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 Warfare Worldview: What Would You Tell the Younger You?

Mom says....

Aftab Uzzaman via Compfight

Jessica Kelley has been fleshing out the Warfare Worldview on her blog in a series of posts using the lens of the death of her child, Henry. Jessica is a beautiful writer, and her reflections are powerful and tender. You’re going to want to be listening to her. Her voice is an important one as we reflect on the problem of evil and our picture of God.

From her blog reflection:

I picked up a stuffed seahorse from her nightstand and pressed its belly.  The toy lit up with an amber glow and began to play soothing lullabies.  That seahorse would lure Henry to sleep for years, and even accompany him into surgeries when she and her husband, Ian, were forced to stay behind.  Henry would develop a deep sense of security and comfort from his seahorse… though it offered no real protection.

I realized that what I mostly wanted was to beg Young Jess to wrestle with her picture of God.  It would be two years before she learned that God’s heart was fully represented in the person of Jesus Christ.  Until then she’d believe in the blueprint worldview, the notion that everything occurs in accordance with God’s perfect plan, his “meticulous divine blueprint,”as though God would orchestrate or nod in approval at what was to come.

Related Reading

Thou Shalt Not Fear Science-Part II

Yesterday I called your attention to Bev Mitchell’s essay in which he integrated science and theology as he reflected on power and love. This is part II of his essay and it’s on the limiting conditions of creation. It’s a fascinating speculative reflection on why God’s creation is the way it is and what our role is in…

“Natural” Evil? 7 Arguments Implicating Satan

Image by Jmos® via Flickr We believe that God is the Creator of nature, but nature simply does not seem to point to a God of love. Parasites, viruses, bacteria, diseases and cancer kill millions and torment millions more, humans and animals alike. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, mudslides and volcanoes do the same. Theists have traditionally argued that…

The Revolutionary Mission of the Church

Last week Greg tweeted the following: YES! “[T]he mission of the church is to participate in a drama that has a cross for its climax…” K. Vanhoozer  This quote from Vanhoozer summarizes a theme that is crucial to the warfare view of the church that Greg holds. The drama of the church is a continuation of…

Topics:

The Full Meaning of Salvation

Many view salvation as a legal transaction, which means that it’s a mere acquittal from the consequences of sin. While forgiveness of our sin is certainly involved, the NT view of salvation goes far beyond this when it proclaims that Jesus came to save his people from their sins (Mt. 1:23)—not merely the consequences of those sins. In fact,…

Responding to Von Balthasar on the Trinity and Suffering

Recently in his blog, The Dish, Andrew Sullivan pointed to an interesting article from The Other Journal called “Evil, the New Atheism, and the God of the Trinity,” written by Jacob H. Friesenhahn.  One of the reasons I love Sullivan’s blog is that he dares to include meaty theological pieces like this right alongside of…

Secret Doubt

J L via Compfight We don’t usually do this, but Jessica Kelley (Henry’s mom) over at Jess in Process wrote a piece about her struggles with doubt, and we got her permission to reprint it in its entirety. She perfectly represents the basic premise of Greg’s upcoming book Benefit of the Doubt. Thanks Jess! Secret…