Honestly, this is a rhetorical question. But it does make me wonder what it will take for people to wake up and realize they’re not following Jesus anymore. Those who call themselves “Christian” today have forgotten that the word means “Christ-like.” So, they don’t stop to wonder why they’re following leaders who ignore Jesus, or why they believe things that Jesus contradicted, or why they reject the people Jesus embraced [you know, the poor, the outcast, the immigrants, the sick,... Read more
[NOTE: The following is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-published book Jesus Unforsaken: Substituting Wrath With Divine Love To Satisfy God’s Atoning Nature by Keith Giles] As we rethink the cross and question the theological assumptions of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, the question “Why did Jesus have to die?” begins to come into sharper focus for us. We can see how our sins did not truly separate us from God and how this separation was only in our minds, as Paul... Read more
“He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.” [Matt. 27:42] I am starting to think that the word “saved” or the phrase “will be saved” in the New Testament isn’t always talking about salvation in the spiritual sense that we often assume it is. In other words, I think we have been conditioned to believe that when Jesus or Paul... Read more
Someone approached me for a quick email interview for a course they were taking in Seminary about Church leadership, growth, etc. Here are my answers: What is your personal leadership style, gifts, strengths, spiritual gifts? For 11 years in our house church, my style was to sit back and allow the Holy Spirit to lead the gathering and guess what? It worked! Sometimes my goal was to say nothing at all but to learn how to listen and pay... Read more
As someone who has come to accept the Biblical view of Universal Reconciliation, I need to respond to a common question I get from people which is: “How can bad people go to Heaven?” It’s not an easy question to answer, but there are 2 assumptions we need to correct off the bat: First, that there will be any “bad people” in Heaven. That’s not to say that those “bad people” won’t eventually enter into the eternal loving presence of... Read more
In the backwoods of Missouri, there’s a barbed-wire encampment surrounded by miles of wilderness in every direction. If the cottonmouth snakes don’t kill you, the old-timer with a 12 gauge shotgun will if you cross his invisible boundary line and drift into his property. So don’t even think about trying to escape Mount Zion, a local Baptist boarding school for troubled teens. Just keep your head down, do as you’re told, and don’t step out of line, or you’ll... Read more
The sexualization of young girls in our culture is wrong. I think everyone can agree with that. But our society tends to respond in two vastly opposite ways to this: One is by teaching girls their bodies are dirty and to place the blame on them [not how men react to them]. This approach [usually from a religious framework] attempts to deal with this problem by covering the girls from head to toe, in let’s say a burka and a... Read more
On September 11th, 2001, the victims of the attack had precious seconds to call one person they loved and say goodbye, or ask forgiveness, or let them know just how much they cared for them. And then it was goodbye. Who would you make that call to? What would you say to them? As we remember the tragedy of 9/11 today, I encourage all of us to take the time to put ourselves in the shoes of those who lost... Read more
Other than the fact that a large majority of Christians have been raised to believe in the End Times Rapture theory created in 1850 by John Nelson Darby, the main reason there’s so much confusion about the End Times and Biblical Prophecy is how we have been trained to understand certain Biblical terminology. For example, when we read the phrase “the end of the age” we hear “the end of the world” or “the end of time,” but that’s NOT... Read more
Not that there are any literal Pharisees still around these days, but if there were I would want to offer a sincere apology for the horrible ways they have been misrepresented by the Christian faith, and most notably in the Gospels [especially Matthew]. Very recently a friend of mine informed me about a book he was reading that suggested the Pharisees of the First Century were not only a lot nicer than we read about in the Gospels but were... Read more
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