Theology
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Dallas Willard crushes the “wall of separation” argument when it comes to the First Amendment. The First Amendment is about something Congress (and, as interpreted by the the Supreme Court and state governments) cannot do. It is not about what Christian should not do. We now live under the influence of a gigantic myth about a “wall of separation”… Read more
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I am working my way through The Diving Conspiracy Continued by Dallas Willard and Gary Black, Jr. It is a continuation of Willard’s work, but moving into the realm of society. He has a chapter called “Economics and Politics” and describes the difficulty of even defining the word “freedom.” 1. I am “free” only if no one… Read more
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On and on the pundits go, on the left and on the right, as to how something about that act of forgiveness the family members of the shooting in Charleston extended to the killer isn’t right! It’s not a matter of some “order” to forgive. It’s not a matter of the killer accepting it. It… Read more
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It is still amazing to me how the powerful forgiveness demonstrated by the families of the Emanuel AME members who were slain a week ago. Some reactions are very real with emotion. They can’t forgive. That makes sense. There are atrocities that hit and we think, “I just can’t do it.” It’s an emotional response that is… Read more
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“Why should anyone be shattered by the thought of hell? It is not compulsory for anyone to go there. Those who do, do so by their own choice, and against the will of God, and they can only get into hell by defying and resisting all the work of Providence and grace.” — Thomas Merton,… Read more
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“Modernity is above all things convinced… that is owes nothing to the past, that it has made itself, that what matters most is what is happening right now. Indeed, this is the meaning of the freedom, power, and progress that we all prize.” — Michael Allen Gillespie quoted in Theology as Retrieval. This actually has a… Read more
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“What God is going to bring out of human history in his people is going to be the greatest reflection of God’s own glory, wisdom, and love. That is what human history is about. It is to make a society of the redeemed that will be the crown jewel of creation. And when we look… Read more
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“A part of our problem with understanding hell comes from the way we think about ehaven. We think about heaven as some kind of comfortable resort, but the greatest thing about heaven is going to be the presence of God. He has allowed us to avoid him here on earth in some measure if we want to,… Read more
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We want to rename it, ignore it, ridicule the thought of “sin,” but the fact of it just won’t go away. We do our best to ignore it, though. Bill Arnold in his commentary on 1-2 Samuel in the NIV Application Commentary noted this: Once “sin” is no longer in the church’s vocabulary, there is… Read more
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Ben Witherington interviews Scot McKnight on McKnight’s new book, A Fellowship of Differents. The interviews I’ve read sound great. This interview in particular draws out a connection between Christ and his Church I think we keep wanting to lose in our American culture. We have too much of this, “I love Jesus, but can’t stand his… Read more
Apprentice 2 Jesus 