Dr. Alva J. McClain
1888 – 1968
Founder and first president, Grace Theological Seminary
“Either Christ will save you by grace through faith plus nothing, or He will not save you at all!”
Alva J. McClain, Law and Grace (Winona Lake: BMH Books, 1973)
1888 – 1968
Founder and first president, Grace Theological Seminary
“Either Christ will save you by grace through faith plus nothing, or He will not save you at all!”
Alva J. McClain, Law and Grace (Winona Lake: BMH Books, 1973)
Alva J. McClain grew up in Sunnyside, Washington, and attended the Sunnyside Brethren Church. He is the founder of Grace Theological Seminary — now Grace Schools — and indirectly the founder of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, now the Charis Fellowship.
You will see how God uses the most unlikely people for His purposes, and guides all the events of their lives for His glory. The goal here is to give a clear and accurate account of the foundational issues that led to the forming of Grace Seminary and the Grace Fellowship, and why “standing firm on grace alone” matters so much.
Watch
A narrated account of his life in three parts: his early years to the point of his conversion, his life of service, and the doctrinal roots of Grace Seminary and the Grace Brethren fellowship. Illustrated throughout with family photographs. 36 minutes.
Listen
McClain preaching on the Bible Truth Broadcast, a radio programme of the 1940s. Recorded from the original broadcasts — his own voice, close to eighty years on. About fourteen minutes each.
Ask
Put a question to the archive and get an answer drawn only from McClain’s own works — his theology outlines and articles, the seminary history, the Africa mission history, and a volume on interpreting Scripture. Every answer cites the pages it came from.
A pictorial biography of the life of Alva J. McClain, from his birth to the founding of Grace Theological Seminary, with a review of the doctrinal and theological differences between the Grace Brethren (McClain) and the Brethren Church (Ashland). Two original short sermons in his own voice. And an interactive archive of his writings you can put questions to.
A question returns a summary of what the archive can find on the subject, the citations and the excerpts the summary was built from, and the text of any Bible passages cited. Answers can be downloaded as a Word document, with or without the citations.
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In 1921 McClain wrote …
… the Christian must be “intolerant” in order to be a true Christian! But there are two qualifications. First, we are to be intolerant only of false teaching which strikes at the fundamentals of the faith and intolerant of sin. Second, we must exercise our “intolerance” in love, and never let it find expression in physical violence. Within these limits intolerance is a righteous attitude — the mark of every true child of God.
Alva J. McClain
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