“Why does God allow…”
Question “Why do horrific things happen to completely innocent people/children?” Response This is such an important question and needs to be asked again and again. Even if no rational answer can suffice, millions cry it out as a lament every day, while others frame it as evidence against the existence of a good God. It […]
Jesus’ Nail Scars – Bradley Jersak
Question Did Jesus’ crucifixion nails go through his hands or his wrists? Does it matter? What matters? Response From earliest times—in both the Bible and sacred art, Christians have located Jesus’ nail scars on his hands. The strongest biblical indicator for doing so is in John 20, where we read that Jesus appears in the […]
Revisiting ‘Satisfaction’ & the Cross – Bradley Jersak
Far beyond crucifixion by execution, the Cross of Christ has, historically, generated a Good News proclamation—the gospel of God’s saving work through Jesus’ death and resurrection. That gospel was announced through a great banquet of biblical metaphors describing the means, meaning, and outcomes of the Paschal Mystery—with the Passover Lamb’s liberation from death and bondage […]
Q: How do we avoid cherry-picking the Bible for a God of Love of our own wishes? Brad Jersak
QUESTION: How do you respond to people who object that we are imposing our own ideology of peace onto the Bible rather than letting the Bible speak for itself. When you “unwrath God,” aren’t you cherry-picking according to our own wishes for what you wish the text had said rather than submitting to what it […]
The Scandal of the Cross [or Lethal Injection Table] – Brad Jersak
This week I have been pondering afresh the scandal of the Cross as I read (for probably the fifth time) an article by Wm. Paul Young titled “The Killing House.” He writes about his experiences in visiting men on “death row,” scheduled for execution, most probably by lethal injection. I began to imagine Christ dying […]
What ‘Christ Died for Our Sins Meant to the Fathers’ – Brad Jersak
The following summary represents what we find in the classics of early Christian thought as they recalled the ‘faith once delivered,’ and sought to articulate the meaning of the Incarnation in light of the revelation that Christ was both fully human and fully divine. For primary readings on this, see for example: Athanasius, On the Incarnation […]
“I Needed Color” – Jim Carrey, Jesus and Healing Color
Jim Carrey is one of kind. Well, we all are, right? But so often we see others in monochrome and are blind to the enormous palette of color that makes every one of us living miracles of God’s affection. In Carrey’s case, the spectrum is broad to the point of shocking, for his zany comic […]