We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
The Evangelical Heart
Rachel Held Evans posted recently about The Scandal of the Evangelical Heart. Citing a comment by John Piper (“It’s right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases. God gives life and he takes life. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die.”) she notes that when we approach the Bible in the ways that we traditionally have, we risk becoming something less than human in our responses to suffering. And we risk worshipping a God that is heartless and cruel and capricious. She calls for us to follow Jesus with both our “head and heart” rather than setting aside empathy and emotion as we approach theology.
May we be a people who do not harden our hearts when encounter things that ought to break our heart.
From the blog post:
I’m not sure he and I will ever understand one another, but I’ve decided to quit apologizing for my questions. It’s not enough for me to maintain my intellectual integrity as a Christian; I also want to maintain my emotional integrity as a Christian. And I don’t need answers to all of my questions to do that. I need only the courage to be honest about my questions and doubts, and the patience to keep exploring and trusting in spite of them.
Category: General
Tags: Empathy, Evangelism, Rachel Held Evans, Theodicy, Theology
Related Reading
Listening Like a Hostage Negotiator
Pedro Ribeiro Simões via Compfight It seems like from the moment we become Christians we’re taught how to present an argument and defend our beliefs. But not many of us are taught how to listen well. This might be why Christians are perceived as arrogant or judgmental. It’s not helping the cause of Christ and it’s…
Where is Human Free Will in the Bible?
The Bible is emphatic on its teaching that humans possess free will and are capable of originating evil. Notice, for example, that in the very first chapter of the Bible God commands humans to be fruitful and exercise dominion over the animal kingdom and the earth (Gen. 1:26). The fact that God must command us…
SERMON CLIP: Hell in a Nutshell
Is hell for real? Is it what we have been told it is? Does an all-loving God really torture people there forever? These are a few of the questions that Greg Boyd touches on in this weeks sermon clip. In the full sermon, Greg explores the fallacy of relativism, the singular truth of Jesus as…
We Need The Church
Vicki & Chuck Rogers via Compfight Last week we shared a thought-provoking article by Rachel Held Evans on the reasons millennials are leaving the church. This week we want to share a follow-up to that article that appeared on CNN’s Belief blog. Rachel lists the reasons why millennials actually need the church. Her thoughts actually apply…
Kingdom Sightings: God and Guinness
Evan Leeson via Compfight Here’s a unique Kingdom initiative from one of our readers that we wanted to share with you. If you’re in Ann Arbor, check it out! Starting in January, one of the pastors at our church (Kevin Davis, of 242 Community Church in Ann Arbor, MI) will be starting a new initiative…
A Calvinist Take on the Problem of Evil
Carnie Lewis via Compfight Here’s a Calvinist view on the problem(s) of evil in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. It’s the old God-as-author analogy. In essence, this is how Calvinism views God’s role in any instance of radical evil (quoted from the Desiring God article): But, of course, the Bible says more than…