Updated December 3, 2016
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Dear visitors,

It is with both sorrow and joy that we announce the passing and going to be with the Lord of Pastor John White on Thursday November 13, 2008. Sorrow because we will no longer be able to have fellowship with him at this present time but great joy knowing that '...absent from the body, present with the Lord'.

This website contains many of Pastor White's recent messages as well as written material. Having personally attended Grace Bible Church and John's teaching ministry for over twenty years, I believe the truth the Lord has shown to him through the scriptures to be unique to his ministry. Our fellowship at Grace Bible Church was always small - in the late 80's we had about 30-40 that regularly attended and in more recent years 10-15.  The fact that our numbers really never grew, although we had people leaving and new ones coming throughout this period, never really bothered him. He would quote Luke 12:32 "Fear not, little flock; for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom". This verse could not mean anything to a large church but to us it was very meaningful.

In fact, that was a blessing in disguise as that afforded John less time spent on administrative tasks and more time in the study of the Word. And he hit the Bible study hard and I do mean HARD. He put in a full week every week studying for each lesson and he never recycled his messages. He always brought fresh material and revelation from studying the Word of God every week. John used the King James bible but was not King James only.  On the contrary, John used the Greek grammar in his study and that made all the difference in how he viewed the scriptures, not just the English translation.

Many use grammar in their study but John was unique in that he kept true to the grammar. This forced him to rethink popular salvation verses like John 3:16 where the present tense of the verb believe is used as opposed to the aorist tense of the verb believe as in Acts 16:30-31. The action of the aorist tense of the verb is graphed as a dot. It is punctiliar in action and is best described as an event. This is the tense used in Acts 16:30-31 where the Philippian jailor asked Paul what he must do to be saved and Paul replied "Believe (aorist) on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.". This is the only place in the Bible where the word saved is in the question and the word saved in the answer.

However, the action of the present tense of the verb is graphed as a line and is best described as continuous action.   If the Holy Spirit had used the present tense of the verb believe in Acts 16:31 he would have been saying "...as long as you continue to believe you will be saved" and when you quit you would be lost. We are so glad God did not use the present tense of the verb in Acts 16:31 because did you know you can "...believe (present tense) for awhile..." Luke 8:13 and then fall away?

Our salvation is based on believing (aorist) in the Lord Jesus Christ. When John saw that the present tense of the verb believe was used in John 3:16 he saw there was a discrepancy with Acts 16:31 and this caused him to rethink John 3:16. John 3:16 states that "...whosoever believeth (present tense) in him (the Son, the High Priest) should not perish (subjunctive might perish) but have (subjunctive may have) eternal life." Believe in this verse is in the present tense and both of the verbs perish and have are in the subjunctive mood which indicates the possibility of failure. Those believing in the present tense may quit and hence the reason they might perish and might not have eternal life.  Our problem is our understanding of what eternal life means. We think it means living forever but a scriptural study reveals something else, something even better.

If the Lord had wanted to show salvation in John 3:16 he could have used the aorist tense of the verb believe and the indicative mood of the verbs perish and have. The indicative mood is the mood of certainty. He could have said "whosoever believes (aorist) in him shall in no wise perish (indicative mood) but shall definitely have ( indicative mood) eternal life".  But he didn't use that grammar even though it is used in other passages of scripture. So what does this kind of thinking do for a person? It gets you thrown out of church, that is what is does for you. And so it was with John who was asked to leave the church where he was teaching Bible study. But he was determined to preach the whole truth regardless of the consequences.

I am so glad he stuck with what he knew was the truth so that you and I could have this website as a resource for knowing the deeper truths of God's Word. And those truths pertain to the coming kingdom of our Lord and to us being found prepared and qualified to rule and reign with him or being found not prepared and not qualified to rule and reign with him. Being found qualified and ready to rule and reign with him at the judgment seat of Christ is the true "eternal life" that is being talked about in John 3:16. See the tract on Eternal Life under Articles on this website.

Before we end, I want to say John's brilliance and gift of teaching from the Lord was in the area of doctrine. For those of you looking for answers on doctrine you will find it here on this site. One of John's more sublime contributions to the Church is on the doctrine of election. Whereas the whole sum of study on the topic has been framed by the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism. They are both terribly wrong and miss the simple revelation in Rom 9 which is the key to its understanding. That key is that election is a family matter, God elected Jacob over Esau - both were "in the family". See the tract on Election under Articles for a profound study on the doctrine of election.

For those so led by the Lord, Grace Bible Church has setup a Benevolence Fund for Jean, Pastor White's wife for nearly fifty   years.  Contributions should be designated "Benevolence Fund" in the memo area of the check and can be mailed to Grace Bible Church's address at the top of this webpage.

Many thanks to those of you who have supported us in fellowship and encouragement through the scriptures.

Paul Corcoran

Elder - Grace Bible Church

 

HAVE YOU CHECKED THE TIME?

HAVE A QUESTION?

LEARN HOW TO BE SAVED

 that salvation is by "believe" alone
Acts 16:30, 31
and that the saved will stand
approved by "obedience and faith".

Hebrews 10:38; 11:6

But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
 Matthew 6:33
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,
that ye also may have fellowship with us:
and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
and with his Son Jesus Christ."

1 John 1:3