May 31, 2021

For about 2 years now I have been working with groups of people who are Deconstructing their faith on a weekly basis. When I started Square 1, the goal was to provide resources, community and practical assistance to people moving through the painful process of questioning their beliefs while enduring rejection from their family and friends who remain in the religious system. After listening to dozens of people share their stories, I’ve started to realize something: It’s worse than I... Read more

May 28, 2021

For the first 400 years of Church History, almost everyone had their own personal Canon of Scripture. Marcion of Sinope [140 AD] was the first to compile his own list which included 11 books: *The Gospel of Christ [A shorter version of the Gospel of Luke] *Galatians *1 and 2 Corinthians *1 and 2 Thessalonians *Romans *Laodiceans [a lost epistle of Paul] *Colossians *Philippians *Philemon Marcion left out James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, Jude, Hebrews,... Read more

May 26, 2021

Every few decades the Christian Church experiences a revival that restores the original vision of Jesus and redirects the faith back onto a more Christlike path. During the 18th and 19th centuries, American churches experienced a number of revivals in 1727, 1792, 1830, 1857 and 1882. More recently, in the 20th century, we had the 1906 Azusa Street Revival, the 1930 Balokole Revival, the 1970 Jesus People Revival, the 1971 Bario Revival, and the 1990s “Emerging Church” movement which many... Read more

May 18, 2021

Many Christians today seem to have very short memories. For them, “Historical Christianity” started sometime around the 1500s. For the rest of us, there is a much older, richer, and more vibrant Christlike historical faith that began with Jesus and carried through to those early Apostles, then to the early Church Fathers and then took an unfortunate detour around the time of Constantine in 313 AD. For those who define Christianity as having started with Jesus, there is a refreshing... Read more

May 12, 2021

I woke up today to a video post from a friend which featured sermon from author/pastor John MacArthur on why God’s Word forbids women from teaching or preaching. So, in response, I shared links to a series of 5 Minute Videos I did about 5 years ago which went through those Biblical clobber passages against women teachers one by one and showed how either those verses weren’t saying what we were told they’re saying, or how those verses got creatively... Read more

May 6, 2021

There’s a beautiful, transformative event in the life of the Apostle Peter detailed in the book of Acts that I think many American Christians really need to experience for themselves. Essentially, Peter has a vision and hears the voice of God speaking to him as he’s praying on the rooftop one morning. The point the Holy Spirit wants Peter to understand is this: No human being is unclean or unworthy in the eyes of God.  Now, the specifics have to... Read more

April 30, 2021

Recently, our friends at The Gospel Coalition released a book by various authors called “Before You Lose Your Faith” which was intended to provide guidance for those going through Deconstruction and/or to educate those who just don’t know what it’s all about. Sadly, The Gospel Coalition doesn’t really understand what Deconstruction is all about, either. So, their book includes tone-deaf statements like these: “Whatever your struggle, it gets better with more—not less—Christianity. It might be tempting to leave the church... Read more

April 26, 2021

Evangelical Christians [and many Atheists] tend to expect God to make everything better. Evangelicals cling to the hope that one day [soon?] Jesus will return to fix everything. Atheists have given up that hope and use God’s lack of intervention as proof that God isn’t real. Either way, you end up with a situation where God either fixes all the suffering and pain in our World, or no one does. But, consider this. Jesus could turn stones into bread and make... Read more

April 20, 2021

I’m starting to realize that so much of what Christianity is focused on has absolutely nothing to do with anything that God actually wants. For example, Christians are all about growing the Church – which is primarily about the size of the building – even though God never asked anyone to build a Temple for God. When King David gets this idea God’s response was this: “This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell... Read more

April 15, 2021

  “And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”  In 2 Cor. 5:19-20, the Apostle Paul tells us that we have all been given a ministry of reconciliation. My question to you is: How is that going so far? I mean, what do you do every day to bring reconciliation to those around you? Who have you reconciled with recently? How many people in your community... Read more


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