Can Good Theology Be Innovative?
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
For many in conservative Christian circles innovation in theology and biblical interpretation is viewed as suspect, if not sinful. To this I would simply respond by pointing out that the attitude that would dismiss hermeneutical…
Approaches to Reading the Bible
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
As early as the 17th century, certain Bible scholars began to apply the scientific model of knowledge that evolved during the Scientific Revolution to the study of Scripture. This new “scientific” approach is broadly referred…
Do the Gospels Fabricate Prophetic Fulfillment?
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Old Testament, Prophesy
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, Christology
Skeptically-inclined scholars, and especially critics of Christianity, frequently argue that the Gospel authors created mythological portraits of Jesus largely on the basis of OT material they claim Jesus “fulfilled.” In other words, they surveyed the…
Crucifixion of the Warrior God
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Author: Gregory Boyd Publisher: Fortress Press ISBN-10: 1506420753 Buy on Amazon A dramatic tension confronts every Christian believer and interpreter of Scripture: on the one hand, we encounter Old Testament stories of God commanding horrendous…
Jesus, the New Israel
Category: General
Tags: Israel, Jesus, Old Testament
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, Christology
The Gospels present Jesus and the Kingdom he inaugurated as the fulfillment of Israel’s story. For example, Jesus’ birth fulfills Israel’s longing for a Messiah; his return from Egypt as a child mirrors their Exodus…
Jesus Refuted Old Testament Laws
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Old Testament
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
Although it’s clear that Jesus regarded the Old Testament as the inspired word of God, he also directly challenged aspects of the Old Testament law. To illustrate, Jesus was repudiating Sabbath law when he defended…
Jesus is the Center of the Story
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Jesus
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
The previous post addressed how the revelation of Christ is the surprising twist that reframes how we must read all that precedes it. Today we’ll look briefly at five supports to this claim. Jesus said,…
The Final Battle in Revelation
Category: General
Tags: Book of Revelation, Eschatology, Jesus, Non-Violence, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
I will conclude this series on the violent imagery in Revelation by addressing the infamous eschatological battle scene found in 19:11-21, for it is this graphically violent section of Revelation that is most frequently appealed…
God’s Kind of Holy War
Category: General
Tags: Book of Revelation, Jesus, Lamb of God, Self-Sacrificial Love, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
This is part three of a series on Revelation. You can find part one here and part two here. While there will come a day when the sacrificial victory of the Lamb and of his…
The Key to Understanding Revelation
Category: General
Tags: Book of Revelation, End Times, Jesus, Violence
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
The most important key to interpreting John’s violent imagery is found in the heavenly throne room scene in chapters 4-5. (For the first entry in this series on the violence in Revelation, click here.) This…
Unpacking Revelation: Is it Literal?
Category: General
Tags: Bible Interpretation, Book of Revelation, Jesus, Violence
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, End Times
According to many scholars as well as many Christian laypeople, the Jesus we find in the book of Revelation engages in a great deal of violence. This violence reaches a zenith in chapter 19 where…
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…
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…
How to Interpret the Law of the Old Testament
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, God, Jesus, Law, Old Testament
Topics: Attributes and Character, Biblical Interpretation
While there are multitudes of passages in the OT that reflect an awareness that people are too sinful to be rightly related to God on the basis of the law, there is a strand that…
What Is Required to See God for Who God Is?
Category: General
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
The way individuals and groups view God often says more about them than it does about God. Our perception of God, as well as other spiritual truths, is conditioned by the state of our heart….
Should Innovative Theology Be Rejected?
Category: General
Tags: Approaches to Theology, Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
In some conservative Christian circles innovation is suspect, if not sin. And as a result, theologians and pastors who take this stance often criticize what I propose in my writings simply because it’s innovative. However,…
Is the Bible History?
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Historical Criticism
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
Even though I argued for interpreting the final form of the biblical canon as opposed to using the history behind the text in my post yesterday, I am not endorsing the radical post-modern view that biblical texts…
History and Bible: Do They Align?
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Biblical Criticism, Historical Criticism
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
To begin, it is significant that when Jesus and the authors of the NT referred to their sacred writings as “God-breathed,” they were referring to the writings that had been handed down to them. So…
The Bible is Infallible NOT Inerrant
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Covenant, Cruciform Theology, Faith, Inerrancy, Infallibility
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
While the cruciform understanding (explained here) of the “God-breathed” nature of Scripture is in tension with the way most talk about inerrancy (See previous post on inerrancy), I do not believe it is at all incompatible with what…
An Alternative to Biblical Inerrancy
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Inerrancy
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
As with all other theological issues, when it comes to affirming that Scripture is “God-breathed,” everything hangs on where one starts. A dominant strand of the Evangelical tradition started with the assumption that, if God is…