General
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…
How to be Transformed
Category: General
Tags: Cataphatic Prayer, Imagination, Imaginative Prayer, Prayer, Rest, Transformation
We are transformed as we gaze upon the beauty and glory of God. Paul put it this way, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image…
Your Prayers Matter
Category: General
Tags: Free Will, Open Theism, Prayer
My conviction is that many Christians do not pray as passionately as they could because they don’t see how it could make any significant difference. They pray, but they often do so out of sheer…
Merry Christmas from ReKnew
Category: General
Tags: Christmas, Daniel Bonnell, Eustace the Dragon
Bless you all as you celebrate the birth of Jesus today. Here’s another song by Eustace the Dragon to celebrate. Ten Grinches, plus two by Eustace the Dragon Said the night wind to the little…
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,…
Conservative/Liberal are not Theological Categories
Category: General
Tags: Jonathan Martin, Kingdom, Politics, Religion
We wanted to repost something by Jonathan Martin today that struck a chord with us about the theological emptiness of political boxes. It’s brief and beautifully written and we hope you’ll read the entire article…
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…
Christmas Music from Eustace the Dragon
Category: General
Tags: Christmas, Eustace the Dragon
Our friends Eustace the Dragon just released a second Christmas EP that we wanted to share with you. You can find the latest Christmas EP here, and you can find last year’s EP here. Merry Christmas…
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…
Faith or Magic?
Category: General
Tags: Covenant, Doubt, Faith, healing, Homosexuality, Magic, Salvation, Sin
Many Christians today treat faith like magic. While the content of what Christians believe is obviously different from pagan practitioners of magic, the way they believe and the motive they have for believing, seems to…
What Does Greg Think About _________________?
Category: General
Tags: Q&A, ReKnew
Since the launch of the new website yesterday, I’ve been browsing around the various topics to see what I can find. You can click here to join me. This is awesome. If you want to…
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…
10 Problems with the Penal Substitution View of the Atonement
Category: General
Tags: Atonement, Christus Victor, Cross, Penal Substitution View of Atonement
Topics: Atonement and The Cross
If asked what Jesus came to do and how he did it, most contemporary Western Christians would automatically say something like, “Jesus took the punishment from God that I deserved.” This is what’s usually called…
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….
Should Christians Arm Themselves?
Category: General
Tags: Current Events, Discipleship, Guns, Jerry Falwell Jr, Non-Violence
Jerry Falwell Jr, the president of Liberty University, recently encouraged the students to arm themselves saying, “I always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they…
God is Not a Monster
Category: General
Tags: Attributes of God, Character of God, God is Love, Jesus
Pastor Brian Zhand has a way with words that captures the imagination. And he is a pastor that has taken time to read the church fathers. In a recent post, he quotes Saint Antony who wrote, “I no longer…
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…