What are we to make of Genesis 22, God’s demand to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only child? In Essential Torah, George Robinson describes Genesis 22 as “the most terrifying narrative passage in the entire Torah [the first five books of the Bible].” The Lord told Abraham: “Go get Isaac, your only son, the one […]
Genesis 17 is one of the most provocative chapters of the Bible—God’s instruction to Abraham to circumcise himself and his people as a promise of faithfulness. The Bible account relates that the Lord appeared to Abraham and said: “You and all future members of your family must promise to obey me. As the sign that […]
Genesis 5:1-2 states that “God created men and women to be like himself. He gave them his blessing and called them human beings. This is a list of the descendants of Adam, the first man.” (CEV) This comes after Genesis chapters 2 and 3, where God creates man (2:7), then the Fall happens with the […]
Genesis 3:16 records one of the critical consequences of the Fall—the domination of the masculine over the feminine which laid the patriarchal foundation for what we call civilization, and which underpins the whole of Christianity: “Then the Lord said to the woman, ‘You will suffer terribly when you give birth. But you will still desire […]
As a historical account of creation, Genesis 1-2 may seem to have has little to offer the modern world. Yet behind this frozen façade, these verses reveal one of God’s most fundamental and ever-present laws—the Law of 7. Wikipedia notes that “the authors of Genesis 1 were concerned not with the origins of matter (the […]
In this blog I’m going to write about one of those pesky verses in the gospels that we all know is there yet it’s often easier to pretend it isn’t, Matthew 16:24: “Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take […]
It’s that simple, folks. Original sin is generational trauma; destructive patterns of behaviour inherited at birth (conception, actually) which originated at the Fall. The whole theology boils down to three simple equations: The Fall = Neolithic decline Original sin = generational trauma New Testament = trauma resolution manual When understood as generational trauma, the entire […]
There are two trees in the Garden: The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The trees are metaphors for the way we live, work, interact, feed, and function. Our human operating system, our paradigm, our perception. One represents holistic vision. The other is a cracked lens. The cracked lens […]
If the message of Jesus had to be summed in one phrase, one of my contenders would be Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven.” Arguably, Jesus’ primary message is to love one another (John 13:34). Or perhaps it’s his instruction about the importance of the first two commandments (Mark 12:29-31). What about […]
Judgment is one of the great themes of the Bible. It contains many passages referring to both individual and collective judgment. But what does it mean? Why do we judge? Why shouldn’t we judge? Don’t judge others I’m going to approach these questions through three statements from Jesus: “You can see the speck in your friend’s eye, […]
