Greg Boyd
End of Year Reflection
Category: General
Tags: Kingdom, Kingdom Revolution, New Year, ReKnew, Thank You
As we approach the end of this year, I’d like to take a moment to personally thank all of you who are invested in ReKnew. Honestly, your prayers, your words of encouragement, and your financial…
The Accelerating Train
Category: General
Tags: Meaning, New Year, Resurrection, time
Topics: Faith & Doubt
If you aren’t experiencing it yet, you will. Each year goes by faster than the previous one. The reason is that, as you get older, each year is a smaller fraction of your life. I…
The Cross in the Manger, Part 2
Category: General
Tags: Christmas, Cross, Jesus, Power, Upside-Down Kingdom
Topics: Christology
While some shepherds were tending their flock, an angel appeared to them announcing “good news that will cause great joy for all the people,” for it news about “a Savior…the Messiah, the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11)….
The Cross in the Manger
Category: General
Tags: Christmas, Cross, Incarnation, Jesus, Jürgen Moltmann, T. F. Torrance
Topics: Christology
There has been a strand within the Western theological tradition—one that is especially prevalent in contemporary American Evangelicalism—that construes the significance of the cross in strictly soteriological terms. The cross is central, in this view,…
Why Believe the Virgin Birth Accounts?
Category: General
Tags: Apologetics, Jesus, Reliability of the Gospels
Some skeptics claim that the story of the virgin birth of Jesus is derived from similar stories from pagan literature. While I won’t address here the details of the various parallels that some use to…
A Non-Violent Creation
Category: General
Tags: Creation, Non-Violence, Peace, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
A biblical teaching that we often overlook regarding the centrality of non-violence concerns God’s original vision of creation. We have grown so accustomed to the violence we experience as a part of nature that we…
Welcome to the New ReKnew!
Category: General
Tags: ReKnew, Wizzy Wig Web Design
Say hello to the new and much-improved ReKnew website! Not only have we upgraded the look, feel, and functionality of our site (e.g. our new search engine frankly rocks!), we’ve added – and will continue…
Warfare Worldview: A Basic Definition
Category: General
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, Evil, Open Theism, Satan, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
The warfare worldview is based on the conviction that our world is engaged in a cosmic war between a myriad of agents, both human and angelic, that have aligned themselves with either God or Satan….
Kingdom Now
Category: General
Tags: Already Not Yet, Kingdom
Topics: Following Jesus
Yesterday, I introduced the tension of living in the “already-not yet” kingdom. (See post here.) There I referred to the fact that we are living between D-Day (the point at which WW2 was won) and…
The Victory is Already Won, But Not Yet
Category: General
Tags: Eschatology, Kingdom, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Christ came “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), to disarm “the rulers and authorities” (Col 2:15), and to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil…
The Full Meaning of Salvation
Category: General
Tags: Forgiveness, freedom, Salvation, Sin, Warfare Worldview
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…
How Calvinism Misses the Point About Salvation
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Election, Open Theism, Predestination
Topics: Defending the Open View
Calvinists sometimes argue that various passages in John teach that the Father chooses and then “draws” certain people to Christ. Those who are “drawn” certainly come to Christ (John 6:37) while all who are not…
Support for Open Theism from Science and Experience
Category: General
Tags: Determinism, Einstein, Open Theism, Polkinghorne, Science
Topics: Defending the Open View
I have discussed the scriptural support that depicts the future as partially open and that God knows it as such. I do this in God of the Possible. If a position is true, every avenue of…
The Earth is a Spiritual Battlefield
Category: General
Tags: Church Fathers, Evil, Free Will, Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
The early Church Fathers uniformly believed that angels, like humans, were created free and given a sphere of influence and responsibility over creation. As with humans, angels could use this influence for good, as God…
God Became What He is Not To Reveal What He Is
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, God, Salvation
Topics: Attributes and Character
We are saved because Jesus became the curse of the law for us (Gal. 3:13). So too, the way Christ freed us from the condemnation of sin and enabled us to “become the righteousness of…
The Heresy of “Just War”
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Faith, Just War, Law, Non-Violence, Old Testament
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Since the time when the Jesus-looking kingdom movement was transformed into the Caesar-looking “militant and triumphant” Church, there has been a tradition of Christians by-passing the enemy-loving, non-violent teachings of the NT and instead appealing…
What’s the Purpose of the Old Testament Law?
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Law, Old Testament
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
Whereas the old covenant was rooted in the law, the new covenant is rooted in simple faith, such as Abraham had. Whereas the old covenant was forged with one particular nation, the new covenant is…
When the Law Demanded the Death Penalty
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Law, Old Testament, Religious Violence, Violence
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…
Trusting in a King = Rejecting God
Category: General
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
As Israel’s renowned prophet Samuel approached death, the Israelites grew insecure about God’s ability to protect them from the perpetual threat posed by the surrounding nations. They therefore complained to Samuel that they wanted to…
Did God Want a King for Israel?
Category: General
Tags: Divine Accommodation, Moses, Old Testament, Power
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Verse: Deuteronomy 17
By the time God was ready to form a nation for himself by delivering the Israelites from the oppressive rule of the Egyptian Pharaoh, every nation was ruled by someone and existed in tension with,…