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.
Quotes to Chew On: Conflicting Depictions of God
“This is something like the way I believe we should respond when we encounter biblical narratives that depict God doing things we can’t imagine Christ doing. For example, I can’t for a moment imagine Jesus—the one who made refusing violence and loving enemies a condition for being considered a child of God—commanding anyone to mercilessly slaughter anyone, let alone an entire population that included women and infants. And yet, Yahweh is depicted as doing this very thing in a book that Jesus himself considered inspired, and thus a book that I, out of obedience to him, feel compelled to regard as inspired.”
“I submit it would be unfaithful to Christ and the relationship he has forged with us on the cross to allow this or any other narrative to call into question the loving character of God that he reveals. So too, it would be unfaithful for us to invest this or any similar narrative with the same authority we invest in Christ and to thereby conclude that Jesus only reveals part of God—as though there is a merciless violent streak in God that remains hidden behind the cross.”
“A more faithful response, I believe, is to instead assume that there must have been things going on behind the scenes that we are not privy to. And until we can ask him face to face, the faithful thing to do is to try and imagine what this “something else” might have been.”
Boyd, Gregory, Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty, p.192, Baker, 2013
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Quotes
Related Reading
Podcast: Where Does Forgiveness Fit in a Cruciform Theology?
Greg offers looks at forgiveness in a realm of natural consequences. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0298.mp3
The Bible Is Insufficient
Patrick Feller via Compfight Kurt Johnson wrote a piece a few days ago on the proper place of Scripture in the life of a believer. He reflects on the fact that we have elevated the Bible to a place that God really never intended. We are a people centered on a person, not a book.…
Sermon Clip: Keeping Christmas
Through Christ, God fulfills all his promises, and by yielding to him and giving up control, we can set ourselves free. Full Sermon here: http://whchurch.org/sermons-media/sermon/keeping-christmas
A Foolish and Weak-Looking God
The New Testament assumes that the God of Israel and the God revealed in Jesus Christ are one and the same God. But there also can be no question that the portrait of God that was unveiled when the Messiah arrived on the scene was in some respects quite different from what the OT had…
Xmas
Kevin Dooley via Compfight Zach Hunt brings a huge challenge in this article about the ongoing lament about the “liberal attack on Christmas.” Maybe the real problem is not with the media or the “liberals” or the merchants, but with us. There’s an opportunity here for us to remember who we really are and what…
“I hope to challenge the assumption that finding the right political path has anything to do with advancing the kingdom of God.” [Quotes]
I do not argue that those political positions are either wrong or right. Nor do I argue that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics. While people whose faith has been politicized may well interpret me along such lines, I assure you that this is not what I’m saying. The issue is far more fundamental than how we should vote or participate in government. Rather, I hope to challenge the assumption that finding the right political path has anything to do with advancing the kingdom of God.