Tag Archives: theology

July 21, 2022 · 11:58 am

My Top Ten List

I have not put out my top list in awhile, since I have read a few more books since last time! LOL That goes without saying! Ha.

So Here Goes-

  1. From Eternity to Here by Frank Viola
  2. Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright
  3. Love Wins by Rob Bell
  4. Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright
  5. Kingdom through Covenant by Peter J. Gentry/Stephen J Wellum
  6. Paul and Palestinian Judaism by E.P. Sanders
  7. The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle by Albert Schweitzer
  8. Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet/Frank Viola
  9. Galatians(Commentary) by N.T. Wright
  10. A Larger Hope? by Ilaria L E Ramelli

So, What do you think? Have you read any of these? What is your Top Ten Christian List?

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April 7, 2022 · 1:41 pm

Disturbing trend?

I love to have discussions on anything biblical based,christianity or theology. I can always start up an conversation with someone with just a comment, or an article that has caught my fancy. It is just the flowing of insight of other people and their perspectives. It is just a good ‘iron sharpening iron’ moment that we should take advantage of.

This is how we grow.

But I have come across some discussions that are not like this. This is what is happening, and it scares me that it is happening in some ‘religions’. People are not using God’s Word as ‘the Iron’ to sharpen other ‘Iron’, they are using a ‘script’ of ‘belief’ of their understanding from a ‘sect’ of religion, and they do not waver from it, it has been ingrained in their mantra that this is the only way to enlighten someone to their so called truth.

How did we get to this point of disregarding the bible in our weapon of choice in standing on the precipice of God? God has given us His Word for us to read,contemplate, digest, and interpret for ourselves to ‘see’ God. It is when use a man made ‘script’ of ‘ it is this or else, that will get us in trouble.

Shall we Pray?

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December 13, 2021 · 10:11 am

Trying to get past the fluff

I want to start the John series in the next few days. I was sidetracked saturday with an long and intense chat on facebook with a few friends. It was a topic of one’s friends theology and the opposing view, mine. There were four guys discussing the subject thru out the day, 12 hours later we wrapped it up! We all brought up our thoughts and beliefs on the subject to sway our justification for our beliefs. It is this that I seek to gain the influence of other people to bring out people and their foundation of faith in God.

It was in this discussion that it came to me, that christianity has looked for salvation in the scriptures, mainly in the new testament and cherry picked verses to create a scenario for saving. It has been a concern for christians on the ‘How’ we may be reinstated to our original status. It is when we justify the varying verses to connect each other to make a plan of salvation. What we must realize that God has had the plan of working with his creation from the time of denial of God’s authority. The lack of starting with the whole storyline of this saving journey from the starting with an example of people such as the Jewish people of Canna. There is a lack of knowledge of the deeper themes, types, foreshadow, allegory, and most of all the eternal purpose of God.

There is not a ‘knowing’ of the whole storyline of God and His Eternal Purpose throughout the scriptures.

It is the fact that christianity has separated the story of Israel from itself, that has started the confusion of the storyline that God created. Another problem with this storyline is that Christianity has changed the story to be an individual story of salvation, rather than the ‘whole of Creation’ which God is telling us from day one from Genesis.

When we set ourselves ‘straight’, in our theology of God, we will not only be amazed but excited for the whole world. Let me just say this straight up and get it over with, Denominations have killed the Christian experience. Let me explain why.

Denominations were created by men who stood for a structure of beliefs in the aspects of an institution. It was designed for the foundation and the walls not to be penetrated by other beliefs or exploring of others. For whatever reason this is also a trap to keep people ‘in’ a vacuum of belief and not ‘let’ or trap the group into ‘not’ looking outside this realm.

This is the ‘issue’ that I was coming across with my discussions with some of the participants on the subject. There seems to be a lack of understanding of the bible and its meaning. Christians need to first ‘read’ the Bible, from front to back! Then next study the bible from front to back! Someone once asked me “How long should one read the bible and know it” my answer was the program preached on sunday to read it in a year, or two years. I told them the “I thought it should be around 50 yrs or so, if that.” Which took them back at my answer. I personally have been engaged in the study of the bible for around 20 years.

This is one of the reasons that I have pushed in the last 10 years to living and saying this that we need to separate ourselves from the model of institutions, to escape the confinement of said rules of salvation. Being a christian(believing in God) should drive us to search the word and to eat it’s words to actually ‘know’ God. This is our desire to be in him and Him in us.

Let us be able to take it upon ourselves that God wants us His People to ‘be’ with Him, eternally forever.

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August 28, 2021 · 4:17 pm

Deconstruction

It’s starting over. erasing everything on the paper. tearing your model apart. Start from scratch in the kitchen. breaking your wood project to pieces. clearing your mind.

Re-Reading the Bible from start to finish.

This is actually what is going on in many people minds or philosophies,or even theologies. It seems to be the word in christendom. But I believe that it is almost always done outside of the walls of the church. You see, You might be chastised if you were tell the preacher or an elder that this is not right what we are doing in the church.

It is outside the walls of the church building, that things are being relooked at all levels of christianity. Their has been alot of different avenues of christianity that has been pushed, or thought of as the ‘way’ that the scriptures were pointing us to go. Just in the last 100 yrs their has been 2-3 models that have been instituted thru the name of God, that has never worked out. (this is only for the United States)

Let’s start with the oldest one that started in the 1940-50’s that the small evangelical preacher was supposed to ‘Preach Fire and Brimstone’ upon everyone’s head in those small towns to get them to heaven. This was all the rage. It eventually came to the city, and then was always used in the service to have everybody down at the alter to repent of their sins, and to make sure you would get to heaven, and not hell. People of persuasion were bullying people into Heaven.

Just can’t find this in the scriptures as being used as ‘way’ into Heaven anywhere. (besides being a wrong theology)

The second one is the let’s make a difference thru the church by melding our beliefs into the political arena, so that everyone must conform into it by law or legislation that we pass. This started in the 1980’s and has come crashing down upon us in the last few years. Which we won’t get in to. But it was this thinking that christianity must be inside the government to ‘make’ a difference in the US. This was the way to do it, so they thought.

This again, is nowhere in the scriptures the way that God’s people were to ‘sway’ the gentiles into submission.

Another big thing that was all the rage was the actually BIG CHURCH in the town that ‘everyone’ went to, to emphasized the awesomeness of God in one place by either from the pastor, or from the sheer ‘hugeness’ of the congregation. But this too has died a slow death, once everyone figured out that they felt all ‘alone’ in those 15,000 church’s. Their was no attention to the fellowship of people in the more intimate way of sharing each others lives in a daily basis way.

Again, This is nowhere to be found either in the old testament or new testament!. (Israel’s multitude in the time of the Exile when their people were flourishing, is not an example of this) Especially in the New Testament.

I have said this is many other blogs of mine that we haven’t really focused on the theme of the bible, (or what I call the Eternal Purpose)or the actually Forrest of it, instead of the tree, that we seem to be crazy about.

Why have we not just sat down in our chairs, and just DECONSTRUCT God’s Theology for us. Start at the beginning. After we have destroyed everything that we have used before in our theology. This is a must. No, It is a Command!!

Clear your mind of all previous ways, institutions, traditions, sacraments, or inheritance of beliefs and start from a clean sheet of paper!

Start in reading Genesis, slowly reading everything with the concept of that everything that is going on started with a plan a perfectness of God, it went wrong with the building materials God was using(us), but His plan was to get it back to His original plan. Keep this in mind all the way thru the bible, til the very end, tada, it does!

Start over, Today.

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May 25, 2021 · 6:54 pm

When did your religion start?

Did you figure it out? When does your religion start?

Where did you see your religion start, in the OT,NT?

What was the verse, what was the chapter, what was the book. Who was the person that influenced you? Who were the people that influenced you? Was there a theme involved? Was Jesus involved? Was God involved? How did you come to your conclusion of Theology?

My view on religion is ‘we'(christians) have tried to make a religion of man made institutions that have muddied up the waters of God’s relationship with His creation. This is where we must start our theology, in creation. God’s creation is the crescendo of God’s Mighty Hand. It was the Eternal Purpose. God’s Love was poured out on everything and in everything.

Our Theology should be pinpointed at the first and only desire of God’s Love, was to be in communion with His creation. God’s design was for us! He created us! He designed us to be His image! He wants to walk with us. He wants to talk to us. This God’s own Theology.

Now the middle part, we will skip, we are in the middle.

The eternity, will be the restoration of the beginning of God’s Purpose for eternity. God is Good.

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May 8, 2021 · 9:27 am

Identity?

When does something become something?

I was listening to a debate yesterday over a christian theology matter(subject is irrelevant for this topic),when I pondered the identity of when does something become something?( once we knew this we will be able to use this for everything, and I mean everything)

Does something become ‘real’ when I plan to make something in my head? Does it become real when I have started on the project in the early phases of building? What if I make it, then decide to make it differently? What if I just make it wrong that it isn’t what I wanted it to be? Do I have to wait til the project is done, and done right accordingly to me to be what I said it was going to be?

This is confusing! There seems to be more variables after the concept is conceived than just coming from the possibility of the said idea was formed! Do you know what I am saying?

Is it something just because of the possibility of becoming something?

Or is it a possibility just because I have the ability to make the said thing possible?

I have taken this road to weirdness, to come at something from a different angle!

The ‘Trinity’, Father,Son(Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. I believe in it.

I believe that the Trinity was,is,will be forever. period.

So by saying this, We can say that They ‘have been’ forever.

So by saying this, We can say that They ‘are’ now.

So by saying this, We can say that They ‘will be’ forever.

So they by ‘being’ at anytime, could and have been anything they desired.

They could be anything that was within themselves, just by the ‘thought’ of it, without acting on it.

or saying it!

God is unlimited in himself,God is everything in everything!

Jesus also is unlimited in himself, Jesus is everything in everything!

Holy Spirit is unlimited in himself, Holy Spirit is everything in everything!

This could be confusing, for the christian today, let alone for the average joe on the street to understand. But here me out.

God,Jesus,Holy Spirit are within themselves,(they are what they are) But they are also within the other’s identity.

They are three but one.

Now this all by it’s self could be a great study of the word. But it is not where I was laying the foundation.

It is the fact that ‘ALL’ things come from this ‘Paradigm’ of God. It is the reality that from these three identities of God that we have gotten alot of things. (We know this because we have seen history)

We have seen a Universe,planets, stars, earth,moons, man, animals, vegetation, women, son of man, ekklesia, Life,death,Love,suffering, healing, joy, hatred, Heaven, Kingdom of God, creations from God to us. (The list could go on for about a thousand years, so I will stop here)

The picture that I am trying to paint is the one that within God’s essence comes the first of everything, He is the Almighty. It is thru Him that comes everything.

So by this I will say that something becomes something just because God is God.

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April 16, 2021 · 1:50 pm

Update on latest books read

I like to every once in awhile keep people up to date on my studies and books that I have read.

My latest books that I have read are in the same genre in a way, they include things that pertain to the theme of ‘Universalism’. Like “I say to the people that ask me what are you reading now”?, I tell them that I am quite diverse in my book reading or interest in the subjects of the bible. This topic is of a controversial subject that has been in the christian history since the beginning of the New Testament, it has not ever gone away. It seems that in the last 20+ years it has come into the spotlight in alot of different arena’s in the christian realm. This is why I took up the gauntlet to delve into the subject. Here are a few of the books that I come across to educate me.

The first one is by David Bentley Hart-“That All shall be Saved”.

This is probably one of the two books that challenges the concept of ‘Hell’, which is a part of ‘Universalism’.

The second one is by Richard Rohr –“The Universal Christ”.

Addresses the ‘Saving of All’

The third one is by Haley Goranson Jacob –“Conformed to the Image of His Son”.

Very deep material of why man is restored to the image of God.

The Fourth one is by Ilaria L. E. Ramelli –“A Larger Hope”

This book is the going thru the Apostolic fathers that were either hinting of the concept of ‘Universalism’ or was intentionally. This was thru the Middle ages.

The Fifth one is by Robin A Parry –“A Larger Hope”(second volume of first)

This book continues with the prior one thru the 20th Century of Apostolic fathers and others that were instituting the claim of ‘Universalism’.

I would recommend all these books for research and studying for increased knowledge of biblical theology. But I am especially impressed with both authors of the book “A Larger Hope”. They are all very deep and will need prior knowledge of alot of scriptures to use as references. But this is what it is all about in ‘seeing’ the scriptures as they are presented to us as a complete story of God and His Eternal Purpose.

Let me know if you get to read any of these Great books and your opinion of them or any questions on them.

Good Reading!

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March 23, 2021 · 8:31 pm

My People

14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Ch 7:14).

If my friend joe,fred,suzy,betty,anthony,debbie,george,etc would humble themselves and pray and seek my face…….

The latter verse is one that I feel that is what is read into the scriptures so that our theology jives with what we think and do. This concept or paradigm is one that has been in use or believed in for over 1500 yrs with adverse effects other than the obvious.

It is the previous statement of verse 14 of 2 chronicles chapter 7 that says “if my people”…… . This verse is the plural or corporate expression of God’s people. The plural of God’s expression of His Love for man has always been this way. All thru the bible God’s concern was to restore mankind to it’s former self.

This is the paradigm in which we must work with in our theology, God is Love, Love trumps everything.

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January 21, 2020 · 4:33 pm

Does Kingdom theology answer the theology of the Jews?

There is a difference of opinion of the jewish world and of the christian world in the eschatology of both. It has a few reasons why the jewish world has denied the christian eschatology, one has been the notion of dieing in this world and proceed to heaven for all the good people, and the bad, well, you know,hell.

The Kingdom of God theology, that is being now preached in various forms of avenues to christians has a different scenario for all of us. It is the storyline of God creating a world, for his creation’s, to work along side of everything He created, with God walking with us. It was when mankind, saw that He could run it by himself, without the creator in any shape or form. It was a ‘make the world and just leave it to us’ kind of scenario for mankind.

But God had a twist to this storyline, He being the God that He was, was not leaving totally to the story, He was to be involved in various things to maybe show the bad, and good things of the ‘mankind experiment’ until God’s involvement in bringing His people back around to Him. Abraham was the beginning of Gods retaking his world from mankind.

God showing the world that his only son, was the model of God’s ‘New World’ of his Kingdom is born when Jesus conquered the ‘Death’ of Mankind, that was holding it back from achieving the ultimate goal of God’s perfect example of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

God’s Kingdom is alive! It is being lived out in yours and my life that is progressing to the ultimate reality that is described in Revelation 20-21 of the New Testament.

Heaven(God’s government) is now with the world of his people, He is now all in all!

This is a very, very short storyline of what I could actually describe to you but if you desire more explained or just a question of something, I will return a answer, I hope.

Something to think about, it does connect some puzzle pieces tho!

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March 7, 2019 · 10:04 am

It’s a Journey

Oh, you can say that again!

Growing up in ‘church’ environment of doing or saying what everyone was claiming to be as a christian, was just normal. I guess it was the right of passage of being in the ‘church’ , you just continue on with what has been going on for generations, except with some minor modifications. But that is all. Same old things,said over and over,done over and over. But Why?

Until I finally asked myself ‘Why’ this and ‘Why’ that, what is the ‘church’ trying to do, what is christianity trying to be? How did we get here as the building of Christ believers?

It’s always good to start at the point of where you have been to ‘know’ where you are now. So the logical point of starting from is to look at how things have evolved in christianity, the good, bad, and yes there’s the ugly. Following christian beginnings is a rough and messy picture to cipher, but it does get us to the point of seeing of where we interrupted our beginnings to see if we got off on a good foot.

Christian beginnings were very thinly disguised from the start of the first century, there was no defining markers of ‘identity’ as was let’s say the Judaism sect was. Paul,Peter,James, and John were of different minds and of boundary markers of this ‘new way’. What was being emphasized was the ‘title’ that someone had given you, who you ate with, or what you believed in from your God.

This, to say the least is a picture of breaking glass of the real picture of what God was designing the perfect picture. This broad synopsis of what God’s people, God’s Temple, and who God was, never really comes into focus until around the 1000 ad when Constantine set up shop for the christians in the buildings of choice and with any interference from anyone. This model then collides with Peter’s model a few hundred years down the road that just creates the ‘ugly’ as we have talked about.

My overall synopsis of where we have gotten confused and more so, just plain, not ‘seeing’ or ‘hearing’ what God thru the scriptures is telling us. It is getting past the words of scripture and ‘seeing’ what God is doing in this narrative collection of books and letters. This mistake has got to get us to re-look at the whole narrative of the bible in what the whole picture tells us.

Studying Paul of the N.T. has shed some light on the subject that we are on, that we might start our focus on. Paul was given the ‘spotlight’ for a reason in his walk to Damascus. It was a revelation of why Messiah was put into the scriptures, It was to bring back to Him the World of his creation. His after the fact of Jesus walk on the earth that he was proclaiming to make the world right to Him. His conquering of all the things that were making the world a captive of evil were now gone that the world may now be His.

Paul’s insight of the Jewish Old Covenant of what then God was doing with ‘a people'(His) was being carried over to the New Covenant but with the bindings off of his people that would make the real difference! The two covenants are really one, with the latter being freedom from man’s identity to God’s identity, where it was in the beginning.

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