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 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.
Political power… at what cost? A dark and dying world needs to see a tangible representation of a holy and righteous and just God. That’s the role given to the Body of Christ. But it seems as if the goal of too many Christians these days is grabbing political power by any means necessary. Is it worth it?
Can we really tell the difference between spiritual milk and solid food? Maybe sometimes what seems like steak is actually milk.
It’s a really basic question – and therefore worthy of some attention. Some quotes, and then my own thoughts.
“How God Sees Women” is a stunningly solid exegetical analysis of the topic of complementarianism – the idea that God designated men as the authority and rulers in the kingdom, and that women are not authorized to lead or teach, specifically in the church, but (some believe) also in any public sphere.
For Pride Month, I was wrong about LGBTQ grooming. I’m not proud of my particular Christian heritage: it’s been revealed as unloving. But I am deeply proud of my Savior who challenged His culture in how He loved the unlovely, the outcast, the sinner, and the oppressed.
I am finding that many things I was taught were dangerously one-sided and served to uncritically reinforce the views I was given. But when I add additional history to my understanding, I am forced to pull back from many conclusions and doctrines and political understandings.
How should we think about the current meteoric rise in gender-fluid thinking and self-expression in today’s culture? Can LGBTQ+ people represent the Imago Dei, the Image of God? It’s a pressing question for the church.
The parallels between today’s America and 1930s Germany are striking. In “The Lord of the Rings” J.R.R. Tolkien describes The One Ring, a malevolent and active power which subverts and dominates anyone who wears it. I wonder if the recent pursuit of political power by the Evangelical church is akin to slipping on that ring.
