Why Did Jesus Curse a Barren Fig Tree?

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While no one argues that the NT advocates violence explicitly, many allege that some passages reflect violent attitudes toward outsiders, and especially toward non-believing Jews, while others detect an element of violence in some of…

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Violent Parables?

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Some try to argue that Jesus did not make loving enemies and refraining from violence an absolute mandate. They make their case on the basis of several passages from the Gospels. The first concerns the…

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Was Jesus Unloving Towards the Pharisees?

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Some claim that Jesus spoke to religious leaders in ways that did not reflect the love of the cross. In his climatic encounter with the Pharisees in Matthew 23, Jesus’ words were undeniably harsh. He…

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The Cleansing of the Temple and Non-Violence

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Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple is the most commonly cited example of those who allege that he did not absolutize loving enemies or refraining from violence. I submit that this episode implies nothing of the…

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The Accelerating Train

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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…

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A Non-Violent Creation

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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…

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Kingdom Now

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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…

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Anabaptist Response to the Attacks in Paris and Beirut

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Our friend Bruxy Cavey, the pastor at The Meeting House in Toronto shares some thoughts on how to respond to the violence that is going on in the world. He writes: The Meeting House is…

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The Heresy of “Just War”

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Since the time when the Jesus-looking kingdom movement was transformed into the Caesar-looking “militant and triumphant” Church, there has been a tradition of Christians by-passing the enemy-loving, non-violent teachings of the NT and instead appealing…

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A FREE Resource on Spiritual Formation

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Last week, we began a 6-week series at Woodland Hills Church entitled Formed: The Shaping of a Life. The first sermon by Greg can be watched here. As a part of this series, the church has…

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Did God Want a King for Israel?

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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,…

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God’s Way of War

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As Judah was facing impending doom, the Lord told Hosea that he would save them “not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God” (Hos 1:7). So…

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Christena Cleveland on Practices for Sociological Imagination

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Christena Cleveland recently sat down with Tod Bolsinger (Vice President for Formation and Vocation at Fuller Theological Seminary) to discuss the intersection of privilege and leadership. You can find a series of short videos capturing different aspects…

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Does the Old Testament Justify “Just War”?

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Since the time of Augustine, Christians have consistently appealed to the violent strand of the Old Testament to justify waging wars when they believed their cause was “just.” (This is Augustine’s famous “just war” theory.)…

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Why Did God Heal or Not?

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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…

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Sinful Nature and Free Will

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Q: If our sinful nature is what causes us to sin/reject God, can we be held responsible for our sins, when this nature resulted from Adam and Eve’s sin? Do we really have the freedom…

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Does God Still Heal?

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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…

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Why Doesn’t God Heal When We Ask?

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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…

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Is America Uniquely Favored by God?

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The tendency of wealth to entrap people in greed has been confirmed in numerous studies. Research has consistently shown that, generally speaking, the more people have, the less percentage of their income they tend to…

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Can Christians be Demon Possessed?

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The Greek word that is usually translated “demon-possessed” in the Gospels is demonizomai, which literally means “to be rendered passive toward a demon.” It’s unfortunate, in my view, that the term is usually translated “demon possession.”…

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