Category Archives: Theology

Image Protection Systems and Us

Posted on October 29, 2022 by salooper57

Because this is true, people will fight even to protect the images that thwart their happiness: the loner, the rebel, the outcast, and the curmudgeon. “Victim” is an unflattering image, but many people cling to it. It affords a kind of status to some and provides an excuse to others. Continue reading →

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Scientists Long for Meaning Too

Posted on October 15, 2022 by salooper57

(Approximate reading time: four minutes.) If I understand him correctly, the theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind, who teaches at Stanford, contends that matter entering a black hole is preserved in the form of data. Should a black hole consume our world, … Continue reading →

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Whose Side Is God On?

Posted on October 8, 2022 by salooper57

In ancient times, people had to decide which deity they would serve. There were many from which to choose. There was Yahweh the God of Israel, and the pantheon ruler Zeus, Egypt’s Amon-Ra, the fertility god Baal, the “detestable” Molech, … Continue reading →

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Our Father

Posted on September 25, 2022 by salooper57

In this message, we enter, explore, and savor the Lord’s Prayer, which is to say, the prayer he gave his disciples. And what a gift it is! We see in this first sermon that it is those who can call … Continue reading →

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Living Out the Greatest Command (Following Jesus Today Class)

Posted on September 8, 2022 by salooper57

When asked what was the greatest of the Old Testament’s 613 commands, Jesus answered: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and … Continue reading →

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Hope Is Not Pollyanna Positivity

Posted on August 27, 2022 by salooper57

Occasionally, I read or hear someone say something like, “Christians believe some really strange things.” They usually mean that Christians believe in miracles like a six-day creation, a man who was swallowed by a great fish (and spit out days … Continue reading →

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Are People Basically Good?

Posted on August 13, 2022 by salooper57

Lewis’s reasoning was, as usual, spot on. But I, who have quoted Lewis more often than any other source, save the Bible itself, am forced to admit that the premise on which he founds his argument is faulty. He is assuming that total depravity means absolute depravity, which is not what most theologians mean by the term. Continue reading →

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Why God Wants People to Believe in Him

Posted on July 30, 2022 by salooper57

Most religions have some concept of salvation. This salvation might be expressed as life after death, heaven, enlightenment, Nirvana, or union with God. The way to salvation varies by the religion. In some, the way to salvation runs through good … Continue reading →

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A Different Way to Pray (Romans 8:26-27)

Posted on July 26, 2022 by salooper57

Prayer is not the private, highly individual thing we thought it was. There is a work crew that assembles when we pray. Or, say rather, a dream team: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God invites us –in all our weakness – to join his team.

Prayer, as Paul thought of it, is more like basketball than archery. It’s done as a team. We don’t stand alone aiming at a target. Instead, we work the prayer down the court toward the goal. It doesn’t all depends on us—and we should never think it does. That would be like playing in a three-on-three basketball tournament with teammates LeBron James, Stephan Curry, and Nikalo Jokic, and thinking that it all rests on me! We need the team as we pray. Without God’s help, we’ll never move our prayers toward the target. Continue reading →

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Abortion Is an Important, but not an Ultimate, Issue

Posted on July 23, 2022 by salooper57

With humans displaced from God (and, therefore, from each other), secondary errors are unavoidable. In the absence of God, humans invest penultimate things – many good and necessary in themselves – with ultimate standing, to their own detriment. As G. K. Chesterton noted long ago, “When a man stops believing in God, he doesn’t then believe in nothing; he believes anything.” Continue reading →

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