God ordered humans to “subdue (כָּבַשׁ) the earth” (Gn 1:28). What does this mean? What does this command have to do with the vocation of humans? This article will review humans’ vocation in the light of Genesis 1.
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Why our modern view of justice is unbiblical—recovering a biblical view of God’s justice.
Many assume that mercy and justice are at odds as if these are two opposing things, and therefore two opposing characteristics within God. That God desires to have mercy, but he is bound to justice because of his holiness. A dichotomy within the very being of God. Such thinking is based on a wrong understanding of God’s justice influenced by Justitia (Lady Justice) rather than the Bible. Looking at the OT, Jesus, and Paul this article will show that God’s justice is restorative in its nature and therefore consistent with God’s love. God’s restorative justice is an expression of his love and not a quality contrary to God’s love.
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How Jesus radically reinterpreted the Law of Moses and what that means for us
In Matt 5:17 we read that Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. How does this fit with the many events in which he taught and acted contrary to the Law of Moses? What does this mean for our understanding of the Law and Scripture?
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Why knowing God’s character is of uttermost importance
What is the mark of spiritual maturity? How can we know what God truly is like? Does it matter what we believe about God’s character? This article shows the supreme importance of knowing what God is like. Our picture of God shapes our brain and influences our whole life. Therefore, growing in our knowledge of what God is like matters significantly.
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A Biblical Understanding of the Wrath of God
How does the wrath of God fit with the fact that he is love in his essence? Is the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New Testament? In this article, it will make clear that God’s wrath and his judging actions are continuously defined the same throughout the Bible and are an expression of his love.
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Paul intentionally reversed violent Old Testament scriptures
This article addresses the question of how Paul dealt with violent scriptures in the Old Testament (OT). Analyzing his usage of the OT, I’ll show that Paul intentionally referenced violent OT scriptures, flipped them around by omitting the violent part, and thereby used them to declare God’s mercy and not divine violence and wrath. This way of interpreting scripture bears witness to his own theological journey away from using violence in God’s name towards rejecting divine violence and retributive justice.
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Why finding an ancient cosmology in the Bible is good news and what we can learn from it.
In the Bible, we can see that God accommodated the beliefs of his people even though they didn’t reflect reality. One example of this is that we find an ancient cosmology (a flat earth, a protective dome on top of it, and an ocean of water above it) in the Bible. In this article, you can read why this is good news and what can we learn from that ancient cosmology.
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How would it look like if Jesus would be incarnated here and now?
C.S. Lewis rightly highlights that “Putting on Christ…is not one among many jobs a Christian has to do; and it is not a sort of special exercise for the top class. It is the whole of Christianity (2009:195).” The heart of Christianity is to imitate Christ. But how can it be that Mahatma Gandhi said: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.“ How can it be that many Christians don’t reflect Christ anymore? This article suggests that to successfully imitate Christ, we need a new vision of how it would look like if Jesus would be incarnated in the here and now. This article will suggest helpful questions we need to ponder to gain a fresh vision of what Jesus would do today in our world.
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