My online friend, Maurice Mo Hagar II, recently passed a question along to me and several others. He first pointed to this example: If universal salvation is true, what’s the point of being Christian, of believing in Christ, getting baptized, belonging to the church… preaching the gospel, teaching the Bible, sending missionaries, and planting the … Continue reading What’s the Point of Being Christian?
Tag: time
Time, the Christ Child, and a Good Chat with Nate Hile at Grail Country
This post is really just a place to store away a few things for myself quickly that came to mind after a delightful conversation yesterday morning with Nate Hile at Grail Country. I don’t have time to develop these thoughts, but I want to drop them in one place where I can find them again … Continue reading Time, the Christ Child, and a Good Chat with Nate Hile at Grail Country
Alasdair MacIntyre and Open Theism: the Lament of a Christian Platonist
While it would be the height of hubris to suggest that I am capable of following the many profound contributions of Alasdair MacIntyre to the world of Christian thought, I can claim him as a long-standing hero of mine. It also seems clear enough in a lecture delivered on November 11, 2022 that MacIntyre has … Continue reading Alasdair MacIntyre and Open Theism: the Lament of a Christian Platonist
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
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
Did God Set Us Up to Fail? (Jordan Wood Responds)
[Editorial note: Content here is pulled from social media comments and posted by Jesse Hake (with permissions). Some of this same material, along with additional related content, was also posted here.] First, my friend, Maurice Mo Hagar II, asked for help on social media... Did God set us up to fail? What a great question! … Continue reading Did God Set Us Up to Fail? (Jordan Wood Responds)
A Brief (and Christian) Account of All Reality
Prefatory Note: These are reflections of my own as I continue to process this delightful opportunity that I had to interview Jordan Daniel Wood. I’ll be ruminating for a long time to come over many things that Jordan shared, and I very much look forward to reading his book on Maximus Confessor that releases this … Continue reading A Brief (and Christian) Account of All Reality
God’s Judgment Demands that We Prepare Ourselves to Complete Our Pasts: An Interview with Jordan Daniel Wood
"You're already beginning to change the past by preparing yourself to be the kind of person who will be able to do what you ought to have done when you're given the opportunity to do it again." —Jordan Daniel Wood While working together with Jordan on another project for three days this past week, I … Continue reading God’s Judgment Demands that We Prepare Ourselves to Complete Our Pasts: An Interview with Jordan Daniel Wood
A Look at Apocalypse: What is Eternal and What Future Creates Us?
Fr. John Behr says in a 2019 lecture that our distinction between the uncreated (the triune God) and the created (all else) is not the primary distinction made within reality by the apostles. The primary distinction in reality assumed by the scriptures and the apostles was between the invisible realm (which includes God as well … Continue reading A Look at Apocalypse: What is Eternal and What Future Creates Us?
Jesus and the Ancient Paths 