Posts
Lighten Up: The Whole Point
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Blessed are the Meek, Kingdom, Lighten Up, Non-Violence
A little inspiration for your Friday…
The Problem with Mixing Church & Government
Category: General
Tags: Church, Constantine, Government, Myth of a Christian Nation, Politics, Power
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
Image by fusion-of-horizons via Flickr Some people insist that the only reason that neither Jesus nor anyone else in the first several centuries of the church tried to dominate the political system of their day was…
4 Reasons to Wake Up to the Warfare Worldview
Category: General
Tags: Culture, Demons, Evil, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview, Western Assumptions
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Image by postbear via Flickr A view of the world that grounds the problem of evil in spiritual warfare is not one that many modern people find easy to accept. To many contemporaries, the notion is…
Dying to Live
Category: General
Tags: Benjamin L. Corey, Christian Living, Death, Experiencing God, Holy Land
Image by Benjamin Corey A few days ago, Benjamin Corey over at Formerly Fundy posted a blog about an encounter he had with God in the Holy Land. He shared that he’s been going through…
What Happened on the Cross?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Already Not Yet, Atonement, God, God at War, Jesus, Satan
Topics: Atonement and The Cross, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Since the time of Anselm (11th century), and especially since the Reformation in the 16th century, the tendency of the Western church has been to focus almost all of its attention on the anthropological dimension…
Part 4: An Alternative Cross-Centered Approach
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Book Reviews, Cruciform Theology, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture, Jesus, Magic Eye, OT Violence
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Image by Karl Pang via Flickr As I mentioned in Part II of this review, I am deeply appreciative of the fact that Flood grasps the centrality of enemy-loving non-violence in Jesus’ revelation of God. And…
Part 3: Disarming Flood’s Inadequate Conception of Biblical Authority
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Biblical Authority, Biblical Criticism, Book Reviews, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture, Jesus, OT Violence
Image by Ex-InTransit via Flickr In this third part of my review of Derek Flood’s Disarming Scripture I will offer a critique of his redefined conception of biblical inspiration and authority. I will begin by having…
Part 2: Disarming Flood’s Case Against Biblical Infallibility
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Biblical Authority, Book Reviews, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture, Jesus, OT Violence, Paul
Image by humancarbine via Flickr In this second part of my review of Disarming Scripture I will begin to address its strengths and weakness. [Click here for Part 1] There is a great deal in Disarming…
Must We Deny Biblical Infallibility to “Disarm” Scripture? A Review of Derek Flood’s Disarming Scripture: Part 1
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Biblical Authority, Book Reviews, Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture
Image by e³°°° via Flickr Since I’ve been working on my own book dealing with the violent portraits of God in the Old Testament for the last eight and a half years, I was keenly interested…
Lighten Up: If Every Life is Sacred
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Lighten Up, Peace, Pearls Before Swine, Stephan Pastis, War
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
Is Jesus Really God?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Apologetics, Jesus, Jesus' Divinity, Letters from a Skeptic, Miracles, Resurrection
Topics: Christology, Jesus: Lord or Legend
While it is true that Jesus Himself never comes out and explicitly says He is God in the Gospels, He is everywhere portrayed in terms that lead us to conclude to the same thing. He…
Are You Fully Alive? Here’s the Key
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Cruciform Theology, Fully Human, Life to the Full, Love, Love of God, Trinity
Image by rashdada via flickr. The cross reveals the full truth about us. This truth reconnects us with our true source of life, which in turn heals our idol addictions. This dimension of the cross is frankly…
Does God Change His Mind?
Category: Q&A
Tags: God of the Possible, Open Theism
Topics: Defending the Open View, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Classical theologians usually argue that texts that attribute change to God describe how he appears to us; they do not depict God as he really is. It looks like God changed his mind, but he…
The Jesus Story is a Myth!…And History
Category: General
Tags: C.S. Lewis, Gospels, History, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jesus, Legend, Lord or Legend?, Myth, Resurrection, Truth
Topics: Christology
Image by Len dela Cruz The Jesus story has a curious, and fascinating, relationship with myth and legend. The story of God coming to earth, being born of a virgin, manifesting a heroic, counter-cultural love toward…
On the Other Side of the Cross
Category: General
Tags: Blessing, Easter, Jesus, Resurrection
Image by -Reji via Flickr Bless you all this Easter. He is risen!
On This Good Friday…
Category: General
Tags: Good Friday
Image by Renaud Camus via Flickr …may you know the love of the one who gave his life for you.
Past Sermon Series: Faith & Doubt
Category: Sermons and Video Clips
Tags: Bible, Doubt, Faith, Greg Boyd, Sermons, Woodland Hills Church
Faith is sometimes understood as the lack of doubt. As a result, doubt can be seen as the enemy of faith. But Biblical faith can withstand doubt and even be strengthened by it. God wants His…
Performance Christianity—Getting Over It
Category: General
Tags: Experiencing Jesus, Identity in Christ, Imaginative Prayer, Picture of God, Seeing is Believing
Image by Martijn Braat via Flickr Many Christians feel empty, tired, and apathetic, if not positively angry, though few express this out loud because it’s usually taboo to do so within Christian circles. These believers often fault…
Is Islam Inherently Violent?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Christianity, Islam, Religion, Religious Violence, Violence
An increasing number of people, especially in conservative Christian circles, are claiming that Islam is an inherently violent religion. They point to all the violence in the history of Islam and all of the violence…