The End of My Evangelicalism
It’s taken a couple years, but I realized this week that I’m completely done with being called an Evangelical and a Republican. I simply cannot abide the toxicity inherent in both labels. Here’s some thoughts about why.
Evangelicalism
The Preservation of Evangelicalism
What’s more important? Evangelicalism, or Christianity? Lately I’ve seen a lot of people defending the former at the expense of what I believe is Jesus’ example of how we should live as a community of faith.
How Revelation Warped My Theology
Jesus said we’d know a tree by its fruit, and perhaps we can also know a doctrine the same way. I grew up with an end-times doctrine that is widespread in the church, but which I now recognize is bearing a lot of bad fruit. Maybe it’s time to recognize the harm.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Too many Christians seem obsessed with power and control. But being oppressed was the very thing that helped the early church grow explosively. Are we pursing the wrong thing?
The Gospel According to Jesus
The point of the gospel is not to get the work done. The point is accurately represent the Father. Jesus’ charge in Matt 28:19-20 wasn’t colonial; it was to be ambassadors in the fullest sense of the word – to personally BE an extension of the Kingdom and to fully embody Jesus to those around us. That looks a lot different than many approaches to the gospel.
Rejecting A Jonah Spirit
Jonah was so opposed to the people of Nineveh that he couldn’t abide God’s forgiveness of them. There are parallels with evangelical Christians’ insistence that God punish people in a fiery hell for all eternity. Is that insistence righteous?
Signs For John the Baptist and For Us
Jesus’ signs to John the Baptist’s disciples were all tangible and immediately restorative… except preaching the good news to the poor. Why is that? Or did we misunderstand it?
Hanging On For Dear Life
The 4th commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” uses the Hebrew words nasah, shem, and shav, and might equally be translated “Your life shall not demonstrate an inaccurate representation of the reputation and renown and fame of the Lord your God.”
For Two Billion years…
Let me tell you a short story about a long eternity. I’m not so convinced any more about the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment which I grew up understanding it as an absolute certainty, and something that I was told orthodox Christians had believed since Jesus apparently taught the doctrine in the Gospels.
Peter’s Vision: An Inclusive Gospel
Peter’s dream of unclean food challenged his world view about who was acceptable to God. I find that God is repeating that in my life, challenging me to reconsider who the Lord accepts today.