Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors

Who Curses the Earth?

Category:
Tags: ,
Topics:

After the “fall” of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, their sin results in a five curses: on nature, on marriage, on human life, on the serpent, and on women during childbirth. Who…

Read Post

How Job’s Suffering Points to Jesus

Category:
Tags: , ,
Topics:

As I introduced in my previous post, when we read the book of Job we must refute the common assumption that Yahweh is a Machiavellian deity who is controlling all that transpires in his creation,…

Read Post

Who is Responsible for Job’s Suffering?

Category:
Tags: , , ,
Topics:

In the prologue of the Book of Job, the author seems to ascribe the responsibility for Job’s affliction to Yahweh. For instance, Satan challenges God to “stretch out [his] hand and strike everything he has,“…

Read Post

God’s Heart to Prevent Judgment

Category:
Tags: , ,
Topics:
Verse: ,

In Ezekiel we read a passage that depicts Yahweh as warning his people about their impending punishment by saying, “I will pour out my wrath on you and breathe out my fiery anger against you”…

Read Post

Revolting Beauty

Category:
Tags: , ,
Topics:

In this sermon clip, Greg shares the story of how foster parents entered into the pain of a severely abused child and demonstrated compassion rather than judgment when she displayed puzzling and revolting behaviors. This…

Read Post

Four Principles of the Cruciform Thesis

Category:
Tags: ,
Topics:

In the second volume of Crucifixion of the Warrior God, I introduce how four dimensions of the revelation of God on the cross (as introduced in this post) lead to four principles that show us…

Read Post

Two Questions to Unlock Violent Divine Portraits

Category:
Tags: , ,
Topics:

There are two basic questions that help us to interpret what is going on in the violent portraits of God in the Old Testament, as I propose in Crucifixion of the Warrior God. The First…

Read Post

Cross Vision – How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence


Topics:

Renowned pastor-theologian Gregory A. Boyd tackles the Bible’s biggest dilemma. Author: Gregory Boyd Publisher: Fortress Press ISBN-10: 1506420737 Buy on Amazon: HardCover Paperback Kindle AudioBook Study Guide The Old Testament God of wrath and violence…

Read Post

The Non-Violent Jesus Clothed in Violence

Category:
Topics:

As I’ve argued in several books (for instance, see The Myth of a Christian Nation) as well as in many posts, Jesus refused to use the power that was available to him to defend himself,…

Read Post

Is the New Testament Ambiguous About Non-Violence?

Category:
Tags: , ,
Topics:

One could argue, with some legitimacy, that the portrait of God in the NT is not unambiguously non-violent, the revelation of God on Calvary notwithstanding. It can’t be denied that there are violent-appearing images of…

Read Post

Reviewing the Reviews: Tom Belt (Part 1)

Category:
Tags: , , ,
Topics:

Tom Belt has written a four-part review of Crucifixion of the Warrior God on his blog An Open Orthodoxy. Parts 1 and 2 offer an overall fair and balanced summary of CWG, at least to the point that…

Read Post

Christus Victor Atonement and Girard’s Scapegoat Theory

Category:
Tags: , , , , , ,
Topics: ,

Many of the major criticisms of Crucifixion of the Warrior God that have been raised since it was published four weeks ago have come from folks who advocate Rene Girard’s understanding of the atonement. A…

Read Post

The God Who Stoops

Category:
Tags: ,
Topics:

The way that one imagines God can be thought of along the lines of a Rorschach test. That is, I submit that the way a person imagines and experiences God says at least as much…

Read Post

Crucifixion of the Warrior God (Official Trailer)

Category:
Tags: , , ,
Topics: ,

Video by Rex Harsin

Read Post

How God Judges Sin

Category:
Tags: , , , ,
Topics:

In his third sermon covering material from his book Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Greg explores the topic of judgment. In this clip, Greg suggests that while God certainly does judge sin, how he judges is very different…

Read Post

Something Else is Going On

Category:
Tags: , , ,
Topics:

The violent portraits of God in the Old Testament are a stumbling block for many. In this short clip, Greg introduces the idea that “something else is going on” in these passages, and that we can…

Read Post

Overview of Crucifixion of the Warrior God

Category:
Tags: , , , ,
Topics:

Greg reviewed the content of his new book, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, as a part of the Woodland Hills Church Covenant Partner gathering on March 5, 2017. If you want a fairly succinct synopsis of…

Read Post

Crucifixion of the Warrior God


Topics: ,

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…

Read Post

The Final Battle in Revelation

Category:
Tags: , , , ,
Topics: ,

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…

Read Post

When God Endorsed Polygamy

Category:
Tags: , ,
Topics:

We often find God acting as if he supports things we know, by other means, that he does not. For example, though his ideal was monogamy, it’s clear in the biblical narrative that, once God…

Read Post
Search Tips

Simple Search

Detailed Search

  • Category

  • Filter by Tag:

  • Show Only Posts Related to Verse:

  • Filter by Topic:

  • Clear all filters