It seems that the concept of covenant goes overlook in mainstream Christianity. This is problematic. When we overlook the concept of covenant in our thinking about salvation and our faith, our theology can go awry (and become quite unbiblical). It...
It’s risky business to talk about the cross in ways that mainstream protestant-evangelicals aren’t used to. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I do this quite often. There are several dimensions of the cross and salvation (soteriology and...
Not long ago I wrote a post about how holiness doctrine is much more about what He is able to accomplish than what we are able to accomplish. I wrote that in Jesus’ command (and we find the command elsewhere in scripture as well) to “be...
Be Holy As Your Father in Heaven is Holy (1 Peter 1:15) This is a tough command! Some even argue that the command to be holy as God is holy is unachievable. At the same time, I don’t think that Jesus would command his followers to something that...
The Old Testament prophets always seem to be so angry with God’s people. One time I was leading a BIble study when someone said, “I don’t read the prophetic literature because it’s so full of anger, judgment and wrath. I...
John’s gospel is unique in so many ways in comparison to Matthew, Mark and Luke. One of the things making John’s gospel unique is the story of the wedding at Cana; it’s one of my favorite stories in the gospel material. One of the things that I love...
The bodily resurrection of Jesus is not about the Christian notion of dying and going to heaven. Ben WItherington makes this point in his (great and highly recommended) little book, Revelation and the End Times Participant’s Guide Unraveling God’s...
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believers, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. —Romans 1:16, emphasis added. Often times we overlook the fact that 99% of Jesus’ recorded words in the...
For far too long now Christians have told the story of Jesus as if it hooked up not with the story of Israel, but simply with the story of human sin as in Genesis 3, skipping over the story of Israel altogether. —N.T. Wright The concept of covenant...
When God fulfills his World Renewal Plan through Jesus, his Son, he is not only setting up a government (Kingdom metaphor), but also creating a family. This, once again, means that our metaphors for God’s World Renewal Plan will often times flow...