Farewell J. Kenneth Grider

I was saddened to learn today of yesterday's passing of J. Kenneth Grider. Grider was a long-time professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary and an ordained pastor in the Church of the Nazarene. He specialized in the field of Christian perfection / entire sanctification and also served as a translator on the "Committee on Bible Translation" which produced the New International Version of the Scriptures.

His book A Wesleyan-Holiness Theology is perhaps the best one volume summary of evangelical theology from a Wesleyan perspective currently in print, and has had a profound influence on my own theological development, introducing me to the "governmental model" of Atonement theology, which Grider (along with the great John Miley and others) argued was the proper Wesleyan view of this essential doctrine.

I praise God for the ministry of J. Kenneth Grider, which likely will continue to bless the Church and touch Christians everywhere until our Lord returns.