All of the Torah and all of the Prophets, Jesus says, are summed up in this simple golden rule: “do to others what you want them to do to you.” Allison says no one called this the “golden rule” before the 18th Century, but what I would call it is the Jesus Creed Lite: it is a variant of the second half of the Jesus Creed (loving God, loving others). To do to others what you want them to do... Read more
Some time ago I blogged on “covenant path marking,” which is the use of a specific practice as a litmust test for covenant faithfulness. Politics, especially when it comes to the Supreme Court hearings for Alito, has succumbed to the same practice. It seems fairly evident to most reasonable folks that, for the Democrats, how one stands on the Roe v. Wade decision is determinative of a person’s character and capacity to judge and potential rulings on former decisions spell... Read more
Life is not law. For Jesus at least. The place to begin a constructive understanding of how Christians should relate to persons with same-sex orientation and think about homosexuality is with Jesus’ practice of table fellowship. Why? Because it represents how life is encountered, of how a first century person would have come to understand Jesus’ own vision for the kingdom of God. Not all would begin here. |inline Read more
The famous “ask-seek-knock” (ASK) passage — is it teaching persistence or not? And is it saying that persistence will pay off with answered prayer? I doubt it and I doubt it. Instead, I think this passage (Matthew 7:7-11) teaches simplicity: that is, ask God because God is good. |inline Read more
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This is our second post on defining homosexuality. One of the issues that we have to face is how we think about same-sex orientation and choice. Is same-sex orientation a choice or not? My own view of the matter is that our sexual orientation is not really a choice in so many terms. I know not all agree with this, but my own reading and discussions lead me to the conclusion that same-sex desires are not something one chooses but... Read more
Many of you know that I have published a book on conversion, Turning to Jesus, and that I have also done two studies of conversion of a more particular nature: one on why Evangelicals convert to Roman Catholicism (see sidebar in Studies I have online) and one on why Jews convert to faith in Jesus as Messiah (forthcoming this winter/spring). I have been trying to collect stories on why Roman Catholics become Evangelicals, and this is where I need your... Read more
The little parable of Jesus’ about the hogs and dogs, in Matthew 7:6, can be read as a context-less saying or a context-ual saying. “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; do not throw your margaritas [Greek word for “pearls”] before the hogs.” But what might this saying mean? Which view below do you agree with? |inline Read more
Because of the heated emotions that rise to the surface even in genuine discussions of this topic, I want to begin by saying that in many ways I’m struggling both to discuss homosexuality on a blog and I continue to learn what Christians ought to think and believe and do. Part of the context of our discussion involves learning what it is that we are talking about. Let me simply make some comments, and I open this for discussion. I’ll... Read more
Humans, Dale Allison observes, have an “inbred proclivity to mix ignorance of themselves with arrogance toward others.” Jesus spoke of this with the image of the “speck” and the “log.” Jesus intends to be funny and serious, to jab at the ribs and wound the heart all at the same time. And what Jesus sees in the hilarious but titanic comparison of specks and logs is that we have sharp eyes for the sins of others but dulled awareness of... Read more
Jesus Creed
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