Category Archives: Theology

The Five Blessings of Genesis 12

Posted on November 30, 2021 by salooper57

Genesis 12 is one of the most important passages for understanding the Bible. It records the calling of Abraham, from whom the line begins that leads to the point – the point of it all; that leads to Jesus the Messiah.

There are five blessings in Genesis 12, which is significant because there are five curses in the previous eleven chapters of Genesis. Continue reading →

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The Secret of Gratitude: Receiving Life as a Gift

Posted on November 27, 2021 by salooper57

G. K. Chesterton wrote, half in jest: “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.” Never having been an atheist, I cannot know whether this is true, but I find it doubtful. I do know, however, that it is a bad moment when a believer who does have someone to thank is not thankful. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: You Don’t Get to Know God in an Easy Chair

Posted on November 25, 2021 by salooper57

…nowhere in the Bible do we find God calling people by saying, “I have a no-hassle life-plan for self-fulfillment, and it has your name on it.  All I ask is that you do me the honor of signing up.”   God’s call stretches people.  Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: The Line Begins

Posted on November 24, 2021 by salooper57

We’ve been using the image of a panoramic picture to help us in thinking about the coherence of the larger story of what God is doing in the world. But it may also be helpful to think of the biblical … Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: Fallen (and Still Falling)

Posted on November 16, 2021 by salooper57

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden, humanity’s authority over creation was ripped from them. They were divided from God, divided from their inner selves, divided from each other. God had warned them, “In the day you … Continue reading →

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What to Do When the Bible Bothers You

Posted on November 6, 2021 by salooper57

Why has this bothered me? Because it sounds as if Isaiah – and worse, Jesus – is saying that God doesn’t want people to hear or to see and so to turn to him and be healed. Such a calloused deity seems incompatible with the God I have known in Jesus, who loves even messy people and offers them his blessing. Nor does it fit with other passages in the Bible that unambiguously state that God wants all people to come to repentance and to be saved. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: Presenting God as a “Cosmic Spoilsport”

Posted on November 5, 2021 by salooper57

I have always assumed, when I read this passage, that the entire temptation took place in a day, even in a few moments. But the text does not really say this, and I suspect that it is not so. Perhaps this temptation continued at intervals for days, or weeks, or even months.

The serpent began by asking a question—not that he cared how the woman answered the question. It was not an answer he was after. He only asked the question to prepare the ground of her mind for the seed of doubt he intended to plant. By prefacing his question with the words, “Did God really say,” he introduced uncertainty into the situation and into her mind. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: The Story’s Told that Adam Jumped (But I’m Thinking that He Fell)

Posted on November 3, 2021 by salooper57

In a previous Wide Angle Post, we saw dazzling nebulae and listened to the ravishing symphony of streams and winds and waterfalls. We saw the pinnacle of creation – not a towering Mount Everest, not even a vast, trillion-starred galaxy … Continue reading →

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Wide Angle Series: It Was [Not] So

Posted on November 1, 2021 by salooper57

In ancient times leaders would place images of themselves throughout their kingdoms. (And they do it today, too – one need only think of Kim Il Jong, the North Korean head of state or, previously, Saddam Hussein.) Such images served to remind their subjects of their ruler.

When God made the earth, he intended to place his image everywhere, a constant reminder that he rules the world.  Humans were intended to be the living image of God, ruling creation (Genesis 1: 28) as God’s representatives, with his love and wisdom flowing through them to all creation Continue reading →

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A Halloween Lesson on The Giving God

Posted on October 30, 2021 by salooper57

But Halloween is the eve and vigil of a Christian holy day, and it once helped me learn an important Christian truth. I was probably nine or ten-years-old. For the first and last time, I went trick-or-treating on the east side – the nice side – of our city. My cousin was from the east side, which is where the more affluent folks lived.

der woman. When she opened the door, we shouted, “Trick or Treat!” and held out our bags. She looked us over for a long time and somehow deduced that I was not from the neighborhood. “You don’t live in this neighborhood!” Continue reading →

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