Categories
Easter Recent Posts

It’s OK to Believe It: 3 Thoughts on the Resurrection

Here is my annual reminder that it’s OK to still believe in the Jesus’ resurrection—and that it took a bodily form (see links for conversation). #1: It Doesn’t Make You Stupid You can affirm the bodily resurrection of Jesus while also broadly affirming science, while also being a rational and thoughtful person, while also having […]

Categories
Atonement Attachment Neuroscience Recent Posts

Did God Turn His Face Away From Jesus? or, Why the Neurobiology of Rupture and Repair Matters for Salvation

This time of year, many progress-liberal minded Christians criticize the idea that God “turned away from” or “abandoned” Jesus on the cross.  And most conservative minded Christians take the idea for granted, because God can’t look at sin.   Did God abandon Jesus on the cross?Did the Father forsake the Son in death? Did God turn […]

Categories
discipleship Recent Posts theology

Why Are Theological Words Female Names?

Interesting that Faith, Hope, Grace, and Charity are women’s names, not men’s names (at least in English speaking West). Does this point to the feminization of the church in the West? Perhaps. But I doubt it. (picture credit: Faith, Hope and Charity, by James Christensen) Maybe the Work of God is Always A Critique of […]

Categories
Jesus Jesus Christ

How Jesus Became God; or, When the Divine Realm is Like a High School Cafeteria

What is divinity? What does it mean to be divine? Is there a pyramid-scale of divine status? In other words, is divinity like a high school cafeteria with all the cools seniors at one end and the dorky freshmen at the other? Today I’m continuing the video series on “Why Bart Ehrman is Cheating” in […]

Categories
Culture ecclesiology evangelical Recent Posts

Would the Bible Belt be a Nurturing Cradle for Human Rights? Or, how not to score points in a culture war.

Would human rights emerge from a civilization-scale Bible Belt?  Does the Bible Belt represent the historic sweep of Christianity?  The answer is: No, on all accounts. The Bible Belt would NOT BE a very nurturing cradle in which to raise human rights.  In fact, they would probably die of neglect—or something worse. But tragically, most […]

Categories
How Jesus Became God

How Jesus Became God; or, Who Should You Trust?

Continuing the “Why Bart Ehrman is Cheating” series on his book, “How Jesus Became God”, we look at his claims for being a historian, and how Ehrman is cheating by setting up false opposition between “scientific facts” and “religious fictions”, between agnostic historians and credulous Bible scholars. That’s what this second video in the series […]

Categories
How Jesus Became God Recent Posts

How Jesus Became God; or, Why Bart Ehrman Is Cheating

Is Jesus really the reason for the season of Christmas?  Bart Ehrman is famous for “debunking” Christian claims about the Bible, Jesus, and early Christianity. He claims that early followers CHEATED by making stuff up about Jesus—including the Christmas stories. But maybe Ehrman is the one CHEATING. That’s what this video series is all about. […]

Categories
emotions

Why Rage Rooms Make Sense of the Imprecatory Psalms

If a friend asked you about going to a rage room, would you tell them to go? Would you go with them? Would you secretly want to go for yourself? What might the Bible say about rage rooms? And can rage rooms help us understand those disturbing psalms that ask God to kill babies (the […]

Categories
Neuroscience

Sharing Attention with God; Or, the Shema according to Neuroscience

Why do children want to show you everything? And what’s it got to do with ancient Israel confession of faith—the Shema? Like I said yesterday, the prophets of distraction (paying to make you pay attention to what they are selling) are trying to gain, and hold, and direct your attention.   But how do you […]

Categories
Atonement Recent Posts

How is Jesus a Ransom for Many?

What does RANSOM mean when Jesus says he is a “ransom for many” in Mark 10:45? And how do we figure out that meaning in order to understand what Jesus’ life and death means? Steps in interpreting a Bible passage FIRST STEP: Look to the immediate context and see if the the Gospel of Mark […]