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In this volume McSwain continues to deploy Karl Barth, Julian of Norwich, Athanasius, James Cone, and dozens of others to buttress his claim about human duplicity and the Easter asymmetry which allows us to properly interpret our lives by the gospel. Specifically, the focus is on Christ's cross which provides the radical discontinuity (judgment) needed to preserve the continuity of God's good creation. In resurrection light we see the inner connection of re-creation to creation, an atonement that disentangles good from evil, righteousness from sin, and life from death. Even though the perfect clarity of this liberating separation is reserved for judgment day, this same judgment of grace frees us to live now as'eschatological activists'in the Liberator's way of justice and peace. In view of the cross, the Spirit empowers us to live in the hidden truth of who Christ is and who we have always been in Christ, as God's beloved in the Trinitarian communion. McSwain's cosmic vision pictures all people sharing in Christ's sufferings and also in his glory. Thus, the reconciled human community genuinely participates'as one'in Christ's victory over sin, death, and the devil.

If we believe the Bible is the inerrant, divinely inspired word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, what is said within its pages about God and his unchangeable character must be consistent and never contradictory. Furthermore, in order to love God with all our heart, believing him to be a just, merciful, and loving God, what we believe from the Scriptures must adhere to the three Cs: Context, Consistency, and Character. For centuries, people have formulated doctrine by taking passages out of context. They have made conclusions about God's character in an inconsistent fashion and often in ways that malign our righteous and holy Creator. When Jesus came to earth, he did not form a new religion; he was a Jew and knew that God had given the sacred pronouncements of truth to the nation of Israel. What he taught about hell, death, resurrection, and judgment is entirely consistent with what God taught his people through the Mosaic Law, the prophets, and the psalms. In Hell No: The Surprising Truths the Bible Teaches about Death, Resurrection, and Judgment, you will see that the Bible is clear: humans never have and never will go to heaven, they are not inherently immortal, God will never torture souls in a hellfire, and all those who died and have paid the price for their sin (death) will be resurrected on earth during the judgment period with a clean slate and an opportunity to truly know God as they'learn war no more'under Christ's millennial reign. Hell No is a serious deep dive into Scripture but also a conversational foray into truth, written by a layperson for laypeople serious about searching the deep things of God to uncover the Bible's truths in order to better know and love their Creator.

In this study, Blake Wassell applies new Roman and Jewish contexts to a Johannine ambiguity, which is Pilate declaring Jesus both innocent and guilty of making himself King of the Ἰουδαῖοι. Pilate repeats that he finds in Jesus no basis for the accusation, and yet he also writes the content of the accusation in the inscription on the cross. The paradox leads readers into another paradox: the Ἰουδαῖοι make themselves the accused as they make the accusation, and Jesus conquers as he is conquered. The author analyses how they destroy the temple of his body, so that he can raise it and how they exalt him, so that he can reveal himself.

Christians can be adept at drawing lines, determining what it means to be'a good Christian'and judging those who stray out of bounds. Other times they erase all the lines in favor of a vague and inoffensive faith. Both impulses can come from positive intentions, but either can lead to stunted spiritual life and harmful relationships. Is there another option?The late missionary anthropologist Paul Hiebert famously drew on mathematical theory to deploy the concepts of'bounded,''fuzzy,'and'centered'sets to shed light on the nature of Christian community. Now, with Centered-Set Church, Mark D. Baker provides a unique manual for understanding and applying Hiebert's vision. Drawing on his extensive experience in church, mission, parachurch, and higher education settings, along with interviews and stories gleaned from scores of firsthand interviews, Baker delivers practical guidance for any group that seeks to be truly centered on Jesus.Baker shows how Scripture presents an alternative to either obsessing over boundaries or simply erasing them. Centered churches are able to affirm their beliefs and live out their values without such bitter fruit as gracelessness, shame, and self-righteousness on the one hand, or aimless'whateverism'on the other. While addressing possible concerns and barriers to the centered approach, Baker invites leaders to imagine centered alternatives in such practical areas of ministry as discipleship, church membership, leadership requirements, and evangelism. Centered-Set Church charts new paths to grow in authentic freedom and dynamic movement toward the true center: Jesus himself.

Come to church or go to hell. That's religious bullying. It's judgmentalism. And it's a theological distortion, a distortion insisting that shame and self-loathing are morally appropriate. In Christian humanist tradition, God is not some cosmic judge eager to smite all of us for our sinfulness. God is compassion. We are cherished by God beyond our wildest imagining. We are called to radical hospitality, not to crass judgmentalism. So where does this religious judgmentalism come from? It is the heritage of medieval theocracy: a violent, vindictive God of command and control was far more useful politically than a God of compassion, hospitality, and forgiveness. It comes from literal-minded misreading of the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, a story about shame, not disobedience. And it comes from political success in exploiting deep-seated liabilities in the American soul: we spend our lives trying to'prove ourselves,'a hopeless task. There's an alternative. In the Christian humanist tradition, authentic moral judgment is rooted in conscience as a creative process. Morality is an art demanding both rigorous consideration of the facts and thoughtful introspection. Conscience properly understood and thoughtfully practiced is an antidote to shame, incessant self-criticism, and chronic self-doubt.

How was Jesus the most holy person while at the same time the least judgmental? And why don't His followers live like He lived? Let's be honest, Christians are losing the culture war. The western Church is in stark decline and our kids no longer find the message of judgement tenable in the real world. Jesus came to influence and draw—not condemn and repel. In Brimstone, Hugh Halter helps us navigate the overuse of poor judgment and the underuse of right judgment. This book will help you navigate the great law of love given by Jesus. Inside you'll find a disruptive invitation to be holy as Jesus was holy and engage the sinful world with a smile instead of pointing a finger in their face.

This monograph provides a fresh perspective on judgment according to works by challenging both the majority scholarly view and the new perspective advocated by E. P. Sanders, James D. G. Dunn and N. T. Wright. Employing intertextuality and early Jewish mediation of scripture, this study examines the idea of judgment according to works with reference to Psalm 62:13 in early Jewish literature and the New Testament. The originality of this study is to highlight the significance of Psalm 62:13 in the context of judgment according to works and to argue that the texts dealing with judgment according to works in the New Testament are to be understood as interpretations of Psalm 62:13 and its broad context.

Everlasting hell and divine judgment, a lake of fire and brimstone--these mainstays of evangelical tradition have come under fire once again in recent decades. Would the God of love revealed by Jesus really consign the vast majority of humankind to a destiny of eternal, conscious torment? Is divine mercy bound by the demands of justice? How can anyone presume to know who is saved from the flames and who is not? Reacting to presumptions in like manner, others write off the fiery images of final judgment altogether. If there is a God who loves us, then surely all are welcome into the heavenly kingdom, regardless of their beliefs or behaviors in this life. Yet, given the sheer volume of threat rhetoric in the Scriptures and the wickedness manifest in human history, the pop-universalism of our day sounds more like denial than hope. Mercy triumphs over judgment; it does not skirt it. Her Gates Will Never Be Shut endeavors to reconsider what the Bible and the Church have actually said about hell and hope, noting a breadth of real possibilities that undermines every presumption. The polyphony of perspectives on hell and hope offered by the prophets, apostles, and Jesus humble our obsessive need to harmonize every text into a neat theological system. But they open the door to the eternal hope found in Revelation 21-22: the City whose gates will never be shut; where the Spirit and Bride perpetually invite the thirsty who are outside the city to'Come, drink of the waters of life.'