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Culture discipleship ecclesiology evangelical evangelicalism Fundamentalism

Why Do I Criticize Evangelical-Fundamentalism?

Short answer: Because they are my people and they are more liberal than they know, and it’s causing people to walk away.

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Love Recent Posts

Enemy Love as Forgiveness; or, Unsystematic Thought’s on God’s Love #6

Jesus breaks the “in group” bias of forgiveness for those like us and the “out group” fault-finding of those others.   In the presence of an enemy, will we… • Attack, or attune?• Escalate, or empathize?• War, or reconcile? It is clear how God responded… “While we enemies, we were reconciled to God through the […]

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Culture Deconstruction discipleship evangelicalism Recent Posts

3 Tragic Results of the Disembodied Faith of SBC Leadership; or, Why the Truth of Sexual Abuse is Never a Distraction

Thinking the truth of sexual abuse would be a distraction means we don’t know the gospel of the crucified and risen Lord, and that we have a disembodied faith.  The disembodied faith of SBC leadership causes 3 tragic results… • The debasement of bodies (primarily of women and minorities)• The distortion of truth (as a […]

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Attachment Love Recent Posts

On God’s Unique Kind of Love; or, Unsystematic Thought’s on God’s Love #4

In an age when everyone has their own take on things, when in ancient times each god had their own emphasis and activity, it is striking the God would demonstrate his “own love” to us.  God had to actively demonstrate his love to us because otherwise we wouldn’t believe it, or trust it, or rely […]

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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology Recent Posts

Why “Church as Our Mother” Is Necessary (and is Biblical)

During the pandemic, physical church attendance is seen as optional at best. And because of the understandable deconstruction and disgust, many are repulsed at the thought of church. And that’s why idea of “church as mother” elicits a strong response from people (for and against) (See my recent post and all the response).  This is […]

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Neuroscience

Brains Build More than One Kind of Mind

Why do we experience culture shock?  Why do people process the same event so differently? Why is code-switching so exhausting? It’s because different people, especially from different cultures, have different minds—and shifting between them is taxing.  This is the main point of Lisa Feldman Barrett’s 6th lesson.  I’m continuing with Barrett’s new book, Seven and a […]

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spiritual disciplines

3 Reasons Why Your Spiritual Growth Needs a Splash of Neuroscience

Pray. Read your Bible. Go to church—twice on Sundays.  And don’t sin. Be sure not to sin. These were my devotions (as they were called).  I was raised independent Bible Church baptist.  So we didn’t do that “spiritual discipline” crap.  Only the Catholics did that stuff while trying to “earn their salvation”—so I was told.    But […]

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Recent Posts resurrection

Was the Tomb Empty? Yes, it is a fact.

Alice Roberts—scientist, professor, and hornet’s nest kicker— reminded the Twitterverse—on Good Friday—that “dead people – don’t come back to life.” Some 6000 comments (and counting) later, we need to step back and look at the facts (just like professor Roberts, as the unbiased scientist she is would want us to do). Fact: The Tomb was […]

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Atonement Recent Posts

What Is the Christus Victor View of Atonement?

Growing up, I was never taught the Christus Victor (Christ the Victor) view of the atonement.   But I lived it.   In college I had very intense spiritual experiences in which I learned the reality that the “one who is in you [Jesus] is greater than the one who is in the world [Satan]” […]

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Atonement Recent Posts

Critiquing Penal Substitutionary Atonement

In the last post I asked, “What is Penal Substitutionary Atonement?”  I summarized Thomas Schreiner’s position in The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views as fairly as possible. Now I’m going to offer my own review of the biblical materials.  Just How Biblical Is Penal Substitution? Advocates like Schreiner say their view is the most […]