Articles

  • Preparing an Abode for God: Christ’s Death as Decontamination

    What if the best cultural translation of the concept of atonement is that of cosmic decontamination? And what if the biblical authors – Old Testament and New – wrote from the viewpoint that the… Read more

  • Hell Anxiety & Attachment Theory

    If the gospel we’ve heard does not soothe our deepest fears of being punished and abandoned, but instead increases those fears, it’s not truly good news. For many, what we’ve been taught about Hell… Read more

  • Responding to the Social Justice Statement

    John MacArthur, Justin Peters, Voddie Baucham and others have put out The Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel (#SocialJusticeStatement) today. We’re pretty saddened, but not shocked. Here are some thoughts for anyone else… Read more

  • “You Sound Angry”

    One of the most common pieces of critical feedback we receive about the show is that we sound angry. The recent Statement on Social Justice and our reactions to it got Nate and Tim… Read more

  • Paul’s Ethics of Relinquishing Power and the Letter to Philemon

    Paul’s letter to the slavemaster Philemon reveals, if we let it, a window into Paul’s Christian ethics pertaining to power. To Paul, Christians wielding such social power over others must relinquish it in order… Read more

  • Power, Privilege and the Status of the Firstborn

    The opening book of the Bible works hard to establish the theme typically dubbed the “reversal of primogenitor”. It is an indictment on the cultural assumption that the firstborn deserves supreme power and status.… Read more

  • Paul, Power and Gender

    The church gets Paul’s theology of gender wrong because it ignores his theology pertaining to power. And, the church ignores basic Christian theology of power in part because our mistaken theology of gender. Read more

  • Relinquishing Power: A Christian Minister’s Code of Ethics

    Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be… Read more

  • Sexual Assault and Abuse of Power

    Sexual assault almost always constitutes an abuse of some form of power. Typically it is men that assault women, leveraging physical strength and social power to do so. Often status, celebrity and/or a hierarchical… Read more