Broken Christianity’s teaching that Jesus died so God could forgive you has more to do with 11th Century feudal culture and 16th Century European courtrooms than it does the Bible. So where did this idea come from and what does the Bible say?
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God Isn’t Offended
Renown atheist Christopher Hitchens was right, God is not great. At least not the God of a broken Christianity. In my life, nothing embodies this more than part of the Lutheran church service called the confession.
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Jesus Isn’t the Only Son of God
There was only one Son of God and Prince of Peace in the Roman Empire. Who else could even make a claim? After all, the armies operating under Augustus Caesar brought the Pax Romana (the Peace of Rome) to the ancient world. No wonder the world turned upside down when an itinerant peasant preacher named Jesus of Nazareth, a man without an army or cultural authority, started using those titles as well.
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The Bible Is Not the Word of God
Contrary to popular Christian belief, the Bible is not the Word of God. Where did I learn this? The Bible.
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What is Perfect?
And now the time is finally here to talk about the word perfect. Like when Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” It is one of those phrases that Evangelicals love to point to when talking about the necessity of moral perfection. I am pretty sure the text on that million dollar bill with the million dollar question I talked about back in episode six, included a bit about perfection. It is all part of an evangelism spiel that says if you are not perfect than you deserve hell unless Jesus saves you. There are just two small problems … Greek and context. I will unpack each.
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You Don’t Know Your Enemies
If you live in the United States of America, odds are, you don’t know your enemies. This is true of the people you perceive to be your enemies and your actual enemies. So how can we take Jesus’ words about loving our enemies seriously? Let me expand a bit.
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