On The Discernment of the Saints
So, apparently “many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). John tells us to test the spirits, and he even gives us the single criterion by which to judge the spirits (This Jesus-Christ-Come-in-Flesh Jesus!), but if we are talking about spirits we cannot see who have recruited prophets skilled in lying, [...]
Confessing This Jesus-Christ-Come-In-Flesh Jesus
After John urges his beloved readers to “test the spirits” in 1 John 4:1, he reveals the specific truth he wishes them to embrace, and the specific error to avoid: 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every [...]
Testing the spirits in a world of Twitter
Once upon a time, there was little confusion as to what a person ought to believe about something. You could always count on either the king or the priest or the prophet to go out of his way to ensure that you knew what to believe on all the important issues. Certainly, other people had [...]
Whoever is born of God cannot keep on sinning
In 1 John 3:4-10, John makes a startling claim: if we have indeed been born of God, we cannot (i.e., we are not able) to continue sinning. If we continue sinning, then we have not been born of God. Read carefully what John says: 4Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin [...]
We shall be like Him
In 1 John, there are perhaps no two verses with more densely packed theology than 3:2-3: Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus [...]
Because Truth is so much more than just being right
Although I place a great deal of emphasis on orthodoxy (right belief), I think that conservative Christians like myself sometimes do the world a disservice by misrepresenting why Truth is important. Very often, we speak as though being right were the only virtue in the world, almost as though theology were just one big math [...]
When Yahweh takes his bride
Hosea 2 describes not only how Yahweh is forced to divorce his bride Israel, and not only how he vows to win her back to himself, but, in the final section of the chapter, even how Yahweh will move heaven and earth for the sake of his renewed bride. First, Yahweh vows that, this time [...]
When Yahweh’s Troubling becomes a Door of Hope
As if Yahweh flipped a switch from his wrath to his mercy, Hosea 2:14-15 portrays a God who refuses to divorce, and commits to remarrying, his bride Israel: 14Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 15And there I will give her her vineyards and make [...]
When Yahweh serves divorce papers
This is a painful post to write. It is difficult to read the utter severity of the language against Israel in Hosea 2:2-13 in view of my own sinfulness because of how vividly the passage portrays that God’s hatred of our sin. Every sin is a personal offense against him, no less personal than if [...]
The Anointing of the Holy One
So then, how do we heed John’s warnings concerning the world and concerning the Church? John considers–and rejects–two main possibilities: Should we simply rely on our common sense, trusting our own intuition and discerning to navigate through life? Or, should we despair of our own ability, and instead seek higher knowledge held by elite Christians [...]
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