Geoffrey Holsclaw
For those who need to hear it, sometimes it is OK to walk away from your church, your community. It hurts too much to stay. But don’t walk alone. For the deep disappointment, disillusionment, and plain old discouragement, sometimes you need to get a little distance. Sometimes you need to walk it off. For […]
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 […]
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 […]
“The theory of penal substitution is the heart and soul of an evangelical view of the atonement.” So says Thomas Schreiner in The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views (67). And historically, Schreiner is right. This is how I was raised as an evangelical fundamentalist in California, and many others all across the USA. […]
Today I’m wondering why so often there is such a big gap between what everyday Christians think about the “atonement” (the reason why Jesus died for ours sins) and what theologians and preachers mean by it, especially those who are part of “penal substitutionary atonement” churches and traditions. This gap is seen in the answers […]
Peter, like many of us, had right information understood the wrong way. I’m not talking about head vs. heart knowledge. I’m talk about having our mind set on human ways instead of God’s ways. Lent is the time to transform what we think to be right knowledge into the right way of living (because we […]
Today people are waking to the probability that the Senate flipped toward the Democrats. And they are having an epiphany. Some are responding with celebration. Others in consternation. Some fear the chaos coming with the Biden administration. Others feared the chaos of the Trump administration. Some speak of the chaos of white supremacy. Others […]
As theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar says, “Most Christians are convinced that prayer is more than the outward performance of an obligation, in which we tell God things he already knows” (Prayer, 13). If prayer is more than an obligation, why do we pray? Why Pray? Well, we spontaneously pray when we are filled with […]