Podcast: How Does God Judge?

The Problem with Naming People’s Sin June 4, 2018

Jesus told a woman caught in adultery: “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Since Jesus said this, does this give the church the right to tell people not to sin? It’s one thing for Jesus, who “knew no sin” to say this and quite another for people like us—with tree trunks protruding out of…

Finger-Pointing and the Impulse to Judge December 18, 2012

To no one’s surprise, yet to the sadness of many of us, several Christian spokespeople, including James Dobson, Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fischer, are blaming the shootings in Newtown, Conn, on abortion and gay marriage. This is sadly reminiscent of Jerry Falwell’s hurtful response to 9/11 when he divined that “the pagans,” “abortionists,” “feminists,” “gays,” “lesbians,”…

How do you explain the violent judgement of Ananias and Sapphira? August 25, 2012

Question: You talk a lot about the violent depictions of God in the Old Testament. But what about God’s slaying of Ananias and Sapphira in the New? How do you explain that? Answer: The same way I explain divine violence in the Old Testament. There’s simply no reason to think the cruciform hermeneutic (reading Scripture…

Cruciform Aikido Pt 3: The Judge Who Lets Them Have It July 26, 2012

We ended our last post noting that in the cross God ingeniously turned evil back on itself and triumphed over it. But what does all this teach us about the nature of divine judgment? Two things. First, as the one who bore our sin, Jesus experienced the judgment we deserved when the Father withdrew himself and…

Cruciform Aikido Pt 2: God-Forsaken Judgment July 19, 2012

So if Jesus is the supreme revelation of what God is like, as we explained in our last post, what does that tell us about the nature of God’s judgment?

As Jesus was dying on the cross he cried out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46). This shocking cry reveals…

Everybody’s Got a Prequel January 9, 2008

My wife and I, along with some friends, recently attended the Broadway Play Wicked. Without giving too much away, I’ll tell you the play attempts to answer the question: What could have possibly made the “Wicked Witch of the West” so [apparently] evil (as presented in the original Wizard of Oz)? After all, normal young…