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10 Ways the Non-Violent God Changes Your Life and Theology

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My new book on the Non-Violent Atonement was released yesterday. It is called The Atonement of God, and you can (#AmazonAdLink) buy it on Amazon.

The book begins with a summary of three views on the atonement, and then I define and defend a fourth view, which is a Non-Violent view of the atonement.

The basic idea of a Non-Violent view of the atonement is that God did not want or need the death of Jesus in order to offer grace or forgiveness of sins. Yes, Jesus died a violent death, but it was not to satisfy an angry God. Instead, Jesus died for completely different reasons (which are explained in the book).

(#AmazonAdLink) The atonement of GodFollowing this explanation of the Non-Violent atonement, I provide 10 areas of theology that are affected by the Non-Violent atonement.

Here they are with a brief summary of each.

1. The Non-Violent Atonement Brings Continuity to the Life of Jesus

Everything Jesus did was Non-Violent. Yes, Jesus was aggressive, but He never harmed another human being, or encouraged others to do so. A Non-Violent atonement helps us see that Jesus what Jesus accomplished on the cross was right in line with the way He lived the rest of His life as well.

2. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about God

Does Jesus fully reveal God to us or not? Jesus claimed that He did, and other New Testament writers believed so as well John 1:14, 18; 14:9-11; 2 Cor 4:4; Php 2:6; Col 1:15; Heb 1:2-3.

But if God is violent, and Jesus does not reveal the violent side of God to us, this means that Jesus is a faulty revelation of God. The better option is to believe that Jesus does reveal God to us, and God looks just like a Non-Violent Jesus.

3. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Scripture

But if God is Non-Violent like Jesus is Non-Violent, then what are we to do with all the violent portrayals of God in Scripture? I do not write them off as hopelessly in error. I continue to hold to an inerrantist position on Scripture, and argue that the violent portrayals of God in Scripture accurately reveal the heart of man instead of the heart of God.

Non-Violent atonement

4. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Sacrifice

If Scripture reveals the heart of man instead of the heart of God, then this helps us make sense of the conflicting statements in Scripture about sacrifice. God does not want sacrifice and never did. We wanted it.

5. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Humans

The truth from Scripture is that God is not violent, but humans are. We are the violent ones. And we justify our violence by blaming it on God.

6. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Sin

The reason God tells us not to sin, is not because He is angry at us about sin, or will be angry with us if we sin. No, God tells us not to sin because in hurts and damages us. He loves us and does not want to see us hurt.

atonement of God

7. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Forgiveness

God’s forgiveness has always been completely free. There have never been any conditions for God’s forgiveness. God does not need sacrifice in order to extend forgiveness. He simply forgives, just as Jesus does on the cross.

8. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Justice

Christians often teach that “God is a God of love and forgiveness, but He is also a God of justice.” This chapter shows how wrong that idea is. Unconditional love and forgiveness are incompatible with justice. You can have one or the other, but you cannot have both.

9. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Violence

As we begin to bring the book to a close, this chapter shows why God inspired a book (the Bible) which is so full of violence. The reason is because violence is such a huge human problem, God wanted to reveal that we humans are the source and cause of violence. We are in desperate need of this revelation from God, which is why God gave us the Bible.

10. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Way to Peace

But if the violence is the problem, then peace is the cure. The Bible doesn’t just tell us that we are violent, but also shows us the way to peace, which is the way of love and forgiveness.

I am really excited about this book. Studying about the Non-Violent atonement and writing this book transformed my theology, and I know that if you read it, your life and theology will also be transformed. (#AmazonAdLink) Get your copy today on Amazon.

God of the Old Testament and JesusHow can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!

[#29] Genesis 2:16-17 – You Shall Surely Die

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Tree of lifeThe Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is a mysterious and troubling element in the Genesis account. Why would God put this tree there in the first place if He didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from it? We are going to spend two weeks looking at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good Evil.

Today, we will see why the death that will come from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is not a punishment from God, but is actually a blessing … and we will also see how the command to not eat from the tree is the final touch on the temple that God has built.

The Text of Genesis 2:16-17

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

In this discussion of Genesis 2:16-17 we look at:

  • The final element needed for temple worship
  • The commandment of God to eat from the tree
  • Why the warning about death is not a punishment from God

Resources:

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Some Christians will not find this funny. But I did.

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Some Christians might not think this is funny, but I do…

The Bible in One Facebook post

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2 Keys to Understanding the Heart of God

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There are two ideas I have been mulling over the last couple years which are central to understanding the heart of God, and which most Christians do not seem to understand. These two keys are based on God’s omniscience, that fact the He is all-knowing. While it is amazing to think that God knows everything, I think we have not grasped what this means when it comes to heart of God.

heart of GodThese keys are summarized by some quotes I heard from somewhere … (I cannot recall where or from whom … sorry).

There is no person you would not love if you only knew their story.

I think this quote might be from Darin Hufford, though I am not certain.

It is often easy to judge and condemn other people when all we see is their outward actions or behavior.

We all tend to hate people who treat us with spite or anger.

We even get frustrated at loved ones when they do not do what we think they should in the way we want them to.

But God, who is the only being in the universe who knows everything about everyone, loves each and every person unconditionally.

When a person is rude to you, you get angry in return. But if, like God, we saw the fight they had with their spouse that morning, or the way they had been treated by their boss when they showed up late, or how the person they had encountered right before you had cussed them out, we would be able to love that person in spite of their rudeness, because we would know their story. We would know what led up to them being rude.

You do this with yourself all the time. If you are rude to someone, you might feel bad about it afterwards, and you might even apologize. But you probably also know everything that is going on in your life which caused you to react rudely toward someone else. Since you know your own story, you are often able to keep loving yourself despite the things you do.

Since God knows everything about us, He is able to understand what led up to our bad behavior, and He loves us anyway. He loves us in the midst of our bad behavior, because He knows what led up to it.

This is the first key to knowing the heart of God. The second key is like it:

To know all, is to forgive all.

forgivenessI think I might have heard this from Greg Boyd, but again, I cannot be certain.

This second idea is almost exactly the same as the first. God is willing and able to forgive us for everything, in part because He knows all the events and circumstances which led up to whatever sin we committed.

It is not that we get to blame others for what we do, or even that God lets us off the hook for our sin, but that God forgives us for what we do, partly because He knows what led up to it.

Since God is omniscient, He alone knows everything that happened to the rapist which caused that man to become a rapist. He is still at fault for what he did, and made some terrible choices en route to such a terrible crime, but God is able to forgive the rapist because He knows what led up to the man committing such a terrible sin.

So How Then Should We Live?

You and I do not know everything about everyone. So does this mean that we do not have to love them or forgive them?

No, it means that we do need to love and forgive them, for we know that God, the one being who does know everything, loves and forgives.

Our job is to unconditionally love and freely forgive others, despite not knowing everything about them.

If we leave omniscience up to God, we can love all and forgive all, just as God loves and forgives us.

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A WWJD Parable

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Jose A. Torres Flores posted the following on my Facebook page recently in response to a post that got a lot of … Pharisaical … religious … passionate comments.

I liked it so much, I asked if I could post it on my blog. It turns out, the original post belongs to Mick Mooney. Go check it out here. Below is what he wrote:

Once upon a time, a mother made her son a wristband. On it was written: WWJD. This, of course stood for: What Would Jesus Do?’ She instructed her son to look at the wristband before making decisions on how to live his Christian life.

A week later she was shocked to see that her son had become friends with prostitutes, was hanging out with ‘sinners’ – even buying people who were already drunk yet another round of beers!

WWJDWorse still, he had walked into their church the previous Sunday and tore down the book store, overturned the tables and threw the cash register through the window, he then made a whip and chased the pastor out of the building, declaring he was turning God’s house into a den of thieves.

Most shocking was what happened when his mother went to picket the local abortion clinic. To her embarrassment, her son was also there, but he was standing with the women who just had an abortion, and yelled at the protesters: “You who is without sin, throw the first stone!”

The mother was very distressed, but fortunately she found a solution to this terrible problem. She made another wristband, this time it read: WWAPD, this, she explained to her son, stood for: What Would A Pharisee Do? She took the old WWJD wristband and burned it.

Since her son has been wearing the new wristband, looking at it to help him make his decisions, he has become a dedicated tither, a public prayer warrior, an active condemner of ‘sinners’, a passionate defender of the Old Covenant law, and has a great reputation as a godly young man amongst other religious people.

Needless to say, the mother is very happy now. She only wishes Jesus would take notice and follow her son’s good example.

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