Tips on Reading the New Testament Regarding the Afterlife

In a recent online discussion about how difficult it is to discern what the New Testament authors thought about suffering and salvation after biological death, I shared these four top reasons why people today misunderstand the plain meanings of the New Testament on this topic: 1. They have no concept that for most in Christ’s … Continue reading Tips on Reading the New Testament Regarding the Afterlife →

Maximus, Paul, and Jesus on Annihilation and Apocatastasis

In seventeen minutes on this video from Love Unrelenting, Jordan Wood recently gave a brilliant account of why Maximus the Confessor is best understood as a universalist. Wood goes well beyond the famous Maximus scholar Hans Urs von Balthasar who Wood summarizes by saying: His position was that Maximus was himself a confident universalist but … Continue reading Maximus, Paul, and Jesus on Annihilation and Apocatastasis →

A Sermon for the Dormition by David Armstrong (with Brief Commentary)

If you have not yet read "You Did Not Forsake the World: A Sermon for the Dormition" by David Armstrong at A Perennial Digression, please leave this page and do so. With David's permission, I'm reposting much of it here with two brief connections of my own afterward (in hopes that another few readers might … Continue reading A Sermon for the Dormition by David Armstrong (with Brief Commentary) →

Undoing the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

I’m pretty sure that the most unsettling (and yet wonderful) thought to cross my mind in recent weeks is that our salvation truly involves undoing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This goes against virtually everything that I was taught to understand as the meaning of the Bible and the way in which Jesus made it … Continue reading Undoing the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ →

Beren and Lúthien: the Power of Love over Death

Author note: we are grateful for this post by guest blogger Nessa Hake. She is a senior in high school and gave permission to her father, regular blogger Jesse Hake, to post this paper that she wrote for a school assignment. J. R. R. Tolkien disagreed with the practice of allegory for the most part … Continue reading Beren and Lúthien: the Power of Love over Death →