Faith
Why Did God Heal or Not?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
In 1996 a 27-year-old man in my church named David was diagnosed with an inoperable brain cancer. The doctors decided to send David to the Mayo Clinic to receive some experimental treatments on the slim…
Does God Still Heal?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
In the ancient world Jesus was known first and foremost as an exorcist and a healer. These two activities are mentioned in every summary of Jesus’s ministry found in the Gospels. It’s common for Western…
Why Doesn’t God Heal When We Ask?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
If we are called to manifest what Jesus manifested and revolt against what Jesus revolted against, and Jesus carried out the kingdom through healing, then why doesn’t God heal those we pray for? One of…
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…
Do You Argue With God?
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith, Wrestling with God
Topics: Apologetics
Image by michael_swan via Flickr In sharp contrast to many today who seek the comfortable feeling of certainty as a way of feeling at peace with God, biblical heroes are better known for their willingness to be…
Have You Taken a Gospel Immunization Shot?
Category: General
Tags: Doubt, Faith, Kingdom Living
Topics: Apologetics
Why does being “Christian” in America make so little difference in so many people’s lives, when the kingdom movement revealed in the New Testament revolutionized people’s lives? This drastic difference is hardly surprising when you…
When Jesus Questioned the Father
Category: General
Tags: Doubt, Faith, Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus
Topics: Faith & Doubt
Though the sinless Son of God had perfect faith, we find him asking God the Father to alter the plan to redeem the world through his sacrifice—if it is “possible” (Matt. 26:42). As the nightmare…
Trusting God for the Wrong Things
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith, The Book of Job, Trust
Topics: Apologetics, The Problem of Evil
Chloe was a smart, personable, and devoted Christian student from South America whom I had the pleasure of teaching in several theology classes. In one meeting, Chloe confessed that, despite the confident appearance that she…
Lighten Up: Believing in Believing
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Belief, Faith, Lighten Up, Philosophy, Theology
OK, we don’t really think this is the difference between theology and philosophy, but how does this guy not get that not believing in believing is, itself, a belief?
Is There Room for Doubt in Faith?
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith, Jacob, Q&A, Wrestling with God
Topics: Faith & Doubt
Many Christians today assume that faith is the antithesis of doubt. In this view, a person’s faith is thought to be strong to the extent that they don’t question their beliefs or struggle with God…
Is Suffering Part of God’s Secret Plan?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Compassion, Faith, Is God to Blame?, Problem of Evil, Spiritual Warfare, Suffering, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, The Problem of Evil
In the Christian tradition since Augustine, the most common explanation for the apparent arbitrariness of life and God’s interaction with humanity has been God’s mysterious will—his “secret plan,” as Calvin says. Whether or not a…
The Cross Above All Else
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Communion, Cruciform Theology, Faith, Jesus
The way to know what a person or people group really believes is not to ask them but to watch them. Christians frequently say, “It’s all about Jesus,” but our actions betray us. Judging by…
Do You Have Enough Faith?
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Covenant, Doubt, Faith
What does it actually mean to have faith? This is a topic I address at length in Benefit of the Doubt, but this post provides a very basic answer to this question. To appropriately understand…
Beyond Theoretical Salvation
Category: General
Tags: Christian Life, Confession, Faith, Kingdom Living, Present Perfect, Salvation
Profession of Christ’s lordship in our lives isn’t a magical formula. It’s more than a theory about how we can get saved if we confess the right doctrines. The confession has meaning only when it’s…
Court-of-Law Theology: How It Falls Short
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith, Theology
Courtney “Coco” Mault via Compfight Last week, we introduced a way of talking about theology with concentric circles. This approach is distinct from the common Western model of theology that depends upon a court-of-law framework….
Lighten Up: You Gotta Believe In Something, Man!
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Atheism, Belief, Faith, Lighten Up, Philosophy, Theology
Two things here: 1) How does this philosopher not see that “not believing in believing” is itself a belief? 2) Is that a turtleneck or is that philosopher just really hairy?
Faith, Doubt and Agnosticism
Category: General
Tags: Agnosticism, Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith
Hartwig HKD via Compfight Greg was recently interviewed by Premier Radio in the UK for the program Unbelievable? along with Andrew Whyte (an agnostic) on the topic of faith and doubt. They discuss their personal…
In the Wilderness of Religion
Category: General
Tags: Doubt, Ed Cyzewski, Evangelism, Faith, Jesus, Religion, Religious Idolatry, Sarah Bessey, World Vision
Eric Bryan via Compfight There are an awful lot of us in the Church today who are no longer feeling at home in Evangelicalism. Regardless of how you feel about World Vision’s hiring policy decisions,…
When You Doubt the Bible
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Bible, Doubt, Faith
Kit via Compfight Many people enter into conversations with ReKnew and Greg’s writings because they have questions and doubts about the Bible which they do not feel they can ask within their current church tradition….