Personally, I don’t really like focusing too much on sin. Not because I deny that people struggle with sin, but because I think our focus should be on Jesus – the solution for our sin – rather than on the problem. However, someone asked me recently about sin and started suggesting that some sins are worse than others. Ultimately, the conversation turned to the question: “What is the greatest sin of all?” For some, the greatest sin is homosexuality or… Read more
May 8, 2018
Debunking the Canonization Preservation Myth
May 8, 2018 By Keith Giles
5 Comments
In just a few days, I’ll be co-hosting a conference in Seattle, WA with a few friends called “Jesus, the Bible and the Holy Spirit”. This event will explore the differing perspectives on the Inerrancy and Infallibility of Scripture, as well as how often Christians substitute the Bible for Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. As we discuss the Bible, one thing that always comes up is the myth of scriptural preservation. Basically, this is the view espoused by Biblicists… Read more
May 8, 2018
Was The Gospel Preached In All The World? Yes!
May 8, 2018 By Keith Giles
16 Comments
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” – Jesus [Mathew 24:14] For many, this entire chapter in Matthew is about the End of the World. But, is it? Actually, no, it’s not. It’s about the destruction of Jerusalem which Jesus predicted would happen in that same generation: “This generation shall not pass, until all these things are fulfilled.” [v.34] If we start at the… Read more
May 3, 2018
The Surprise Wedding of the Lamb
May 3, 2018 By Keith Giles
5 Comments
Many Christians today love to say that they stand for the Biblical idea of marriage. By that, they do not refer to the polygamy of Abraham, or David, or Solomon. They do not mean marrying two sisters as Jacob did. No, they usually mean the sort of “Biblical” marriage that Jesus talks about in Matthew 19. As proof that Jesus saw marriage as being between one man and one woman, they point to one verse in the Matthew 19 where… Read more
May 2, 2018
My Response To Robert Gagnon
May 2, 2018 By Keith Giles
28 Comments
After I posted two articles here critiquing the traditional view of Homosexuality – Why Romans Doesn’t Condemn Homosexuality and The Abomination of a Close Shave – someone brought them to the attention of well-known anti-gay Christian scholar, Robert A. Gagnon. Just in case you’re not aware, Gagnon is often quoted in anti-gay documentaries or asked to appear on radio and television interviews to provide scriptural evidence that God hates homosexuality and that being gay is a choice to live in disobedience… Read more
April 26, 2018
Did Peter Kill Ananias and Sapphira?
April 26, 2018 By Keith Giles
9 Comments
You may have heard the excellent podcast conversation between Brad Jersak, Michael Hardin and a few others, about this question of “Who Killed Ananaias and Sapphira” a few years ago. It’s really fascinating stuff. Essentially, after a meandering discussion, they arrive at the idea that the death of these two people was an analog to the fall of Adam and Eve in the beginning of Genesis: -There is the creation of a beautiful new reality [compare the idyllic reality of… Read more
April 24, 2018
The Abomination of a Close Shave?
April 24, 2018 By Keith Giles
34 Comments
In the New Testament scriptures, the Apostle Paul speaks out against a trend that he sees as being “unnatural” and an “abomination” and warns that Christians need to be on their guard against this dangerous practice. What is it? [It’s not what you think]. See, in Paul’s day being a man meant keeping your hair short and your beard long. Why? Because women had long hair and smooth faces. So, to Paul – and many others in his day –… Read more
April 23, 2018
Why Romans Doesn’t Condemn Homosexuality
April 23, 2018 By Keith Giles
106 Comments
What is Paul really talking about in the first chapter of Romans? Let’s start with Romans 1:18 to try to understand what Paul is really talking about here. I think it helps to actually start “from the top”, as it were. In verse 18, Paul starts to talk about a group of people and this is how he identifies them: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the… Read more
April 20, 2018
The Ordination of Bread and Wine
April 20, 2018 By Keith Giles
6 Comments
In Exodus 29:33, God gives instructions to the priests regarding how the sacrifices are to be performed, and by whom. In this section, God wraps it up by saying: “They [the Priests] are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no one else may eat them, because they are sacred.” Very simply, only the Old Covenant priests were allowed to perform the sacrifices. These offerings were specifically for atonement and they also were… Read more
April 19, 2018
What If God Is Not In Control?
April 19, 2018 By Keith Giles
28 Comments
Quite often, we comfort ourselves during difficult seasons of our life, with the assurance that God is in control. What we mean by that is, although we are powerless to change our situation, God is somehow at work behind the scenes to make sure everything works out ok in the end. So, we may have lost our job, or discovered someone we love has cancer, or miscarried our third child, or declared bankruptcy, or something else disturbing, and it’s all… Read more
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