One of the most misunderstood moments in Scripture may be the baptism of Christ.
The difficulty begins immediately. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. This creates an obvious question. If Christ was without sin, why would He submit to a baptism of repentance?
The traditional answer is often that Christ was identifying with sinners. While there is truth in that observation, it does not
For most of my life, I was taught that God had a specific plan for every individual. I was taught to discover His will, find my destiny, seek His direction, and carefully follow the path He had prepared. Entire systems of teaching were built around finding God’s plan for one’s life.
The assumption behind these teachings was rarely questioned. If God had a plan for Abraham,
The previous document proposed a simple but far-reaching thesis. History itself was moving toward fulfillment.
The Scriptures do not merely contain history. They describe a historical assignment. Adam appears. Abraham appears. Moses appears. David appears. The prophets appear. Nebuchadnezzar appears. Cyrus appears. Alexander appears. Rome appears. Judas appears. Each stands within a story
If fulfillment is the end of the scripted story and the beginning of the unscripted story, a new question immediately appears.
Why do so many people resist freedom?
The answer may be simpler than we imagine.
Freedom sounds wonderful when discussed in theory. It sounds far less attractive when experienced in reality.
A scripted life offers certainty. A
The previous document explored the fear of freedom. It proposed that human beings often prefer certainty to freedom, destiny to responsibility, and scripts to horizons.
A deeper question now emerges.
How does a human being become an enemy?
Most people assume enemies are discovered. History suggests something different.
Enemies are often designated.
Most discussions about the gospel focus upon theology. They focus upon questions of forgiveness, righteousness, salvation, heaven and earth, and the relationship between God and humanity. These questions are important, but another question remains largely unexplored. What happens to the human mind if the gospel is true? Not merely believed, admired, defended, or repeated, but true.
This
For many years I assumed that enemies were external. Religious systems certainly provided plenty of candidates. The world, the flesh, the devil, demons, temptations, negative influences, and people standing in the way of God’s purpose all seemed to fit the category. Yet the most profound enemy created by a sacred future was none of those things.
It was me.
As a gay man
Before walking the markers, we name the lens. The covenants of YHWH are not eight separate fulfillments arriving at eight separate destinations. They are one fulfillment in many aspects, all converging on one body. The shadow points to the substance; the substance does not abolish the shadow but fills it, plērōma, by being what the shadow was always reaching for.
This means a single rule applies