God is Love

Burning Cultural Bridges? Repentance and Paul in Athens, Acts 17:22-31

Ian Johnson February 20, 2022 1 Comment

Paul’s speech to the rulers of Athens in the Areopagus was a long exercise in deliberate irony, first building and then promptly burning cultural bridges. Paul did this to show them the folly of their deliberate ignorance of the true God.

A God who Speaks, Desire to have our own way, Eternity, Forgetting God, God Acts by Speaking, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, idolatry, Immanence, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, Sin, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, Truth and Falsehood, What is sin?

Areopagus, Athens, Christianity, cross-cultural evangelism, cultural bridges, Epicurean, evangelism, Greek philosophies, Greek religion, Idolatry, idols, Paul, repentance, sermon, Stoic, trial, unknown god, willful ignorance

Repentance and Earthly Consequences: the Consequences of David’s Sins–including Jesus

Ian Johnson December 22, 2021 2 Comments

Though God forgave David his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, this sin had a traceable chain of earthly consequences which extends to the present and which includes the death of Christ on the cross.

Consequences, Discipline or Correction, forgiveness and mercy, God Never Stopped Speaking, God's sovereignty, Prophecy, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, Repentance versus Remorse, Sin, The Problem of Evil, Through his enemies, Trusting sight over God's words

Absalom, Adonijah, Amnon, Asa, Bathsheba, consequences, consequences of sins, cross, forgiveness, Israel, Jeconiah, Jehoiachin, Jeroboam, Jesus, Josiah, Judah, King David, Nathan, Rehoboam, sin, Solomon, Uriah

God Rejected King Saul, But Declared King David a Man After His Own Heart. Didn’t God Get this Backwards?

Ian Johnson November 14, 2021 7 Comments

God rejected King Saul, a bungler who made a few mistakes trying to do God’s will, his own way. But he accepted King David, a rapist and murderer, forgave him two unforgivable sins, promised him an eternal kingdom, called him a man after his own heart–and put him in Jesus’ lineage! Didn’t God get this backwards? NO!!

Confession and Repentance, Desire to have our own way, forgiveness and mercy, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's rationality, Leaving Our First Love, Peril of Seeking Power, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, Repentance versus Remorse, Sin, Sins versus sin, Social control and statecraft, The Problem of Evil, Trusting sight over God's words, What is sin?

after my own heart, forgive, forgiveness, King David, King Saul, man after God's own heart, rejection, remorse, repent, repentance, sin, sin vs sins, sins, unforgiveable

“Unless You Repent, You Will All Perish,” the Parable of the Spared Fig Tree, and the problem of evil in Luke 13:1-9

Ian Johnson September 19, 2021 2 Comments

In Luke 13:1-9, Jesus answers the “problem of evil” by pointing at his questioners’–and everyone’s–sin, pointing out that death and suffering come as a result of sin, not of being a greater or lesser sinner, and calling for repentance.

Changed treatment of each other, Death of Members, forgiveness and mercy, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's rationality, Greed, Religious violence and persecution, Repentance, The Problem of Evil

bearing fruit, Death, fruit, fruitbearing, Judgment, Problem of Evil, repent, repentance, sin, sinners, suffering, unjust death, unjust suffering

The Crediting of Righteousness to Abraham and the Question whether Jesus Died for Our Weaknesses or for for Our Discrete Sins Only–Romans 4:25

Ian Johnson August 15, 2021 2 Comments

Correctly including character flaws in the word “paraptoma” yields a reading of Romans 4:25 which correctly includes our death to the power of sin in our members, which died with Jesus, in the justification for which he died..

forgiveness and mercy, God is Love, God was never our enemy, Reconciliation, Regeneration, Restoration of God's Image

faults, flaws, justification, paraptoma, power of sin, put to death, Romans 4:25, sins, wrongdoings

Debts, debtors and paráptōmata in the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ associated saying on mercy towards others’ weaknesses–Matthew 6:12-15 and Mark 11:20-26

Ian Johnson August 12, 2021 2 Comments

In the Lord’s Prayer and the parallel teaching about mercy, Jesus tells us that we are to ask God to release us from the consequences or resulting debts of our sins as we release others from the debts we imagine they owe us. While praying, we are to show mercy upon the flaws (paráptōmata) that led them to sin, because the Father will show us mercy in the same measure.

Confession and Repentance, Divisions in the Church, Forgive as we forgive, forgiveness and mercy, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Reconciliation, Repentance, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, To live in unity

by the same measure, debts, flaws, forgiveness, Jesus, Lord's Prayer, mercy, paráptōma, release, sins, unforgiveness

Repentance of the Ninevites and Unrepentance of Israel in Matthew 12:41

Ian Johnson June 28, 2021 2 Comments

Jesus contrasted the Jewish leaders, who refused to hear his words, with the Ninevites who repented at the preaching of Jonah and put away their bloodshed and violence.

A God who Speaks, Changed treatment of each other, God is Love, God's sovereignty, Prophecy, Refusing to hear, Repentance, Repentance in community, Sin, Through Jesus, What is sin?

changed behavior, Jesus, Jonah, Matthew 12:41, Nineveh, put away violence, re[entance, repent, Repentance of the Ninevites

About Jesus in the Earliest Christianity

Ian Johnson December 28, 2020 1 Comment

This post is a detailed index of what the earliest Christian churches appear to have understood, this time about the Person of Jesus. Most of these ideas were later distorted, leading to divisions in the Church and historical consequences in the world. Further links to this outline will be added as new articles are written.

A God who Speaks, Church History, Islamic History and Secular History Interaction, Eternity, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God was never our enemy, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's sovereignty, Immanence, Index, Jesus the Son, Reconciliation, Salvation, Show us the Way of Truth, Son of Man, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, Through Jesus, To see God's glory, Topic Index, Transcendence, Trinity, Victory, What is God's Word

Death, eternal, Eternity, God, History, Incarnation, Jesus, One with God, Person of Jesus, restoration, resurrection, Son of God, Sovereign over time, Will of God, Word of God

About God, His Nature and Monotheism in the Earliest Christianity

Ian Johnson December 27, 2020 2 Comments

Though more detailed than previous indexes, this post is also an index to points later distorted that the New Testament–supplemented by other early writers–shows the earliest Church understood about God’s person. Further links will be added as new articles are written.

Church History, Islamic History and Secular History Interaction, Eternity, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's Other Attributes, God's rationality, God's sovereignty, Immanence, Index, Meaning of Unity, Omnipresence, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, Topic Index, Transcendence, Trinity, Unity

complex unity, contradictory pairs, Eternity, God, God is Love, God's Attributes, God's Oneness, God's Unity, Immanence, Love, Omnipresence, Self-existence, Transcendence, Trinity

Burning Cultural Bridges? Repentance and Paul in Athens, Acts 17:22-31

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Repentance and Earthly Consequences: the Consequences of David’s Sins–including Jesus

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God Rejected King Saul, But Declared King David a Man After His Own Heart. Didn’t God Get this Backwards?

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“Unless You Repent, You Will All Perish,” the Parable of the Spared Fig Tree, and the problem of evil in Luke 13:1-9

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The Crediting of Righteousness to Abraham and the Question whether Jesus Died for Our Weaknesses or for for Our Discrete Sins Only–Romans 4:25

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Debts, debtors and paráptōmata in the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ associated saying on mercy towards others’ weaknesses–Matthew 6:12-15 and Mark 11:20-26

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Repentance of the Ninevites and Unrepentance of Israel in Matthew 12:41

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About Jesus in the Earliest Christianity

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About God, His Nature and Monotheism in the Earliest Christianity

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