Posts
Lighten Up: Head and Heart
Category: Lighten Up
Tags: David Hayward, Lighten Up, Love, Naked Pastor, Thinking
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…
Hungry Hearts
Category: General
Tags: C.S. Lewis, Love, Spiritual Hunger
Every human being with normal mental and emotional faculties longs for more. People typically associate their longing for more with a desire to somehow improve their lot in life—to get a better job, a nicer…
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…
Prayer When You’re Anxious
Category: General
Tags: Practicing the Presence of God, Prayer, Present Perfect
The following is adapted from a prayer exercise that Greg wrote for his book, Present Perfect. If you’re feeling anxious today (or even if you’re not anxious at all) we encourage you to spend a little time…
What is the Gospel?
Category: General
Tags: Arminianism, Calvinism, Open Theism, Roger Olson
Our friend Roger Olson raised this question in response to accusations by Calvinists that those who espouse Arminianism do not “preach the gospel.” The same argument has been made about Open Theists. Olson writes: The complete gospel…
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…
A FREE Resource on Spiritual Formation
Category: General
Tags: Spiritual Formation, Woodland Hills Church
Topics: Following Jesus
Last week, we began a 6-week series at Woodland Hills Church entitled Formed: The Shaping of a Life. The first sermon by Greg can be watched here. As a part of this series, the church has…
Lighten Up: The Good Shepherd
Category: Lighten Up
Tags: Psalm 23
Verse: Psalm 23
You’ll never read the 23rd Psalm quite the same again. Video courtesy of Deidox.
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,…
God’s Way of War
Category: General
Tags: God, Non-Violence, Old Testament, War
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
As Judah was facing impending doom, the Lord told Hosea that he would save them “not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God” (Hos 1:7). So…
