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.
Frank Viola’s Interview With Greg: OT Violence and the Spirit World
I have not yet personally met Frank Viola, but over the last several years we’ve conversed and debated a good deal, to the point that I consider him a good friend. He is one of those all-too-rare types of people who is solidly grounded in the Word and yet who is not enslaved to traditional ideas. Indeed, in some of his works he’s been strongly critical of traditional ideas and practices (see his book, Pagan Christianity). At any rate, I was happy when Frank invited me to be interviewed by him. I knew he would ask the right questions as well as make me answer tough questions, and he did. I also appreciate the fact that he let me give full answers rather than trying to just get sound bytes (which is why this interview is longer than most, but I think you’ll find it worthwhile).
You can find the interview HERE.
Enjoy!
Photo credit: Onasill ~ Bill Badzo via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA
Category: General
Tags: Frank Viola, Old Testament, Spiritual Warfare, Violence
Related Reading
Jesus and the Reality of Spiritual Warfare
In yesterday’s post, we discussed how challenging it can be to believe in the reality of a spiritual realm in the modern world. Today, let’s look at how Jesus’ ministry relates to this spiritual reality. While Jesus and his followers of course believed that God was the ultimate Lord over all creation, they clearly viewed…
8346
Umberto Salvagnin via Compfight Oh oh. It’s getting ugly up in here. Frank Viola is suggesting that Greg needs to fix a nice tall glass of shut-up juice. He and Greg have decided to have a debate on the open view sometime this fall, and they have been engaging in some smack talk since that decision…
Getting Behind the “Letter” of Violent Portraits of God
“I will do to you what I have never done before… in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents…” Ezek. 5:9-10 In my previous post I offered a brief review of Matthew Bates’ fascinating work, The Hermeneutics of the Apostolic Proclamation by Matthew Bates (Baylor University Press, 2012). Among other…
Did the Crucifixion Allow God to Atone for His OWN Sins? (podcast)
Greg considers God’s nature and if he could sin. Dan confesses an old gambling habit. Episode 477 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0477.mp3
When the Law Demanded the Death Penalty
The Sinai covenant is significantly structured around violence. It motivates behavioral conformity by promising rewards and threatening violence. Without the threat of violence, the law looses its “teeth.” If the law is an acquiescence to sin, then the divinely sanctioned violence that is associated with it must also be considered an acquiescence to sin. The…
Becoming Like the Accuser
When the Adam and Eve yielded to Satan and surrendered their God-given authority over the earth and animal kingdom (Gen 3), Satan became “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), the “ruler of the world” (Jn. 12:32; 14:31) and the “principality and power of the air” (Eph. 2:2) who “has power over the whole…