Power
Re-Thinking Divine Sovereignty
Category: General
Tags: Cross, God's Sovereignty, Open Theism, Power
Many people in the church have been taught that divine sovereignty is synonymous with unilateral control. Some have even argued that if God is not in control of everything, then something must be in control…
Who Killed Ananias and Sapphira? A Response to Paul Copan (#6)
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Non-Violence, Paul Copan, Power
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Verse: Acts 5
In his critique of Crucifixion of the Warrior God (CWG), Paul Copan makes a concerted effort to argue that the God revealed in Jesus Christ and witnessed to throughout the NT is not altogether non-violent….
Who Rules Governments? God or Satan? Part 2
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Government, Open Theism, Power, Satan
In the previous post, I raised the question of how we reconcile the fact that the Bible depicts both God and Satan as the ruler of nations, and I discussed some classical ways this has…
Who Rules Governments? God or Satan? Part 1
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Government, Open Theism, Power, Satan
Running throughout Scripture is the motif that depicts God as the ultimate ruler of the nations. On the other hand, the NT teaches that the ruler of nations is Satan. What do we do with…
Christians & Politics: Where Do You Stand?
Category: General
Tags: Christian Living, National Idolatry, Politics, Power
In the 1980’s, Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson were leaders in the Moral Majority, a conservative evangelical social and political movement that attempted to rally “moral” people to change public policy. The movement died out…
The Politics of Jesus
Category: General
Tags: Jesus, Love, Non-Violence, Politics, Power, Sacrifice
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
Many are so conditioned by the mindset of the world that they can’t even envision an alternative way of affecting society and politics other than by playing the political game as it is done by…
What Power Do You Trust?
Category: General
Tags: Kingdom Living, Kingdom of God, Kingdom of this World, Love, Non-Violence, Politics, Power, Upside-Down Kingdom
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Governments and nations have always relied on fighting to survive. They punish criminals who threaten their welfare. They go to war against enemies who attack their borders or stand in the way of their agenda….
The Kingdom Stance Toward Enemies
Category: General
Tags: Enemy Love, Kingdom of God, Love, Non-Violence, Power
Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, when a group of temple guards showed up to arrest him. Peter immediately drew his sword and started swinging it, cutting off a guard’s ear. From the…
A Brief History of Political Power and the Church
Category: General
Tags: Church, Constantine, Political Idolatry, Politics, Power
The history of the church has been largely one of believers refusing to trust the way of the crucified Jesus and instead giving in to the very temptation he resisted. It’s the history of an…
Voluntary Suffering and the Kingdom
Category: General
Tags: Kingdom Living, Power, Self-Sacrificial Love, Suffering
Topics: Following Jesus
In a post from two days ago, I wrote about the call to voluntary suffering for others as it is laid out in the New Testament. For the first three centuries of the church, Christians…
The Most Quoted Old Testament Verse
Category: General
Tags: Atonement, Cross, Power, Salvation, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
No other passage from the Old Testament is quoted more by New Testament authors than Psalm 110:1. Its frequent citation should cause us to pay attention to what is being said. It reads: The Lord…
The Problem with “Church”
Category: General
Tags: Church, Constantine, Politics, Power
Topics: The Church
Many people think of church as a religious building people attend once a week to sing, hear a sermon, take an offering and perhaps participate in the Lord’s Supper (or “take Communion”). Many refer to the…
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)….
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,…
Creating God in Our Own Image
Category: General
Tags: Character of God, God, Greg Boyd, Jesus, Power, The Work of the People, Travis Reed
Topics: Attributes and Character
How have we created God in our own image? In this short video produced by The Work of the People, Greg reflects on various ways that humans typically think about God in terms of power, and how…
How Much Does the Cross Really Matter?
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion, God, God's Character, Jesus, Persecution, Power, Suffering
Topics: Attributes and Character
The cross is as foolishness and weakness to nonbelievers, but Paul wrote that to those who are being saved it is both “the power” and “wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:18, 24). In sharp contrast…
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…
Lighten Up: Meet Jesus
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Foot Washing, Jesus, Lighten Up, Power, Servant
Not what you were expecting?
What Kind of God Did Jesus Reveal?
Category: Essays
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Essay, God, Incarnation, Jesus, Love, Power
Topics: Atonement and The Cross
The ReKnew Manifesto exists to encourage believers and skeptics alike to re-think things they thought they already knew – hence our name, Re-Knew. I am currently working through the theology of the Manifesto in a series…