →A popular reel says hamartia just means "missing the mark," like an archer's arrow falling short. The etymology is real. But John defines his own word in 1 John 3:4: sin is lawlessness.
Read this post →Repentance is a turn toward God. Confession is agreeing with Him about one specific sin. How the two fit together, and why 1 John 1:9 needs both, in that order.
Read this post →John Wesley refused the phrase "sinless perfection" by name in 1759. The line he drew between willful sin and honest mistakes, and what the book's title actually claims.
Read this post →No, the book doesn't claim literal, never-a-mistake sinlessness — it's specifically about willful sin. As for the Greek behind 1 John 3:9: does "does not sin" describe a habit, or a nature? Only one of those actually fits what John wrote — and it's not the one most translations assume.
Read this post →The new mark is a dove descending into a sunrise, the picture Matthew uses at Jesus's baptism. Here is the theology behind it, starting with a verse that gets skipped: John 16:7.
Read this post →Paul called himself a doulos of Christ: a slave who owned nothing and could not quit. English Bibles say "servant," a word with off-hours, and that changes how 1 John 3:9 reads.
Read this post →The Greek word behind "church" is ekklesia, a governing assembly of people. The English word comes from a different phrase meaning "the Lord's house," so the picture became a building.
Read this post →The Greek word behind "confess" means to say the same thing. Confession is agreement with God, not a show of sorrow, and that changes how 1 John 1:9 and James 5:16 read.
Read this post →John 5:24 is one of the stronger verses for eternal security, yet it falls short of "free grace" no matter what follows. The question it leaves open: believe Him for what?
Read this post →A popular online preacher argues that repentance is simply a change of mind, already contained inside belief. He is right about the word. The trouble is what he builds on top of it.
Read this post →“Can you lose your salvation?” treats salvation like a set of keys you could misplace. Scripture uses three tenses for it, which is a very different picture: a roof over your head while it rains.
Read this post →A widely held position says salvation, once given, cannot be lost: it is grace, period. The cross really was sufficient. That still answers a different question than the one actually on the table.
Read this post →A deliverance minister teaches that born-again, Spirit-filled believers routinely still have demons living in them. That claim runs straight into the question my book was written to answer.
Read this post →Ronald keeps working through these questions in the open. Join the list and each new post arrives as it publishes.
Join the List
