Painting a Portrait of Paul

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organicsoymilk asks: 
How do you feel about Paul? Do you trust his epistles? Does his arrogance bother you at all?

Paul is a complicated character, given his multi-layered persona: A former Pharisee schooled under Gamaliel, a Roman citizen,[1] and travelling Apostle of Christ. This personality has even more depth to it, as studies of the New Perspective on Paul[2] and Paul’s relationship with the Stoic philosophers[3] have shown that there is much more going on with Paul by exploring his theological, philosophical, and rhetorical assumptions. Paul is also known to use some pretty profane language: From comparing his former identity as skubula (literally, s—t) in Philippians 3:8 to wishing that his opponents emasculate themselves in Galatians 5:12, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of Paul’s conservative friends would be praying for his salvation! This would lead some people to ask, can such a person be an apostle?

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The Irony of Megachurch Missions

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Megachurches make me uncomfortable.

But it’s not because I’m a ecclesiastical minimalist.  Just because a local church is small doesn’t mean that it is a healthy church - vice versa, having a large church doesn’t make it automatically bad.

However, I do find the idea of certain megachurches participating in missions/giving somewhat ironic.

I was once in a traveling Gospel band that played anywhere:  From bars, to a prison, to churches to biker rallies.  But it wasn’t the bars or even the one-off prison show that made me uncomfortable:  I almost always had a bad taste in my mouth when we played at or visited megachurches.

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Are We More Moral Than [Some Explanations of] ‘God’? (Or: “A Problem with Best-Of-All-Possible-Worlds”)

The idea that humanity, whether individuals or a certain group or as a whole, can become more ‘moral’ than God will obviously raise a few flags.  However, when questioning God or our idea(s) of God, becomes off-limits, we need to ask ourselves:  “Is your God big enough to be questioned?”[1]  A god that cannot handle questions is either too insecure or transcendent.  For those that believe that God is revealed in Jesus, we meet a divine Deity that is willing to relate secular humans.  Jesus constantly engaged questions, even ones that were meant to put him in a tough spot (Matthew 22:15-22 is one example).

And now we ask this question: 
Are We More Moral Than (Some Explanations of) ‘God’?* 

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The Conflict[ed God] of Calvinism (Or: “The Problem with Unconditional Election”)

In Calvinism, there is the explanation of the two wills of God - passive and decreed - in order to explain why “God can save everyone but doesn’t” in order to reconcile their view of God predestining salvation according to their view of deterministic salvation.  Both Hebrew and Christian testaments refer to God as one who does not “take pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 18:23) and “desires all people to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4).  Working in the Calvinist framework of the illusion of free will and predestining God, we know that not everyone, according to God’s will, ends up within the pearly gates.  In this view, “God’s love for His elect is an intensive love that has Him actually doing something about their lost condition instead of simply sitting by wishing that they would in turn love Him”.  This creates several issues within the Calvinist framework:

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Scriptural Roles of Women: Proverbs 31

Proverbs 31:10-31 is the popular passage of the “excellent” (ESV) or “noble” (NIV) wife.  Complementarians have cited this passage as an example of what “biblical womanhood” looks like.[1]  There is even a ministry named after the chapter of the passage.[2]  From these observations, it is safe to say that this section of Scripture plays note-worthy part in the identity and role formation of women in complementarian circles.  So what’s all the fuss about?  In this post, we will look at complementarian and egalitarian interpretations of this influential text.

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Response to Christoforchuk: What is the Gospel?

Christoforchuk answered an anonymous question as to what the Gospel is.  His response:

Those four books you mentioned are considered the “Gospels”. They outline the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They are not however, the Gospel.

He then goes on to explain the biblical metanarrative of creation-fall-redemption-consummation (none of which I disagree with), but is still missing elements of the “biblical Gospel”.  So my rebuttal to Chuk, and for everyone else with this understanding of this “gospel”, is how does your understanding of the Gospel hold up to the Bible?  I’d like to make a few points:

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