Serving Self and Serving God

The video of Victoria Osteen saying that we should focus on our self and our own happiness when we worship and serve because our happiness is what makes God happy has been getting hammered pretty hard by Evangelicals this last month. The coverage of her has been biting enough that I don’t need to pile …

Yet another Word about Judgment

Someone emailed me, pointing out that 2 Thessalonians 1:5 (from the previous essay) is yet another judgment text. Given my penchant for commenting on such texts, they were surprised I didn’t say anything. Okay, I’ll bite, because it is an interesting facet of judgment.Verse 5 occurs in the midst of one of those ridiculously long …

It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘from’ is

Proper manners include refraining from talking religion at work. But at my recent jobs it’s been known that I used to be a pastor, so manners be damned. People come to me with the strangest religious questions, conversations, and controversies. Most recently, a colleague asked about a fringe heretical group who believes in the destruction …

Jesus’ Final Word on Judgment in John’s Gospel

Although it wasn’t the original plan (the “original plan” was no plan at all, this all just sort of happened), I’ve ended up writing essays on all the significant passages about judgment in the Gospel of John. This essay is about the final significant passage found in Jn. 12:31. John 12 tells the story of …

Why This Sudden Change of Tune?

In the previous essay I pointed out that in John 5:19 Jesus says to his audience, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise." But moments later, in v. 22, he says, …

Judgment

Judgment, or The Judgment, or even more specifically, The Last Judgment conjures all sorts of negative connotations in our culture. But the New Testament word “judgment” (krisis in Greek) is not as negative as our cultural stereotypes. At its root it refers to a point of decision that can no longer be put off. And …